What a grand succession of men it was!
Five colleges had been founded at Oxford before a second arose at
Cambridge. After that they followed in rapid succession, and the
reign of Edward the Third had not come to an end when no fewer than
seven colleges had been opened at Cambridge. Five of them have
survived to our own days, and two were eventually absorbed by the
larger foundation which Henry the Seventh was ambitious of raising,
and which now stands forth in its grandeur, the most magnificent
educational corporation in the world.
* * * * * * *
Where did all the money come from, not only to raise the original
buildings in which the _University_, as a teaching body, pursued
its work, but which also provided the _houses_ in which the
_colleges_ of scholars lived and laboured?
Unhappily, we know very little of the University buildings during
this early period. All the industry of Mr. Clark has not availed to
penetrate the thick obscurity; but this at least is pretty certain,
namely, that the earliest University buildings at Cambridge were very
humble structures clustering round about the area now covered by the
University schools and library, that it was not till the middle of
the fourteenth century that any attempt was made to erect a building
of any pretension, and that the "Schools Quadrangle was not completed
till 130 years after the first stone was laid.
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