Trinity College

The Great Gate at Trinity College stands out for the statue of King Henry the Eighth tucked into a niche above the archway. He holds a chair leg instead of the traditional orb or scepter. A student prankster replaced the original royal symbol with the furniture piece sometime in the nineteenth century, and the college decided to keep it there. Henry founded the college in fifteen forty-six, but he likely never imagined his likeness would eventually preside over the entrance clutching wood from a chair.