The position of ‘Great St. Mary's’ and the rank it holds among the buildings of the place, together with its character as the University Church, are amply sufficient to draw attention and excite enquiry.

The present edifice has succeeded to more than one bearing the same name and occupying the same ground. This church was begun A. D. 1478; and finished A. D. 1519. The first stone of the West Tower was laid in 1491; but the Tower itself remained a long time unfinished. Up to that date the whole cost had amounted to £795., a sum contributed by Members of the University exclusively. When Caius wrote in 1573, the work was incomplete in consequence of the low state of the University finances: the want of some generous benefactor to supply the defect is feelingly deplored by the Historian. In 1576, however, as if roused by this appeal, a subscription was commenced, by which a sum of £107. 10s. was raised. Still some years elapsed before the whole work was accomplished. Had the fabric eventually come forth from the hand of the architect vast and regular and stately, like the Temple that crowned the brow of Moriah, there had been some excuse for the delay. The Temple of Solomon was raised in thirteen years: the Temple of Herod in forty and six.