The architectural history of the University of Cambridge, and of the colleges of Cambridge and Eton . the experi-mental essays of his predecessors, purchases a site, and in sixyears finishes his buildings at Oxford, as well as his preparatorycollege at Winchester. The two were built between 1379 and1393, at the beginning of the reign of King Richard the Second,a few years after the foundation of the four Cambridge collegesjust described. Wykehams buildings served as a model for allthe large foundations which were subsequently undertaken, andit is from this period that the real history of colle
The architectural history of the University of Cambridge, and of the colleges of Cambridge and Eton . the experi-mental essays of his predecessors, purchases a site, and in sixyears finishes his buildings at Oxford, as well as his preparatorycollege at Winchester. The two were built between 1379 and1393, at the beginning of the reign of King Richard the Second,a few years after the foundation of the four Cambridge collegesjust described. Wykehams buildings served as a model for allthe large foundations which were subsequently undertaken, andit is from this period that the real history of collegiate architecturebegins. Wykeham possessed great practical knowledge ofarchitecture, for, as is well known, he began active life as Clerkof the Works in certain manors to King Edward the Third, andis said to have entered Holy Orders at the Kings command, inorder to qualify himself for the ecclesiastical preferments withwhich his master desired to reward his talents and services1. 1 Lowths Life of William of Wykeham, 8vo. Oxford, 1777. p. 17. Wood, titsupra, p. 174. I] HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 257. Fig. 4. Ground plan of New College, Oxford. VOL. III. 17 258 THE COLLEGIATE PLAN. [CHAP. His professional skill enabled him to design the structuresrequired for the college which he had devised. The number ofstudents which he proposed to accommodate was so much inexcess of that contemplated in any previous college, that amore complex organisation was needed, together with buildingsof corresponding extent, and their magnitude enabled him toproduce architectural effects notwithstanding the noble simplicityof style which he employed. In New College, for the first time,the Chapel, the Hall, the Library, the Treasury, the WardensLodgings, sufficient ranges of chambers, the cloister, and thevarious domestic offices, are provided for, and erected withoutchange of plan. One large quadrangle includes the six first andprincipal elements of collegiate architecture. This quadrangle (fig. 4), whic
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