The finest view of Christ Church from without is that which is obtained from St. Aidates Street, and is shewn in Mr. Matthison's first drawing. "Tom" Tower, which forms the centre of the façade, was not part of the original scheme, but was added in 1682, when Dr. John Fell was Dean. The College owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Fell for employing Wren as his architect, if for nothing else. Wolseys gate, which was no higher than the two smaller towers between which his statue stands, might easily have been spoilt by a less skilful designer, but Wren added to its beauty, and made it one of the finest structures in Oxford. The Tower is named after the great bell which it contains, brought from Osney Abbey. Every night "Tom" tolls a curfew of a hundred and one strokes at nine o'clock, and at the closing stroke all College gates are shut and all undergraduates supposed to be within their College walls. Dr. John Fell, by the way, is the Dr. Fell whom the epigrammatist disliked without being able to assign a cause. His pictures shew a forbidding countenance enough, but he deserved well of his College and the University. In addition to the Tower, he completed the front towards St. Aidates, fostered the University Press, and did his best to make examinations a reality. He planted also the elms of the Broad Walk, a beautiful avenue which custom has decreed as the regulation promenade on "Show Sunday" (in Commemoration Week); but within the last twenty years storms have made havoc of the trees, and little of the Walk's former beauty remains. The Great Quadrangle--"Tom Quad." in Oxford parlance--dwarfs by its large dimensions all the other courts of Oxford. The arches and rib-mouldings indicate the original intention of the first builders, which was to surround the Quadrangle with a cloister. As it is, though this design was never carried out, the impression conveyed is one of great splendour. Never is the appearance of "Tom Quad." more effective than at the moment when the white-robed congregation comes out of the Cathedral doors. All undergraduates of "The House" wear surplices--worn by scholars only, save here and at Keble--and the Cathedral is their Chapel. Mr. Matthison has chosen such a moment for his drawing, when the Quadrangle is in a moment flooded by the white surplices, varied here and there by the crimson hood of a Master or a Doctor's scarlet robes. On the left of the drawing appears the Cathedral spire; in the centre the Belfry Tower, a solid and handsome structure put up in Dean Liddell's day; and on the right the windows and pinnacles of the Hall. [Illustration: 0216] [Illustration: 0217]