Bishop of Rochester, who carried out her wishes, we owe the first
court, with its stately gateway of red brick and stone. It was built
between 1511 and 1520 on the site of St. John's Hospital of Black
Canons, suppressed as early as 1509.

[Illustration: THE LIBRARY WINDOW ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE FROM THE BRIDGE
OF SIGHS. From this spot beautiful views are obtained up and down the
river.]

The second court, also possessing a beautiful gate tower, was added
between 1595 and 1620, the expense being mainly borne by Mary
Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury, whose statue adorns the gateway.
Filling the space between the second court and the river comes the
third, begun in 1623, when John Williams, then Lord Keeper and Bishop
of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York, gave money for erecting
the library whose bay window, projecting into the silent waters of the
Cam, takes a high place among the architectural treasures of
Cambridge. If anyone carries a solitary date in his head after a visit
to the University it is almost sure to be 1624, the year of the
building of this library, for the figures stand out boldly above the
Gothic window just mentioned. The remaining sides of the third court
were built through the generosity of various benefactors, and then
came a long pause, for it was not until after the first quarter of the
nineteenth century had elapsed that the college was extended to the
other side of the river. This new court came into existence, together
with the delightful "Bridge of Sighs," between the years 1826 and
1831, when Thomas Rickman, an architect whose lectures and published
treatises had given him a wide reputation, was entrusted with the
work. The new buildings were not an artistic success, in spite of the
elaborate Gothic cloister, with its stupendous gateway and the