This Gate of Honour is really a wonderful little gem of architecture, quite unique in its design, which is due to Dr. Caius himself, though the work was not finished till after his death. The turret is an oblong mass of stone-work, some twelve feet in width by six in depth, rising to a height of about twenty feet, and topped with a singularly graceful hexagonal cupola.[72] The view of it, more especially from the further side of the Court, whence it groups with the Senate House and University library just outside, and with the soaring pinnacles of King's College Chapel beyond, is one nowhere to be surpassed. From a picturesque point of view no one can regret the absence of the somewhat gaudy coats of paint and gilding with which it originally was covered; but the result of their removal has been that the stone (which is soft, and was never intended to stand exposure to the atmosphere) is rapidly decaying. [Footnote 72: Each side of the hexagon was originally a sun-dial.] The paved footway into which the Gate of Honour leads is known as Senate House Passage,[73] and is still the route along which the students of the College pass to receive in the Senate House such honours as their University examinations may have entitled them to. It forms the southern boundary of the College, which, alone amongst the Colleges of Cambridge, is wholly surrounded by public ways, Trinity-street being on the east, Trinity-lane on the north, and Trinity Hall-lane on the west. The tasteless mass of modern red brick (erected 1853) at the north-west angle of the block contains the hall; with the kitchens, by an unusual arrangement, beneath. These kitchens have an immemorial gastronomic renown in Cambridge, and are credited with the possession of culinary secrets enabling them to surpass all rival establishments. In some verses written about the end of the eighteenth century (concerning a well-known young lady of Cambridge) we find this referred to: "The sons of culinary Caius, Smoaking from the eternal Treat, Gazed on the Fair with greedy air, As she were something good to eat: Even the sad Kingsman lost his gloom awhile, And forced a melancholy smile.[74] [Footnote 73: "Passage" is the local name applied to the many paved footways which intersect Cambridge. They are forbidden ground to vehicles, including bicycles, a prohibition which constantly brings undergraduates before the Police Court.] [Footnote 74: At this date King's was a highly conservative College, and its discipline strict with a strictness long discarded by the University at large.] [Illustration: _The Gate of Honour, Caius College._]