All these traditions are now concentrated in the one college, and, as
has been said, the buildings have been greatly extended to meet the
needs of the new foundation. When Hertford College is completed
according to the plans already drawn by Sir Thomas Jackson, it will
reach from All Souls' to Holywell. This last northern part of its
front has been delayed by the European War.
The new--or, rather, the revived--college has, as yet, hardly had
time to make Oxford history, but the influence of its second
Principal. Dr. Boyd, whose long reign, happily not yet over, began in
1877, has had the result of finding for Oxford new benefactors in one
of the wealthiest of the London City Companies; the Drapers'
magnificent gifts of the new Science Library and of the Electrical
Laboratory are good instances to show that the days of the "pious
founder" are not yet over.
[Plate XXIV. Hertford College : The Bridge]
ST. EDMUND HALL
"Or wander down an ancient street
Where mingling ages quaintly meet,
Tower and battlement, dome and gable
Mellowed by time to a picture sweet."
A. G. BUTLER.
The group of buildings, shown in Plate XXV, is not only picturesque--
it also illustrates Oxford history from more than one point of view.
The apse of the Chapel of Queen's on the left belongs to a building
already spoken of, which is the most perfect example of a small
basilican church in Oxford. The church tower in the centre, though
itself dating from the fourteenth century, is the most modern part of
one of the oldest churches in Oxford, St. Peter in the East. The
crypt and the chancel of this church go back to the time of the
Conquest, and are probably the work of Robert d'Oili, to whom William
the Conqueror gave the city of Oxford; he was first an oppressor and
then a benefactor; in the former character, he built the castle keep,
still standing near the station; in the latter, he was the builder,
besides St. Peter, of the churches of St. Michael and of the Holy
Cross; parts of his work survive in all three.
The churchyard, at all events, of St. Peter in the East, deserves a
visit, lying as it does between the beautiful garden of New College
and the picturesque buildings of St. Edmund Hall.
Before this last foundation is spoken of, a word must be said as to
the road round which these three buildings are grouped--Queen's Lane.
It survives, almost unaltered, from Pre-Reformation Oxford, and,
winding as it does its narrow way between high walls, it is an
interesting specimen of the "lanes" which threaded mediaeval Oxford,
a city in which the High Street and, to a smaller extent, Cornmarket
Street were the only real thoroughfares; the rest of the city was a
network of narrow ways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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