Queens' College

QUEENS' COLLEGE's name is properly written as above, because it had two royal foundresses, and is thus distinguished from Queen's College, Oxford.

Margaret of Anjou, Henry the Sixth's Queen, "beholding her husband's bounty in building King's College, was restless in herself with holy emulation until she had produced something of like nature :" and the good work begun by her in 1448 was continued by Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Edward IV., who had been one of the ladies of the bed-chamber to Queen Margaret.

There is a portrait of Elizabeth in the Hall. The portraits of the two foundresses stand side by side in the dining-room of the Lodge.

The southern part of the site on which the College stands, occupying the angle between Milne Street (now Queens' Lane) on the east, and Smallbridges Street (now Silver Street) on the south, was acquired by Andrew Docket, Rector of St Botolph's, who obtained a charter in 1446 to found here a College for a President and four Fellows under the name of the College of Saint Margaret and Saint Bernard; and the College was accordingly founded to the honour of those Saints for the pursuit of biblical studies and sacred learning.

Henry VI. intended to found a College here, or on part of the site now occupied by St Catharine's College, but granted the privilege of doing so to his wife, Queen Margaret, who obtained a Charter proposing to name it "the Queenes' College of Sainte Margarete and Sainte Bernard," and made Docket the first President.

On this ground the First Court and the Cloister Court were built. The remainder of the ground now occupied by the College was acquired after 1538, when the Carmelites, or White Friars, who had settled here in 1292, surrendered these possessions to royal commissioners.

In the end both the site and the materials of the Carmelites' building were purchased by this College. Some of the Carmelites' glass is still to be seen in the windows on the north side of the Library.

In 1448 the building of the Front Court, which has undergone but little alteration since its completion, was commenced.

Elizabeth Woodville undertook the patronage of the College and gave it its first statutes, so that she is regarded as co-foundress. Richard the Third's large benefactions, as Duke of Gloucester, in 1477, and as King, at the request of Queen Anne, in 1484, were confiscated by Henry VII.

The endowment was increased in 1505 by the Duke of Buckingham, probably at the instance of the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, who was connected with him by marriage. Fisher, Chancellor of the University and President of Queens' College, was her confessor and adviser; and she occupied the Guest Rooms in the Cloister Court when on a visit in 1505.

The Court is small, 100 ft. by 85, in the Medieva1 Gothic style, of good brickwork, with four outsi4e towers at the four angles. The east front was restored by Fawcett in 1875. The east and the south sides are occupied by rooms.

On the third (right or north) side, are the old chapel and the library. On the fourth, opposite the gateway, are the dining hall, butteries and kitchens, also a passage way to the second or "cloister" court, with the College arms over the entrance; and a corresponding passage, in spite of its inconvenient position between the hall and the butteries, is found to be similarly placed in many Colleges.

At the north end of the hall is the combination room, corresponding with the retiring - "withdrawing" or drawing-room of a family mansion ; and over it the President's chambers, that is, the rooms in which the President dwelt, the rule of celibacy then applying to the heads as well as to other members of the Colleges. This room, which is now the study of the President's Lodge, is approached from the second court by a turret-staircase communicating, as in the case of the similar staircase at Peterhouse, with the combination room and the hail. From this room runs westward a long Gallery.

The Chapel formed part of the original building, indeed, the foundation stone of the College was laid here in 1448, and we may presume that the scholars, from the first, attended Divine service in their own chapel. In 1861, the interior was refitted and decorated under the superintendence of Bodley, and stained glass, by Hardman, was placed in the windows. The wooden clock-tower was erected in 1848, by Brandon.

The sun-dial is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, but it appears to have been made in 1733, whereas Newton died in 1728. This old chapel has now been added to the Library.

A new chapel has been erected by subscription on the north side of the Walnut Tree-court, and stands parallel to the old chapel which was built in the reign of Henry VI. The style of the new chapel is the Later English Gothic. Brick and stone are used, as in the old buildings. The building is lofty, the east gable showing well in Queens' Lane with its large window of seven lights, erected in memory of Dr. William Wright, Professor of Arabic, by his friends in the college, in the University and elsewhere.

The sides of the chapel have tall windows of three lights, one in each bay. The windows on the north side are by C. E. Kempe and are intended to form a series illustrative of English Church History. All the windows have tracery characteristic of the style.

