Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/160

Rh OXFORD. H8 OXFORD. especially those of the Italian school-^-and some good busts. This gallery is well worthy of inspection, and a catalogue of its treasures can be procured from the college porter. On the staircase, leading to the upper room, which is 142 feet long by 30 broad, and 37 high, is a marble statue of Locke, by_ Roubillac ; and in the room itself is a very fine collection of rare books, 1ISS., and coins, bequeathed by Archbishop Wake, Canon Barton, Dr. Brown, Regius Professor of Hebrew, in 1780, and others; and some paintings and marble and bronze busts and figures. On turning to the right from the Library, and adjoining Peckwater on the E., is Canterbury Quad- rangle and Gate, which were built in 1773. Canter- terbury Hall, which stood here, was founded by Arch- bishop Islip in 1363, as a nursery for the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury; but Henry VIII. trans- ferred it to the college, and it is now devoted to the occupation of the undergraduate noblemen of the college. The way to Christ Church meadows and walks lies through the cloisters from the Chapter House. The Broadwalk is quite straight, a quarter of a mile in length, proportionately wide, and planted on each side with elms, which entirely over-arch it and form an arcade ; while another walk which meets it at each end describes a circuit, and forms one of the banks of the Isis and Chorwell. There is also a path on the opposite side of the latter river, and ferry-boats are in attendance to convoy passengers across. TRINITY COLLEGE was founded by Sir Thomas Pope in 1654. Its original foundation, however, dates as far back as the time of Edward III., from whom it received an endowment, as it did subsequently from Richard II. and the priors of Durham, from whom it received the name of Durham College. Being, however, suppressed at the Reforma- tion, in consequence of its connection with the Benedic- tines, it received a new set of statutes, and was dedicated by Sir Thomas Pope to the " Holy and Undivided Trinity." It was erected on the ruins of Durham College, and some of the old buildings still remain. The college has before it a spacious grass-plot, sepa- rated from Broad Street by a lofty iron palisading, with a gate in the centre. The entrance tower lies gome distance from the street, and is approached by a gravel walk, leading by the grass-plot past one end of Balliol College Chapel. The first quadrangle has the President's house and the library on the E ; the hall and the common room on the W. ; and the chapel on the S. The second quadrangle was designed by Sir C. Wren, and opens to the college gardens on the E. side. The chapel has a cedar screen and altar-piece, carved by Grinling Gibbons ; and on the ceiling is an Ascension, painted by a French artist. The hall has several portraits of benefactors ; and the library, which is the oldest part of the college, contains some fine ancient stained glass in the windows, and a valuable collection of books and MSS. The gardens occupy an area of 4 acres, and are well laid out with trees and shrubs. At the lower end of the centre walk is an iron gate opening on to the road, which leads to the "Parks" nearly opposite to the entrance to Wad- ham College. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE was foundediu 1555 by Sir Thomas White, Knt., Aldennan of London, by whom a provision was made for the maintenance of an organist, 6 singing men, and 8 choristers, so that choral service is performed in the chapel. The original founda- tion was that of Bishop Chichele, by whom the college was made over in 1436 to the monks of St. Bernard, and hence was called St. Bernard's College. At the sup- pression it was dissolved in precisely the same manner and for the same cause as Trinity was, and consigned by Henry VIII. to his new foundation of Christ Church, from which society it was purchased by Sir T. White, and dedicated by him to St. John the Baptist. The tower gateway, which forms the entrance and the front- age, as well as many parts of the interior of the college, belong to Chichele' s period ; and the statue of St. Bernard still stands in its original niche. There are two quad- rangles, in the first of which stand the hall, chapel, common rooms, d part of the president's house, and in the second, which was built by Inigo Jones, at the expense of Archbishop Laud, is the library. The Hall, which was once the refectory of the monks of St. Bernard, is a well-proportioned room, with an arched roof, a screen of Portland stone, a chimney-piece of variegated marble, and somo good portraits. The chapel adjoins the hall, and has somo good tracery work especially in the E. window ; an open roof of carved oak, and some Caen stone-carving in the panelling at the back of the stalls, the corbels which support the roof and the canopy over the communion-table. The organ is in the inner, or mortuary chapel, which is entered by two arches, and contains several monu- ments to the memory of former presidents of the college. The remains of Archbishop Laud lie in a stone coffin at the E. end of the chapel, and in the ante-chapel are several ancient brasses of persons who are buried there. The library consists of two rooms, each above 100 feet long, and containing several valuable books and MSS. There are also some good portraits some by celebrated masters and a curious picture of Charles I., with the whole Book of Psalms written in the lines of the face and the hair. There is also a piece of tapestry hero representing Jesus with the disciples at Einmaus, copied from a picture by Titian, and removed from the chapel, where it was once the altar-piece. In the inner library is Laud's crozier, and some other curiosities. On the E. and W. sides of the inner quadrangle are two light colonnades in the Grecian style of architecture, having over the columns busts representing the virtues. From this quadrangle a passage with a fan-tracery ceiling leads into the gardens or groves, as they are sometimes called. These ornamental grounds occupy- ing an area of about 5 acres, abound with horse-chest- nut and other large trees, and are the most extensive and tastefully-laid-out gardens in the University. JESUS COLLEGE (or " the Welsh College," as it is sometimes styled from the fact of a great proportion of its members belonging to the Principality) was founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1571, on the petition of Dr. Hugh Price, treasurer of St. David's. In 1621 Sir Eubule Thelwall procured a new charter and statutes, and Sir Leoliue Jenkins, who was president from 1661 to 1673, and afterwards SI. P. for the University, bequeathed lands and other property to the society, of such value that he was regarded almost as a second founder, and was buried in 1685 with great pomp in the college chapel, near the steps leading to the communion-table. The chapel is oak-wainscoted, and divided into three com- partments by a screen and arch leading into a kind of chancel corresponding with the ante-chapel. The altar- piece is a copy of " St. Michael overcoming the Devil," by Guido, in the Capuchin convent at Rome, and mea- sures 10 feet by 7. The library was built in 1677, and contains several rare books and MSS., among which is a valuable collection relating to Wales. The inner quad- rangle is 90 feet by 70, and contains the bursary (in which is some valuable college plate, and a curious early picture of Queen Elizabeth) the fellows' common room, &c. ; and there are two dial-plates, one of which looks into each of the two quadrangles. WADHAM COLLEGE was founded in 1613 by Nicholas Wadham, of Merifield, in Somersetshire, and Dorothy his wife. The entrance is through a towered gateway, with a groined roof, into a quadrangle 130 feet square, and having the hall, chapel, and library directly opposite to it. The chapel has a Gothic ceiling, somo good stained-glass windows, a richly-carved screen, and a brass eagle lectern. It is paved with marble. The E. window was painted by Bernard Van Lingo in 1621, and represents various sculptural emblems typical of Christ in the upper com- partments, while in the lower are portrayed the principal events of his life, the windows to the right and left containing figures of the Twelve Apostles. In the ante- chapel are some specimens of modern painted glass, and the monuments are numerous. The hall is 82 feet long by 35 broad, and 37 in height. It has an oak screen, a timber roof, an oriel window with some stained glass, and its walls are adorned with numerous portraits of