Travel
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A Visit to Cambridge
THE first thing to be observed at Cambridge, on arrival by train, is- the immense length of the railway station. In the words of Euclid's definition, it has "length without breadth," for it consists almost entirely of a single platform. The station is situated in an obscure corner, and the approach from it to the centre. of the town is undistinguished. There is history behind this. When Cambridge was first threatened with a railway extension, the Dons and professors put up a stout oppo. sition. They failed, 'of course ; but they did at least succeed in confining the new monster to the remote outskirts. The result has been Unfortunate, for every new- comer ever since has formed a mean impression, at first sight. ofthe University town.
The traveller by road has. a different story to tell. The best route from London is via the Finchley Road, the Barnet by-pass, Stevenage, Baldock, and Royston : some 55 ludo in all. Follow, for the first part of the journey, the odd direction, "To Welwyn and the North." The entry into Cambridge is by the Trumpington Road, a shady and attrac- tive thoroughfare on which the builders have not yet seriously encroached, or where their encroachments are decently screened by the trees. The road leads straight to King's Parade and the heart of the University quarter. No town could wish for a more delightful approach.
Those who sing the praises of Cambridge must start, in duty bound, with the region known as the "Backs." It is the stock Cambridge gambit, the inevitable retort to those who prate of Christchurch meadows or the " High." The" Backs" —the Backs of the Colleges, to give them their full designation (which nobody ever uses)—lie along the west bank of the Cain, and command a back view, through a grove of venerable trees, of no fewer than six Colleges whose lawns and avenues slope down to the river-side. The six Colleges; taken in order from South to North, are Queens', King's, Clare, Trinity Ilall, Trinity, and St. John's. The place is at its loveliest in spring, when lilac, chestnut and laburnum are in bloom ; but it is beautiful at all times, and never more so than in the twilight of a still autumn evening with the moon rising slowly above the turrets of King's College Chapel.
The largest, and perhaps the most famous, of Cambridge Colleges is Trinity. It can be entered-from two sides ; either from the Backs, whence the path leads past the "long walk of limes " immortalized in In Memoriam ; or, better still, from Trinity Street through the splendid Tudor gateway, ablaze with armorial bearings, which gives direct access to the Great Court. The rival merits of Trinity Great Court and of Tom Quad" at Christchurch, Oxford, have been the subject oh endless dispute. Naturally, Oxford men have their own opinion on the subject, and Cambridge men theirs. Enough to say that the Great Court can have few rivals, whether at Oxford or elsewhere. The College, as is only fitting, has a long Muster roll of famous names : Byron, Macaulay and Tennyson are among the number.
King's College is renowned for,, its magnificent chapel, as grand an example of later Gothic' architecture as is to be found in England. The chapel is the theme of one of Words- worth's most moving sonnets. It has had its critics, Ruskin among their number ; but criticism dies away in the presence of "lofty pillars" and "branching roof self-poised," where "music dwells lingering."
From King's a walk across the market place and down th, quaintly-named Petty Cury brings, you to Christ's. Here stands an ancient mulberry tree planted, according to local tradition by the poet Milton. Milton spent seven years in the College. You can still see the rooms in which he lived, and in which Wordsworth long afterwards, while on a visit from his own College (St. John's), was so far carried away by the genius loci as to commit the one alcoholic indiscretion of an abstemious lifetime. The bard tells the story against himself in a well-known passage in the Prelude. Some of his admirers were shocked ; but Charles Lamb bade them take comfort : Wordsworth's standard of intoxication, he felt sure, was ridiculously low.
Magdalene, northernmost of Cambridge Colleges, stands on the left bank of the river. (Note the -e at the end of the word which distinguishes it from Magdalen, Oxford : both are pronounced Maudlin. Note also that the Cambridge Queens' differs from the Oxford Queen's in being a genitive plural, not a genitive singular. Two Queens were in fact concerned with the Cambridge foundation.) Most eminent of Magdalene men is Samuel Pepys, the Diarist. There has been controversy over the pronunciation of his name ; but at Magdalene they have no doubts : it is Peeps beyond all question. The Diarist's fine collection of books, which he bequeathed to his old College, can be seen in the Pepysian Library. They include one set of volumes of surpassing interest ; none other than the original of the famous Diary, written in the self- invented cypher that baffled so many generations of the curious.
Peterhouse, oldest College of all, has a Wren chapel, and a small but delightful park in which a few deer are still kept. Queens' keeps alive memories of Erasmus, Corpus of Kit Marlowe, and Sidney of Oliver Cromwell. Downing is a later foundation, built in the year 1800 in what was then regarded as the height of classical elegance ; it is curious rather than beautiful, but it is on the way back to the station and may fitly bring a day's sightseeing to an end.
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