The south entrance is moulded with panelling and shields. Internally the chapel has a panelled and painted roof, the eastern part being enriched with gold and colour. The chapel is furnished with a rich screen of carved oak, erected in memory of nine members of the Poley family who were members of the college.

The stalls, also of oak, are surmounted by an overhanging cove forming a continuous canopy. The oak-work throughout is well carved. The reredos is of carved woodwork, and has three pictures, scenes from the life of Jesus. It was in the original Chapel, but had been for years in the President's lodge, and is of considerable antiquity, being supposed to be the work of Martin Schoen. The south windows are filled with stained glass from the old chapel, remodelled.

The Hall was redecorated in 1875 by Bodley at the expense of the Rev. G. Pirie, M.A., fellow of the college, afterwards Professor of Mathematics at Aberdeen. The oriel window was fitted with stained glass, by Hardman, in 1854. The timber roof is a good specimen of the time (1448). There are portraits of Elizabeth Woodville, of Erasmus and Sir Thomas Smith over the dais.

A door on the west of the dais leads to the President's staircase and to the Combination Room. This latter was built soon after the foundation of the College, and was panelled in 1686, by Austin. There is here, in one of the windows, a small shield of ancient stained glass containing the arms of Queen Margaret, with those of England, and there are portraits of Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle and President of the College, 1788-1820, and Dr. W. M. Campion, President 1892-1896.

The Library occupies the ground-floor and the first floor near the chapel, and is especially rich in books of the seventeenth century, and among other treasures contains a form of indulgence printed by Caxton in 1489. The original bookcases are recognizable in the present structures. The upper room communicates with the lodge.

The Cloister (or second) Court, approached by the passage between the hall and the butteries, is a quaint and interesting part of the College.

The western side appears to have been built soon after the completion of the first court. It contains the audit room, which is approached by a wide staircase, and is now the dining room of the President's lodge. It is thought that some of these rooms were reception rooms, and that they were called the Queen's rooms, and the handsome staircase which leads to them gives probability to this idea.

They were occupied by Henry VII. in 1505, by Catharine of Aragon in 1519, and by Wolsey, who spent some days in the college, in 1520. The north and south sides of the court were built after a short interval.

The long Gallery on the north side connects the rooms on the west previously built, and which are now the servants' hail, the dining room of the lodge and a small drawing room close to it, with the President's study (formerly the Master's room), as well as with the library and other apartments. This gallery, erected probably between 1516 and 1540, is a highly interesting and well-preserved specimen of its kind. It is of wood, and has three oriels on each side, a large one near the middle and one near each end, and those on the two sides are not opposite one another, by which arrangement better lighting of the room is secured. Among the pictures in the gallery is a portrait of Erasmus, attributed to Holbein.

The plain buildings about the Pump Court, called also "Erasmus Court," forming the south-west part of the College, were erected in 1756 by Essex, whose plan for defacing the rest of the college was fortunately stopped by want of funds.

The east side of the Walnut-Tree Court was erected in 1617, by Gilbert Wigge, who was a fellow-worker with Ralph Symons in the second court of St John's. It was restored after a fire, and raised a storey in 1782. It was further repaired and embattled in 1823.

The court is approached from the first court by a passage between the chapel and the library; a way leads from it to the bowling green. A building, containing chambers for undergraduates and fellows, of red brick with stone facing, beyond the new chapel before-mentioned, was erected on the north of the Walnut-Tree Court. From its site this is known as Friars' Building. Fawcett was the architect.

The Timber Bridge, with a span of forty feet, over the river, was built in 1749. It leads from the cloisters to the island, on which are servants' houses, lecture rooms, a fruit-garden and the grove.

The rooms occupied by Erasmus, which may still be seen, consisted of a large sitting-room-which he probably used as a lecture-room-over the college kitchen, and above this a bedroom. His chair is in the President's Lodge. His selection of Queens' College was owing to an invitation from Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of the University, a great patron of learning and learned men, and then (1506) President of Queens'. It was here that Erasmus worked at his edition of the Greek Testament, Novum Instrumentum.

A bridge with an iron gate leads from the grove to "Erasmus walk," which runs across the common between a row of elm-trees and the ditch by King's. The trees were not planted till (1685) nearly a hundred and fifty years after the time of Erasmus.

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