An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1959.
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'Gonville and Caius College', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge( London, 1959), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp72-81 [accessed 23 November 2024].
'Gonville and Caius College', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge( London, 1959), British History Online, accessed November 23, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp72-81.
"Gonville and Caius College". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge. (London, 1959), , British History Online. Web. 23 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp72-81.
Gonville and Caius College
(29) Gonville and Caius College stands on a site bisected by Trinity Street and bounded on the E. by Rose Crescent, on the N. and W. by Trinity Lane, on the S. by Market Hill, St. Mary's Street and Senate House Passage. It consists of four courts, Gonville Court, Caius Court, Tree Court and St. Michael's Court; of these, the first is the earliest in origin and retains 14th and 15th-century buildings, while the last, E. of Trinity Street, is modern. The walls are of freestone ashlar and the roofs are covered with slates and tiles. The College was founded by Edmund Gonville in 1348 in tenements in Free School Lane (Luthburne Lane) and named the Hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary the Virgin, or Gonville Hall. Gonville died in 1351 and his executor, William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, entrusted with the completion of his designs, moved the College to the north-western part of the present site in 1353. The present site was then, and until 1498, divided into two by a lane running westward from opposite the tower of St. Michael's church. It seems that, at first, older properties on the site, the houses and tenements of Sir John de Cambridge and John Goldcorn, were adapted for the use of the College.
The date of the beginning of the Chapel, which forms the greater part of the S. side of Gonville Court is not known, but the Bull of Boniface IX authorising the fellows to celebrate in it is dated 1393, implying completion of the building; Dr. Caius in the Annals (Register preserved in the College), quoting records no longer extant, attributes completion of it to William Rougham, M.D., Master 1360–93, at his own expense. Only the core of the original walls survives; the side walls were refaced between 1718 and 1726. The Chapel was extended eastward in 1637, when the present ceiling was inserted, and again between 1868 and 1870. The alignment of the building is due to the alignment of the lane that adjoined it on the S.
The West Range of Gonville Court was built in 1441, largely at the expense of Thomas Atwood, Master 1426–54, John Warrocke and John Preston, and contained the Hall in the N. half, the Library in the S. half, together with the Master's Lodge contiguous to the Chapel in the S.W. angle of the Court. The walls were refaced in or shortly after 1751 and the internal arrangements were altered to some extent in 1589 and 1656–8 and extensively in 1853. In c. 1490 the East Range of the same Court was built from a bequest by Elizabeth, widow of Robert Cleve; it was subsequently refaced in 1753, and very largely rebuilt in 1868–70. Thus, with the older buildings on the N. adapted to College use and incorporating a gatehouse, as shown by Loggan, the early quadrangle of Gonville Court was formed and so described early in the second half of the 16th century by Dr. Caius, who found the buildings in bad condition and early instituted repairs. In the W. range, in the centre, was the Parlour with a room above assigned by Caius to the Master for the reception of his friends and those of the College; this upper room was reconditioned in 1656–8 when alluded to in the Bursar's accounts as the Combination Chamber. The N. range was rebuilt in 1753–5.
Dr. Caius, Master from 1559–73, to whom the title of co-founder was granted by charter in 1557, increased the number of fellows and scholars, enlarged the site and built Caius Court to the S. of Gonville Court. The foundation-stone of the West Range of the new court was laid at 4.0 a.m. on May 5th, 1565, and the range was finished on September 1st of the same year. The East Range, including the Gate of Virtue, was begun on September 25th, but the Court was not completed and occupied until 1569. In the same year also the Gate of Humility at the entrance to the College grounds from Trinity Street was built; it was moved in 1868. Further, Dr. Caius forwent his stipend as Master from 1559 to 1566 to finance the building of a stairtower on the W. side of the Master's Lodge, the heightening of that on the S. side of the Chapel, and the provision of a gateway at the entrance to the College opposite Schools Street, their design being left to his own judgement and direction; the three are shown in Loggan's engraving, but only the last, the Gate of Honour, survives. The Master's stair-tower was begun and finished in 1566. The Chapel tower was not completed nor the Gate of Honour built until after his death in 1573; they, together with his monument in the Chapel, were finished in 1575.
The S. side of Caius Court was by intention never closed with a S. range, 'lest the air', as Dr. Caius says in his 30th statute, 'from being confined within a narrow space should become foul, and so do harm to us, and still more to Gonvile's College'; an advanced attitude to public health further evinced by the provision in his will for the services of a man to clean the pavements and gutters outside as well as inside the courts.
The name of the architect of Caius' work is not recorded, but Caius' personal interest, the scholarly allusiveness of his buildings, in the Gates of Humility, of Virtue and of Honour, though in some measure typical of the period, and the remarkably early coherent use of Classical detail, and indeed the word of the Annals, show that he was initially at least his own designer. A columnar sundial with sixty dials built in Caius Court in 1576, and subsequently removed, was designed by Theodore Haveus of Cleves.
An account of Caius' building expenses between 1564 and 1573, amounting to £1,837, includes purchase of timber-trees from Warboys and Ramsey woods, freestone and rubble from Ramsey [Abbey] and Barnwell [Priory], freestone from King's Cliffe and Weldon, clunch from Haslingfield and Barrington and lime from Reach and Cherry Hinton; payments to Thorne, Raynsforth and Rothery are apparently for timber-work.
