and was succeeded by Dr. Charles Taylor, the present
Master.

Of men who have added lustre to the College roll of worthies we may
mention Sir John F. W. Herschel, the astronomer, who was Senior Wrangler
in 1813, and died in 1871, laden with all the honours which scientific
and learned bodies could bestow upon him; he lies buried in Westminster
Abbey close to the tomb of Newton. John Couch Adams, Senior Wrangler in
1843, in July 1841, while yet an undergraduate, resolved to investigate
the irregularities in the motion of the planet Uranus, with the view of
determining whether they might be attributed to an undiscovered planet.
The memorandum he made of his resolve is, as has been stated, now in
the College Library. It is a matter of history how Adams carried out his
purpose, and how through a series of unlucky accidents he did not get
the sole credit for his discovery of the planet Neptune. Adams became a
Fellow of the College in 1843, but had to vacate his fellowship in 1852
as he was not in orders. The College tried to induce a Mr. Blakeney, who
then held one of the very few fellowships tenable by a layman, to resign
his fellowship and make way for Adams; offering to pay him for the rest
of his life an income equal to that of his fellowship. Mr. Blakeney,
however, refused, and a fellowship was found for Mr. Adams at Pembroke
College, which he held till his death.

It is perhaps a delicate matter to allude to those still living, but two
may perhaps be mentioned. The Hon. Charles A. Parsons by his development
of the steam turbine has revolutionised certain departments of
engineering. Dairoku Kikuchi, the first Japanese student to come to
Cambridge, after graduating in 1877, in the same year as Mr. Parsons,
returned to Japan, and has held many offices, including that of Minister
of Education, in his native country.

We may say that the changes introduced in the nineteenth century have
restored to the College its national character, admitting to the full
privileges of a University career certain classes of students who had
been gradually excluded. During the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth, there was always a part of the nation, Protestant
or Roman Catholic, which found the entry barred to it. The establishment
of the Anglican rule in the reign of Elizabeth led to the exclusion of
Roman Catholics, and for three hundred years the doors of the University
were closed to them.

The Civil Wars, the Co