The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891

by Ireland) Trinity College (Dublin

The principal masonry is of finely grained and dressed granite, quarried in the mountainous district of the County Dublin. The columns and pilasters which support the entablature are throughout of Portland stone. The ashlaring is entirely of fine granite. The only independent ornamentation is in the form of rich wreaths of fruit and flowers, carved in bold relief above and below the large centre window and the windows in the pavilion. In the centre of this west front is a handsome doorway, surmounted by a circular arch, and immediately within is an octagonal vestibule with a groined and vaulted roof. On the left of the entrance is the porter’s lodge. The entire length of this doubly vaulted gateway is seventy-two feet. The interior or eastern front of the building, facing the quadrangle, is simpler, but on similar lines to that already described as facing the street. The pavilions, however, are wanting in the eastern front, their place being taken by the adjoining buildings looking to the north and the south, forming an angle with the front, and making three sides of the incomplete quadrangle to which the principal doorway affords an entrance. Above the great gateway, in the centre of the façade, with windows looking both to the west over College Green and to the east over the great square of the
College, is a large room or hall, at first used as a Regent House for the meetings of Masters of Arts, afterwards as a Museum, and from the transfer of the specimens to the new Museum in the College Park in 1876 as an Examination Hall. This fine room is reached by a spacious staircase from the great gateway of the College. It is sixty-two feet long by forty-six feet broad, well lighted, but somewhat bare. Three pictures are hung on the walls—one of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Napier, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1867, in his state robes; a poor picture of the great Bishop Berkeley; and a pleasant portrait of Dr. William Hales, sometime Fellow of Trinity College, painted in 1769.

TOP OF STAIRCASE, REGENT’S HALL.

The principal masonry is of finely grained and dressed granite, quarried in the mountainous district of the County Dublin. The columns and pilasters which support the entablature are throughout of Portland stone. The ashlaring is entirely of fine granite. The only independent ornamentation is in the form of rich wreaths of fruit and flowers, carved in bold relief above and below the large centre window and the windows in the pavilion. In the centre of this west front is a handsome doorway, surmounted by a circular arch, and immediately within is an octagonal vestibule with a groined and vaulted roof. On the left of the entrance is the porter’s lodge. The entire length of this doubly vaulted gateway is seventy-two feet. The interior or eastern front of the building, facing the quadrangle, is simpler, but on similar lines to that already described as facing the street. The pavilions, however, are wanting in the eastern front, their place being taken by the adjoining buildings looking to the north and the south, forming an angle with the front, and making three sides of the incomplete quadrangle to which the principal doorway affords an entrance. Above the great gateway, in the centre of the façade, with windows looking both to the west over College Green and to the east over the great square of the College, is a large room or hall, at first used as a Regent House for the meetings of Masters of Arts, afterwards as a Museum, and from the transfer of the specimens to the new Museum in the College Park in 1876 as an Examination Hall. This fine room is reached by a spacious staircase from the great gateway of the College. It is sixty-two feet long by forty-six feet broad, well lighted, but somewhat bare. Three pictures are hung on the walls—one of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Napier, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1867, in his state robes; a poor picture of the great Bishop Berkeley; and a pleasant portrait of Dr. William Hales, sometime Fellow of Trinity College, painted in 1769.

PARLIAMENT AND LIBRARY SQUARES.

LIBRARY SQUARE.

The name of the accomplished architect who designed the west façade of the College is, strange to say, lost to history; but we know at least that Sir William Chambers, the architect of Somerset House, designed the buildings looking on Parliament Square, as well as the fronts of the Theatre and Chapel, and that the work was carried out from his drawings—for he never visited Ireland—by his very accomplished assistant, a Lancashire artist of the name of Mayers, who also designed and superintended the internal decorations of the Theatre and the Chapel. There is good reason to suppose that some of the ornamental work of the façade, by whomsoever originally designed, was carried out by Smith, the modest architect or handicraftsman who prepared the plans for the Provost’s House in 1759. There are two large clocks—separate timepieces—placed over the inner and outer pediments of the façade respectively, showing the time within and without the College. They are built upon horizontal cast-iron plates, with 7in. main wheels, dead beat escapements, and electro-magnetic seconds. The pendulums are connected by wire with the Observatory at Dunsink. The time is indicated upon cast-iron dials, enamelled dark blue, and each 6ft. 6in. in diameter. Both these clocks were placed in their present position in 1878.

LIBRARY SQUARE.