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.

The noble expanse of ground that is enclosed by the principal buildings of the College is too large to be called a quadrangle, being six hundred and ten feet long, by three hundred and forty feet broad, at the widest part, and it is too irregular in shape to be called a square. It is the survival of at least five more ancient and less spacious enclosures—(1) the Old Square,[151] built in 1685, and taken down in 1751 to make room for the present handsome granite buildings known as Parliament Square, in grateful memory of the source from which the funds had been provided for the building; the Library Square, built in 1698, and the oldest portion of the College buildings now in existence, and which was itself divided into two quadrangles (2 and 3) by some new buildings standing east and west, which were taken down in the middle of the eighteenth century. The space between the present Dining Hall and the Fellows’ Garden was also divided into two quadrangles (4 and 5) by the old Hall and the old Chapel, which formed a continuation of these departed “New Buildings” to the westward, as far as the centre of Parliament Square.

THE CHAPEL.

The front of the Chapel, designed by Sir William Chambers, and erected between 1787 and 1789, at a cost of £22,000, is similar to that of the Theatre that stands opposite. Facing due south, it is ninety-six feet wide, with a deep and very handsome tetrastyle portico, forty-eight feet wide, of the Roman Corinthian order, immediately within which is a narthex or ante-chapel, in which is the main doorway of the building. The interior of the Chapel is eighty feet in length, exclusive of a semicircular apse six feet in diameter, at the north end. It is forty feet wide and forty-four feet high, having an organ loft and semicircular gallery over the entrance, of good carved oak. In the choir are four ranges of seats, rising gradually from the aisle to the side walls. The back row of stalls at the west and east sides are appropriated to the Fellows and Professors. The walls are wainscoted with finely polished oak panels to the height of twelve feet, over which is a broad surbase, from which spring the plain round-headed windows. The woodwork is elaborately carved, and cost over £5,300. The piers between the windows are ornamented with coupled pilasters, fluted, of the Ionic order, surmounted by an ornamented frieze and cornice. From the latter springs the coved and groined ceiling, which is painted and enriched with florid stucco ornaments of Italian design, similar to those employed in the same position in the Theatre. The ceiling of the Chapel is, however, somewhat more elaborate in design. In the year 1817, the number of students resident within the walls of the College increased to such an extent, that to afford accommodation for the necessarily increased attendance at Chapel, an iron gallery was put up along the east and west walls of the building. This was removed in 1872, when the floor of the Chapel was laid in black and red tiles of good design, and the marble steps and rails before the Communion Table were presented by the Provost, Dr. Humphrey Lloyd. At the same time, the oil lamps that were fitted to the fine brass chandeliers that hung from the east and west walls were replaced by gas burners. In the apse are three large round-headed windows, without tracery or ornamentation, which have recently been filled with painted glass. That on the north-west, representing the Recapitulation of the Law by Moses, and the Restoration under Solomon, was erected in memory of Dr. Richard Graves, by his son and other relations, in 1865. The window facing north-east was erected in memory of the great Bishop Berkeley by the Right Hon. R. R. Warren, when Attorney-General for Ireland, in 1867.

THE CHAPEL.

The central window directly over the Communion Table was erected in memory of Archbishop Ussher by Dr. Butcher, Bishop of Meath, in 1869. This window was painted in Munich, and the price, £300, which was paid by Dr. Butcher, was one quarter’s salary of the Regius Professorship of Divinity, of which office he continued for three months to perform the duties, after his consecration as Bishop of Meath. Partly over the narthex or ante-chapel, in the deep recess under the portico, and partly over the stalls of the Provost and Senior Fellows, is the spacious organ gallery, in which is placed the organ. When the present Chapel was approaching completion, a commission was given to Green, the favourite organ-builder of George III., to provide an instrument suitable for the new building. The price was to be five hundred guineas. And an instrument sweet rather than powerful in tone, like most of Green’s, was accordingly placed in the organ loft. All that now remains of this organ of Green’s is the present choir manual of only four stops. On account of the beauty of its stopt diapason (deep, and not deformed by the usual quintation effect), the Board retained this choir organ manual, but they were induced in 1838 to abandon the remainder to Telford, a local builder, who sold it to the Church at Durrow, Queen’s County, where Mr. Flower, subsequently Lord Ashbrook, maintained for some time a choir and the Cathedral service. In its place in the College Chapel, Telford put up a Great Organ and Swell Organ, which were used in conjunction with Green’s older manual and an imperfect pedal organ. In 1879 these two manuals and the pedals were enlarged, altered, and greatly improved, and further additions were made by Hill & Son, of London; and the mahogany cases of Green’s instrument were enlarged to admit of this augmentation. The organ as it stands at present contains the following stops, all effective and brilliant, but with none of the harshness to be heard in so many organs of the present day:—

No. 1.—Swell Organ (Upper Row of Keys). Compass, double C to F.No. 2.—Second Manual or Great Organ, CC to F Compass.
Soft Bourdon,16 feet tone.Open Diapason,8 feet.
Open Diapason,8 ” ”Stopt Diapason,8 feet tone.
Dulciana,8 ” ”Delicate Gamba,8 (to tenor C only).
Flute,4 ” ”Flute,4 feet.
Principal,4 ” ”Principal,4 feet.
Fifteenth,2 ” ”Fifteenth,2 feet.
Piccolo,1 ” ”Mixture (bright tone),3 ranks.
Soft Mixture of 3 ranks, 12, 15, 17.Sesqui altera (soft tone),3 ranks.
Oboe,8 ” ”Clarionet (to tenor C),8 feet tone.
Vox humana,8 ” ”Contra-fagotto,16 feet (throughout).
Trumpet,8 ” ”Trumpet,8 feet.
No. 3.—Old Choir Organ, by Green. Compass, GGG, 12 feet to E in Alt.No. 4.—Two Octaves and a third, in Compass (Pedal Organ) CC to E.
Stopt Diapason,8Sub-Bass,32
Dulciana,8Double Open Diapason,16
Principal,4Double Stopt Diapason,16 feet tone.
Fifteenth,2Open Diapason,8 feet.