the arrangement of buildings at caius is rather curious, and no cambridge college has been so transformed since its foundation. the chapel is between the two lesser courts; the hall is at the back of everything, and its position is far from obvious. caius may be said to consist of two halves: the first half, to the east, borders trinity street, and is the new court; the second and westerly half is an oblong bounded on three sides by narrow lanes and on the other by the rest of the college. this second half is again split into two halves, the northern of which, nearest trinity lane, is gonville court, and represents the ancient college removed here in 1353 from the other end of king’s parade. beneath its somewhat modern front an immense quantity of the original work still exists, and fourteenth-century windows have been discovered.[66] the old hall and chapel have disappeared, although part of the present chapel may belong to the original buildings. caius, however, in refounding the college, altered everything. he built an additional court, south of the ancient college. this, too, has been refaced, and is, for the most part, a comfortable quadrangle of queen anne date. but the gates which caius, giving play to a strange fancy, built for his college, are still entire. his gate of humility, a mere postern in the outer buildings, exists no longer; but mr waterhouse preserved the idea in his new building, and recently his gate has, in accordance with the founder’s design, been made once again the principal entrance. the gate of virtue, leading from the new court into caius court, is a tall italian building, in which gothic and renaissance forms are most curiously blended. the italian appearance of the design is due, no doubt, to the corner turret, which introduces a very picturesque element into a simple plan.
while the gate of virtue subordinates its ornament to general effect, the last gate, the gate of honour, leading appropriately to the[67] senate house and schools, attracts by beauty of detail. it was finished in 1574, the year after caius’ death, and its design, the heavy architrave with an ionic order, and the hexagonal, domed structure at the top, is purely classical. it is the most charming building of its date in england, and is a good instance of that love of mere fancy which marks the builders of the late italian renaissance. caius’ architect was a certain theodore have of cleves in the rhenish provinces, who also remodelled the chapel between this and gonville’s court, and probably designed the sarcophagus in which caius is buried. the bell-tower of the chapel, which agrees very well with the two gateways, is comparatively new. it is worth while to enter the chapel, which, although, after numerous alterations, it is of no particular date or style, has a very pleasant interior, and, in addition to caius’ monument, contains that of dr perse, the founder of the perse free school in cambridge. this excellent gentleman, who died in 1617, built most of the original entrance court of the college, in which caius’ gate of humility was incorporated. in loggan’s beautiful view of[68] caius, these buildings seem to have been of the same style as those in the second court of st john’s college, the style of which ralph symons built so many delightful examples in cambridge. they belong to 1617. the portion of this court south of the gate of humility was built in 1619, in accordance with the will of a late master, dr legge.
in 1719, the older courts were faced and the chapel was newly decorated. this work was continued at intervals through the century. mr (afterwards sir james) burrough was a fellow in these days, and was the leading spirit in the work. the college remained untouched until the mastership of the late dr guest. then, in 1854, salvin built the hall, whose exterior is as hideous as the interior, with its fine open timber roof, is imposing and beautiful. in 1867 mr waterhouse entirely rebuilt perse’s court, and, in the following year, added an apse to the chapel. his court has given a new feature to cambridge, certainly. but, where colleges are concerned, mr waterhouse is not happy, and this huge pile, with its square windows, its pyramidal tower, medallions, and rows of waterspouts,[69] would make a praiseworthy bank or hotel, but, in its present position, is painfully incongruous.
very shortly after marie de valence had founded pembroke, edmund gonville, rector of terrington st clement’s in norfolk, founded gonville hall for the instruction of twenty scholars in dialect and other sciences. he found a site for his hall in what is now free school lane, just behind st botolph’s church. the foundation took place in 1348, and, during gonville’s lifetime, the name given to the hall was “the hall of the annunciation of the blessed virgin.” but gonville died in 1351, when his executor, the famous william bateman, bishop of norwich, removed the buildings and placed them opposite his own college of trinity hall. henceforward, the college was known as gonville hall, and the old name was retained when caius re-founded it. the small society—for the college was at first very poor—took possession of its new tenements in 1353, when william de rougham became master. the previous master of the house in free school lane was john colton, who became primate of ireland; and among the masters of gonville hall we find the names of john rickingale, bishop of chichester in 1426, and john skippe, bishop of hereford in 1539.
it was during the mastership of skippe’s predecessor, william bokenham, that john caius[70] entered the college as an undergraduate. after he had taken his degree he was for a few years principal of physwick hostel, a small house affiliated to gonville hall. he left cambridge, however, about 1540, and travelled to foreign universities, studying medicine at padua and other academies. he was a man of culture, and his taste was doubtless stimulated by the splendid productions of the italian renaissance. we may, in fact, regard him as one of the greatest english humanists, and, like so many of them, as one of the greatest benefactors to his university. on his return to england he practised as a physician, and received the appointment of court physician to edward vi. and, afterwards, to queen mary. in 1555, he was elected president of the college of physicians. having thus risen to considerable eminence, he determined to do something for gonville hall. philip and mary granted him letters patent in 1557, with which he refounded the college. in this way he gave that impetus to medical study which has since made caius pre-eminently a doctor’s college. his beautiful buildings are sufficient testimony to the elegant taste which he had matured in italy. thomas bacon, master of gonville hall and first master of the new foundation, died in 1559, and the society elected caius to the mastership. at first he was reluctant to accept the dignity, and prevailed so far as to refuse his income as master. his mastership lasted until his death in 1573. he was one of the most disinterested of all cambridge[71] benefactors, and his learning and talents are beyond praise. one odd feature of his career, which is very characteristic of the uncritical spirit of the time, is his dispute with dr key of oxford as to the relative antiquity of the two universities. to some astonishing legend of key’s, he replied that cambridge was founded in the year 3538 b.c. by one cantaber, a spanish prince, alleging many weighty statements on behalf of his accurate chronology. his history of cambridge contains more trustworthy information than this, but he was singularly prone to the acceptation of spurious etymologies and vain traditions. his contemporaries held him to be something of an atheist, and complained that he showed “a perverse stomach to professors of the gospel.” this probably means little more than that he was content with the old religion. he died away from cambridge, but his body was brought from london to be buried. it was met at trumpington ford by the vice-chancellor and a procession, who escorted it into cambridge with almost royal honours.
