St. John's College, Cambridge Part 1

St. John's College, Cambridge.

by Robert Forsyth Scott.

CHAPTER I

THE COURTS AND BUILDINGS

St. John's College was founded in 1511, in pursuance of the intentions of the Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII.

Approaching the College from the street we enter by the Great Gate. The gateway with its four towers is the best example of the characteristic Cambridge gate, and dates from the foundation of the College. It is built of red brick (the eastern counties marble), dressed with stone.

The street front of the College to the right and left remains in its original state, except that after the old chapel and infirmary of the Hospital of St. John (to which allusion will be made hereafter) were pulled down, the north end was completed by a block of lecture rooms in 1869.

The front of the gate is richly decorated with heraldic devices, full of historical meaning and a.s.sociations. The arms are those of the foundress; the shield, France (ancient) and England quarterly, was the royal shield of the period; the bordure, gobonny argent and azure (the argent in the upper dexter compartment), was the "difference" of the Beauforts, and is only slightly indicated. The supporters, two antelopes, come from Henry VI. There is no crest above the shield, and heraldic rules are against its use by a lady, but on her seal the Lady Margaret used the Beaufort arms as above ensigned, with a coronet of roses and fleur-de-lis, out of which issues an eagle, displayed or; and this device of coat and crest is used by the College. The arms on the gate are surrounded by badges, the Portcullis of the Beauforts, the Tudor, or Union, rose, each surmounted by a crown. Besides these we have daisies (marguerites), the badge of the Lady Margaret, and some flowers, which are not so easily identified. Certain vestments and embroideries, which belonged to the Lady Margaret, of which a list has been preserved, are described as "garnishede with sophanyes and my ladyes poisy," or, "with rede roses and syphanyes." The sophanye was an old English name for the Christmas rose, and there seems little doubt that these flowers on the gate are meant for Christmas roses. The carving on the right, under the portcullis, where these emblems seem to be growing out of something resembling a masonic ap.r.o.n, is very curious.

Above the gate are two sets of rooms. The upper set has been used from the beginning as the Treasury or Muniment Room of the College; the set immediately above the arch is now an ordinary set of rooms. In this set resided, during his college career, Lord Thomas Howard, a son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, afterwards himself first Earl of Suffolk and Baron Howard de Walden. He fought against the Armada in 1588, and commanded the expedition to the Azores in 1591; the fame of Sir Richard Grenville of the _Revenge_ has somewhat eclipsed that of his leader in the latter case; the reader may recall Tennyson's _Ballad of the Fleet_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BAG OF FLOWERS OVER ENTRANCE GATEWAY]

To the left of the gate it will be observed that five windows on the first floor are of larger size than the rest; this was the original position of the Library; the books were removed in 1616 to a room over the Kitchen, and later to the present Library. According to tradition Henry Kirke White, the poet, occupied, and died in, the rooms on the ground-floor next the tower; he lies buried in the old churchyard of All Saints', across the street.

Entering the gate the Hall and Kitchen face us, and preserve much of their original appearance. But right and left the changes have been great. The old Chapel was swept away in 1869--its foundations are marked out by cement; at this time the Hall was lengthened, and a second oriel window added. The range of buildings on the south was raised and faced with stone about 1775, when the craze for Italianising buildings was fashionable; it was then intended to treat the rest of the Court in like manner, but fortunately the scheme was not carried out.

If we walk along the south side of the Court we may notice on the underside of the lintel of G staircase the words, "Stag, Nov. 15, 1777."

It seems that on that date a stag, pursued by the hunt, took refuge in the College, and on this staircase; the members of the College had just finished dinner when the stag and his pursuers entered. On the next staircase, F, there is a pa.s.sage leading to the lane with the Kitchen Offices, this pa.s.sage is sometimes known as "The Staincoat"; the pa.s.sage leading from the Screens into the Kitchen is still sometimes called "The Staincoat," or "The Stankard." These curious names really mean the same thing. It appears that in times past a pole was kept, probably for carrying casks of beer, but on which the undergraduates seem also to have hoisted those of their number, or even servants, who had offended against the rules and customs of the College; this pole was called the Stang, and the place or pa.s.sage in which it was kept the Stangate Hole, with the above variations or corruptions.

