Christ's College

CHRIST'S COLLEGE. A small hostel or Grammar-College, called "God's House," was founded by William Bingham, Rector of St John Zachary, London, in 1439, near Clare Hall.

The site being required by Henry VI. for his new college (King's), God's House was removed in 1446, to the position now occupied by Christ's College, where ground was obtained which belonged to Tyltey Abbey, Denny Abbey, and other owners; and in 1448, John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, granted an indulgence of forty days to the supporters of God's House.

It was a small and impecunious establishment, consisting only of a Proctor and four scholars, till Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and, later, foundress of St John's College, obtained, 1505, a licence from her son, Henry VII., to found and endow it as a college, with a master, twelve fellows, and forty-seven scholars, and named it Christ College.

The Quadrangle was built by the foundress, but re-cased with stone, 1714 to 1740, in the dull pseudo-Italian style of that period, leaving only the rich carved corbel of the Lady Margaret's oriel over the entrance of the master's lodge, and the exterior of the entrance gateway, which resembles that of St John's College except that the turrets are all small and contained no staircases.

Like it, it has stone carvings of the foundress' arms and supporters, together with roses, portcullises and daisies or " Marguerites." A statue of the foundress is in the central niche, next the street. The treasury is in the first floor.

The Hall was rebuilt in 1875 by G. Gilbert Scott (the second) with scrupulous respect for the ancient plan and style, the original roof being replaced, and was decorated nearly 30 years later by G. F. Bodley. This and the master's lodge, are, as usual, opposite the gateway.

In the Hall is a standing portrait of the foundress, probably the gift of Gabriel Goodman, Dean of Westminster; another in the kneeling position in which she is usually represented, with her "Book of Hours," hangs in the Chapel.

There are also portraits of Milton when he was at the age of twenty, of Cudworth, of John Covell, of Paley, and of Charles Darwin by Ouless. The western oriel is filled with 21 stained glass portraits of the founders and worthies of the College. Over the dais are seen the windows by which the foundress could inspect the hall from her rooms after the manner common in the halls of the nobles.

In the Combination Room, which is approached by a staircase on the right of the entrance to the hall, are numerous portraits of old members of the College; among the most interesting is one of Professor Robertson Smith (Fellow 1885.94), by Sir George Reid.

This room, which is situated over the buttery, has been used for the present purpose since 1747, when the room on the north of the hall, till that time used as the " College Parlour" or Combination Room, was given up to the Master's Lodge.

The Lodge has great historical interest. On the ground-floor-the present dining room was, at one time, the college parlour or combination room, occupying the usual position with regard to the hall. It was entered from the court by a doorway subsequently replaced by a window.

The present study and the entrance hall were the master's room; and a room adjoining was his bedroom. The rooms in the upper storey were built and reserved for the foundress; her oratory has a window opening into the chapel (closed for 200 years, but now re-opened) ; her chamber (now the drawing-room of the Lodge) has had its ancient fireplace uncovered; her ante-chamber (now broken up into the tea rooms) had a turret staircase, which remains on the east side next the hall, and led from these rooms to the garden and to the hall.

The Chapel, adjoining the lodge, was "beautified," hut not wisely, in 1702; it was restored in 1898 and admirably decorated by G. F. Bodley. Some of the old building remains in rooms, or vestries, on the north side; also a turret-staircase leading to a room above the ante-chapel, which is used as a bedroom (formerly his oratory) by the master, and which communicates with the first floor of the lodge by a passage made in the thickness of the wall.

The stained glass, moved from the side chapel windows, was probably made at the time of the consecration of the chapel in 1510; but the best (the small lights in the three western windows on the north side) probably belonged to God's House.

In the window nearest the east is Henry VII. kneeling, clad in rich gold armour; on the left is the Lady Margaret kneeling before a desk with the " Book of Hours;" in the middle is Edward the Confessor, a patron saint of Henry VII., represented as a handsome youth holding in his right hand a ring.

The "organs" appear to have been brought from the Chapel of God's House. The new one was set up in 1531.

The design of the so-called "Fellows' Building" on the east side of the second court, erected about 1642, has been attributed, without good reason, to Inigo Jones. It is the first building erected in Cambridge in the style known as "Renaissance" and it is one of the most beautiful examples of that style in England, exceeding in dignity-if not in beauty-the almost contemporary buildings of Clare College. The plain building on the south side of this court was erected in 1823.

A handsome new building, by J. J. Stevenson, after the style of the fellows' building, was erected in 1888 for the accommodation of students and fellows. A further section (which will eventually be the centre of the whole block) was added in 1906, in memorial of the Quarter-centenary Festival held the year before. It contains lecture rooms and chambers.

The Library occupies the first floor on the south of the entrance gateway. It was rebuilt by G. F. Bodley in 1897, and the façade of the College toward St Andrew's Street was much extended thereby.

In it is a plaster-bust of Milton, modelled from the life, by Pierce, about 1651. The first edition of Milton's works are here; a few books presented by the Foundress and Bishop Fisher; many Persian and Oriental manuscripts; a collection of the works of James I. (on Demonology and a counterblast against tobacco, etc.) ; the works of Charles I. ; the "Nuremberg Chronicle" and other works of interest.

Especially valuable is the Oriental collection of Professor Robertson Smith, left by him to the College ; this is kept up out of a fund subscribed by his many friends.

The Garden is well laid out, and is one of the pleasantest in the University. It has a summer house and a cold bath; and a treasured feature in it is the mulberry tree planted, according to tradition, by Milton.

Milton was admitted pensioner in February, 1625, and lived in the college seven years, and is said to have kept on the staircase next but one to the entrance to the chapel. The tradition of his flogging by his tutor rests upon no good evidence (see Dr. Peile's "History of Christ's College," page 146); and on leaving Cambridge he speaks of the more than ordinary respect which he received at the hands of the courteous and learned men, the fellows of the college.

His Hymn of Christ's Nativity and other smaller pieces were written in the college, and Lycidas was written in memory of Edward King, a fellow of the college, who was drowned in 1637

Charles Darwin passed what he used to speak of as the three most joyous years of his happy life here, the years in which an acquaintance with Henslow (then Professor of Botany, for whom he had great admiration) and Sedgwick (then Professor of Geology) seems to have had a great and enduring influence upon his study.

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