The Cambridge Colleges Part One
Christ's College
Christ's originated in a small college called God's House, founded in 1439 by William Byngham, a London parish priest, to train schoolmasters. At first it was close to the river, but when Henry VI decided to purchase its land for his own new college, King's, God's House had to move to a new site outside of the town's Barnwell gate. In 1505 Lady Margaret Beaufort (who later founded John's) assumed control of God's House, changed its name to Christ’s College and began to enlarge its buildings and endowment’s. The present college probably incorporates some of the buildings of God's House, which could explain the irregularities in the buildings between the gatehouse and the chapel. The rest of the First Court was built in Lady Margaret’s time; her coat of arms can be seen on the gateway over the entrance and on the oriel window of the Master's Lodge. The whole court was rebuilt at intervals, between 1758 and 1770, largely by James Essex, in a simple classical style. The result is very pleasing.
The care of her new college became the major interest of Lady Margaret’s last years. She reserved rooms for herself and frequently came to visit. The statues were probably drawn up mainly by her friend John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, but doubtless incorporate her own views about the running of the college. They give an interesting picture of 16th-century college life. The gates were to be locked at 9 p.m. in winter and 10 p.m. in summer. The master was paid just £6.13 per annum and had a clothes allowance of £1. Adult members of the college who misbehaved were to be fined but, those under 21 were to be beaten.
Fellows had to come to chapel in clean surplices, three times on Sundays and feast days and at least five times during the rest of the week. They were to teach Theology, Philosophy and the arts. Only Latin was to be spoken in college, except in a man's rooms or on holidays. Students were forbidden to take part in drinking parties, engage in trade, carry weapons, keep dogs or hawks or play with dice or cards except in the hall at Christmas. If the college launderer is a woman she had to be honest and of virtuous conversation. It is not possible to tell how many of these rules were observed when Lady Margaret was not present to keep things in order!
The Fellows' Building beyond the First Court was begun in 1640 one of Cambridge's earliest examples of architecture in it classical idiom. Its design is traditionally, but without evidence, attributed to Inigo Jones. A local architect is more likely; there are similarities to those parts of Clare College known to have been designed by Thomas Grumbold. Behind the Fellows' Building is the lovely Fellows Garden with its 18th-century bathing pool and garden house. In 1608 the college bought 300 mulberry trees to gratify James l's plans for an English silk industry, and the mulberry that still exists in the Fellows' Garden (and is traditionally associated with Milton) may be one of them.
Milton was at Christ's between 1625 and 1632, his delicate and youthful appearance earning him the nickname of 'the lady of Christ's'. He wrote some of his early major poems here, including the 'Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity'. 'Lycidas’ was written in memory of Edward King, a fellow of the college and a lecturer in Greek, and specifically refers to Cambridge, as do Milton's two poems `On the University Carrier'. These concern Thomas Hobson (died 1631), a well-known local character who is supposed to have originated the expression 'Hobson's Choice' with his custom of making each of his clients hire the horse standing nearest the stable door. In the 18th century the chapel was refitted, but the original timber ceiling was retired. The chapel contains the superb double monument to two fellows of the college, Sir John Finch and Sir Thomas Baines (1684). Finch was a professor at Pisa and subsequently ambassador to Constantinople; Baines was a doctor and his inseparable companion. Their portraits on the monument compare interestingly with those painted by Carlo Dolci, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of Species, entered Christ's in 1825. His undergraduate career did not show great academic promise, but he formed some influential friendships, notably with Henslow, the professor of botany. He returned to Christ's as a fellow-commoner to write up the notes he had taken whilst voyaging with the Beagle.
Clare College
Because most of its buildings date from the 17th century it is easy to forget that Clare is the second oldest college. The site was acquired by the University in 1298 for the establishment of a University College like the one that still exists at Oxford. But at Cambridge the new college had inadequate endowments and rapidly declined. It was rescued by a remarkable woman, Lady Elizabeth de Clare, a granddaughter of Edward I. She was a close friend of the Countess of Pembroke, foundress of Pembroke College, and, like her, keenly interested in the furtherance of education.