In 1618 and 1619 contracts were made with John Atkinson of Cambridge for building two brick ranges adjoining one another at right angles on the N.E. of the Court known since c. 1658 as Tree Court, from bequests by Dr. Perse and Dr. Legge; the contracts survive (Caius College Treasury) but the buildings were demolished in 1868. Another brick addition containing sets of chambers adjoining the buildings of Gonville Court on the N.W. was rebuilt and extended by Salvin in 1853 and contains the present Hall and Library. At this time the old Hall, which had been modernised by John Soane in 1792, was converted into chambers and the old Library was added to the accommodation of the Master's Lodge. The Master's Lodge had already been increased in size by the addition of a W. wing in 1795 by William Wilkins sen.; this was extended further in 1853 by Salvin.
Later works include the addition in 1864 of a range of Lecture Rooms to the S. of the Master's Garden, adjoining Senate House Passage, from the designs of Alfred Waterhouse, and all the ranges designed by him in early French Renaissance style to the E. of Gonville and Caius Courts between 1868 and 1870, involving the demolition mentioned above and replacement of the Perse and Legge Buildings; designs for a scheme on these lines had earlier been prepared by William Wilkins, jun. The extensive rebuilding of the E. range of Gonville Court and the addition of the Chapel apse were the work of Waterhouse during the same period.
In St. Michael's Court, the N.E. part was built in 1901–3, to the designs of Sir Aston Webb; the range facing Market Hill is of 1937.
The mediaeval buildings of Gonville Hall have been much altered and rebuilt but their disposition remains unchanged and is of interest for showing a totally enclosed College court, devised basically in the 15th century, of remarkably small size, being only an average of 84 ft. square. The Gate of Virtue, 1565–7, and the Gate of Honour, 1573–5, in Caius Court, show a correct use of Classical detail wholly remarkable for the date in England, and in a measure clearly inspired by French models deriving ultimately from Italy ; the designs are of much ingenuity and, with particular regard to the E. side of the first, of considerable ability. The monument of Dr. Caius in the Chapel, completed by 1575, was carved and probably designed by Theodore Haveus of Cleves and is a notably elaborate work of the period.
Architectural Description—The buildings generally are of two storeys with attics. The Chapel (97 ft. by 20 ft. including the Apse and Ante-chapel) occupies most of the S. range of Gonville Court. The walls are faced with 18th-century ashlar ; the original walls were of clunch faced with brickwork (bricks 9¼ to 10 ins. by 2 ins.) and plastered; the scoring of the plaster to resemble ashlar was considered probably original by T. D. Atkinson (C.A.S. Proc. IX (1899), 244); the roof is covered with stone slates. It is of the 14th century in origin, having been completed probably in 1393. but no work of this period remains visible. In 1570 a N. doorway was blocked and the present W. doorway made into the passageway cut through the range between the two Courts either then or shortly before. An octagonal stair-turret on the S.W., giving access to the Treasury over the Ante-chapel, was heightened between 1573 and 1575 with funds made available by Dr. Caius (Master 1559–73), and thereafter called the Sacred Tower ; it is shown by Loggan. In 1637 the Chapel was extended some 28 ft. to the E. by John Westley, the builder of part of Clare College, and the present ceiling constructed by Woodrofe ; the monument of Dr. Caius was then moved to the present position. The E. end was rebuilt and the entire exterior refaced between 1718 and 1726 by Grumbold under the direction of the architect John James, when the Sacred Tower was demolished.
The building was restored in 1870 by Alfred Waterhouse who added the apse, containing mosaics by Salviati of Venice, and reused parts of the wood reredos built during James's 18th-century alterations in the construction of the organgallery over the Ante-chapel ; the organ-gallery space, earlier the Treasury, had been part of the Master's Lodge since 1717. At the same time in the 19th century the Ante-chapel screen was moved some distance further W., to enlarge the Chapel, and the S.W. stair-turret added.
The N. and S. walls have a plain plinth and a crowning entablature with a dentil-cornice surmounted by a panelled attic-wall; the buttresses have curved weathering and the main entablature is mitred round their upward extensions which terminate in the attic-wall in pedestals formerly surmounted by flaming urns; a moulded string at sill-level stops against the buttresses. The windows, three in each side wall, are each of three round-headed lights with pierced spandrels in a segmental head with coved reveals and slight moulded architraves. The S.W. stair of 1870 terminates in a domed bell-turret. The E. apse is of 1870 and lit by five windows. Entry to the Chapel is by a 16th-century clunch W. doorway with chamfered jambs and four-centred head with sunk spandrels in the E. wall of the passageway between Gonville and Caius Courts. The N. and S. entrances to the passageway were refaced in the 18th century ; they have chamfered jambs and four-centred heads. The rest of the range comprises part of the Master's Lodge and is described with it.
The Interior of the Chapel has a five-sided wood panelled ceiling of 1637 extended in like style in 1870 (Plate 25); Woodrofe was paid 30s. each for sixty-five panels. The moulded ribs have applied cartouches painted with lilies at the intersections and the rectangular panels have bolection mouldings framing carved cherub-heads within rayed ovals. The enriched entablature at the wall-head is divided into eight and a quarter bays along each side by brackets in the frieze supported on cherub-heads. The ceiling was entirely blue and gilt until the blue was stripped off in 1870.
Fittings—Brasses and Indent. Brasses: In Ante-chapel—On N. wall, (1) of figure in armour, late 15th century ; in floor, (2) of Martin Davy, S.T.P., 1839, Master, figure in academic dress standing in replica of W. archway of the Gate of Virtue, with arms of the College and of Davy on the pedestals of the pilasters and below, designed by W. Shoobridge, engraved by J. W. Archer, 1840; (3) of Walter Stubbe, M.A., 1514, Fellow, rectangular inscription-plate. Indent: In Ante-chapel—in floor, matrix of Brass (1), with inscription-plate and four shields. Desk: of oak, with kneeler, panelled front and elaborately carved and pierced scroll-brackets at head and base, c. 1725. Gallery: Incorporated in 19th-century work, as guards to N. and S. windows, oak rails with turned balusters, moulded plinth and moulded and enriched capping, c. 1725, perhaps portions of Communion-rails.
