11. Clare College

So I was pretty excited about this one, for obvious, and perhaps silly, reasons.  Besides the fact that it has an awesome name (spelled the correct way!), Clare is one of my favorite colleges.  It has beautiful gardens in the back, and the college is very chill and the people there really friendly.  I'd never been in the hall until Friday night though, so I was super happy that this was the first Gates swap of the term!

Clare's the second oldest college, founded in 1338, by the Lady Elizabeth de Clare.  She was the granddaughter of Edward I and, says my book, a "wealthy woman with modern ideas."  One of these "modern ideas" apparently was to provide free housing and education for 10 poor boys (in addition to the Master and 19 Fellows).  The Clare crest has a black band around the outside with little gold tear drops.  This is a mourning band, as Lady Elizabeth had three husband and each of them died before she was 28 (on punting tours they suggest she had something to do with it and call her the "black widow" but I think that's kind of mean).

Another cool thing about Clare is that it has the oldest bridge over the Cam (not the first one built, although the first one built in the classical style, but the oldest one that survives).  Apparently, the designer, Thomas Grumbold, was paid 3 shillings (i.e., not much) for the drawings.  The bridge has 14 stone balls, and part of one of them is missing - Grumbold's revenge for poor payment.

Some famous Clare men:

Hugh Latimer (there's a portrait of him in hall): Protestant reformer burned at the stake by Mary Tudor
Charles Townshend: Chancellor of the Exchequer who imposed the taxes that sparked the American Revolution
General Lord Cornwallis: lost the battle of Yorktown, surrendering to the Americans and giving us our own country!

Some photos from Clare: