Selwyn College, standing west of the river (Sidgwick Avenue), was founded in 1882 by public subscription in memory of George Augustus Selwyn, bishop of New Zealand and afterwards of Lichfield, for the purpose of giving university education with economy “combined,” according to the charter, “with Christian training, based upon the principles of the Church of England.”
Sidney Sussex College faces Sidney Street. It was founded under the will (1588) of the Lady Frances Sidney, dowager countess of Sussex (d. 1589), and received its charter in 1596. The foundress provided for a master, ten fellows and twenty scholars, but thirty-six scholarships are now provided. The original buildings were of brick, but they were plastered over and greatly altered by Wyatville about 1830. The Grey Friars had occupied the site, and part of their buildings remained in the chapel until 1777. A beautiful block of new buildings, with a cloister, was erected in 1890. The most famous name associated with the college is that of Oliver Cromwell, who was a fellow commoner, as also was Thomas Fuller, author of the Worthies of England.
Trinity College, the front of which is on Trinity Street, is the largest collegiate foundation in Cambridge, and larger than any in Oxford. It was founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII. and absorbed several earlier institutions—King’s Hall (founded by Edward III. in 1336), St Michael’s or Michaelhouse (founded by Hervey de Stanton, chancellor of the exchequer under Edward II., in 1323), Fyswick or Physick’s Hostel, belonging to Gonville Hall, and other hostels. Henry’s original foundation was for a master and sixty fellows and scholars, but Queen Mary and other later benefactors enabled extensions to be made, and the foundation now consists of a master (appointed by the crown), at least sixty fellows, seventy-four scholars and sixteen sizars, with minor scholars, chaplains librarian and the regius professors of Divinity, Hebrew and Greek. Major scholarships are open to undergraduates, not being of standing to take the degree of bachelor of arts, as well as to non-members of the university under nineteen years of age, while minor scholarships and exhibitions are open only to the latter. There are valuable exhibitions appropriated to certain schools, of which the most important are those confined to Westminster school. Trinity College is entered from Trinity Street by the King’s Gateway (1518-1535) preserved from King’s Hall, but subsequently altered. The principal or Great Court is the largest in Cambridge and very fine. Its buildings are of different dates. In the centre is a picturesque fountain, erected by Thomas Neville, master (1593-1615), under whose direction much of the building was carried out. The chapel on the north side of the court was begun in the reign of Mary. The carved oak fittings within date from the mastership of Richard Bentley (1700-1742). The organ is particularly fine. A statue of Sir Isaac Newton by Roubiliac stands in the antechapel, and Richard Porson and William Whewell are buried here. The hall on the west of the court is Neville’s work (1605), and very beautiful. The second court is also his foundation and bears his name. The library on the west side is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. Its interior is excellent, and besides busts of some of the vast number of famous men connected with Trinity, it contains a statue of Lord Byron by the Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen. The New Court, Gothic in style, was begun in 1823. The beautiful grounds and walks of the college extend down to and beyond the river. The college has extended its buildings to the opposite side of Trinity Street, where the two courts known as Whewell’s Hostel were built (c. 1860) at the charge of Dr William Whewell during his mastership. The eminent alumni of this great college are too numerous to admit of selection.
Trinity Hall, which lies near the river, south of Trinity, was founded by William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, in 1350. On the site there had been, for about twenty years before the foundation, a house of monastic students from Ely. The present college is alone in preserving the term Hall in its title. The foundation consists of a master and thirteen fellows, and the study of law, which the founder had especially in mind, is provided for by lectureships, and not less than three studentships tenable by graduates of the college. The buildings are for the most part modern or modernized, but the interior of the library well preserves its character of the early part of the 17th century.
Of the churches of Cambridge one has long been recognized as the church of the university, namely Great St Mary’s, which stands in the centre of the town, between King’s Parade and Market Hill. It is a fine Perpendicular University buildings. structure, founded in 1478; but the tower was not completed until 1608. Some Decorated details are preserved from a former building. The university preachers deliver their sermons in this church, but it was formerly the meeting-place of the university for the transaction of business, for learned disputations and for secular festivals. The “Cambridge chimes” struck by the clock are famous, and a curfew is rung each evening on the great bell. The Senate House, standing opposite Great St Mary’s, dates from 1730 and is classical in style. The buildings of the university library, in the immediate vicinity, enclose two quadrangles, and in part occupy the site of the old court of King’s College. One of the quadrangles was formerly occupied by the schools or lecture rooms, but as the library grew it usurped their place. Important modern additions date from 1842, 1864 and 1888. The facade of the old schools is an excellent work of 1758. The library is one of those which is entitled to receive, under the Copyright Act, a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom. The Fitzwilliam Museum, a massive classical building, was begun in 1837 to contain the bibliographical and art collection bequeathed by Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, in 1816. The museum of archaeology (classical, general and local, 1884), is connected with the Fitzwilliam Museum. The Pitt Press (1833), housing the university printing establishment, was begun out of the residue of a fund for erecting the statues of William Pitt in Hanover Square, London, and Westminster Abbey. It stands near Pembroke, Pitt’s college. The Selwyn Divinity School (1879), opposite St John’s College, was built largely at the charge of Dr William Selwyn, Lady Margaret professor of divinity. The museums and lecture rooms (begun in 1863) are extensive buildings on each side of Downing Street. Included in these are the museum of zoology, which had its origin in collections made by Sir Busick Harwood, professor of anatomy in 1785-1814, and contains the collection of fishes made by Charles Darwin in the ship “Beagle”; the medical school, botanical museum and herbarium, mineralogical museum, engineering laboratory (1894), optical and astronomical lecture room, chemical laboratory (1887), and the Cavendish laboratory for physical research (1874), the gift of William Cavendish, 7th duke of Devonshire and chancellor of the university. The Sedgwick Geological Museum, opened by King Edward VII. in 1904, commemorates Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian professor of geology, and originated in the collections of Dr John Woodward (d. 1728). Adjoining this building, in Downing Street is the law library, founded on a bequest from Miss Rebecca Flower Squire (d. 1898) with the law school. The observatory (1824) is on the outskirts of the town in Madingley Road, and the botanic garden (founded 1762, and removed to its present site in 1831) borders Trumpington Road. The club-rooms and debating hall of the Cambridge Union Society are adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre church.