Monuments and Floor-slabs. Monuments: Some have recently been recoloured and newly gilded. In Chapel—on N. wall, towards E. end, in recess at window-level, (1) of Dr. John Caius, 29 July 1573, Master, painted and gilded alabaster standing wall-monument with tomb-chest and canopy (Plate 130) completed by 1575 ; shaped and gadrooned chest on tall moulded and panelled plinth inscribed with his age, 63, and date of death and with attached pedestals at the corners and the front-centre enriched on the dies with strapwork, jewelling and geometrical panels; the pedestals support Corinthian columns and half-columns carrying an elaborate canopy with coffered and panelled soffit and enriched entablature with carved console-brackets over the columns, 'Vivit Post Funera Virtus' inscribed on the frieze, and pedimented attics over each intercolumniation; the panelled and jewelled attics and pediments have pedestals with ball-finials at the apices and are divided on the front by a panelled pedestal supporting a book and skull and flanked by similar pedestals supporting spherical urns ; the back-wall, above the chest, has a central circular recess containing the achievement-of-arms of Caius and linked by bands inscribed 'Fui Caius' to flanking semicircular recesses containing carved fruits and flowers, the spandrels all enriched with interlaces in low relief framing flowers of sangrene (houseleek) and flower gentle (amaranth) for immortality. Caius himself ordered the construction of a 'sepulchrum concameratum' at the beginning of July 1573. The monument was carved by 'Theodore and others'. Standing originally on the floor to the N.E., it was transferred to the present position on a heavy stone shelf with dentil-cornice and carved brackets in 1637 when the ironwork enclosure made for it in 1583 was removed. Further W., (2) of Stephen Perse, M.D., 1615, painted stone wall-monument with figure of man in academic dress kneeling at prayer-desk in a tabernacle-frame (Plate 12); the frame with central round-headed recess with flower-bosses on the soffit, cherub-heads in the spandrels and moulded imposts between Composite columns on pedestals standing on a bracketed shelf with apron inscribed with elegiac verses, perhaps by Perse himself; the columns support an entablature surmounted by obelisks flanking a central roundel containing the carved achievement-of-arms of Perse. Further W., (3) of William Webbe, 1613, slate and alabaster wall-monument with panelled side-pilasters mounted with shields-of-arms, an entablature surmounted by a strapwork roundel containing an achievement-of-arms and a strapwork apron with a fourth shield-of-arms ; the arms, in the order described, are (unidentified 7) ; (unidentified 8) ; quarterly of six, Webb alias Kellawe, Webb, Abarrow, Tourney (?), Payne of Motcombe, (unidentified 9); Branthwaite quartering Branthwaite. On S. wall, (4) of John Gostlin, M.D., 1704–5, President, [Vice-Chancellor], slate and marbled stone wall-monument (Plate 16) with gadrooning and skull below and flanking console-brackets supporting an open and broken segmental pediment framing a cartouche containing a painted shield-of-arms of Gostlin and surmounted by a flaming urn; (5) of Thomas Legge, LL.D., 1607, Master, [Vice-Chancellor], painted stone wall-monument with figure of man in academic dress kneeling at prayer-desk within a tabernacle-frame (Plate 12); frame with flanking free-standing Corinthian columns and half-columns on pedestals enriched with arabesques supporting an entablature inscribed on the frieze 'Col, Legame, della, Legge', and surmounted by obelisks, scrolled crestings and a shield-of-arms of Legge, the whole on a heavy shaped and moulded shelf with inscriptions and carved hands holding a flaming heart; (6) of Sir Thomas Gooch, Bt., 1754, Master, Bishop of Bristol, of Norwich, of Ely, Vice-Chancellor, and three wives, Mary (Sherlock), Hanna (Miller) and Mary (Compton), white and grey marble wall-monument (Plate 12) with inscription-panel under draped canopy flanked by Composite pilasters supporting an entablature with curved pediment surmounted by two urns and a central cartouche containing the arms of the See of Ely impaling Gooch surmounted by a mitre. Floor-slabs: In Ante-chapel—(1) of John Smith, S.T.P., 1795, Professor of Astronomy, Master, Chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln, with shield-of-arms of Smith; (2) of Sir James Burrough, 176[4], Master, with achievement-of-arms of Burrough; (3) of Robert Woodhouse, M.A. 1828, Fellow.
Organ-case: On W. gallery—generally of two heights of fielded panelling with enriched entablature, modern work but said to incorporate material from the early 18th-century reredos (see Painting). Painting: The Annunciation painted on canvas, in carved segmental-topped frame with cherub's head, from the early 18th-century reredos removed in 1870; the accounts for refitting the Chapel, 1718–26, include a payment of £26 to Valentine Ritz for this copy after Carlo Maratti; whereabouts of painting now unknown. Panelling: on N. and S. walls, from floor to sill-level, tall bolection-moulded panels with cornice of shallow projection carved with acanthus foliage, every fifth panel projecting slightly, c. 1725, extended at each end with modern panelling. Stalls: of oak, in five blocks of two tiers down each side of Chapel, with W. returns including the Master's and President's stalls, with fielded panelled fronts, scrolled end-supports and scrolled supports to benches, c. 1725, with modern front benches and alterations to the W. stalls incorporating work of 1870 occasioned by the removal of the screen westward.
