Working on the last few posts documenting our travels in Cambridge, England. Thursday the 12th of March we walked our feet off in between stops along the way. I booked a last minute morning tour of Trinity College for 10am to start off the sight seeing part of our day.
Our guide was a retired Porter of the college and he entertained us well.
King Henry VIII founded the College in 1546 as one of the very last acts of his life.
The open window is that of Isaac Newton’s Room while he attended Trinity.
The story of Isaac Newton and the falling apple is the famous legend behind his 1687 discovery of universal gravitation. While he wasn’t hit on the head as popular culture suggests, watching an apple fall prompted him to wonder why objects always fall straight to the ground, leading to his breakthrough. Above you’ll see the apple tree planted outside his room. Our guide said that this tree was grafted from the actual tree that led Newton to ponder the theory of gravity.
The College’s Great Court is famously the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe.
The Renaissance-style fountain in the center of Trinity College’s Great Court was first erected in 1602 and rebuilt in its original design in 1715. Historically supplied by a Franciscan monk conduit built in 1325, the landmark is famous for acting as a washing area for early students.
Overall, this chapel seemed to me, more a tribute to man than God.
The famous oil painting located behind the altar in the Trinity College Chapel at the University of Cambridge is St Michael binding Satan, painted in 1768 by the prominent Anglo-American artist Benjamin West.
King Charles III studied at Trinity from 1967-1970 and became the first heir apparent to earn a university degree when he graduated in 1970. Trinity College, Cambridge, has produced about 34 Nobel laureates, the highest number of any Oxford or Cambridge college.
Trinity was the academic home to Sir Isaac Newton, who lived and worked there for decades, as well as legendary figures like Francis Bacon, Bertrand Russell, and Tennyson.
One of my favorites from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, King Arthur, on his deathbed voices to his friend some profound thoughts on prayer;
” Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”
I’ve come to learn that Trinity had a scholar that I would most be honored to know, Thomas Bilney.
Thomas Bilney first found forgiveness through a translation of the Bible done by Erasmus. As Thomas grew in faith, he studied the writings of William Tyndale, and Thomas spoke out every chance he got—He preached that every man had a right to read the Scriptures in his own language. In 1531, Thomas was burned at the stake.
Thomas Bilney: the forgotten hero of the English Reformation.
Thomas Bilney: The Flame Shall Not Kindle Upon Thee
I learn as much as I can before we travel to a new part of the world. It is more of a general overview with thoughts about what we should see and do. Once we visit the sights and we come home, I learn even more while working on our Travel Journal.
There is always more to learn about any given college or historical site but this is all I’m sharing today. I was happy to have had this tour to start out our day of this and that in Cambridge.
Thank you for traveling along with us as I journal our traveling days.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
Luke 1:47
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
From Cheryl:
And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. (Jonah 3:4, 5)