among other gifts to the college, caius left the silver mace encircled with serpents, which is called caduceus prudentis gubernatoris. it was directed to be carried in procession before the master with the liber cognitionis and the pulvinar reverentiae. there are three portraits of caius in various parts of the college. that in the hall, which represents him holding a pink, is the best.
a notable son of gonville hall was sir[72] thomas gresham, well known as the founder of the royal exchange. he died in 1579, so that he had probably taken his degree before caius’ time. caius was succeeded in the mastership by dr legge, a lawyer and master in chancery, who was also regius professor of civil law. in his day came into residence william harvey of folkestone, one of the great glories of the college. his discovery of the circulation of the blood created a revolution in medical science. there are three portraits of harvey in caius: one of them, in the master’s lodge, is attributed to rembrandt; another in the combination room, is a replica of the picture at the royal college of physicians. another great doctor, john gostlin,* regius professor of physic, became master in 1618. he is said to have objected to the wearing of boots as “more fit for gallants than for civil students.” he also gave the bull inn, which was his property, to catharine hall.
if caius has its doctors, it has also its prelates. william linwood, lord keeper under henry vi., and bishop of st david’s in 1442, is commemorated by one of the medallions on the west front. a famous name among others is that of nicholas shaxton, bishop of salisbury in 1535. the long mastership of thomas batchcroft,* who was ejected by the parliamentary commissioners and restored in 1660, was distinguished by the residence of jeremy taylor. this great divine’s father was a barber in cambridge, and sent his son to dr perse’s new[73] free school. naturally, as a scholar brought up at a school which had been founded from caius, taylor became an undergraduate at caius. he was a precocious theologian, and early attracted the notice of laud, who transferred him to oxford and procured him a fellowship at all souls’. he became bishop of down and connor, and died at lisburn in 1667. among theologians his name stands very high, and, as a writer of english, he is in his own style unsurpassed. cosin also, a no less illustrious example of piety and devout churchmanship, was bred at caius, before he became master of peterhouse. both taylor and cosin figure in the medallions of the fa?ade. the portrait of taylor in the hall is a copy of his picture at all souls’. there is also a portrait of cosin painted in 1666. other prelates of this period are francis marsh, bishop of limerick and archbishop of dublin, hartstrong, bishop of ossory, and francis white, bishop, first of norwich, and then of ely. to much the same date belongs judge jeffreys. a very disreputable undergraduate was titus oates, of whom a vehement writer says that he was “a liar from the beginning, cheated his tailor of a gown, which he denied with horrid imprecations.” his career at cambridge had a sudden end, but he managed to obtain a doctor’s degree at salamanca. thomas shadwell, who is famous as one of dryden’s bêtes noires, was also a member of caius.
robert brady,* keeper of the records[74] and regius professor of physic, was master for forty years after batchcroft’s death. he was a supporter of the royal prerogative in its most extreme form, and wrote a history of england to prove his views. two clergymen were educated at caius in his time; prince, who wrote the worthies of devon, and jeremy collier, the stout antagonist of restoration drama. another long mastership was that of sir thomas gooch,* from 1716 to 1754, who, during the same period, was bishop successively of bristol, norwich and ely. he was succeeded in 1754 by sir james burrough, who, for many years before, had interested himself in the architectural condition of cambridge, and had had a hand in altering almost every college. he was not an unsuccessful architect, although an amateur, but his work is very unequal and it degenerated with the taste of the epoch. although one of the best known masters, as far as cambridge is concerned, there is no portrait of him in the college. another cambridge architect, william wilkins, was also a caius man.
burrough’s successor was dr john smith, afterwards lowndean professor of astronomy, who lived till 1795. there is a portrait of him by reynolds in the master’s lodge. later masters have not been so famous. mr clark tells us that dr benedict chapman (* philips) was the last head of a house who rode out in top-boots. perhaps the name on which cambridge men will dwell with most affection in connexion with caius is that of john hookham[75] frere, whose translations of aristophanes have a place in english literature. the mastership of dr ferrers,* which began in 1880, has been marked by great progress. the college is no longer exclusively medical, but is winning yearly honours in all the schools, and it has created a good precedent by granting fellowships as a reward of proficiency rather than of mere academic distinction. it has, however, produced, all through its history, great members of every profession. among its lawyers have been lord chancellor thurlow* and baron alderson.* and of its divines, while it reckons the late dr harvey goodwin, bishop of carlisle, among the number, the last, but not the least, is the heroic charles frederick mackenzie,* first bishop of the universities mission to central africa. its latest living bishop is dr wallis, who was consecrated bishop of wellington in new zealand a year or two ago.