In Gonville Court (83 ft. by 83 ft. average) the E. and W. sides were refaced in ashlar and the N. range entirely rebuilt under the direction of James Burrough between 1751 and 1755, and the three sides of the Court are uniform, with a continuous plain plinth and dentil-cornice surmounted by a plain parapet.
The North Range was begun in 1753 and wainscoted during 1755; Tompson was the mason employed, Tucke the bricklayer, Iver the painter and Essex sen. the joiner. It replaced the oldest buildings of the College containing the entrance-gateway; the latter is shown in Loggan's engraving in approximately the position of the present staircase 'c'. The Court side has a regular arrangement of ten openings on each floor and ten dormer-windows; the doorways in the fourth and tenth bays have eared architraves, similarly the windows in the easternmost and seventh bays have eared architraves continued down to the ground and the apron-walls recessed, so creating the illusion of symmetry in the elevation; the remainder of the windows have architraves and plain sills and all contain double-hung sashes. The dormer-windows have timber pedimented cornices. The three lead rainwater-pipes are contemporary with the building.
The N. side of the N. range is built of gault brick and has a plinth and overhanging eaves between the three chimneystacks; these last have modern shafts. On the ground floor are four, and on the first floor three, square-headed windows, with plain stone surrounds. Towards the W. end, on the first floor, is a modern oriel-window and, corbelled out on the front face of the W. chimney-stack, a brick addition of 1886. The easternmost and westernmost of the four hipped dormer-windows retain old leaded glazing.
The Interior of the N. range contains on the ground floor sets of rooms, largely unaltered. The main room in each set is lined with panelling in two heights with skirting, dado-rail and simple cornice. The doorways are symmetrically placed and hung with six-panelled doors; the fireplaces have flat moulded stone surrounds. The bedrooms and gyp-rooms are panelled rather more simply, the framing being unmoulded. The N.E. room contains some 18th-century shelving. The E. staircase, staircase 'C', is contemporary with the building and has moulded close strings, turned balusters, moulded handrail, square newels and a panelled dado on the containing walls. The W. staircase, staircase 'D', is of 1853. On the first floor is a set of chambers to the E. and, between the two stairs, the Parlour.
The Parlour (41 ft. by 18¼ ft.) was formerly two rooms ; the walls are lined with fielded panelling with dado-rail and dentilcornice. Each of the two fireplaces has an enriched surround flanked by carved scrolls with garlands of fruits and flowers and with a cornice and a modern shelf; the panelled overmantel is eared at head and base. The doorways have architraves and contain doors of six panels. The set to the E. is lined with panelling similar to that on the ground floor, but fielded, and over the fireplace is a panel with enriched eared frame; in the gyp-room is an 18th-century fitted cupboard from elsewhere with panelled doors and cornice. The attic-rooms are lined with simple panelling with small cornices. The outer doors to all the sets are original and generally of six panels.
The West Range of Gonville Court was built in 1441 and contained, to the N., the Hall, to the S., the Library on the ground floor and a room above assigned to the Master; in the centre was a room on each floor, the lower known from an early date as the Parlour, and the upper, after reconditioning in 1656–8, as the Combination Chamber. The Parlour became disused and in 1750 was made into a cellar. In 1589 the floor of the Hall was raised to provide headroom for butteries and a cellar below it, restrictions of space leaving no room for the butteries at the end of the Hall; the Kitchen adjoined on the W. In 1792 the interior of the Hall was remodelled by Soane who inserted a plaster segmental barrel-vault. The mid 17th-century work on the Combination Room included a new staircase up to it; subsequently, in 1728, under the direction of James Burrough, then Bursar, the room was repaired and the present cupola built by Essex; the room was repanelled in 1778 and again in recent times.
In 1853 the interior of the W. range was very extensively altered by Salvin who converted the cellar below the Combination Room into an entrance-hall leading to twin staircases, one giving access to his new Hall added on the W. and the sets of rooms made in the old Hall, the other to the S. rooms. He also added a new Library on the N.W. In 1675 the room over the old Library had been restored and converted into an upper library; this was returned to the Master but has since been made into a second Combination Room; it was panelled in 1903. The old Library was converted into the Junior Combination Room in 1910 and in the same year the old Hall was again cleared and made into a Reading Room annexed to the new Library, with kitchen-offices below.
The side to the Court is generally similar to the S. side of the N. range; rather to the N. of the centre is a slightly projecting bay containing paired doorways of 1853 with a buttress between them supporting an oriel-window on the first floor inserted in 1878 in the E. wall of the Combination Room. N. of the bay are ranges of three widely spaced windows on the two floors and, S. of the bay, five windows on the ground floor and six on the first, the latter two ranges with narrower interspacing. On the roof are seven pedimented dormer-windows. The domed cupola of 1728 (Plate 238), centrally over the Combination Room, is octagonal, with panelled base, attached Composite columns at the angles and a round-headed window with archivolt, key-block and imposts in each face ; the columns support a mitred entablature surmounted by reversed brackets at the angles of a vertical-sided drum containing an oval grille in an enriched frame in each face ; the ogee dome is lead-covered, with a weather-vane at the apex. The whole structure is much restored. On the roof near it is hung the Hall bell, dated 1736. The W. side of the range is almost entirely concealed by Salvin's additions of 1853 except in the small area towards the S. end; here the original walling is exposed and contains a square-headed three-light window on the ground floor and a similar transomed window on the first floor, both completely restored and now blocked.
