Trinity College, Cambridge

“ There was unmistakably such an aura or atmosphere about in Trinity College, Cambridge, during the last of the twenties and the first of the thirties of the nineteenth century—a spirit of literature and humour, of seriousness and jest, of prose sense and half mystical poetry—which produced things as diverse as The Dying Swan and Clarke's Library of Useless Knowledge, Vanity Fair and the English Rubaiyàt. ”

“ In October 1850 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, with a sizarship and a King's College scholarship, and in 1852 he obtained a Trinity College scholarship. His novel 'Julian Home' draws freely on his Cambridge experiences. ”

“ Not only was he Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Regius Professor of Divinity, Rector of Haddington, Rector of Wilburn, and Archdeacon of Ely, but he was immersed in numberless lawsuits, and in classical studies which would alone have sufficed to fill the whole life of an ordinary man. What he, in spite of these multifarous occupations, attempted to do for the Royal library at least testifies to the grandeur of his conceptions and the boldness of his schemes. ”

“ The usual arts and scientific courses are provided, and there are four professional schools—divinity, law, physic and engineering. The undergraduate has certain examinations in each year, and four “commencements” are held every year for the purpose of conferring degrees. Freedom is offered to students who wish to be transferred from Oxford, Cambridge, or certain colonial universities to Trinity College, by the recognition of terms kept in the former institutions as part of the necessary course at Trinity College. ”

“ I demand to be let alone. I shall keep on the right side of the law in the future, as I have done in the past, and I challenge—I dare the college to touch me. Let me remind you, Mr. Rimington, that this University has been thrown open—yes, open, sir. The old iniquitous Test Acts have been done away. One man has as much right here as another. If I am interfered with further, I will raise such a storm throughout the country, that not only Trinity College but Cambridge University shall tremble in its shoes. ”

“ In June 1560, she gave statutes to the Collegiate Church at Westminster, and in statute 6, dealing with the forty scholars of the school, she directed that three scholars from the school should be elected annually to the foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, and three to that of Trinity College, Cambridge. ”

“ In 1849 he passed to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he carried off many college prizes, including the silver oration cup. He graduated B.A. in 1853 as nineteenth wrangler. On leaving Cambridge, he went as a master to Cheam school until 1857, when he proceeded M.A. and was ordained to the curacy of Trotterscliffe, Kent. ”

“ But the truth of it is there are too many old women at the head of the Universities. What you want are keen-headed men, men of experience in the world, who would move with the times, and get Oxford and Cambridge to move with them. I am so convinced I am right in this opinion, that if it were not for the cares of business, to which I must return when I have finished with Cambridge, I should apply for a Trinity fellowship after I have taken my degree, and try to infuse a little spirit into the counsels of the college and through it into the University. ”

“ Trinity College is the most distinguished fruit of that revived learning which paved the way for and accompanied the Reformation: from the very beginning its tendencies were liberal and progressive; every genius which it nourished was eminently constructive. The names of its three greatest alumni, Newton, Bacon, and Barrow, form, so to speak, the three fountain-heads of organized philosophical thought in England; and there are a hundred less monumental names which are sufficient guarantee of the intellectual supremacy of Trinity over her sisters. ”

“ The accounts of the institution remain, and point to a style of living which would not be very highly accounted of now, but was positively luxurious for medieval Cambridge. The scholars attended chapel at St Mary’s by the Market and All Saints’ in the Jewry, until, in Edward IV.’s reign, they obtained leave to found a chapel for themselves. King’s Hall naturally became the nucleus of Henry’s college, and the lesser buildings found their centre in its court, enlarged and beautified. John Redman, the last master of King’s Hall, became the first master of Trinity College. ”

“ True to the spirit of the royal founder, Bentley wished Trinity College to be indeed a house ‘of all kinds of good letters,’ and at a time when England’s academic ideals were far from high he did much to render it not only a great college, but also a miniature university.” [88]
And “a house of all kinds of good letters” Trinity has remained, and will surely always remain. As we walk lingeringly through its halls and courts what thronging historic memories crowd upon us! We may not forget the failures as well as the successes; the defeats as well as the triumphs ”

“ After the death of a very highly respected but also very conservative Provost the authorities of Trinity College admitted women to their degrees, and at the same time offered an ad eundem degree to all women who had passed examinations qualifying for a degree at Oxford or Cambridge. Trinity College already granted the ad eundem degree to graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and this new step amounted to the recognition of the Tripos certificate granted to women at Cambridge as the equivalent of a degree. ”

“ Space does not permit us to enlarge further on the Library; and we return to our station at the old gate of King's College. As we look along the lane our view is bounded by the College whose name it now bears, Trinity Hall. This must not be confounded with the larger and later Foundation of Trinity College, next door to it beyond. Trinity Hall was founded in 1350, by Bishop Bateman of Norwich, specially for the education of Clergy. It has, however, actually, become especially given to the study of Law, and is yet more widely known by its prowess in aquatics. ”

“ It is a fine church, a good deal modernised, but containing sedilia in the chancel, which are not unlike those at St Edward’s. The stalls in the choir are very complete, and are very excellent examples of fifteenth-century woodwork. At the end of the south aisle is a picture of Charles I. which bears a very close resemblance to the famous frontispiece of the Eikon Basilike. When Henry VIII. amalgamated the numerous foundations in this quarter of the town, and founded Trinity College, this church, like Great St Mary’s, became college property, and the living is still in the gift of Trinity. ”

