Christ's College

Grand old institution Christ's celebrated its 500th birthday in 2005 and is worth visiting if only for its gleaming Great Gate emblazoned with heraldic carving of spotty Beaufort yale (antelope-like creatures), Tudor roses and portcullis. Its founder Lady Margaret Beaufort hovers above like a guiding spirit. A stout oak door leads into First Court, which has an unusual circular lawn, magnolias and wisteria creepers.

Pressing on through the Second Court there is a gate to the fellows' garden, which contains a mulberry tree under which 17th-century poet John Milton reputedly wrote Lycidas. Naturalist Charles Darwin also studied here.