The Interior of the W. range has had the ground floor completely modernised. The old Hall (now 23½ ft. by 46½ ft.) on the first floor retains much of the original roof although reconditioned and incorporating much modern material; it is of five bays, with moulded braces forming two-centred arches below the principals springing from semi-octagonal moulded stone corbels ; of these last all except three on the E. and one on the W. are concealed by bookcases. The roof is ceiled to a semi-octagonal form with modern panelling. The bookcases are modern but incorporate early 17th-century strapwork cresting with carved and painted shields-of-arms ; those on the E. side (a) Legge, (b) See of Norwich impaling Bateman, (c) the See of Salisbury impaling Shaxton, on the W. (a) Branthwaite, (b) (unidentified 10), (c) See of St. David's impaling Lynwode. The Combination Room (32½ ft. by 20½ ft.), adjoining the old Hall on the S. was, with the entrance-hall below, widened and lengthened in 1853 and retains no ancient features. The room now the second Combination Room (now 17 ft. by 44¾ ft.) next S. of the foregoing, has at different times been assigned to the Master and to the Library; in the open-timbered ceiling are two moulded cambered beams, probably original, and five hollow-chamfered beams inserted probably in 1675 ; the walls were lined in 1903 with imitation early 17th-century panelling, of oak from the old battleship the 'Duke of Wellington'.
The new Library built in 1853 on the N.W. of the range contains the bookcases from the old Library (Plate 41); they are of mid 17th-century origin, reconstructed in 1675 and subsequently heightened to 11¾ ft. Five cases project from each side of the room, those on the S. being linked together by wallcases, except in the wider W. bay. They have a low plinth and a cornice mitred forward over the middle of each side and exposed end ; the cornices are probably of 1675. The ends are divided into three panels in the height and have small carved flanking scrolls at the base; the lowest panel is round-headed, with faceted key-block, imposts and bases, and enriched with carved roses; the upper panels are rectangular. Refixed on the N. wall of the new Hall is a carved achievement of the Stuart Royal arms (Plate 53).
The East Range of Gonville Court was built in c. 1490, refaced in 1753 and almost entirely rebuilt, except for the W. wall, by Waterhouse, between 1868 and 1870. The side to the Court is in nine bays and similar in detail and design to the S. side of the N. range ; in the northernmost and seventh bays are doorways. On the roof are nine pedimented dormer-windows. The E. wall, although largely of 1870 and entirely refaced, probably incorporates a core of mediaeval walling in the position shown on the plan, The Interior contains, on the ground floor reset in the N. room, a bolection-moulded fireplacesurround of c. 1700, with a keystone. The S. room is lined with 18th-century panelling with a small cornice. On the first floor, the S. room is lined with mid 18th-century fielded panelling with a dado-rail and plaster cornice enriched with acanthus-leaves and scallop-shells ; the overmantel has a lower frieze containing carved wave-ornament and a large fielded panel above with enriched eared frame bordered by carved shell and scroll-work and foliation ; the fireplace-surround is a 19th-century replacement. The field of the plaster ceiling is recessed, leaving a narrow border with quadrants in the angles containing shells, and the surround has acanthus enrichment.
Caius Court (89½ ft. by 110 ft. average) is bounded on the N. by the Chapel and return of the Master's Lodge, on the E. by a range containing the Gate of Virtue, on the W. by a range including part of the Master's Lodge in the northern end, and on the S. by a wall flanking the Gate of Honour, this last centred not on the Court but on the former Schools Street. The treatment of the wall-face varies; to the Court it is ashlar ; to Tree Court and the Master's Garden it is ashlar, regular coursed rubble and rough ashlar in alternate deep and shallow courses. The Court sides of both ranges have each a chamfered plinth, a moulded string crossing immediately above the ground-floor windows and a wood eaves-cornice, probably of the 18th century. The W. range was the first begun in May 1565, and the structure was completed in four months. The E. range was then begun, in September. The Gate of Virtue is dated 1567 but no one resided in the Court until 1569. The Gate of Honour was not built until after the death of Dr. Caius in 1573, and was finished by 1575 ; the wall to the W. of it, in the position of the old boundary of the site, was presumably rebuilt sometime between 1565 and 1575 ; the wall to the E. is on a slip of ground bought by Caius in 1566, no doubt for the purpose of obtaining a straight frontage, on which he agreed to make three seats, and the blocked openings for these remain.
The East Range (Plate 134) has in the N. half a Gatehouse, the Gate of Virtue, originally aligned due W. of the Gate of Humility built by Caius in 1565 at the entrance to the College from Trinity Street and since removed to the Master's Garden. The Gate of Virtue (Plates 109, 129), 1565 to 1567, is of three storeys and entirely ashlar-faced; the E. face is in three bays divided and flanked by superimposed pilasters, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, standing on pedestals and supporting entablatures; the centre bay is continued up to form a pedimented attic flanked by a fourth, plain, superimposed order. The flanking pilasters are set in a short way from the corners of the building and the pedestals and entablatures are mitred across the full width of the front; only the third entablature and pedestal-mouldings are returned round the building, the pedestal continuation forming a parapet-wall. On the ground floor the centre pilasters flank a semicircular-headed archway with panelled soffit, enriched archivolt and responds in the form of square attached Corinthian columns on pedestals ; the spandrels are carved with figures of Fame and Wealth and 'Virtutis' is inscribed in Roman capitals in the frieze of the entablature above. In the centre of the first floor is a three-light stone-mullioned window with rectangular openings all in a recessed surround simulating an architrave ; the second-floor window is similar but shorter. The face of the attic is panelled and studded with annulets and lozenges, one in each of the ten panels ; it has an entablature with dentil-like brackets and small pine-cone finials on the pediment ; ramped wing-walls link it to the parapet.
