corresponds with the hall, so that it produces one uniform front towards the quadrangle. The character of this part is totally different to that of the chapel; and the contrast of the two (shewn in the woodcut on p. 239), is very striking. The tracery of the one is good Perpendicular, but that of the other is of a kind unknown to Gothic. It is composed of scroll-work in elliptic forms, and with a kind of flat bosses at the intersections. The moldings, too, are totally different, one not differing much from the usual section of a Perpendicular window, and the other non-descript, as will be seen from the sections.
Sections of Windows of the Chapel and Ante-Chapel, Wadham College, A.D. 1610-13.
These striking differences have naturally induced
GOTHIC BUILDINGS OF OXFORD.
Windows of the Chapel and Ante-chapel, Wadham College, A.D. 1610-13.
a belief that the chapel was either a prior erection, or that the old materials of the Augustine convent, on the site of which the college was built, had been used up again; but by the investigations of the Rev. J. Griffith, whose valuable paper on the subject gives the accounts referred to, it is clearly shewn that the building of the two parts was carried on simultaneously. The foundress seems to have had a proper idea that a building used for Divine service should have a different character from those which were intended for domestic uses, and therefore, as the regular masons at that period could not have been much used to church-work, and as it is shewn by the accounts[N] that the masons employed were brought to Oxford from a distance, it seems probable that she brought, from her own county of Somerset, workmen who had been used to this kind of work. The churches of Somersetshire are mostly of rich and late Perpendicular character, and it is probable that the style might continue later there than in other places. It would, therefore, be a curious subject to inquire if any churches were built so late as that on which these masons might have been employed. The Hall of Wadham has an open timber roof, which is curious, as shewing how, while the Gothic form was retained, the details were altered to suit the taste of the times. The large window is a remarkable example of Jacobean tracery. The entrance under the principal gateway is groined, with fan-vaulting, having in the centre the arms of the founder and foundress impaled.