19 Jan 2007: Cambridge Tour

Cambridge city tours leave twice a day from the Tourist Information Office, and Mom and I went on the 11:30am walk. We mostly visited buildings belonging to different colleges (Trinity Hall, Trinity, King's, Gonville and Caius College, St. John's), and, even though I had covered several of these in another tour, there were new bits of history for me to learn.

The first picture shows mom next to a door within a door. Entrances to many of the older colleges are composed of doors of different sizes (three here including the large one to the right). For those persons arriving in a carriage, the largest door would accommodate them; for those on horseback, the middle door would receive them; and for those on foot, the smallest door would allow them entry but would not give access to pesky townsfolk with whom the students sometimes had run-ins.

The next picture shows a statue of Henry VIII which is placed above the Great Gate, the main entrance to Trinity College. Henry VIII is the founder of the college. In Henry's right hand should be a sceptre, but it became a tradition to replace the sceptre with some object. The authorities, tired of having to continually put the sceptre back, left a chair leg in his hand and put the sceptre in safer surroundings. The chair leg is still there.

The next photo is of St. John's Bridge of Sighs--a covered bridge which gets its moniker from the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy--over the River Cam.

The small book behind glass is Isaac Newton's list of accounts while a student at Trinity College. If you zoom in, you can see his expenditures on Stilton cheese, the White Lion (I'm guessing a pub), ink and a carriage ride.

Lastly, we have the self-portrait looking north from the Silver Street bridge.