The W. front of the Gate of Virtue is divided into three main stages by moulded strings, the ground stage being sub-divided in effect into basement and first stage by the continuation of the string at window-head level from the flanking faces of the range. Similarly the string dividing the first and second stages continues the line of the eaves at each side. Thus, and by the absence of any break in the ashlar face between tower and range, visual unity of the composition is obtained. The third stage is crowned by the continuation of the entablature and parapet from the E. front and, in the centre, surmounted by a pedimented attic with ramped side-walls similar to that on the E. but plain except for a flush central panel with an incised linear pattern of an annulet in a square. The W. archway is approached up four steps and has a four-centred head with strapwork panelling on the soffit, moulded archivolt and imposts and spandrels carved with cornucopias of fruit and flowers and cartouches, both with the arms of Caius; the archway is flanked by Ionic pilasters on panelled pedestals supporting an entablature with dentil-cornice and surmounted by a cresting carved with masks and pine-cone finials. The frieze is inscribed in Roman capitals 'Io Caius posuit Sapientiae', being a transcription of the wording incised on the foundation-stone of the Court, and the date '1567' ; below the entablature and above the apex of the arch is a sub-frieze with the head of Minerva carved in high relief in the centre. In the second stage is a three-light window with four-centred openings in a square head with a cornice supported on small console-brackets; the window in the third stage is similar but without the cornice and brackets.
Projecting from the N. wall of the Gate is a chimney-stack, largely rebuilt. Attached to the S. wall and rising from an ashlar tabling pitched to the slope of the range roof is a hexagonal stair-tower ; it is in four stages, the uppermost recessed, with an ogee lead-covered domical roof on a shallow drum and tapering to a pine-cone finial; the lower strings are continued from the Gatehouse, again to preserve architectural unity, and all the structure above the second stage rises free. In both the first and second stages is a window with four-centred opening in a square head; in each face of the topmost stage is a small rectangular light with moulded surround and, in each face of the drum, an oval recess. On the S. face of the tower is a sloping string, some 2 ft. above the range roof, of doubtful significance.
The E. side of the rest of the E. range is of alternate shallow and deep courses of rough ashlar, except the lower part N. of the Gatehouse which is of regular coursed rubble and may mark the incorporation of late mediaeval walling. At the eaves is an 18th-century timber cornice similar to that on the W. side. The windows are of one and two lights with four-centred openings in square heads and all renewed externally ; one gabled dormer N. of the Gatehouse and two to the S., rising flush with the main wall-face, have similar restored two-light windows on the front and small rectangular lights inserted subsequently in the cheek-walls; the two smaller dormer-windows are modern.
The rest of the W. side is of ashlar, some of it perhaps reused. The doorways have widely chamfered jambs and four-centred heads with sunk spandrels; over each is a single-light window. The three-light windows, as shown on the plan, have similar windows regularly spaced above them on the first floor, and they and the single-light windows are of similar type to those in the E. wall and all renewed externally.
The S. end of the E. range is gabled, with the moulded string from the side walls of the range continued across at first-floor level, a second at the base of the gable, and a chimney-stack at the apex ; the stack has two square shafts set diagonally on a rectangular base with a small pedestal and ball-finial set in each of the N. and S. re-entrants left between the shafts. In the gable are two single-light windows with four-centred openings in square heads with straight labels. The lower part of the wall below the first string is of regular coursed rubble which is of one build with the S. boundary wall of Tree Court for some 10 ft. eastward; it may well have originally continued some 14 ft. further, as far as the N. to S. wall built by Caius in 1565 as the E. boundary of the President's Garden and removed in 1854.
The Interior of the E. range has in both the side walls of the passageway through the Gate of Virtue a square opening with quatre-foiled stone grille, perhaps an insertion ; these open into narrow closets with pointed barrel-vaults of rubble. The semicircular barrel-vault of the passageway is of clunch ashlar with a central carved pendant inscribed 'Benedictio D[omi]ni super vos'. The stair-tower contains the original oak circular stair, restored, with massive oak centre-post. The room on the first floor of the Gatehouse is lined with late 16th-century panelling, six panels high, with a beaded entablature; the windows are flanked by panelled Ionic pilasters, originally on pedestals, carved with stylised flowers in vases; the pedestals are now missing; over the W. window is a panelled frieze carved with arabesque-ornament and over the fireplace an 18th-century eared panel and dentil-cornice. The room above is entered from the stair-tower through a stone doorway with ovolo-moulded surround flanked by stone panelled pilasters on pedestals and with carved caps of Corinthian character supporting an entablature; the walls are lined with late 16th-century panelling, five panels high, with arabesque-enriched frieze-panels and a cornice, the latter largely modern. The fireplace has stone chamfered jambs and a four-centred head projecting on moulded corbelling; the wood overmantel is in three bays with plain Doric pilasters supporting an enriched entablature and in each bay, two panels, the upper plain, the lower carved with arabesque decoration.
N. of the Gatehouse, the main first-floor room is lined with 18th-century oak fielded panelling, with large panels, moulded dado-rail and enriched cornice and has four doors, of six fielded panels, two with brass rim locks. The fireplace has a flat moulded stone surround. The small N.W. room is lined with similar painted panelling. S. of the Gatehouse, the northernmost ground floor room, entered from the lobby at the foot of the stair-tower through an original stone doorway with a chamfered four-centred head, is lined with 18th-century panelling with dado-rail and cornice, the latter returned along the ceiling-beams; the fireplace has a flat moulded stone surround and a wood bolection-moulded panel above. The small room E. of the stair-tower retains reset on the N. wall late 16th-century panelling with arabesque enrichment. The two rooms on either side of stair 'K' contain 18th-century panelling and are generally similar to those already described. Most of the doors are contemporary with the panelling and of six panels. On the first floor, the main N. room is lined with oak bolection-moulded panelling, with dado-rail and cornice and an oak bolection-moulded fireplace-surround. The two rooms on each side of stair 'K' are similarly panelled, but with the cornices carved with acanthus leaves and the southernmost room containing a flat moulded fireplace-surround of marble and a short flight of stairs, contemporary with the panelling, with open string, carved brackets, turned balusters, square panelled newels and moulded handrail, leading to an attic stairbehind the panelling. The attics, entered also from the stairtower through an original stone doorway with chamfered jambs and four-centred head with sunk spandrels are lined with plain panelling with some late 16th-century panelling below the windows. Various chambers were wainscoted in 1694 and in 1729; the bolection-moulded panelling described is very probably that installed in 1694 while the later panelling accords with the later date.
