On the ground floor, in the rusticated “basement” upon which the Library stands, are the Common Rooms of the College.
The time is late afternoon in summer.
rebus and coat of arms. He has decided that the old doorway shall be the entrance to the college kitchen, lying far back in the main quadrangle, which will not only take in the site of the demolished buildings, but the neighbouring garden and a lane that could be spared. If he is unfortunate, he may have to stop when he has completed only the entrance, with the head’s lodgings vigilant above it, and a few sets of rooms adjacent on either side, already occupied. If all is well, in a few years, or perhaps at the end of the mason’s life, the shining whole is the admiration of Oxford. The bishop who is to consecrate the chapel comes informally to see it a few days beforehand, and is therefore able to restrain his wonder when he comes pompously with the chancellor and all the great names of the University. The chapel and hall face the entrance. All round are the dwelling rooms, on two storeys, if we count the long-untenanted attics. On one side alone there is twice the space of the old cottages; but the arrangement is the same—the rooms branching on the left and right from a staircase that rises from ground to attic. The library is on a first floor: on one side of it, the windows invite the earliest light,
Whan that the belle of laudes gan to rynge
And freres in the chauncel gonne synge;
on the other, they enable the late student, who cannot buy light, to read until the martins cast no shadow as they pass in June: and there they put the gorgeous Latin poets and missals, embroidered with colours like[Pg 446] the bank of a brook, and along with them the dull works of a benefactor, in that very corner where the spider loves them to-day. The fellow who loves sleep will not choose the eastward-facing, library side of the quad. But they have made it almost impossible for him to oversleep himself. For in a humbler truckle-bed a younger scholar sleeps near him. Some rooms contain three beds side by side. Leading out of this dormitory are little cupboards or studies, sometimes under lock and key, for solitary work. Most of the walls are ungarnished; a few are hung with coloured cloth or even frescoed. The furniture is simple and scanty. The hall itself has but a “green hanging of say,” a high table for the seniors, and two pairs of forms and tables on trestles for the juniors. The kitchen is more opulent, with its tall andirons, chopping-board, trivet, gridiron, spit, and great pot and chafer of brass, its pans, dishes, and platters; while in the buttery there are four barrels abroach. Now and then an old member or admirer of the society sends a group of silver vessels: the most honoured becomes the loving cup that circulates on gaudy days; and with it goes some significant toast, as the jus suum cuique at Magdalen accompanies the “Restoration cup,” on which the names of James II.’s ejected fellows are engraved. For while the college grows, and sends its just proportion of astute or learned men into the world, it flowers with customs and traditions—prayers in the chapel, festivals in the hall,—the Christmas boar’s head decorated with banners at Queen’s,—the ancestral vine at Lincoln. At dinner[Pg 448][Pg 447]
MAGDALEN COLLEGE TOWER FROM THE MEADOWS
To the left of the picture appear those noble black poplars of which Oxford is justly proud. The College tower is seen between them and another group of trees, Magdalen Bridge and the elms in the “Grove” finishing to the extreme right.