In the view of the interior of the Quadrangle the building at the back is the Library; the abundance of creepers on the left hand adds to the idea of comfort suggested by the homeliness of the architecture.
The third illustration shews the Hall as seen from St. Peter's Churchyard. The vicinity of the monuments may serve to remind members of the Hall of their mortality.
Hearne, the antiquary, was a member of St. Edmund Hall; so also was Sir Richard Blackmore, who was in residence for thirteen years. It was his lot, says Johnson, "to be much oftener mentioned by enemies than by friends"; but this is hardly surprising, in view of the interminable epics which he inflicted upon his contemporaries.
NEW COLLEGE
THIS College, in respect of its buildings and its endowments, is one of the most splendid in the University. Its founder, William of Wykeham, rose through the favour of Edward III. to high positions in Church and State, being made Bishop of Winchester in 1366 and Chancellor of England in the following year. He was a man of affairs, liberal and tolerant, who took delight in building, and had himself great skill in architecture. He had already, before he designed New College, as Clerk of the Works to Edward III., rebuilt Windsor Castle. Doubtless, zeal for education was one of his incentives; but he must have known a deep gratification, as the work went on, in the growth of the stately buildings which were to perpetuate his name. Richard II.'s sanction was given in 1379, and Wykeham's Society took possession of its completed home in 1386. During the six years which followed, its founder was occupied with the building of Winchester College, the other great institution connected with his name. He died in 1404, in his eightieth year, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral, having lived long enough to see his two Foundations prosperously started upon their several careers.
New College, as left by William of Wykeham, consisted of the chief Quadrangle (which includes the Chapel, Hall, and Library), the Cloisters with their tower, and the gardens. It is this Quadrangle (shewing the Chapel) which appears in Mr. Matthison's first drawing; but it is not quite as Wykeham saw it, for the third storey was added, as at Brasenose, in the seventeenth century, when the windows also were modernised.
Passing through this Quadrangle, the visitor reaches the Garden Court, which is also the creation of the seventeenth century, and was built in imitation of the Palace of Versailles. Seen from the garden (as in the second illustration) it certainly has, with its fivefold frontage and its extensive iron palisade, a most imposing appearance.
The garden contains a structure older by several centuries than any of the Colleges—that fragment of the old City Wall which is shewn in Mr. Matthison's third drawing. Its reverse side is visible from the back of Long Wall Street, and another fragment now acts as the wall of Merton garden. The city wall existed in its entirety in Wykeham's time, though already falling into decay: there is a brief of Richard II., issued to the then mayor and burgesses of Oxford, wherein the king complains of the ruinous state of the fortifications, and demands that they be at once repaired. He thought of taking refuge in Oxford, it appears, if his enemies in France should invade the country. He was soon to learn, at Flint Castle, how impotent is any masonry to protect a sovereign against subjects whose affections he has estranged. One may climb the old wall in New College garden and think of the days when it was a real defence, when the occupants of the "mural houses" at its base were exempted from all imposts, with the reservation that they should defend the wall with their bodies, in the event of an enemy's assault. On some part of the ground now occupied by the College and its garden stood several of those Halls where students lodged in the pre-collegiate days; but the greater part was waste land, strewn with rubbish and haunted by all sorts of bad characters. Certainly the whole community benefited, and not Wykeham's scholars only, when king and pope sanctioned his undertaking.