In 1338 she refounded University Hall as Clare Hall, the name by which the college was known until 1856. She wished her new college to provide education for poor boys as well as a home for teachers in Cambridge. At this early date such a conception of a college — a community of students and teachers living together — was highly unusual; it did not gain common acceptance until after the foundation of New College, Oxford, in 1379.
The original buildings were mainly burnt down in 1521, but a new court was quickly erected to replace them. These buildings would have been familiar to the famous Protestant reformer and martyr Hugh Latimer, a fellow of the college, and to Nicholas Ferrar, also a fellow, who established the religious community at Little Gidding which George Herbert and Charles I visited and T. S. Eliot celebrated in Four Quartets. By the beginning of the 17th century the new buildings were dilapidated and it was decided to rebuild the college. The bridge was constructed first, probably because building materials were to be carried over the river at this point. Designed by Thomas Grumbold, it is often reckoned to be the prettiest of the many bridges over the Cam. It is an old joke to ask visitors to count the number of balls that surmount the bridge. The unexpected but correct answer is thirteen and four fifths: one has a segment missing.
Work began on the east range, fronting Trinity Lane, at the same time and finished in 1641. All further work was halted by the Civil War and was not resumed until 1662; it continued slowly until the completion of the Master's Lodge in 1715. But although the court took 80 years to build it forms a remarkably harmonious and well-proportioned whole, partly because of a general 'tidying up' in the 18th century. Alterations were obviously made to the design during the course of building; for instance, the east front is very different from the river front with its giant pilasters. Yet the building is pleasing from every angle, especially when seen across the lawns of King's. The chapel was added between 1763 and 1769; the architects were Burrough and Essex. It is the only college chapel to have an octagonal ante-chapel, providing a dramatic and beautiful contrast to the chapel itself.
Clare is famous for the beauty of its intricate 18th-century wrought iron gates at the bridge and at both entrances, and for its Fellows' Garden on the far side of the river, probably the loveliest of the Cambridge gardens regularly open to the public. New buildings to accommodate increased numbers of students became an urgent necessity by the late 19th century. In 1922 work began on Memorial Court, on the far side of Queens' Road, financed by a fund commemorating members of the college killed in World War I. The architect was Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed the neighbouring new University Library. The college hostel on Chesterton Lane (1957-8) was designed by David Roberts, whose work can also be seen at Magdalene.
Corpus Christi College
Corpus Christi is unusual in that it has no individual founder. It was founded by two Cambridge guilds, the Guild of Corpus Christi and the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a royal licence was secured for it in 1352. The Guild of Corpus Christi was housed near the churchyard of St Bene't's, and the first buildings of the new college were erected close by. This relationship with the guilds, and hence with the town of Cambridge, explains why Corpus is the sole college to have its site in the heart of old Cambridge.
The other colleges established at this time were either in the new University quarter that had sprung up by the river (including Clare, Trinity Hall and Gonville and Caius) or were outside the town boundaries (Pembroke and Peterhouse). The college was so closely linked with St Bene' t's that until the 19th century it was known as Bene't College; the church served as the college chapel, and in 1500 a gallery, which still exists, was built connecting church and college, like that between Peterhouse and Little St Mary's. Cambridge townspeople for long regarded Benet’s College almost as their own property. On the festival of Corpus Christi the college had a procession, followed by a feast for townspeople who had taken part in it, and there was much discontent when the college discontinued the feast after Henry VIII had abolished the observance of Corpus Christi.
The college was often at the centre of the strife between town and gown. In 1381 it had such a bad reputation as a harsh landlord that a mob broke in and carried off many of its valuables. A similar riot in 1688 was caused by the rumour that the college bursar was Roman Catholic. No visitor to Cambridge should fail to visit the Old Court of Corpus Christi, the best surviving example of an early medieval college court (1352-78) with late-15th-century buttresses.
