THE HALL.

In the early part of the eighteenth century, the want of a commodious and appropriate Dining Hall for the use of the members of the College began to be seriously felt. In a pamphlet of the year 1734, it is stated that attendance of the Fellows at Commons was never as good as could be wished, and that this was attributed to the uncomfortable condition of the then existing Hall, which was a large and spacious room, flagged, open to the air at both ends, never warmed by fire—“in fact, the coldest room in Europe.” There was, moreover, no Common Room in the College, in which the Fellows could pass the evening together. In 1740, Dr. Elwood, the Vice-Provost, bequeathed £1,000 for the use of the College, which the Board determined to apply to the purpose of building a Hall. Plans were prepared by Mr. Cassels, and the work at once put in hand; and the new building was completed in 1745. But the Hall, so erected at a total cost of £3,020, must have been unusually badly built, for we find that at a meeting of the Board—November 13, 1758—it was ordered that the Dining Hall should be pulled down, the foundation walls having sagged to a dangerous extent on the laying of the new kitchen; and “Mr. Plummer, the bricklayer”—the name reads like a jest—was dismissed from the service of the College for his negligence in connection with the execution of the work. Mr. Plummer was apparently replaced by a better workman. A new building was at once commenced, and although Mr. Cassels, the architect, had unfortunately died while superintending the construction of the Duke of Leinster’s new house at Carton, his plans were carefully followed, and the Dining Hall as we now see it was finished about 1761, and is apparently as solid as it was the day Mr. Plummer’s successor laid the last stone of the edifice.[159] It is a detached building, in the lower part of which are the kitchen, cellars, and other offices. It presents a handsome front, fifty feet wide, of granite, with an angular pediment supported by six Ionic pilasters of cut granite. The main door is approached by a broad flight of ten steps, rising to a height of five feet from the base line, the whole width of the front.

THE DINING HALL, VIEWED FROM LIBRARY SQUARE.

The clock in the pediment was for a long time the only public dial in the College, and though it neither is nor was of any particular interest as a timepiece, it was, until October 15th, 1870, somewhat remarkable as timekeeper, the College time being a quarter of an hour behind the world in Dublin.[160] Within the building, and approached through a spacious outer hall or vestibule, is the Dining Room or Hall proper, a fine room 70 ft. long, 35 ft. broad, and 35 ft. high; it is wainscoted to the height of 12 ft. with oak panels surmounted by a plain moulding. Over this, on the east side, are four large plain round-headed windows carried quite up to the cornice, which, together with a handsome Venetian window at the north or upper end, opposite to the entrance, and over the Fellows’ tables, gives abundant light to the Hall. The west side is without windows, but in their place are seven recesses, in each of which hangs a full-length portrait of some one of the many distinguished graduates of the University. The niches are finished with broad mouldings in stucco, and immediately over them runs a bold deep cornice, of Italian design. From this cornice springs the ceiling, which is coved for about 10 ft. from the cornice, and flat in the middle throughout its whole length. In this uppermost rib have lately been fixed two fine sunlights for gas, by which the Hall is brilliantly illuminated without heat or glare.

Round the room hang the following pictures:—

1.Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Hudson.
2.Provost Baldwin.
3.Archbishop Price.
4.}{ Viscount Avonmore,}
5.} Four Judges,{ Lord Downes,} all by Joseph.
6.}{ Viscount Kilwarden,}
7.}{ Chief Baron Hussey Burgh,}
8.Primate Lord John Beresford, by Catterson Smith.
9.Lord Chancellor Cairns, by Duncan.
10.Henry Grattan, by Hill.
11.Henry Flood.
12.The Earl of Rosse, Chancellor of the University, by Catterson Smith.