ugh this site ran a lane from St. John's Street to the river. An Act
of Parliament had to be obtained before this lane could be closed, and
the consent of the borough was only given on condition that St. John's
Street should be widened by pulling down a row of houses on its western
side, and throwing their site into the street.

The foundation-stone of the new Chapel was laid on 6th May 1864 by Mr.
Henry Hoare, a member of the College, and of the well-known banking
firm. As originally designed the Chapel was to have had a slender
_fleche_ instead of a tower. This had been criticised, and Mr. Scott,
the architect, designed the present tower; the additional cost being
estimated at L5000. This Mr. Hoare offered to provide in yearly
instalments of L1000, but had only paid two instalments when he died
from injuries received in a railway accident. The finial on the last
pinnacle of the tower was fixed on 13th December 1867 by Mr. (now Sir
Francis) Powell, M.P. for the borough of Cambridge, and a former Fellow
of the College; Mr. Powell was accompanied on that occasion by Professor
John Couch Adams and the Rev. G. F. Reyner, the Senior Bursar of the
College.

The new Chapel was, as we have said, opened in 1869, and the old Chapel
then cleared away. The woodwork of the stalls had been transferred to
the new Chapel, but most of the internal fittings were scattered. The
ancient rood-screen stands in the church of Whissendine, in
Rutlandshire, and the old organ-case in Bilton Church, near Rugby, and
other parts of the fabric were dispersed; it was perhaps inevitable. Sir
Gilbert Scott's idea was that the new Chapel should be of the same
period of architecture as the old, but it is absolutely different in
design; in the lover of things old there must always be a feeling of
regret for what has gone. The mural tablets in the old Chapel were
removed to the new Ante-Chapel, the slabs in the floor were left. It is
worth noting that Eleazar Knox, a Fellow of the College, and one of the
sons of John Knox, the famous Scotch Reformer, was buried in the Chapel
in 1591. His elder brother, Nathanael Knox, was also a Fellow. To the
north of the old Chapel, and bordering on the lane which has been
mentioned, stood the Infirmary of the Hospital which preceded the
College. This was originally a single long room, of which the eastern
end formed an oratory. In this the poor and sick, for whose benefit the
Hospital was founded, were received, and Ma