In 1823 a large new court was built to the designs of William Wilkins, the architect of Downing College, containing the hall, library and chapel. The old hall, in the Old Court, became the college kitchens. The chapel contains some very fine 16th-century stained glass, apparently provided by Wilkins himself. The chief treasure of the library is the great collection of books and manuscripts presented by Archbishop Parker (master 1544-53), most of which came from the libraries of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII. Particularly notable is the 6th-century Canterbury Gospel, which is believed to have been given by Pope Gregory the Great to St Augustine. There are nearly 40 Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, among them the most important copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Archbishop Parker was concerned that his library should be looked after as carefully as possible, knowing that books in 16th-century Cambridge were very frequently stolen or lost. He specified that the volumes were to be kept three locks and the keys held by the master and two fellows.
The masters of Gonville and Gaius College and Trinity Hall were to make annual inspections and if they found that a substantial amount of the library had been lost, the whole collection was to pass to Caius. If Caius was similarly careless, Trinity Hall could claim what remained. Parker also gave his college a good deal of silver, adding to a collection which contains what is probably the earliest piece of plate owned by any Cambridge college, a drinking-horn dated 1347.
Perhaps the most famous alumnus of Corpus Christi is Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's most powerful rival in the Elizabethan theatre. He is known to have had rooms in Old Court in 1578 and graduated MA in 1587, having already written his sensational play Tamburlane. An Elizabethan portrait, thought to be of Marlowe, was discovered in the college in the 20th century and now hangs in the hall. Other famous writers who have studied at Corpus include the novelists John Cowper Powys and Christopher Isherwood.
Downing College
In 1717 Sir George Downing, baronet, left his property to his four cousins in succession with the remainder to be used for the founding of a new college at Cambridge. The last heir died in 1754 but the last Lady Downing who had no intention of parting with the money, entered into prolonged and costly litigation to prove that the University had no claim. Although she lost her case she retained the Downing estates for her lifetime, and did all she could to ensure that should the University ever receive Sir George's gift it would be worth as little as possible, even having the Downing family mansion at Gamlingay, near Cambridge, demolished. Fortunately Lady Downing died in 1778, but heir kept the property as long as he could.
The college was not finally established until 1800 and the foundation stone was not laid until 1807. The site was originally very large, but the northern part was sold to the University (1896-1902) to form the Downing Site, now occupied by museums and laboratories. Sir George's vast endowment was greatly reduced by the cost of litigation, so not all the college could be built at on. Indeed, it did not reach anything that could be called a finished form until the 20th century, and Downing remains comparatively poor.
George III was of the express opinion that the buildings of the new college should not be Gothic. The architect, William Wilkins, perhaps influenced by this mandate, turned his back on the medieval college ground plan. Instead of creating enclosed courts he spaced out the college buildings, using a Greek classical idiom, around a large grassy central area. Thus he created the first campus some years before the building of the first campus university at Virginia. Wilkins designed the cast and west wings; more was added in 1871 following his plans. In 1930 work was resumed, but whereas Wilkins had intended a large entrance gate in the middle of the northern area of the court, it was completely filled in (1953). However the southern side was left open, creating a spacious view, with the spire of the Victorian Catholic Church rising behind the trees The combination of wide lawns and light-coloured Grecian buildings is attractive. The troubles that beset Downing's foundation were profitable only to the lawyers involved, so it is appropriate that the college is noted for its teaching of law!
Emmanuel College
Like Sidney Sussex and Magdalene, Emmanuel was established on the site of a religious house dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538. It had been occupied by Dominican friars since 1240. Despite the protests of the Vice-Chancellor, the property was not immediately converted to collegiate use but was sold into private hands. In 1583 Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Elizabeth I. acquired it and established Emmanuel College a year later, 'with a design' (as he wrote) 'that it should be a seed-plot of learned men for the supply of the Church, and for the sending forth of as large a number as possible of those who shall instruct the people in the Christian faith. We would not have any Fellow suppose that we have given him in this College a perpetual abode . .’
