The Mastership.
The Mastership of Trinity has been, ever since the Reformation, one of the most important offices in the university; but it is rendered still more distinguished by the great men who have successively filled it. The last Master of King’s Hall became the first Master of Trinity and has had among his successors Isaac Barrow, William Bill, Whitgift, Wilkins, Bentley, and Whewell. Its chief benefactor Nevile was eighth Master.
Trinity has been equally great in literature and science, and has effected more for both in the three hundred and fifty years of its existence than any other centre of learning. Among its fellows it counts Newton, Adam Sedgwick, Ray, Barrow, Porson, Roger Cotes, Macaulay, Whewell, Westcott, Airy, Clerk Maxwell, Cayley, Hort, Thirlwall, Jebb. Among lawyers Bacon, Coke, and Lyndhurst; among prelates Tunstall,[233] Whitgift, Lightfoot. Among other famous alumni are Robert Devereux, Cotton, Spelman, Thackeray, Granville (M.A. 1679), Peacock, Kinglake, Trench, De Morgan, F. D. Maurice, and the late Duke of Rutland (Lord John Manners). Among poets, Byron, Dryden, Andrew Marvell, Tennyson, Donne, Cowley, George Herbert, Monckton-Milnes. Another historic friendship like that between Spenser and Kirke at Pembroke, Milton and King at Christ’s, and Gray and Walpole, grew up in the shadow of Trinity—the friendship of Tennyson and Arthur Hallam commemorated in In Memoriam.
There are 60 fellowships, 74 scholarships worth each £100 a year, and 16 sizarships of the value of £80 each. The students of Trinity number one-fourth of the undergraduate population. The college is not only the largest but the most important scholastic institution in the world: “being at this day” writes Fuller, “the stateliest and most uniform college in Christendom, out of which may be carved three Dutch universities.” Among the college livings are the university church of S. Mary’s, S. Michael’s (the old church attached to Michaelhouse) Chesterton Vicarage and several rectories and vicarages in the dioceses of Ely, York, Lincoln, Lichfield, London, Peterborough, and Carlisle, which include most of those belonging to King’s Hall and Michaelhouse, with the exception of the Norwich benefices.[234]
Gateways.
The gateway of Trinity with its four towers, the two interior being the larger and furnished with staircases, reminds us that the ornamental gateway was the last architectural addition to the college quadrangle. The first ornamental archway was the great gate built for King’s Hall in 1426.[235] It was copied in the turreted gateway of Queens’ College, and afterwards in the old gateway of King’s,[236] and in the present gateways of