Reserving the Chapel for the present we pa.s.s through the Screens, the entrance to the Hall being on the right, to the Kitchen on the left. We enter the Second Court. This beautiful and stately Court was built between 1599 and 1600 (the date 1599 may be seen on the top of one of the water-pipes on the north side), the cost being in great part provided by Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, a daughter of Sir William Cavendish by the celebrated Bess of Hardwick, and wife of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury. The original drawings for the Court, and the contract for its construction, almost unique doc.u.ments of their kind, are preserved in the Library. The whole of the first floor on the north side was at first used as a gallery for the Master's Lodge; it is now used as a Combination Room. Over the arch of the gate on the western side of the Court is a statue of the Countess, with her shield (showing the arms of Talbot and Cavendish impaled); these were presented to the College by her nephew, William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW FROM THE SCREENS]

A pleasing view of the Court is got by standing in the south-west corner and looking towards the Chapel Tower, with an afternoon sun the colouring and grouping of the buildings is very effective.

Pa.s.sing through the arch we enter the Third Court; this was built at various times during the seventeenth century. On the north we have the Library, the cost of which was chiefly provided by John Williams, a Fellow of the College, successively Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Lincoln, and Archbishop of York; he was also Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to James I. As originally built the Library occupied the upper floor only, the ground-floor being fitted up as rooms for the accommodation of the Fellows and scholars, on a special foundation of Bishop Williams, but this lower part is now all absorbed into the Library. The southern and western sides of the Court were built between 1669 and 1674, some part of the cost being provided from College funds, the rest by donations from members of the College. On the last or southern pier of the arcade, on the west side of the Court, there are the two inscriptions: "Flood, Oct. 27, 1762," "Flood, Feb. 10, 1795,"

recording what must have been highly inconvenient events at the time.

The central arch on the western side of the Court has some prominence, and was probably intended from the first as the approach to a bridge.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century Sir Christopher Wren was consulted on the subject, and a letter from him to the then Master, Dr.

Gower, has been preserved. Sir Christopher's proposal was a curious one: he suggested that the course of the river Cam should be diverted and carried in a straight line from the point where it bends near the Library of Trinity College. A new channel was to be dug, and a bridge built over this; the water was then to be sent down the new channel, and the old one filled up. He pointed out that this would give "a parterre to the river, a better access to the walks, and a more beautiful disposal of the whole ground." This scheme was, however, not carried out, but a stone bridge was built outside the range of the buildings on the site of an old wooden bridge, which then gave access to the grounds.

This is the bridge which still exists; it was built, apparently from Wren's designs, under the superintendence of his pupil, Nicholas Hawksmoor. More than a century now pa.s.sed before further building operations were undertaken. In 1825 the College employed Mr. Thomas Rickman and his partner, Mr. H. Hutchinson, to prepare designs for a new Court, with from 100 to 120 sets of rooms. This work was started in 1827, and completed in 1831. The covered bridge connecting the old and new parts of the College was designed by Mr. Hutchinson; it is popularly known as the "Bridge of Sighs." The style of this Court is Perpendicular Gothic. The site was unsuited for building operations, consisting mostly of washed and peaty soil; it had been known for generations as "the fishponds close." The modern concrete foundations were then unknown, and the plan adopted was to remove the peaty soil and to lay timber on the underlying gravel. On this an enormous ma.s.s of brickwork, forming vaulted cellars, was placed; this rises above the river level, and the rooms are perfectly dry. The total cost of the building was 78,000, most of which was provided by borrowing. The repayment, extending over a number of years, involved considerable self-denial on the Fellows of the College, their incomes being materially reduced for many years. Crossing the covered bridge and pa.s.sing down the cloisters of the New Court, we enter the grounds by the centre gate; these extend right and left, being bounded on the east by the Cam, and separated from the grounds of Trinity by a ditch.

