Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
The chapel, 130 feet long by 30 feet wide, says the London _Graphic_ for
July 10, 1886, "is a singularly elaborate building in the Renaissance
style.... In its decoration a strong tendency to the Italian school of
the latter part of the sixteenth century is apparent. This is especially
the case with the roof, which bears a kind of resemblance to that of the
Sistine Chapel at Rome, though it cannot in any way be said to be a copy
of that magnificent work.... The choir, or nave, is seated with oak
benches arranged stall-ways, as is usual in the college chapels of
Oxford and Cambridge.... The roof is formed of an elliptic barrel-vault,
the lower portions of which are adorned with statues and candelabra in
high relief, and the upper portion by painted enrichments. The former
are a very remarkable series of works by the Italian sculpture Fucigna,
who had learned his art in the studios of Tenerani and Rauch at Rome.
These were his last works, and he did not live to complete them. The
figures represent the prophets and other personages from the Old
Testament on the left side, and apostles, evangelists, and saints from
the New Testament on the right. The baldachino is constructed of walnut
and oak, richly carved; and the organ front, at the opposite end of the
chapel, is a beautiful example of wood-carving."
The building and furnishing of the college cost £600,000, the endowment
£300,000, the pictures £100,000, making in all about one million
sterling, or five million dollars. The deed of foundation states that
"the college is founded by the advice and counsel of the founder's dear
wife." When Mrs. Holloway was toiling with her husband over the shop in
the Strand, with no recreation during the week except a walk, as he
said, in that crowded thoroughfare, how little she could have realized
that this beautiful monument would be built to her memory!
Mr. Holloway did not live to see his college completed; as he died,
after a brief illness of bronchitis, at Tittenhurst, Wednesday, Dec. 26,
1883, aged eighty-three, and was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard,
Sunninghill, Jan. 4, 1884.
Mr. Martin Holloway faithfully carried out his relative's wishes; and
when the college was ready for occupancy, it was opened by Queen
Victoria in person, on Wednesday, June 30, 1886. The day was fine; and
Egham was gayly decorated for the event with flowers, banners, and
arches. The Queen, with Princess Beatrice and her husband, the late
Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Duke of Connaught, and other members of
the royal family, drove over from Windsor through Frogmore, where Prince
Albert is buried, and Runnymede to Egham, in open carriages, each
carriage drawn by four gray horses ridden by postilions. Outriders in
scarlet preceded the procession, which was accompanied by an escort of
Life Guards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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