much on the lines of a theatre, with a pulpit in the centre, which went by the name of the Cockpit, that the service was cut as short as “him that is sent thither to read it” thought fit, and that during sermon-time the chancel was filled with boys and townsmen “all in a rude heap between the doctors and the altar.”  But this concentration on the University sermon and disrespect for the altar went further, for, with the legacy of Mr. William Worts, the existing galleries were put up in 1735, the Cockpit was altered, and other changes made which Mr. A.H.  Thompson has vividly described: 

... the centre of the church was filled with an immense octagonal pulpit on the “three-decker” principle, the crowning glory and apex of which was approached, like a church-tower, by an internal staircase.  About 1740 Burrough filled the chancel-arch and chancel with a permanent gallery, which commanded a thorough view of this object.  The gallery, known as the “Throne,” was an extraordinary and unique erection.  The royal family of Versailles never worshipped more comfortably than did the Vice-Chancellor and heads of houses, in their beautiful armchairs, and the doctors sitting on the tiers of seats behind them.  In this worship of the pulpit, the altar was quite disregarded....  The church thus became an oblong box, with the organ at the end, the Throne at the other, and the pulpit between them.

Of all this nothing remains besides the organ and the side galleries, and of the splendid screen, built in 1640 to replace its still finer predecessor, swept away by Archbishop Parker nearly a century before, only that portion running across the north chapel remains.

Until the Senate House was built, the commencements were held in the church, but thereafter it would appear that the sermon flourished almost to the exclusion of anything else.

The diminutive little church of St. Peter near the Castle mound is of Transitional Norman date, and has Roman bricks built into its walls.

     O fairest of all fair places,
       Sweetest of all sweet towns! 
     With the birds and the greyness and greenness,
       And the men in caps and gowns.

     All they that dwell within thee,
       To leave are ever loth,
     For one man gets friends, and another
       Gets honour, and one gets both.

Amy Levy:  A Farewell.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER.

[Illustration:  Plan of Cambridge.  By permission, from A Concise Guide to the Town and University of Cambridge (J.  Willis Clark), published by Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge.]

INDEX

Akeman Street, 8
Alcock, Bishop, 46, 47
Ashton, Hugh, Archdeacon of York, 18
Audley of Walden, Thomas Baron, 48