England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
William of Wykeham founded the New College, or the College of St. Mary
Winton, in 1380. It has a noble entrance, and in a niche above the
gateway is the Virgin, to whom an angel and the founder are addressing
themselves in prayer. The chapel has a massive detached bell-tower, and
in its windows are some fine stained glass, while the silver staff of
William of Wykeham is still preserved there. The cloisters are extensive
and picturesque, the ribbed roof resembling the bottom of a boat, while
the restored hall has a fine oaken roof. The New College gardens are
enclosed on three sides by the ancient walls of the city, which are well
preserved, and the enclosure is one of the most beautiful in Oxford.
Through a door in a corner of the gardens there is a passageway opening
out of one of the bastions of the old walls into a strip of ground
called the "Slype," where a fine view is had of the bastions, with the
college bell-tower and chapel behind them. In making a recent addition
to the buildings of this college on the edge of the "Slype," the workmen
in digging for the foundations discovered the remains of a mammoth.
[Illustration: NEW COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: THE RADCLIFFE LIBRARY, FROM THE QUADRANGLE OF BRASENOSE.]
New College Lane leads to Radcliffe Square, in the centre of which is
located the handsome Radcliffe Library, with colleges, churches, and
schools all around the square. Dr. Radcliffe, who was the
court-physician of King William III. and Queen Anne, founded this
library, which is in a handsome rotunda surmounted by a dome on an
octagonal base. The structure, which is one hundred feet in diameter,
rises to a height of one hundred and forty feet, and from the top there
is a fine view of the city. To the northward, at a short distance, are
the Schools, a quadrangular building, now chiefly occupied by the famous
Bodleian Library. From Radcliffe Square the entrance is through a
vaulted passage, the central gate-tower being a remarkable example of
the combination of the five orders of architecture piled one above the
other. In this building, on the lower floor, the public examinations of
the candidates for degrees are held, while above is the library which
Sir Thomas Bodley founded in the sixteenth century, and which contains
three hundred thousand volumes, including many ancient and highly-prized
works in print and manuscript.
[Illustration: DINING-HALL, EXETER COLLEGE.]
[Illustration: TRINITY COLLEGE CHAPEL.]
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