The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
History
The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
University of Oxford -- History
We now resume the history of the College buildings. We have seen that
the Chapel was built early in the reign of King Edward the Third,
and that the hall and library buildings were added in the following
century.[70] A new Chapel was built between 1521 and 1529,[71] which
lasted until the present century. It contained a muniment-room or
treasury, “which,” says Anthony Wood, “is a kind of vestry, joyning on
the S. side of the E. end of the chappel;”[72] and there was a window
opening into it, as at Corpus, from the library.[73] With the present
Chapel in one’s mind it is hard to estimate the loss which from a
picturesque point of view the College has suffered by the destruction
of its predecessor. In modern times Oxford has ever been a prey to
architects. The rebuilding of Queen’s is an example of what happily
was not carried into effect at Magdalen and Brasenose in the last
century; but in the present, Balliol is almost peculiar in the extent
to which these depredations have run, and those who remember the line
of buildings of the Chapel and library as they looked from the Fellows’
garden say that for harmony and quiet charm they were of their kind
unsurpassed in Oxford. Among the special features of the old Chapel
were the painted windows, particularly the great east window given by
Lawrence Stubbs in 1529. The fragments of this are distributed among
the side windows of the modern Chapel, and even in their scattered
state are highly regarded by lovers of glass-painting.[74] Of the
later buildings of the College, “Cesar’s lodgings” must not pass
without notice. It had its name from Henry Caesar, afterwards Dean
of Carlisle--the brother of Sir Julius Caesar, Master of the Rolls
(1614-1636),--and stood opposite to where the “Martyrs’ Memorial” now
is. Being currently known as _Cesar_, an opposite stack of buildings
to the south of it was naturally called _Pompey_. The two were pulled
down, not before it was necessary, in the second quarter of the present
century.[75] Hammond’s lodgings, which came to the College in Queen
Elizabeth’s time, and stood on the site of the old Master’s little
garden and the present Master’s house, were occupied by the Blundell
and Periam Fellows.[76]
Before the front of the College was a close, planted with trees like
that in front of St. John’s.
“Stant Baliolenses maiore cacumine moles,
Et sua frondosis praetexunt atria ramis;
Nec tamen idcirco Trinam sprevere minorem
Aut sibi subiectam comitem sponsamve recusant--”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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