Note 182 — Chapter II · THE COLLEGES

It has been suggested that Tudor architecture might be styled Heraldic architecture, so freely does heraldry and blazonry enter into its plan and the scheme of decoration. England’s two great specimens of the Perpendicular—King’s College chapel and Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster—are pervaded by a “gorgeous display of heraldry.” The west and south entrances of King’s are decorated with bold carvings of the badges of Henry VII.—the crowned rose and portcullis. “No person ever glanced his eye over the wonders around and above him, without being awestruck at the daring of the architect that could plan, and the builders that could erect such a structure. The whole of the lower part of the Chapel beneath the windows is divided into panels, and every panel is filled with the arms of the king who erected the building.” “The immense pendants hanging from the gorgeous roof are ornamented with the rose, the royal badge of both the king and queen at this period.” (Clark’s Introduction to Heraldry, edited by J. R. Planché, Rouge Croix.) The arms and supporters of Eton, Henry VI. and VIII., Richard II., Edward IV. and VIth, Mary and Elizabeth, appear also. The gateway towers of Christ’s and John’s afford other examples of heraldic display as the exclusive scheme of decoration—they bear the arms, supporters, and badges of their founder, the mother of Henry VII. Finally the Entrance Gateway tower of Trinity exhibits the arms of Edward III. and his six sons (William of Hatfield being represented by a blank shield); above is a statue of Henry VIII. No street—no town—in England presents anything like this “boast of heraldry” which Gray had always under his eyes in Cambridge. It is a permanent record of the two royal groups in England who preferred this university; the gateway at Trinity being the trait d’union between them.