Cambridge had been unable to provide the newly established Protestant church with the educated clergymen and preachers it needed, for the study of theology in the University was in serious decline; Emmanuel, in aiming to supply them, rapidly became the principal centre of Protestant theology in Cambridge. Inevitably it suffered during the high-church revival under Charles I, Archbishop Laud attacking its chapel services for irreligious informality. The many men of Puritan leanings who emigrated at this time included 35 educated at Emmanuel — more than from any other Cambridge college. Amongst them was John Harvard, who had entered Emmanuel in 1627. He emigrated in 1637 and at his death (1638) left half his estate and his library to a college to be established at New Town (later named Cambridge in memory of the University that had educated so many of the early immigrants) — the future Harvard University. A memorial plaque to John Harvard, presented by members of Harvard University, can be seen in Emmanuel chapel.
Initially the existing monastic buildings were absorbed into the fabric of Emmanuel, the friars' church being converted into a hall. This was completely refitted by James Essex, the fine 18th-century panelling and plasterwork concealing the great antiquity of the structure.
The first major addition to the college after the founder's death was called Brick Building (completed 1634), and was to the south of the main court. By this time the founder's chapel was looked on with disfavour; because of his Puritan sympathies he had built it orientated north—south instead of the usual east—west, and it had never been consecrated.
William Sancroft, master from 1662 to 1664 and subsequently dean of St Paul's, entrusted the design of a new chapel to Christopher Wren, with whom he was in regular contact over the survey of the decayed old St Paul's Cathedral. Work began in 1668; the date 1673 above the pediment probably refers to the completion of the fabric. The fitting up of the interior, with its superb plaster-work and woodwork, began in 1676. The chapel was consciously modelled on Peterhouse chapel in its lay-out and sitting in relation to the main court, and is constructed behind a long gallery set over an arcade. The facade is thus separate from the main body of the chapel.
Unlike Wren's chapel at Pembroke it is not very classically correct in its details; for instance, the pediment is broken by a clock surmounted by a tall cupola. The garlands around the clock and festoons between the pilasters and engaged columns give the whole a cheerful and festive appearance. At night, dramatically floodlit, the facade looks like the backdrop for a 17th-century masque.
The old chapel became in turn a library and an extra dining hall. The rest of the main court was rebuilt in the 18th century. A new south range, largely financed by Thomas Fane, sixth Earl of Westmorland, and named the Westmorland Building in his honour, was completed in 1722. The west range, facing St Andrew's Street, was completely rebuilt (1769-75) by James Essex. It now forms the main entrance to the college, which had previously been on Emmanuel Street. Emmanuel's grounds, incorporating a lake in which the fellows used to bathe and ornamental ducks now swim, are amongst the most attractive in Cambridge.
Gonville and CaiusCollege
Gonville and Caius (conventionally just `Caius') has two names because it was founded twice, in 1348 and again in 1557. The first founder, Edmund Gonville, was a priest and a close friend of Bishop Bateman, founder of Trinity Hall. Gonville died shortly after buying the original site (on Free School Lane) and Bateman, as executor of his will, was entrusted with money to enlarge and endow the new college. Having begun by moving the site to its present location, close to Trinity Hall, Bateman arranged a 'Treaty of Amity' between the two colleges (1353).
Without his energetic support the new Gonville Hall would probably not have survived; nevertheless, it was not wealthy enough to erect new buildings, and so existing houses on the site were converted to collegiate use. A chapel was in existence by 1393 but was very small, as was the first court to be built, now known as Gonville Court: despite the long time spent in its construction (1441-90), its area is only 26 m. square. Like many other Cam-bridge courts, it was entirely refaced in the 18th century, and now has a neat classical appearance.
