One of the best parts of somewhere like Cambridge is that you are forever tripping over another piece of history, no matter where you are. And a lot of the time, you don’t know its importance until afterwards. Each college has its own story and history of its own. (It’s the best post-scavenger hunt this historian could wish for!) Most of the colleges have quite fantastic gates, and there is always something behind them. The Gate of Honour at Caius College is rather hidden, but still rather spectacular with some wonderful traditions.
Gonville and Caius (pronounced “Keys”) College is one of the oldest Cambridge colleges, founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville as Gonville Hall. Having fallen into disrepair by the mid-sixteenth century, John Caius re-founded the college as Gonville and Caius college. When Caius did this, he added a few more buildings known as Caius court.
What about the gate, you ask? Well, the Gate of Honour is one of the ways that you can leave the college. However, only a very select group of people are allowed to do this. Graduates may use the Gate of Honour to pass through Caius Court to the Senate Building next door to receive their degrees.
Caius designed three gates to signal the different stages of academic life, with students passing through the Gate of Humility upon matriculation at the college, and the Gate of Virtue while they are students. The Gate of Honour is the one that you really notice, though. There are six sundials on the gate itself, placed in a hexagonal shape around the top. Even on the gloomy day that I visited, the sundials really do catch your eye! (I can’t swear to it, but sundials seems to be a theme in Cambridge…)
Have you visited the Gate of Honour, Caius College? Or any other notable gates?
Cheers,
The Historian
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