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" She walks in beauty, like the night ,Of cloudless climes and starry skies;" Lord Byron.
"Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred." Lord Tennyson.
"I Wander'd lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils"; William Wordsworth.
My "Palgrave's Golden Treasury" came cascading down my memory lane, as I entered the hallowed grounds of Cambridge and its famous Colleges. Were any of these poems written here by these great poets? They studied here at Cambridge, the first two at Trinity and Wordsworth at St. John's College.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi , S. Chandrasekhar, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Amartya Sen, were alumnis of Trinity. Amongst other well known names from Trinity are Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Byron, Bertrand Russell.

Dr. Manmohan Singh and Vikram Sarabhai were from St. John's College, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma was from Fitzwilliam College. Stephen Hawking, Salman Rushdie, Keynes, Darwin, Oliver Cromwell, Emma Thompson, and so many others are all from other colleges of Cambridge.
Cambridge University began in 1209, when some scholars practicing archery at Oxford, accidentally killed a towns woman. They had to flee from there with their lives. Some went to Paris and some landed at Cambridge which had a number of monasteries. These fleeing scholars with the help of the Church founded the first College which was called "Peterhouse". Later on Kings helped in founding more Colleges. Today there are 31 colleges in Cambridge with about 15,000 students.

Since medieval times every student at Cambridge had a tutor and a Supervisor. The Tutor did not necessarily teach the student. He was a senior member of a student's college responsible for the overall welfare of a student, like a guardian. A tutor was called a Moral Tutor at the "Other Place". The "Other place" is traditionally what students of Cambridge refer to Oxford as. A tutor is responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of his own undergraduates, graduates, post-doctoral researchers, and staff in general.

The principal method of teaching at Cambridge colleges is the "supervision". These are weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students—usually between one and three—meet with a member of their Supervisor. Students are normally required to complete an essay or assignment in advance of the supervision, which they will discuss with the supervisor during the session, along with any concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in that week's lectures. This teaching system is unique to Cambridge and Oxford (where “supervisions” are known as “tutorials)

In medieval times lectures were held in the morning and the afternoon was left free for recreation and sports. Attendance of lectures was not compulsory, but attendance of Supervision was compulsory, without which a student was not allowed to take the examination. The Examination, called "Tripos" leads to a B.A. honour's degree. Tripos was originally a three legged stool on which the examiner sat and the student had to defend his proposition in an oral debate. Another unique tradition here is that a MA degree is awarded on request, it is conferred by right on holders of the BA degree of the University, and on certain other senior members, and is not available as a postgraduate qualification

In medieval times, colleges were founded so that their students would pray for the souls of the founders. For that reason they were often associated with chapels or abbeys. A change in the colleges’ focus occurred in 1536 with the dissolution of monasteries at the time of Henry VIII .He ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching scholastic philosophy. In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law and towards the classics, Bible and mathematics. Churchill after visiting MIT at Boston laid emphasis on Science, and Engineering in a college which he founded here. All degrees awarded at Cambridge are Bachelor of Arts. There is no B. Sc degree here.

Amongst all the colleges at Cambridge, King’s College has the most imposing and grand building. King Henry VI founded the King's College in 1441. The Building and the Chapel at King's College are really magnificent. The windows of King's College Chapel are all very beautiful stained windows. One can simply marvel at the sheer artistry of the whole picture. There are 12 large windows on each side of the chapel, and larger windows at the east and west ends. The College Chapel is late Gothic architecture. The Chapel features the world's largest fan vault, stained glass windows, and the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by Rubens. (See picture above).Originally, the college was to be specifically for boys from Eton College which was also founded by King Henry VI. From 1865 non-Etonian undergraduates arrived to study at King's.
Another beautiful College is Trinity which was founded by King Henry VIII. It is the richest and biggest College in Cambridge. On the beautiful gate of this college is the statue of the college founder, Henry VIII, in a niche above the doorway. In his hand he holds a table leg instead of the original sword.( See Picture). This College has an enormous central courtyard. Here traditionally, first year students attempt to run round the perimeter of the Great Court(approximately 367 m), in the 43 seconds during the clock striking twelve. Students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. Trinity has a strong academic tradition, with members having won thirty-one Nobel Prizes. Sir Isaac Newton was a student and later teacher at Trinity.

Another magnificent building is that of St. John’s College, which has very huge grounds where the grass is mown only once a year, to allow the flower bulbs to grow undisturbed. These grounds are over very old burial grounds and traditionally every year the choir at the St. John's College get on top of the Church and perform their programme.

The idea of women attending the University was not welcome when the thought was raised in the 19th century. However in 1868 Cambridge's Local Examinations Board allowed women to take exams for the first time. They were taught by some teachers a little distance away from Cambridge. Only after The Girton College (1869) and Newnham (1872)colleges were formed for women that they were allowed into lectures, even that was at the discretion of the lecturer. By 1881, women were allowed to sit university examinations, and in 1921 were awarded certificates and not degrees. The Queen mother was awarded a degree in 1947 and women since then could get degrees

Cambridge has a strong tradition of sports and recreation. Rowing is a particularly popular sport at Cambridge, and there are competitions between colleges, notably the bumps race, and against Oxford, the Boat race. There are also matches against Oxford in many other sports, ranging from cricket, rugby to chess and tiddlywinks. The formalised version of the rules of football known as the"Cambridge Rules" were drawn up by Cambridge student representatives of leading public schools at Trinity in 1848.

Cambridge has a unique round Church.( Photo Above).There is an American War cemetry here,where amongst many others is also buried Joseph Kennedy, the eldest brother of JFK. The Cambridge University press is also another institution here.It is both the oldest publishing house in the world and the oldest university press.It has been producing books continuously since the first University Press book was printed in 1584.

The thought that studies have to co exist with recreation, sports and out door activities is rampant here. It is not only academics that are developed here. A student has to grow and evolve completely. There is so much emphasis given on building up knowledge as is seen by the use of the word,"defend" when giving their Tripos in the medieval times. It is said that once an examiner simply asked at the Philosophy Tripos, the question, "WHY?" Unimaginable today!!

Cambridge where walked the mightiest of men with its traditions and atmosphere of studies, knowledge and theories is a magnificent place. Here the pen was surely mightier than the sword! The very air that one breathes, remind us of all those people who lived, studied and made this place what it is today. Walking on the same roads, traversed by people who were guided, moulded and left such a huge impression on the world, by itself, was a thrilling experience. I loved my day at Cambridge, and left with the wish that someday, I would return here to attend the Graduation ceremony of some loved one from my family.