THE ELIZABETHAN COLLEGE.
For this interesting section as to the Elizabethan College, the writer is indebted to the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, D.D., S.F.T.C.D.:—
For a long period it was impossible to form an accurate idea of the size and arrangements of the buildings of the original College. The very foundations have long since been obliterated. Speed’s map gives a rough idea of its site and general shape; and Rocque’s map, which was constructed in 1751, before the structure was removed, shows its position with regard to the present Library and some of the portions of the College which remain. Dunton’s Life and Errors gives a description of the buildings as they stood one hundred years after their erection, yet his details are in some respects misleading.
In the present year, a paper in the handwriting of Sir William Temple, Provost in 1523, has been found, giving the distribution of the chambers in the College among the Fellows and students in that year, and which, with the aid of the preceding authorities and letters of the period, enables us to form a fairly accurate conception of the buildings as they existed in the time of James the First.
FROM ROCQUE’S MAP OF DUBLIN, 1750.
The College was a quadrangle, the eastern and western sides being longer than those on the north and south. The approach was through a tower which lay on the north side, and which was the “steeple” of the old Monastery, having the porter’s lodge on the ground floor, and a chamber over it. In the second story was placed the College bell. The remainder of the north side was occupied by the Chapel and the Hall; the Chapel lay towards the east, and the Hall towards the west, of the entrance. There appears to have been an attic over one of these buildings, which contained four “studies” for undergraduates. The Regent House seems to have been located between the Chapel and the Hall, for candidates for degrees passed through the Hall into the Regent House, and a gallery in the Regent House looked into the Chapel. The Hall was paved with tiles, had a lantern in the roof, and had a gallery, probably communicating with the room over the porter’s lodge. On the south side of the quadrangle, which lay between the present Library and the centre of the present Examination Hall, there were four houses; the ground floors of these houses were occupied by students’ rooms, there being ten “studies” occupied by fourteen students. The house on the east of the south side had no other chambers occupied, and the first and second stories probably contained the library, which we may learn from the College accounts of the period had a gallery and a lower story which was fitted up with ten “pews” for readers. The next house had two students resident on the ground floor, and two Fellows on the first floor. The third house had three “studies” on the ground floor, but the first and second stories were not occupied by students or by Fellows. Possibly it was in this house that Ussher’s books were afterwards placed. The fourth house had two “studies” on the ground floor, and a Fellow and a student occupied the first floor.
On the east side of the quadrangle there were six houses, each having “studies” for three students on the ground floor. In the first of these houses the remaining floors were unoccupied. In the second, three students occupied the attic. Chambers were there assigned also to one Fellow, one Master of Arts, and to the Professor of Divinity. In the third house there were three “studies” on the ground floor, but the remaining floors were not assigned for chambers. In the fourth house there were three “studies” on the ground floor—two Fellows and two Masters of Arts occupied the first floor, and a Master of Arts the attic. The fifth house had three “studies” on the ground floor—three Fellows and one student had chambers on the first floor, and five students resided in the attic story. The sixth house had three “studies” on the ground floor, and three graduates resided over them.
On the west side there were three houses, with three “studies” on the ground floor of each. The first house had no occupied chambers over the ground floor. In the second house one Fellow and two Masters of Arts had chambers on the first floor; one Master of Arts and two students resided in the attic. The first floor of the third house on this side was occupied by two Fellows and by one Master of Arts, and the attic by two students, apparently brothers. The remainder of the west side was possibly occupied by the Provost’s chambers.
There was no approach to the interior of the College from Hoggen Green, nor did the ground on the west side of the College at that time belong to it. We find in 1639 a letter from Provost Bedell to Ussher giving an account of a riot among the students, which arose from an attempt of one Arthur to make an enclosure on that side of the College on land which he had leased from the City of Dublin. A petition was forwarded from the College to the Council complaining of Arthur’s proceeding to erect a building on that side of the College, by which a passage would be taken away where there was in former times a gate or way leading into the site upon which the College was built, which, although at that time closed, was intended to be opened again by the College. It ended in the College acquiring Arthur’s interest in the plot, and so preserving a right of way.