The non-collegiate students of the university (i.e. those who receive the university education and possess the same status as collegiate students without belonging to any college) have lecture and other rooms and a library in Fitzwilliam Hall. This body was created in 1869. The students reside in lodgings. There are two women’s colleges—Girton, established in 1873 on the north-western outskirts of the town, having been previously opened at Hitchin in 1869, and Newnham (1875), originally (1873) a hall of residence for students attending special lectures for women. Among other educational establishments mention must be made of the Leys school, founded in 1875 by prominent Wesleyans for non-sectarian education, and the Perse School, an ancient foundation remodelled in 1902.
Out of a number of ancient churches in Cambridge, two, besides Great St Mary’s, deserve special notice. In St Benedict’s or Benet’s, which has been already mentioned in connexion with Corpus College, the tower is of Non-university buildings. great interest, being the oldest surviving building in Cambridge, of pre-Norman workmanship, having rude ornamentation on the exterior and the tower arch within. The church of the Holy Sepulchre in Bridge Street is one of the four ancient round churches in England. Its supposed date is 1120-1140, but although it is doubtless to be associated with the Knights Templars, the circumstances of its foundation are not known. The chancel is practically a modern reconstruction, and an extensive restoration, which has been adversely criticized, was applied by the Cambridge Camden Society to the whole fabric in 1841. At several of the villages neighbouring or suburban to Cambridge there are churches of interest, as at Chesterton, Trumpington, Grantchester (where the name indicates a Roman station, borne out by the discovery of remains), Fen Ditton and Barnwell, near which is the Norman Sturbridge chapel. In Cambridge itself there is a Norman house, much altered, which by a tradition of unknown origin bears the name of the School of Pythagoras.
The university is a corporate body, including all the colleges. These, however, are also corporations in themselves, and have their own statutes, but they are further subject to the paramount laws of the university. The university University constitution and administration. statutes of Queen Elizabeth were only replaced in 1858. The statutes as revised by a commission in that year were soon found to require emendation; in 1872 another commission was appointed, and in 1882 new statutes received the approval of the queen in council. The head of the university is the chancellor. He is a member of the university, of high rank and position, elected by the senate. Being generally non-resident, he delegates his administrative duties to the vice-chancellor, who is the head of a college, and is elected for one year by the senate. The principal executive officers under the vice-chancellor are as follows. The two proctors have as their main duty that of disciplinary officers over the members of the university in statu pupillari. In each year two colleges nominate one proctor each, according to a fixed rotation which gives the larger colleges a more frequent choice than the smaller. The proctors are assisted by four pro-proctors. The public orator is the spokesman of the senate upon such public occasions as the conferring of honorary degrees. The librarian has charge of the university library. The registrary, with his assistant, records the proceedings of the senate, &c., and has charge of documents. The university returns two members to parliament, elected by the members of the senate. The chancellor and sex viri (elected by the senate) form a court for offences against the university statutes by members not in statu pupillari. The chancellor and six heads of colleges, appointed by the senate, form a court of discipline for members in statu pupillari.
The senate in congregation is the legislative body. Those who have votes in it are the chancellor, vice-chancellor, doctors of divinity, law, medicine, science, letters and music, and masters of art, law, surgery and music. The Senate. council of the senate, consisting of the chancellor, vice-chancellor, four heads of colleges, four professors and eight other members of the senate chosen by the vice-chancellor, brings all proposals (called Graces) before the senate. The revenues of the university are derived chiefly from fees at matriculation, for certain examinations, and for degrees, from a tax upon all members of the university, and from contributions by the colleges, together with the profits of the University Press. A financial board, consisting of the vice-chancellor ex officio and certain elected members, administers the finances of the university. There are boards for each of the various faculties, and a General Board of Studies, with the vice-chancellor at the head. There are university professors, readers or lecturers in a large number of subjects. The oldest professorship is the Lady Margaret professorship of divinity, instituted by the founders of Christ’s and St John’s Colleges in 1502. In 1540 Henry VIII. founded the regius professorships of divinity, civil law, physic, Hebrew and Greek.
The head of a college generally bears the title of master, as indicated above in the account of the several colleges. It has also seen that the foundation of each college includes a certain number of fellows and scholars. College organization—undergraduates. The affairs of the college are managed by the head and the fellows, or a committee of fellows. The scholars and other members in statu pupillari are generally termed collectively undergraduates. Those who receive no emoluments (and therefore pay the full fees) are technically called pensioners, and form the bulk of the undergraduates. Another group of students receiving emoluments are termed sizars; the primary object of sizarships is to open the university course to men of limited means. The title of fellow-commoners belongs to wealthy students who pay special fees and have the right of dining at the fellows’ tables. This class has virtually ceased to exist. As regards his work, the undergraduate in college is under the intimate direction of his tutor; the disciplinary officer in college is the dean. Besides the foundation scholarships in each college there are generally certain scholarships and exhibitions founded by private or special benefactions; these are frequently awarded for the encouragement of specific branches of study, or are confined wholly, or by preference, to students from certain schools.