A little bit more than a week ago, I went on another Gates formal swap, this time to Jesus College. The fun was all the more increased by the endless jokes: "I'm going to Jesus tonight!"
Jesus is a gorgeous college, and is actually the college where my adviser is a fellow! Despite this to recommend it, I'd never actually been to Jesus until I went to hall there, so it was really exciting for me to get to see it for the first time.
Jesus was founded in the late fifteenth century by the Bishop of Ely (a town quite close to Cambridge). When he first visited it in 1496, it was an impoverished Benedictine nunnery dating back to the 12th century. As there were only two nuns left, he got a grant from Henry VII to suppress the nunnery and establish a college with the longest name I have every seen: "The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and the Glorious Virgin St. Radegund." Since that's way too long to say, it was always called Jesus College.
Since Alcock's (the Bishop) symbol was the cockerel, that's what's on Jesus' shield and on a lot of the buildings and decorations around the college. A statue of Alcock stands in the center of the gate house with a cockerel above him, standing on a globe.
The buildings of the old nunnery were adapted for use in the college, and therefore a few of the buildings at Jesus are some of the oldest in Cambridge. The hall above the kitchens, which was the nuns' refectory, has been continuously used for dining for over 800 years. The nuns' church became the college chapel, and is the oldest building at any of the Cambridge colleges. Throughout the years, the chapel was updated, and in the 19th century William Morris designed the nave and the tower ceilings. The south transept has a memorial to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who was burned at the stake by Mary Tudor and who had been a Jesus undergraduate. Other famous Jesus students include Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who came up in 1791 (but left before obtaining his degree).
One more fun fact: the Old Library at Jesus has an autographed copy of the first edition of the first bible printed in America. It was printing in the other Cambridge (Cambridge MA) in 1663 in Algonquin and was translated by a Jesus man, John Eliot.
My experience of Jesus was quite nice. It is a nice hall and the food was quite good. It wasn't super formal, although Jesus students do wear gowns. All in all it was a nice way to catch up with some Gates scholars I hadn't seen recently and enjoy yet another college hall!
Sadly this was the point where my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pictures except for a couple:
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