From the old, or Wren's, bridge over the Cam two parallel walks extend along the front of the Court; according to tradition the broader and higher was reserved for members of the College, the lower for College servants. At one time an avenue of trees extended from the bridge to the back gate, but the ravages of time have removed all but a few trees.

At the western end of the walk we have on the left the (private) Fellows' garden, known as "The Wilderness," an old-world pleasance, left as nearly as may be in a state of nature. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the College employed the celebrated Mr. Lancelot ("capability") Brown to lay out the grounds and Wilderness. The plantation in the latter was arranged so as to form a cathedral, with nave, aisles, and transept, but here also old age and storms have brought down many of the trees. On the right, opposite to the Wilderness, there is an orchard, the subject of much legend. One popular story is that this orchard formed the subject of a bequest to "St.

John's College," and that the testator, being an Oxford man, was held by the Courts to have intended to benefit the College in his own University. As a matter of prosaic fact, the orchard originally belonged to Merton College, Oxford, being part of the original gift of their founder, Walter de Merton, and it was acquired by St. John's College by exchange in the early years of the nineteenth century.

The long walk terminates in a ma.s.sive gate with stone pillars, surmounted by eagles. Outside and across the road is the Eagle Close, used as the College cricket and football field.

The visitor in returning should cross the old bridge, thus getting a view of the Bridge of Sighs, and re-enter the College by the archway on the left.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Gatehouse: St John's College]

CHAPTER II

SOME INTERIORS

The visitor has been conducted through the College without pausing to enter any of the buildings. We now retrace our steps to describe these parts of the College open to inspection. It must be understood that during a great part of the year the inspection of these interiors is subject to the needs of a large resident Society, and as a rule it is best to inquire at the gate for information as to the hours when these parts of the College are open.

_The Chapel._

The present Chapel was built between the years 1863 and 1869, from the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott; it was consecrated by the Bishop of Ely, 12th May 1869. As we approach it we see on the right the outline of the old Chapel, which had served the College and the Hospital which preceded it for something like six hundred years. This former Chapel was a building quite uniform and simple in appearance, filling the whole of the north side of the Court. Originally built to serve the needs of the Hospital of St. John, it was considerably altered when the College was founded. Side Chantries were then, or shortly afterwards, added. In early times a good deal of the life of the College centred in the Chapel, in addition to its uses for worship. It was regarded as a place in which the Society was formally gathered together. In it the statutes, or rules for the government of the Society, were read at stated times, so that all might become aware of the rule under which they lived. The names of those who had not discharged their College bills were publicly read out by the Master. The elections of the Master and of the Fellows and Scholars were held within it; of this practice the sole part that remains is the election of a Master, which by the present statutes must be held in the Chapel. The scholastic exercises of Acts and Opponencies, in which certain doctrines were maintained and opposed, took place there. The seal of the College was kept in the vestry, and the sealing of doc.u.ments took place in the Ante-Chapel. Though doc.u.ments are now sealed elsewhere, the stock of wafers for the College seal is kept by the Chapel Clerk.

The erection of a new Chapel for the College was contemplated for about 200 years before it was carried out. Dr. Gunning, who was Master from 1661 to 1670, afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester and of Ely, left by his will the sum of 300 "to St. John's College, towards the beginning for the building for themselves a new Chapel." Gunning died in 1684, and in 1687 the College paid to Robert Grumbold the sum of 3 for "a new ground plott modell of the old and new designed Chappell."

Nothing, however, came of the proposal at that time, though the idea seems always to have been before the Society.

