[Original]
[Original]
If one would see the Front Quadrangle as the Founders viewed it, when the last stones from Headington quarries were put in their places, he must imagine it deprived of its third tier of windows and its parapet, for these are Jacobean additions. The alteration, so far as it affected the outside, can hardly have been for the better; for the additional storey has certainly dwarfed the proportions of the fine Tower, which, with its Gateway, is the most striking feature of the second picture. As to the interior of the Quadrangle—sketched by Mr. Matthison from two points of view—it is less easy to form an opinion; the dormer windows are so quaintly ornamental that the severest critic may hesitate to wish them gone.
Architecture of a totally different order meets the eye when the Inner Quadrangle is reached, as a glance at the final illustration proves; for the Italian style is much in evidence. The foundation stone of the present Chapel, which represented an older one, was laid in 1656, and tradition attributes the design of it, as well as that of the Library, to Sir Christopher Wren, who was then quite a young man. Its windows are Gothic, but the Corinthian pilasters and the general idea of the structure shew that the architect's adherence was divided between the older and newer methods. The ceiling is elaborately carved in fanwork tracery. The Library stands between the Chapel and the south side of the Quadrangle. There is a curious regulation in the statutes directing that each volume it contained should be described in the catalogue by the first word on the second leaf. The reason of this is that the first leaf, being often splendidly illuminated, was liable to be torn out by dishonest borrowers; and as it was important to be able to identify a book, this could best be done by noting the first word on the second page, because it would very seldom happen that two copyists would begin that page with the same word. Hence the initial word of the second leaf of a manuscript would in all probability mark that individual copy and no other.
