Before the erection of Gore Hall, the present library building, the books of the College were kept in Harvard Hall. In the same building, also, was the Philosophy Chamber, where the chair usually stood for the inspection of the curious. Over this domain, from the year 1793 to 1800, presided Mr. Samuel Shapleigh, the Librarian. He was a dapper little bachelor, very active and remarkably attentive to the ladies who visited the Library, especially the younger portion of them. When ushered into the room where stood the old chair, he would watch them with eager eyes, and, as soon as one, prompted by a desire of being able to say, "I have sat in the President's Chair," took this seat, rubbing his hands together, he would exclaim, in great glee, "A forfeit! a forfeit!" and demand from the fair occupant a kiss, a fee which, whether refused or not, he very seldom failed to obtain.[61] This custom, which seems now-a-days to be going out of fashion, is mentioned by Mr. William Biglow, in a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, recited in their dining-hall, August 29, 1811. Speaking of Commencement Day and its observances, he says:-- "Now young gallants allure their favorite fair To take a seat in Presidential chair; Then seize the long-accustomed fee, the bliss Of the half ravished, half free-granted kiss." The editor of Mr. Peirce's History of Harvard University publishes the following curious extracts from Horace Walpole's Private Correspondence, giving a description of some antique chairs found in England, exactly of the same construction with the College chair; a circumstance which corroborates the supposition that this also was brought from England. HORACE WALPOLE TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ. "_Strawberry Hill, August_ 20, 1761. "Dickey Bateman has picked up a whole cloister full of old chairs in Herefordshire. He bought them one by one, here and there in farm-houses, for three and sixpence and a crown apiece. They are of wood, the seats triangular, the backs, arms, and legs loaded with turnery. A thousand to one but there are plenty up and down Cheshire, too. If Mr. and Mrs. Wetenhall, as they ride or drive out, would now and then pick up such a chair, it would oblige me greatly. Take notice, no two need be of the same pattern."--_Private Correspondence of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford_, Vol. II. p. 279. HORACE WALPOLE TO THE REV. MR. COLE. "_Strawberry Hill, March_ 9, 1765.