Preaching on Commemoration Day (May 6), 1861, Dr. William Selwyn, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, and a former Fellow, pointing out that the College was celebrating "its seventh jubilee," just 350 years having pa.s.sed since the charter was granted, pleaded earnestly for the erection of a larger Chapel. The matter was taken up, and in January 1862 Sir (then Mr.) George Gilbert Scott was requested "to advise us as to the best plans, in his opinion, for a new Chapel." The scheme grew, and in addition to the Chapel it was determined by the end of that year to have also a new Master's Lodge, and to enlarge the Dining Hall. It was then intended that the scheme should not involve a greater charge on the corporate funds of the College than 40,000. As a matter of fact, before the whole was carried out and paid for, the cost had risen to 97,641; of this 17,172 was provided for by donations from members of the College, the rest was met, partly out of capital, partly by a charge on the College revenues, which ran for many years.

The Chapel was built on a site to the north of the old Chapel, and through this site ran a lane from St. John's Street to the river. An Act of Parliament had to be obtained before this lane could be closed, and the consent of the borough was only given on condition that St. John's Street should be widened by pulling down a row of houses on its western side, and throwing their site into the street.

The foundation-stone of the new Chapel was laid on 6th May 1864 by Mr.

Henry h.o.a.re, a member of the College, and of the well-known banking firm. As originally designed the Chapel was to have had a slender _fleche_ instead of a tower. This had been criticised, and Mr. Scott, the architect, designed the present tower; the additional cost being estimated at 5000. This Mr. h.o.a.re offered to provide in yearly instalments of 1000, but had only paid two instalments when he died from injuries received in a railway accident. The finial on the last pinnacle of the tower was fixed on 13th December 1867 by Mr. (now Sir Francis) Powell, M.P. for the borough of Cambridge, and a former Fellow of the College; Mr. Powell was accompanied on that occasion by Professor John Couch Adams and the Rev. G. F. Reyner, the Senior Bursar of the College.

The new Chapel was, as we have said, opened in 1869, and the old Chapel then cleared away. The woodwork of the stalls had been transferred to the new Chapel, but most of the internal fittings were scattered. The ancient rood-screen stands in the church of Whissendine, in Rutlandshire, and the old organ-case in Bilton Church, near Rugby, and other parts of the fabric were dispersed; it was perhaps inevitable. Sir Gilbert Scott's idea was that the new Chapel should be of the same period of architecture as the old, but it is absolutely different in design; in the lover of things old there must always be a feeling of regret for what has gone. The mural tablets in the old Chapel were removed to the new Ante-Chapel, the slabs in the floor were left. It is worth noting that Eleazar Knox, a Fellow of the College, and one of the sons of John Knox, the famous Scotch Reformer, was buried in the Chapel in 1591. His elder brother, Nathanael Knox, was also a Fellow. To the north of the old Chapel, and bordering on the lane which has been mentioned, stood the Infirmary of the Hospital which preceded the College. This was originally a single long room, of which the eastern end formed an oratory. In this the poor and sick, for whose benefit the Hospital was founded, were received, and Ma.s.s said for them, and in their sight, as they lay in their beds. This Infirmary, after the foundation of the College, was devoted to secular uses. For some time it was used as a stable and storehouse for the Master. Then later it was fitted up with floors and turned into chambers. It was approached by a tortuous pa.s.sage at the eastern end of the Chapel, and was popularly known as the Labyrinth. When the Infirmary was taken down a very beautiful double piscina was found covered up on the walls; this is preserved in the new Chapel.

The new Chapel is built of Ancaster stone, and is in the style of architecture known as Early Decorated, which prevailed about 1280, the probable date of the Chapel of the Hospital. Sir Gilbert Scott very skilfully made the most of the site, and by the device of the transeptal Ante-Chapel made full use of the s.p.a.ce at his disposal.

At the springs of the outer arch of the great door are heads of King Henry VIII. and of Queen Victoria, indicating the date of the foundation of the College and of the erection of the Chapel. On the north side of the porch is a statue of the Lady Margaret, and on the south one of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester.

