Erasmus, who was probably advised to go there by Bishop Fisher. There
are certain of his letters extant which he dates from Queens', and it
is interesting to find that he wrote in a querulous fashion of the bad
wine and beer he had to drink when his friend Ammonius failed to send
him his usual cask of the best Greek wine. He also complained of being
beset by thieves, and being shut up because of plague, but it need not
be thought from this that Cambridge was much worse than other places.

Of all the colleges in the University Queens' belongs most completely
to other days. Its picturesque red brick entrance tower is the best of
this type of gateway, which is such a distinctive feature of
Cambridge, and the first court is similar to St. John's, with which
Bishop Fisher was so closely connected as Lady Margaret Beaufort's
executor. In the inner court, whose west front makes a charming
picture from the river, is the President's Lodge occupying the north
side. Its oriel windows and rough cast walls of quite jovial contours
overhanging the dark cloisters beneath strike a different note to
anything else in Cambridge. Restoration has altered the appearance of
the hall since its early days, but it is an interesting building, with
some notable portraits and good stained glass. The court, named after
Erasmus, at the south-west angle of the college was, it is much to be
regretted, rebuilt by Essex in the latter part of the eighteenth
century; but for this the view of the river front from the curiously
constructed footbridge would have been far finer than it is. Like the
sundial in the first court, this bridge, leading to soft meadows
beneath the shade of great trees, is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton.

ST. CATHERINE'S.--This college was founded in 1473 by Robert Woodlark,
Chancellor of the University, and dedicated to "the glorious Virgin
Martyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria." Undergraduate slang, alas!