missionary. The northern division used to serve as a Senate House before the erection of the present building. Two rooms on the ground-floor are appropriated to publications too heavy or too light for academic taste,-music, novels, and blue-books. The south side has the new room mentioned above, long and spacious, with a gallery on either side. There are many curiosities and various paintings in the library, but we must refer our readers elsewhere for details.

The basement story of the quadrangle forming the University Library is occupied by the Schools, a term of much more limited import than at Oxford. In these schools were once carried on those lectures and disputations from which the academic terms of "wranglers" and "sophs" were derived. The "senior optime” and “junior optime" are also reliques of mediæval usages. In each case there is an ellipsis of the word "disputasti," that is, the master of the school would say, "Very well argued, sir." There is little in the interior of these old schools that calls for notice. The most important of them was called the Glomery School (Schola Glomeria), but what the mystical term Glomery may originally have denoted has baffled all the acuteness and researches of the Cantabs.

In one part of the schools is kept the WOODWARDIAN or GEOLOGICAL MUSEUM. This is very perfect of its kind, forming a most noble collection of British and foreign fossils. The geology of the surrounding Fen country may here be advantageously studied. Professor Sedgwick once drew up a paper for the use "of those members of the University who begin their practical study of geology in the neighbourhood of Cambridge," and the student will derive the greatest assistance from the choice assemblage of objects in the Museum.

This Museum has been developed from a collection of English fossils, left to the University by Dr. Woodward in 1728. The last professor was Adam Sedgwick. His foreign collections

were afterwards purchased, and other collections were gathered in. Professor Sedgwick did much to popularise geology in this country, and his lectures for many years proved one of the strongest intellectual stimulants that Cambridge could offer. He also nobly distinguished himself as a defender of revealed religion. Observe also the Fletcher collection of Silurian fossils, and the Forbes Young collection, chiefly from the chalk. Close to the Geological Museum is the Mineralogical Museum, which possesses a fine series of diamonds, presented by the late Lord Alford. We should also mention the new museum and lecture-rooms, where there is a very fine collection. of birds, and which serve as reading-rooms for the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

About a mile distant is the Observatory, a very handsome modern building, conspicuous by its dome. Although Cambridge for so many years has been noted for mathematical science, yet it is only within the present century that it has possessed a proper observatory. When Sir Isaac Newton was Professor of Mathematics in the University, an observatory was erected for him on the summit of the entrance tower of Trinity, where it remained till about the end of the last century. There is also still remaining a small observatory on the tower of the third court of St. John's College. The present Observatory is situated on the Madingley Road, and is surrounded by a plantation and shubbery. It was built by public subscriptions and by a grant from the University chest. It is under the care of the Plumian Professor of Astronomy, to whose use the east wing is allotted. A yearly volume of astronomical observations is published by the Plumian Professor. In the year 1835, the late Duke of Northumberland presented to the University a magnificent telescope. For receiving and mounting it, a revolving dome, twenty-seven feet in diameter, was expressly

erected.

7

The new building of the UNION SOCIETY, next door to the Round Church, though probably of less intrinsic importance than these public structures, is one of the utmost import to the comforts of undergraduates. The Oxford Union is a congeries of buildings which have grown up about an old house, constituting a larger edifice than the Cambridge Union, and possessing in its debating-room one of the most beautiful and best-adorned rooms in Europe. The Cambridge Debating Room is, however, perhaps better adapted for its purposes, and fitted up with a greater regard to acoustic principles ; a certain proportion having been carefully observed between length, breadth, and height. The bare, unadorned expanse of wall behind the president's chair is unsightly.

Debates take place every Tuesday evening throughout term, which may be attended by any member of the University. The quality of the debates, of course, varies greatly. At one time, in the annals of the Cambridge Union, there was a singularly brilliant galaxy, when Macaulay, Praed, Bulwer Lytton, and the present Lord Chief Justice Cockburn took part in the debates. It is very interesting to refer to the old books of the Union, and observe the subjects that were brought forward by the young orators, or the sides which they took on the various political questions mooted.

It is noticeable in the case of Macaulay that when he first joined the Union he took a strong Tory side, but seems suddenly to have changed and gone over to the Whigs. Those were the palmy days of the Cambridge Union. The library, which is by no means extensive, occupies a very handsome room, as also is the room overhead, called the magazine-room. By the comity of the Universities, members of the Oxford, have the use of the Cambridge Union, and the converse.

The Cambridge Union forms, therefore, besides a debating society, a very passable club-but both the great Universities

abound with clubs, though not of the same kind or to the same extent as the foreign universities. The link of connection is some common object and connection with some public school. Members of schools and colleges have now very much the habit of having annual dinners in town during the season. There is a club at Cambridge, similar to the London clubs, called the Athenæum, which has considerable social and public interest. It has a library, takes in periodicals, and is considered a great centre for all social gatherings. Another club is called the A. D. C., and there are also various dining clubs connected with the Athenæum.

THE COLLEGES.

TRINITY COLLEGE.

MONGST the Colleges of Cambridge we must give the first place to the regal and ancient foundation of TRINITY-taking a bird's-eye view of it first, and filling up the details afterwards. On the portal of the beautiful chapter-house of York Cathedral runs the legend, "Ut rosa flos florum, sic tu es domus domorum." Such an inscription might well suit Trinity College. It is, without exception, the noblest collegiate foundation in Christendom. Christ Church, Oxford, perhaps comes next to it, but, on the whole, Christ Church is left behind. Its famous quadrangle does not equal the great court of Trinity. There are more than five hundred graduates at Trinity, nearly a third of the total number in the University. To attend in term-time the full service in the college chapel, to see the largest band of English youth that so assemble anywhere, representing, as they do, so much of the hope, promise, and culture of the country, is a spectacle not soon forgotten, and is in truth deeply affecting and suggestive.

After the service, let us stand back for a space in the antechapel. Behind us is the keen, noble face of Sir Isaac Newton as represented in Roubillac's famous statue. The plaster cast which was taken after death for the sculptor's use is preserved in the library. How laconically sublime is the inscription from Lucretius,