The statues on the b.u.t.tresses are those of famous members of the College, or of its benefactors. Those facing the Court are William Cecil, Lord Burghley; Lucius Carey, Viscount Falkland; John Williams, Lord Keeper to James I.; Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford; William Gilbert, author of _De Magnete_, in which the theory of the magnetism of the earth was first developed, and physician to Queen Elizabeth; Roger Ascham, and the Countess of Shrewsbury.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONUMENT OF HUGH ASHTON]

We enter the Ante-Chapel. This has a stone-vaulted roof; over the central bay the tower is placed. On the south wall are placed the arches from Bishop Fisher's Chantry in the old Chapel. The monument with the rec.u.mbent figure is that of Hugh Ashton, comptroller of the household to the Lady Margaret, a prebendary and Archdeacon of York. He was buried in the old Chapel, and this tomb originally stood in a chantry attached thereto. He founded four fellowships and four scholarships in the College, the Fellows being bound to sing Ma.s.s for the repose of his soul. The carving on the tomb and on the finials of the railing around it include a rebus on his name, an ash-tree growing out of a barrel (ash-tun). On the north wall is a bust of Dr. Isaac Todhunter, the well-known mathematical writer; on the western wall a tablet by Chantrey, to the memory of Kirke White, the poet, who died in College.

He was buried in the chancel of the old Church of All Saints, which stood opposite to the College; when the church was pulled down the tablet was transferred to the College Chapel. The statue is that of James Wood, sometime Master of the College, part of whose bequests went towards building the Chapel. On the east wall is an old bra.s.s to the memory of Nicholas Metcalfe, third Master of the College, the words "_vestras ... preces vehementer expet.i.t_" have been partly obliterated, probably during the Commonwealth. The roof of the Choir is of high pitch, of quadripart.i.te vaulting in oak, and is decorated with a continuous line of full-length figures. In the central bay at the east end is our Lord in Majesty, the other bays contain figures ill.u.s.trating the Christian centuries. Owing to the deep colour of the gla.s.s in the windows, it is only on a very sunny day that the figures can be clearly discerned. The windows in the Choir have been given by various donors, the subjects being scenes from Scripture at which St. John was present; his figure robed in ruby and green will be seen in each. The five windows in the apse, the gift of the Earl of Powis, High Steward of the University, depict scenes from the Pa.s.sion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ. In the apse is preserved the double piscina which was found covered up in the walls of the Infirmary, and removed by Sir G. G. Scott, with such repairs as were absolutely necessary. It is probably one of the oldest specimens of carved stonework in Cambridge.

The steps leading up to the Altar are paved with Purbeck, Sicilian, and black Derbyshire marbles. The s.p.a.ces between the steps are decorated with a series of scriptural subjects in inlaid work in black and white marble, with distinctive inscriptions. The Altar is of oak, with a single slab of Belgian marble for its top. On the sides of the Altar are deeply carved panels; that in the centre represents the Lamb with the Banner, the other panels contain the emblems of the four Evangelists.

The organ stands in a special chamber on the north side; the carved front was not put in place till 1890. It was designed by Mr. J. Oldrid Scott, a son of Sir Gilbert Scott. In 1635 the famous Robert Dallam of Westminster built a "paire of new orgaines" for the College. The organ has been repeatedly enlarged, altered, and improved; it may be that some of Dallam's work still remains, though this is uncertain. The present organ is one of the best in Cambridge; its tone throughout is uniformly beautiful.

The bra.s.s reading-desk was given to the old Chapel by the Rev. Thomas Whytehead, a Fellow of the College; the pedestal is copied from the wooden lectern in Ramsay Church, Huntingdonshire; the finials, which are there wanting, having been restored, and the wooden desk replaced by an eagle.

As we return to the Ante-Chapel we may note the great west window, representing the Last Judgment; this was given by the Bachelors and Undergraduates of the College. There are also windows in the Ante-Chapel to the memory of Dr. Ralph Tatham, Master of the College, and to the Rev. J. J. Blunt, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity.

The oil-painting which hangs on the south wall of the Ante-Chapel near the door--a Descent from the Cross--is by Anthony Raphael Mengs. It was given to the College in 1841 by the Right Hon. Robert Henry Clive, M.P.