Many Gonville Hall undergraduates lived in Physwick Hostel, on the far side of Trinity Lane. In 1546 Henry VIII incorporated the hostel into his new foundation, Trinity College (its site is now part of Trinity Great Court), leaving Gonville Hall in urgent need of new accommodation. Fortunately a man was on hand to provide it: John Caius (pronounced 'keys'), the college's second founder. He entered Gonville Hall as a student in 1529 (with the name of John Kaye, which he later Latinised); subsequently he studied in Italy (1539-44), taking a medical degree at the famous University of Padua, and brought back to England medical knowledge far in advance of native doctors. In 1557 he obtained a royal charter of foundation for `Gonville and Caius College' and became master two years later, completing the present site with the purchase of more land. He also added considerably to the college's endowments, making it one of the richer Cambridge colleges
Besides this Caius financed the building of a new court, now named after him, for which he drew up most of the plans himself. Its south side, along Senate House Passage, was deliberately left open 'lest the air from being confined within a narrow space should become foul, and so do harm to us . . .' His medical training had given Caius a concern for hygiene which was far from common at his time. As well as introducing the pattern of the three-sided court—often imitated in other colleges —Caius gave directions in his will for keeping the college clean, leaving money to pay a man to clean the pavements and gutters outside and inside the college courts. He established the college's continuing reputation in the field of medicine; famous physicians who have studied at Caius include William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood.
Caius' architectural designs included the three famous gates symbolically marking the steps of a student's career. The first gate, onto Trinity Street, was extremely simple and called Humility, the first stage in an academic career. Although the original gate now stands in the Master's Garden, the word HUMILITATIS can still be seen carved over the entrance to the college beyond the Porter's Lodge. Between Caius Court and Tree Court is the massive Gate of Virtue (1565-9). Finally the student passes through the most elaborate gate that of Honour (1575), on his way to the Old Schools to sit his examination and receive his degree. The Gates of Virtue and Honour are remarkable as examples of classical architecture, which at the time of their building was almost completely unknown in England — an innovation presumably owing to Caius' experience of Renaissance architecture during his years in Italy.
Sadly, Caius' mastering of the college he did so much for was not happy. There was continual tension between his strong Catholic sympathies and the Puritan beliefs of most of the fellows. Furlong Gonville and Caius was known as a home of strongly Protestant views. In 1572 the fellows sacked Caius' rooms in the belief that he had stored 'Popish trumpery' there. Caius resigned a year later and died within a month. He was buried in the college chapel, where a splendidly elaborate monument (1575) was erected. The chapel contains two other fine monuments: to Stephen Perse MD (1615), founder of the Perse School, Cambridge, and Thomas Legge (1607), a master of the college.
The college has expanded considerably since the 19th century. Between 1868 and 1870 all the buildings in Tree Court were demolished and replaced with a large new building designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse in his favourite French Renaissance style. Its tower, looking onto King's Parade, made it once the most despised building in Cambridge, but modern eyes can see it more dispassionately as typical of its age. Caius did much to regain its architectural good name with the erection of Harvey Court (1960-2) on West Road, some distance from the main college buildings. It was designed by Sir Leslie Martin, professor of architecture in the University.
Jesus College
The open courts set in spacious grounds, which distinguish Jesus from all the other colleges, are an inheritance from the Priory of St Radegund, founded in the 1130s. Never a very wealthy institution, by the end of the 15th century it had so declined that only two nuns were left, and one of those had a dubious reputation. The priory was abolished in 1496 by John Alcock, bishop of Ely, who founded Jesus College in its place. The visitor will notice Bishop Alcock's rebus, a cockerel standing on a globe, in many places throughout his college.
Bishop Alcock used most of the priory buildings for his new foundation. The nuns' chapel was too big for college purposes, so the north and south aisles were demolished and the nave was shortened. Today it looks more like a grand parish church than the usual college chapel, and in fact it was used as such until 1555. The rest of the priory buildings were converted into chambers for scholars. The old chapter house was demolished, but in the 19th century its beautiful arcaded 13th-century entrance was uncovered behind a wall of Cloister Court, where it can still be seen. The hall, which had been the nuns' refectory, was restored and the great oriel window inserted. The bishop also initiated some completely new building, notably the elegant gate tower which stands back from Jesus Lane, at the end of a walled walk known as the Chimney. E. M. Forster wrote that 'the Chimney, to me, is part of a delicate dramatic effect; at the end of its calculated dullness rises Alcock's rich Gate Tower, promising a different world — a promise faithfully fulfilled'.
