CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE question has been asked "Why has St John's College built a new chapel in a style two centuries older than the college itself?" The answer will be found in the following pages, which contain a description of all that could be discovered concerning the old chapel of the college before and during its demolition. It will be seen that the new chapel is in exactly the same style of architecture as that which was used by the college from the time of its foundation (A.D. 1511) until May 12, 1869. That building was erected for the use of the hospital which preceded the college at a time when the Early English style was changing into the Decorated. Of this ample proof existed in the quire-arch and various stringcourses, and was fully confirmed, if confirmation was requisite, when the original window-openings were brought to light by the removal of the inserted Perpendicular windows. But it may still be said that it was foolish to erect a new chapel in that early style which had not been used for many years when the college was founded, and to the use of which we had therefore no just claim. To this it may be fairly answered that although the body existing under the present charter was founded by that charter on April 9, 1511, it is nevertheless as completely a continuation of the much older community which went by the name of the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, as are our present municipal corporations of those which existed in the Middle Ages, for they have been several times dissolved and reincorporated, yet their continuity is never disputed. Like them, the Hospital of St John, which had long been affiliated to the University', was dissolved by competent authority, and a new charter given to constitute an exclusively academic body in its place: a body endowed with the property and rights and burdened with most of the duties of its prede cessor. Although the academic body cannot therefore claim to have existed as such before the time of Edward IV., or exclusively as a college before that of Henry VII., the incorporation has existed ever since the reign of Henry II., and indeed Bp. Hugh de Balsham declared it to be a college before 1284 (temp. Edward I.). It is proposed in the following pages to give an account of the buildings which belonged to the hospital as far as they could be ascertained, and similarly of the chapel of the college. For a full history of the corporate body itself reference must be made to Prof. J. E. B. Mayor's very valuable edition of Baker's "History of St John's College." It is hoped that this account will be of interest to the members of the "ancient and religious" foundation and also to some persons who have never been connected with our college or even university. For it is curious and instructive to trace the changes which our old ecclesiastical buildings have undergone as time has altered the habits, duties, employments and tastes of their occupants. In the reign of Henry II., or at about that time, a burgess of Cambridge named Henry Frost founded on a piece of waste land a small hospital for poor sick and infirm persons, and then or shortly afterwards Augustinian Brethren were placed in charge of it. The foundation deeds have long been lost, and no copy of them exists. The brethren retained possession until the lady Margaret, countess of Richmond and mother of King Henry VII., obtained papal bulls and the other requisite powers to remove them and establish in their stead the collegiate body which still exists. At that time the 46. 1 In the time of John Dunham (Master, A.D. 1473), see Mayor's Baker, hospital had fallen into a very decayed state, there being only the master and three brothers remaining (Baker, 50), and its buildings seem also to have been very much out of repair (Baker, 67. 39). We therefore find in these buildings, and those of the college, a series of changes extending over period of at least six hundred years: an architectural history which no other building in the University can shew, except the chapel of Jesus College. Unfortunately, all these interesting buildings had to be removed, but without their removal we could not have obtained the knowledge of them which we now possess, as many of their most interesting features were hidden by the successive alterations which had been considered desirable or necessary to fit them for their modern uses. CHAPTER II. HOSPITAL, THE two buildings that have recently been pulled down were erected for the use of the Hospital. They were (1) the INFIRMARY, and (2) the CHAPEL. They were erected for the hospital, but much altered to accommodate them to the requirements of the college. With the domestic buildings we have nothing to do: indeed we know nothing of those of the hospital; not even their site. In its earliest state the hospital probably did not require more than a single large and long room, of which the eastern end formed an oratory. In this the "poor and infirm " persons, for whose benefit the hospital was founded in or before the time of Nigellus, Bp. of Ely (A.D. 1133-69), were received, and mass said for them and in their sight as they lay in their beds. In those early times the foundation appears to have been very poor, and in all probability the room used for these purposes was a wooden edifice similar to the houses of the town. But soon afterwards (between the years 1180 and 1200) a stone building with an oratory was erected. The remains of this building existed until quite recently, although nearly all its architectural features were obscured by its alteration into chambers for students. It will be called the Infirmary in this essay, but was popularly known as the "Labyrinth.” The Augustinian brethren seem soon to have required a separate chapel for their devotions, and accordingly in the latter half of the thirteenth century a distinct and rather large chapel was erected for them, and this was the building which continued in use (although with considerable alterations) by the hospital and college until 1869. Probably the attempt of Bp. Hugh de Balsham to place secular scholars in the same house as the Augustinian brethren (A.D. 1280) may have rendered it necessary to erect this large chapel. As far as we can learn, either from records or from the building itself, this chapel remained unaltered until it was remodelled for the use of the college (A. D. 1514) and its ancient architectural appearance destroyed. At that time also, or soon afterwards, the four chantries were added; a part was secularised to form a lodging for the master, and the infirmary finally devoted to secular uses. At a later period, for the exact time is unknown, the floor was raised about 1 foot 9 inches; and still later the chamber (possibly used for an organ) over Fisher's chantry was appropriated by the master, Leonard Pilkington, to his own use. He at that time also converted the infirmary into a stable and storehouse. It is possible likewise that it was he who made Ashton's chantry an appendage to the lodge. The last alteration to be noticed was the destruction of Thompson's and Keyton's chantries, which still existed when Logan's yiew of the college was taken (c. 1688). A reference to the ground-plan (Plan 3) will shew the situation of the several buildings and render the description of them more intelligible, |