“ No Cambridge foundation, probably no academic institution in Europe, furnishes so striking an example as does Trinity College of the change from the mediæval to the modern conception of education and of learning. If, indeed, we may take the words of the Preamble to his Charter of Foundation, dated the thirty-eighth year of his reign (1546) as a statement of his own personal aims, King Henry had conceived a very noble ideal of liberal education. ”

“ I cannot exaggerate my obligation to the University of Cambridge, and in particular to Trinity College, for social and intellectual training.
The education of a human being is a most complex topic, which we have hardly begun to understand. The only point on which I feel certain is that there is no widespread, simple solution. We have to consider the particular problem set to each institution by its type of students, and their future opportunities. ”

“ Their chaff was not ill-humoured, and if matters had stood as they evidently imagined, Lucius could have borne it. Elderly undergraduates are not altogether unknown at Cambridge, although they do not often appear at Trinity College; but they are usually careful to comport themselves with dignified reticence, and to keep very much in the background. A University degree is, as a rule, the sole end they have in view in putting themselves to school again, and they are very far from wishing to ape the manners and customs of the young men with whom they share the pursuit of that laudable object. ”

“ It is inconvenient that so large a College as Trinity should be restrained unto a particular School, and it can be easily shown that other Schools have furnished Trinity with students of much better hope and proof than Westminster hath done or is likely to do, for the whole number of Westminster boys who are eligible to both Universities are but forty, and there are seldom more than eight or nine candidates for the six vacancies at the two Universities. ”

“ And American University nomenclature is largely derived from Cambridge. The word, however, has of late gone out of general use, and practically survives scarcely anywhere but in Trinity.
39: At the battle of Minden, 1759.
40: Besides the University Examinations needed to obtain a Degree, every College keeps its students up to the mark by extra examinations of its own, held usually twice a year. There are also competitive examinations for the College Scholarships, and (at Trinity) for the Fellowships. About seventy per cent. of Trinity students are "Honour men" ”

“ But in her will [259] she left a legacy of five thousand pounds, to be employed by her executors in the foundation of a college at Cambridge, or, in case the bequest were insufficient, in enlarging Clare Hall. Six years later, the executors bought a site from Trinity College. When Henry VIII. founded Trinity, he made over to it the lands of the Franciscan Friary which, until the dissolution, had occupied the space between the modern Sidney Street and the King’s Ditch. The buildings were apparently taken down and used as a quarry for Henry’s new college. ”

“ One college has been built at Cambridge in modern times. The founder, who bequeathed his property for the purpose, was Sir George Downing of Gamlingay Park, Cambridgeshire, whose father was a graduate of Clare. Wilkins (the architect of the modern portions of King’s and Corpus and of the New Court of Trinity) began the structure in 1807, but he only completed the west and east sides. The town has since grown up to the college, which has large pleasure grounds. A “Downing” professorship of law and another of medicine were also endowed by the founder. ”

“ The following works are undertaken by the gentlemen whose names are set opposite:—
HOMER: Illiad, - Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy. D.D., Odyssey late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; Head Master of Shrewsbury School. HESIOD - Edward Law Lushington, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow. HERODOTUS - Rev. J.W. Blakesley, M.A., late Fellow ARISTOTLE: and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. Nicomachean Ethics THUCYDIDES - George Long, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of XENOPHON: Trinity College, Cambridge. ”

“ Would it be impossible, among so many good rules, to make cap and gown obligatory at both universities between the hours of 9 and 12? The spectacle of youths hugging golf clubs on the Oxford station at ten o’clock in the morning cannot be extraneous to examination results which show that not 3 men in 4 who matriculate, take the B.A. At Cambridge there is good promise in the large increase of scientific students who take advantage of the facilities afforded by its laboratories: more men entered for the “doctors’ college” in October 1905 than for any other, except of course Trinity ”

“ Trinity College, Dublin, was founded in 1591, under the auspices of Sir John Perrot, the Irish viceroy. A royal charter nominated a provost and a minimum number of Trinity College, Dublin. three fellows and three scholars as a body corporate, empowered to establish among themselves “whatever laws of either of the universities of Cambridge or Oxford they may judge to be apt and suitable; and especially that no other persons should teach or profess the liberal arts in Ireland without the queen's special licence.” ”

“ Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. viii, 347–52 (1881) ; I.L.N. lxxv, 280 (1879) , portrait.
BLORE, Rev. Edward William (elder son of the preceding) . b. London 24 Jany. 1828; ed. at Eton 1842–47, member of the cricket eleven; began residence at Trin. coll. Cam. Oct. 1847, scholar 1849, fellow Oct. 1853; in the Cambridge eleven 1848–51; 37 wrangler 1851, B.A. 1851; assistant tutor of his college 1857, tutor 1862, senior tutor 1868–75, senior dean 1860–66; prime mover in restoration of Trin. coll. chapel, only important building in England founded by Queen Mary. d. Trinity college, Cambridge 24 June 1885. ”

“ With regard to picturesqueness and architectural merit it is difficult to assign the pre-eminence to either place, so far as the University and Collegiate buildings are concerned. Of each distinctive feature, considered separately, the choicest specimen is to be found in Cambridge—the best College Chapel at King's; the finest College Hall and College Courts at Trinity; the most characteristic and beautiful Library at St. John's. But, out-taken these, Oxford can show several examples of each feature better than the next best at Cambridge. ”

“ Nearly all the original members of Trinity had been educated at Cambridge, they were familiar with its traditions, and even the buildings they occupied were associated with the college life of earlier times. It was intended that the Society should promote the reformed religion and the new learning, but there is no reason to suppose that in establishing it, it was wished or proposed to alter the existing practice about the tuition, guidance, and care of the younger students. ”