The Cloister Court dates from the 16th century; the original simple Tudor windows of its outer walls were replaced by the present arches in the 18th century. It looks especially pretty in summer, when baskets of flowers are hung from each arch. Apart from the completion of the First Court during the 17th century with the range opposite the gate tower, few changes were made to the college during the next 150 years. In the 19th century, to cope with increasing student numbers, new accommodation was built to the design of Sir Alfred Waterhouse, in bright red brick. Restoration of the chapel was under-taken, initially by Pugin. Stained glass windows, designed by the pre-Raphael-ite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, were installed and the ceiling of the nave was painted with designs by William Morris. (All Saints' Church in Jesus Lane also has lavish interior decoration by these artists.) The 19th and early 20th century architecture of Jesus College perhaps suffers from over-conscious imitation of the existing buildings. The modern North Court (erected 1963-5) is far more adventurous.
The many distinguished men who studied at Jesus include Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), the archbishop of Canterbury martyred by Mary Tudor; Fulke Greville (1554-1628), poet and friend of Sir Philip Sidney; Laurence Sterne (1713-68), author of Tristram Shandy; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 1834), who had an eventful undergraduate career, absconding from college to join the 15th Dragoons under the name of Silas Tomkins Comberbacke. He returned to Cambridge, but a combination of debt and unorthodox opinions obliged him to leave again. Later in life he often recalled nostalgically how 'in an inauspicious hour I left the friendly cloisters and happy grove of quiet, ever-honoured Jesus College'. Notable 20th-century alumni include Jacob Bronow-ski, the Earl of Snowdon and Alistair Cooke.
King's College
King's College Chapel is deservedly amongst the best-known buildings in Cambridge. The exterior has been painted by Turner and the interior by Canaletto. Wordsworth wrote three sonnets on it; more recently it has been the subject of a poem by John Betjeman. Saint-Saens admired the singing of the choir, which in the 20th century has become world famous through the annual broadcast of the service of nine lessons and carols on Christmas Eve. The chapel is all that was realised of Henry VI's ambitious scheme for a new college. Soon after the construction (1441) of the modest Old Court (sold to the University in 1829 and now part of the Old Schools), the king decided that his new foundation should be much grander than originally intended, and instigated the purchase and clearance of a large site between the High Street (now King's Parade) and the river. The new college was a dual foundation with Eton College, from which it took its scholars, on the model of William of Wykeham's New College, Oxford, which was linked to Winchester College.
Henry's plans included a huge chapel joined to an arcaded court, a lofty bell tower and a cloistered cemetery court by the river. Building delays were caused not only by lack of money but by civil unrest culminating in the Wars of the Roses, in which Henry eventually lost his crown. The chapel was begun on 25 July 1446, when the king himself laid the foundation stone; building stopped in 1461 when he was deposed. Outside the west end one can see how much had been built: the original white limestone stops abruptly 2.5m above ground level (the east end had progressed further). Work continued, with many interruptions, under Henry's successors, Edward IV, Richard III and Henry VII, who all provided money for the completion of the college. Henry VII's architect, John Wastell of Bury St Edmunds, was probably largely responsible for the fan vaulting (he also designed the similar smaller-scale fan vaulting in the retro-choir at Peterborough Cathedral). The fittings, including the screen and the stained glass windows, were financed by Henry VIII. The chapel was finished by 1536,90 years after Henry VI founded it, and no more of his scheme was ever built; yet he had signally affected the development of Cambridge. The vastness of his plan almost certainly influenced the scale of the later foundations of Trinity and St John's, and the clearance of land by the river was the beginning of the Backs.
