Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/126

 Librarian!). His fiscal work became so important that he was relieved of his duties as purveyor, thus losing his original function entirely. When the sadly diminished Butler was finally snuffed out, his position became more onerous than ever. All through the nineteenth century he remained one of the most responsible officers of administration, and in 1874 his title was changed to Bursar.

The hall was the architectural masterpiece and central feature of the building. President Dunster complained that the original building committee, “when they had finished the Hall (yet without screen, table, form, or bench), went for England, leaving the work in the carpenters’ and masons’ hands without guide or further director, no floor besides in and above the hall laid, no inside separating wall made, nor any one study erected throughout the house. Thus fell the work upon me, Oct. 3, 1641.” A year later he had so far completed the dining arrangements that “the students, dispersed in the town and miserably distracted in their times of concourse, came into commons into one house, September, 1642.” Thereupon the poor President, already acting as instructor and as architect, found “a third burden upon my shoulders—to be their steward, and to direct their brewer, baker, butler, cook, how to portion their commons, a work then acceptable to all sides, easing as well