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 XIV.— TRINITY COLLEGE.

URSORY inspection of the small middle quadrangle of Trinity College (legally designated "The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford of the Foundation of Sir Thomas Pope, Knight") will show the visitor that one side at least of the square is of earlier date than the middle of the 16th century. In fact the eastern range, together with the lower parts of the buildings adjoining the hall, originally formed part of a house for the accommodation of monks and novices from Durham Abbey sent to study at Oxford in accordance with the regulations of the Constitutions of Pope Benedict XII., which provided that all Benedictine Convents should maintain at some ' studium generale ' at least five per cent, of their members. The Durham monks had acquired a site in the suburbs (viz., the present precincts of Trinity except about half the front quadrangle, together with the back quadrangle and about half the garden of St. John's), in the time of Prior Hugh de Darlington, and the next Prior, Richard de Hoton (see 'Diet. Nat. Biogr.'), an energetic and quarrelsome man, commenced the buildings, the Convent presumably findingthemoney. The establishment was worked as a cell of Durham, though Bishop- Richard de Bury nearly succeeded in obtaining for it a separate endow ment, his pupil Edward III. being at one time willing to appropriate to the purpose the rich rectory of Symond- burne as a thank-offering for his victory at Halidon Hill. But the Bishop was unsuccessful, and could only leave the College the famous collection of books, to amass which he seems to have considerably impoverished himself. Some at least of these books were brought to Oxford, and eventually deposited in a handsome room which was built (or rebuilt) in 1417 ; at the Reformation the Aungerville Library and the additions to it were destroyed or dispersed, but the room was re-fitted in 1618, and contains a collection commenced by Sir Thomas Pope and his friends, augmented and endowed by the Rev. Richard Rands, and almost doubled by the bequest of the library ot President Ingram, who died in 1850. There is also some ancient glass, repaired in 1774 and 1878, that in the south window dating from 1436. The old bursary and the buttery with its arched entrances are the oldest remains of Durham College.

The separate endowment of the Oxford house was bequeathed by the eminent statesman and architect, Bishop Thomas Hatfield, who died in 1381. His acting executor, a monk connected with Lord Mayor William Walworth, purchased and obtained the appropriation of 4 rectories in York and Lincoln dioceses, and the Convent bound themselves to provide for any depreciation in the income. The new foundation of a warden and seven fellows (monks) and eight boys or scholars (secular students in grammar and philosophy) was placed in possession of its revenues in 1389, and the bursarial rolls, which were forwarded to Durham and of which a large boxfull is still preserved there, give many details of its history. A chapel was erected in 1408-10, an outer gate in 1406, the Library in 1417, and the rest of the east range, till recently the President's lodgings, about the same time. A ' perloquitorium' is mentioned in 1428 ; and the whole style of the buildings, allowances, etc., shows liberality. The revenues however fluctuated and finally sank, in spite of an augmentation by the Convent The position of the College was respectable, though not brilliant, and the wardenship was frequently a stepping-stone to the Priorate of the Abbey itself.

In 1540 Durham College was included in the surrender of the Abbey by Prior Hugh Whitehead, who became Dean ; but it seems that the .last warden, George Clyffe, received and administered a year's revenue in 1541-2. The Survey mentions a single quadrangle, with lodge, entry, chapel, hall, and offices, warden's lodgings, rooms, and a grove containing over 3000 trees, the northern half of which having been let to St. Bernard College (Cistersians; at a nominal rent, was included in a grant of the precincts of that house.

The buildings having remained empty sufficiently long to fall into considerable disrepair, were sold by Dr. George Owen, the grantee, to Sir Thomas Pope, who was then looking for a site on which to found, out of the immense wealth he had acquired as Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, an institution for

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