The chapel is almost drily simple in plan, but this austerity is belied by the richness of its interior decoration. The varied heraldic carvings below the windows at the west end, an addition by the Tudor monarchs who completed the chapel, include their emblems of the rose and portcullis. The visitor needs no guide to the beauty of the fan vaulting— the largest, simplest and grandest of the many vaults in this style. (The smaller, more elaborate vaulting at Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel, Windsor, make interesting comparisons.) Yet this 'branching roof' (Wordsworth) serves no structural purpose: the real roof is supported on a timber frame.
It is exceptionally fortunate that the original glass should have survived in a building which gives such architectural emphasis to the windows — an especially valuable survival in England, which lost almost all its medieval glass in the Reformation and the Protectorate. No one knows why the glass here was spared. The original glass remains in 25 of the windows, only the west window and the upper half of the window to the right of the altar being modern additions. The Flemish designers (the names of most of them are recorded) drew on Renaissance, not medieval, artistic styles, and were perhaps influenced by Raphael's tapestry cartoons. The windows should be looked at in order, beginning at the north-west corner and working east. Most of them share the same iconographical scheme: the bottom half of each has two scenes from the New Testament and the top half has the scenes from the Old Testament which, according to contemporary theology, prefigured the events depicted below. In the middle of each window stand 'messenger' figures who carry scrolls bearing the appropriate biblical text. (A pair of binoculars helps to identify the many details not readily visible to the naked eye.) The large carved oak organ screen was financed by Henry VIII. It can be dated to 1533-6, for it bears the arms and initials of Henry's ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn, as well as the king's own monogram.
This is the first major example in England of Italianate Renaissance wood carving and is of the very highest quality, but the identity and even the nationality of the men who created it remain unknown. The sumptuous stalls are mainly contemporary with it; the canopies are 17th-century additions. The east end of the chapel was remodelled in the 1960s to accommodate the gift to the college of Rubens' The Adoration of the Magi, at that time the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. Victorian panelling was removed, the inner chapel repaved to its original 18th-century design and the painting placed over the altar.
Henry VI's great court was not finished until 300 years after completion of the chapel. In 1713 the provost (the college's name for its master) employed Hawksmoor, Wren's greatest pupil, to design new buildings. Hawksmoor followed Henry VI's ground plan closely but his proposed new court was in the Palladian, not the Gothic, style. In his original plans Henry had specified that the college buildings should be grand but plain, without excessive ornament. Though his intention was ignored by the Tudors in their completion of the chapel, it was observed 200 years later when the provost told Hawksmoor he “desired all ornaments might be avoided. . . because something of that Nature is in the Founder's will”. However, building was delayed and the court that was eventually begun in 1724 was designed by James Gibbs, the architect of the Senate House. Only one side was constructed — the Fellows' Building, whose uncompromisingly 18th-century style nevertheless blends happily with the chapel to create from the Backs one of the most famous views in England.
Plans for completing the court were put forward by Robert Adam in 1784, but nothing was done until 1824, when the architect was William Wilkins. His design, if slightly too symmetrical for modern tastes, manages to complement the chapel without competing with it: fortunately his plan to `Gothicise' Gibbs' Fellows' Building was never implemented.
The founder's statue (1879) dominates the immaculate lawn. The college changed greatly during the 19th century. In 1851 it abandoned its old privilege of claiming degrees for its students without their taking any University examination. In 1873 non-Etonians were at last admitted to scholar-ships and the first non-Etonian fellow was elected. King's had already had some notable members. The great composer Orlando Gibbons sang in its choir at the end of the 16th century. The 17th-century poet Edmund Waller studied here, as did the 18th-century writer Horace Walpole, son of England's first Prime Minister and pioneer of the Romantic taste for Gothic. King's was noted for intellectual brilliance at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and subsequently under the guidance of provost M. R. James, the great medievalist now best remembered for his ghost stories (some of which are set in Cambridge). The novelist E. M. Forster was an undergraduate and later honorary fellow, and describes college life in The Longest Journey and Maurice. The eminent economist Maynard Keynes, having studied at King's, eventually became college bursar. The college library contains many manuscripts of the poet Rupert Brooke, who had a dazzling undergraduate career. More recent students include the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Patrick White.