The West Range of Caius Court was begun and completed structurally in 1565; it is built mainly of reused ashlar. The E. side, to the Court, is similar to the general run of the E. range opposite; again all the wall-openings have been renewed externally. The chimney-stacks at the roof-ridge also, like those opposite, have been rebuilt in the 19th century. The W. side, to the Master's Garden, is similar to the general run of the E. side of the E. range with four gabled dormers and two small modern dormer-windows similarly restored. The doorway from the Master's Study into the garden is modern. Further N., the N. part of the wall opposite the W. continuation of the Chapel range has been almost entirely refronted in modern times ; it has modern windows on both the ground and first floors as shown on the plan. The S. end is similar to the S. end of the E. range but the ground stage is faced with narrow red bricks in continuation of the facing of the boundary-wall W. of the Gate of Honour and with a rubble plinth.
The Interior of the W. range comprises sets of rooms, except the N. end which is appropriated to the Master's Lodge. It was extensively refitted with deal panelling in the 18th century. On the ground floor, the main room N. of stair 'H' has a boarded dado with dado-rail. In the main S. room are exposed original stop-chamfered ceiling-beams. Staircase 'H' has an 18th-century panelled dado. The rooms N. and S. of entrance 'I' are lined with 18th-century panelling with dado-rail and cornice; the fireplace in the second has a flat moulded stone surround and a bolection-moulded panel above. On the first floor the main room N. of stair 'H' is similarly panelled, with a flat stone surround to the fireplace and an eared panel above; the small room off to the N.W. has similar panelling but surmounted by a full entablature and with a contemporary cupboard and shelving against the N. wall. The main room S. of the same stair is similar to the room opposite. The main room N. of entrance 'I' is again similar but with two bolection-moulded panels over the fireplace; a former closet on the N.W., now a large recess, has a coved plaster ceiling with central rectangular panel. The main room opposite is panelled as the other rooms but with a dentil-cornice and a flat marble fireplace-surround. Several of the attic rooms are lined with plain unmoulded 18th-century panelling and one retains an eight-panelled door of c. 1600 carved with arabesques.
The rooms at the N. end of the W. range, belonging to the Master, comprise on the ground floor the Study, which has been entirely modernised; a room above, which has a dado of late 16th-century panelling, panels over the fireplace with the head-rail carved with arabesques and a nine-panel door with reeded top panel and reeded frieze over, all of the same date, and an attic room containing an original clunch fireplace with stop-chamfered jambs and moulded four-centred arch in a square head. Some of the roof-timbers are exposed.
The Gate of Honour (Plate 133), 1573 to 1575, on the S. side of Caius Court, is flush with the adjoining walls on the S. side and projects some 8½ ft. into the Court on the N. It is of freestone and clunch and designed in three stages, the lowest two rectangular, the topmost hexagonal and terminating in a hexagonal ashlar dome with a pedestal and ball finial. Some of the sides of the hexagonal originally carried sundials, and the whole structure was originally coloured and gilded. According to the Annals it was 'wrought according to the very form and figure which Dr. Caius in his lifetime had himself traced out for the architect'.
The lowest stage of the Gate has both the N. and S. faces in three bays divided and flanked, on the S., by fluted Roman Doric pilasters and, on the N., by reeded and fluted freestanding Ionic columns and responds on panelled pedestals, the pedestal mouldings being mitred round the building as far as the boundary wall on each side to form a high plinth. The Doric order has a full entablature, with triglyphs, and paterae in the metopes; in the centre bay is an archway with four-centred head, enriched soffit and archivolt and panelled responds with imposts similar to the enriched caps of the pilasters; in the flanking bays are rectangular recessed panels with splayed sides below and roundels containing open flowers and surmounted by segmental-pedimented cornices above; the splayed heads of the recesses are carved with double guilloche and the sills with scale-ornament. The original door is of oak, with a small wicket; applied mouldings divide the face into vertical panels. The Ionic order has an entablature with enriched cornice and 'Honoris' carved in Roman capitals in the frieze; the entablature breaks forward over the columns and the cornice again twice in the centre bay to carry the superstructure, where it is supported on console-brackets. The archway is four-centred, with archivolt and panelled soffit, spandrels each carved with flowers and the arms of Caius in a cartouche, enriched impostcaps and panelled responds carved with Gothic diapering; the rear-arch is widely splayed and enriched with interlace panelling. The flanking bays are similar in treatment to those on the S. but without the pedimented cornices and with shorter recesses with net-pattern carved on the heads and with Tudor roses in the roundels. The ground stage was originally surmounted by tall obelisks at the corners but only the jewelled pedestal of that on the S.W. survives.
