McGill University

McGill University's Montreal campus traces back to an 1813 bequest from James McGill, ten thousand pounds and a country house on Mount Royal that would vanish unless a real college opened within a decade. This guide follows the legal fight that nearly killed it, as his wife's nephew Francis Desrivieres argued in court that a Protestant college had no business claiming a French Catholic city's future. Stand at the gates on Sherbrooke Street and look up at the Arts Building rising behind them as you listen.