The second stage has ramped ashlar sides to E. and W. bringing the upper part to a square on plan; on the N. and S. sides are wide prostyle tetrastyle portico-like features, each comprising reeded and fluted Corinthian columns on jewelled pedestals connected by blind balustrading and supporting pedimented entablatures across the full width of the face; identical pedimented entablatures crown the E. and W. ramped sides and thus the entablature is continuous round the structure. The entablature is enriched with dentil-like blocks in the frieze and each tympanum is carved with a grotesque beast's mask flanked by foliated scrolls; on the apex of each pediment is a tall jewelled pedestal with egg-shaped finial. Between each pair of Corinthian columns the wall-face contains a shallow niche with panelled head and architrave in a tabernacle framing; the latter comprises Corinthian side-pilasters supporting an entablature with ramped panel above terminating in a small pediment surmounted by finials.
Above the second stage, level with the apices of the main pediments, low broaches effect the change from square to hexagon on plan, the diagonal lying N. and S. The S.E. and S.W. faces of the hexagon retain traces of the gnomons of sundials. At the base of the dome of the hexagon is a small fluted frieze. Inside the Gate, the passageway has a flat ceiling with a central pendant carved with a rosette. The stonework is much weathered and in part renewed.
The Master's Lodge occupies the W. end of the S. range of Gonville Court with a W. wing extending to Trinity Hall Lane, the N. end of the adjoining range of Caius Court, already described, and some rooms over the second Combination Room. The Master was lodged at first in a chamber over the original entrance to the College from Trinity Lane; in 1441 he was allocated the part of the S. range W. of the Chapel, which remains the nucleus of the Master's Lodge. In the 16th century, when access from Gonville Court to the new Caius Court was required, part of the ground floor was taken for the present passageway between them, probably between 1565 when the second Court was begun and 1570 when the N. door of the Chapel was closed up, and the Master compensated by additional accommodation in Caius Court; further, in 1570, the Master's doorway into the passageway was made. In 1566 Caius added a turret-stair, destroyed in 1795, to the W. end of the Master's Lodge, a fact suggesting that the original stair was perhaps destroyed by the construction of the passageway. From time to time the accommodation has varied by the addition or exchange of rooms with the College. In 1795 William Wilkins sen., of Norwich, built the W. wing containing a dining-room on the ground floor and a drawing-room on the first floor; in 1853 Salvin extended the wing westward to Trinity Hall Lane. Internal alterations made by Waterhouse in 1869 included the removal of a large circular staircase built by Wilkins in the W. end of the 15th-century range, and further alterations were made by Edward Warren in 1912.
The N. and S. sides of the range between Gonville and Caius Courts continue the horizontal treatment of the Chapel walls. The passage entrances are described above with the Chapel. The window over the N. entrance and that on each floor to the W. are of two lights in a low segmental head, the lower with four-centred openings, the upper two-centred; the windows on the S. side are similar and similarly disposed but of three lights all with four-centred openings. The panelling of the S. attic-wall is pierced for windows. The W. wing by Wilkins is of two storeys, with walls built of gault brick and slate-covered roof. The S. side, facing the Master's Garden, has a short length of wall on the E. recessed to form a link between the old range and the rest of the front. The latter is symmetrically designed and with a hipped roof, so forming an architectural unity; in it are three tall sash-windows on each floor. The linking-wall has a modern doorway inserted in the former ground-floor window opening.
The Interior of the Master's Lodge has been considerably altered and modernised. On the ground floor of the 15th-century part, in the S. window of the Entrance-hall are three reset roundels of 16th or 17th-century glass in black and yellow; they contain the arms of Gonville, Bateman, and Caius each in strapwork frames inscribed 'Servite Domino in timore', 'Jesus Christus Deus Homo,' and 'Apprehendite disciplinam' and 'Amaranthus'. On the floor above, two walls of the bathroom next to the E. room are lined with panelling of the late 16th or early 17th century, in six heights with arabesque frieze-panels. The Dining-room in the W. wing has a marble fireplace-surround of late 18th-century character, and the Drawing-room above another of c. 1795 with fluted frieze and frieze-panel carved with an urn; the enriched plaster frieze and cornice in the latter room are original, the wall-panelling being an addition made in recent times. The adjoining staircase of 1795 has open strings with shaped brackets, turned balusters, moulded handrail and turned newels.
The Gate of Humility, built in 1565, was originally at the entrance to the College from Trinity Street, due E. of the Gate of Virtue; probably by 1815 it was much weathered and then refaced with Roman cement. In 1868 it was moved to the present position in the S. wall of the Master's Garden. The round-headed doorway has a rectangular rear-arch on the N. On the N. face are Corinthian side-pilasters on panelled pedestals supporting an entablature with 'Humilitatis' inscribed in the frieze and surmounted by scrolled cresting. On the S. the doorway has moulded imposts and is flanked by fluted Roman-Doric pilasters with enriched caps supporting a Doric entablature with a 19th-century scrolled cresting. The surface has been entirely renewed.
The Boundary-wall between the Master's Garden and Trinity Hall Lane is probably of the 14th century to a height of some 2½ ft. on the W. and of the 16th century above. The lower part is of roughly coursed stone rubble and the upper of red brick; the bricks are 9 × 4½ × 2 ins. and four courses measure 10½ ins. The wall of Caius Court W. of the Gate of Honour is probably the work of Caius; it has a low rubble base and, on the S., a facing of brickwork; the dimensions of the brickwork are similar to those just described; the N. face is of alternate courses of wide and narrow ashlar, with some brick lacing-courses. The wall E. of the Gate of Honour is of regular coursed rubble; in the S. face are three blockings with ashlar jambs and segmental-pointed brick heads which are probably the remains of seat-recesses which Caius agreed to provide when in 1566 he bought the land on which the wall was built; at the W. end are vestiges of a S. return-wall.