THE OLD QUADRANGLE TRANSFORMED.

431

but in an eclectic spirit, sticking angels or fiends here and coats of arms there, without believing much either in the supernatural or in chivalry.

I make these remarks because, so far as I am aware, the Pembroke new frontage was the earliest specimen, on any scale, of revived mediæval building in Oxford, where however the tradition of the Pointed style had never quite died out'. The doctrinal revival of 1833 followed the architectural renaissance, both of course being parts of the same movement of mind. Restoration, more or less on the lines of the old design, had begun at Magdalen as early as 1822. The Perpendicular oriel of the present Pembroke Library, as stated above, was thrown out in 18212. In 1825 however Balliol was building in the classical style. The Gothic front of Pembroke dates from 1829. Within a year or two St. Mary Hall, All Souls, and Exeter were being transformed in that taste.

The description of the work in Carlos's Skelton, 1843, will not be generally accepted. 'The entire front of the College has been recently new faced in the Gothic style, of which it is a poor example.' However ill-advised the disguising of a good old building behind a mask of modern fifteenth-century masonry, the design has both grace and proportion. The result however is that a visitor casually examining the College buildings would find nothing except the Grecian chapel to suggest to him that Pembroke College had any existence before the time of William IV. There are worse looking Colleges in Oxford, but there is none so entirely divested of any marks of antiquity. About the unhappy transformation of St. Aldate's Church-pictorially and historically a unit with Pembroke a word has already been spoken.

In Lewis's Topographical Dictionary the Old Quadrangle is described as 'the work of different periods, but regularly built. The interior has been newly faced with Bath stone, and altered from the Palladian to the later English style. The northern front and Master's lodging were also originally Palladian, and have been appropriately decorated after a design of Mr. Daniel Evans of Oxford. The oriel over the gateway is constructed on the model of the remains of one in John of Gaunt's palace at Lincoln.' More alteration was made on the exterior than the inside of the quadrangle. The outside dormers were 1 See Gentleman's Magazine, LX. (1790), pt. ii. p. 789.

The striking Almanack top of 1824 represents the building from this side. I know of no picture of its earlier appearance, except Storer's cuts of 1821. One gives 'Summaster's' and a bit of the Hall; but the Hall is almost hidden by a shrub. The other (in Chalmers) shows an oblong west window.

is shown

i

completed

by da same a

se au embalded ja spet ni showing the roof, ang de Sound-loor and irst-ser

11 as he tore with stongcourses.

and cresne, with plats. 1 take from N. Watocs Man

» tar quad andje in 1829. just i 1. Neper's Bosarll, by C. Sura Mackenzie shows it r ;༥

1

!

belit of is character, much as stess mmeku's The old masonry can be seen ontsale t ns). Ova Prewas Screct, the i* cubre

Id. from the Aln «

NORTH-WEST INTERIOR ANGLE OF THE OLD QUADRANGLE BEFORE THE ALTERATIONS OF WILLIAM THE FOURTH'S REIGN, SHOWING THE DIFFERENCE IN STYLE BETWEEN THE EARLIEST AND LATEST PORTIONS OF THE QUADRANGLE, THE ENTRANCE TO THE ANCIENT REFECTORY OF BROADGATES HALL (NOW THE LIBRARY), AND OVER IT THE LIBRARY BUILT IN 1709. THE UPPER OF THE TWO TOWER WINDOWS WAS JOHNSON'S CHAMBER

432 TRANSFORMATION OF THE OLD QUADRANGLE.

now masked by a parapetted third storey, and the fenestration altered to alternately a large and a small window, two large ones being together in the middle of each row. All the windows were given hoodmouldings. The classical gate-tower, transformed to match the rest of the frontage, was raised one storey, and crowned by an elegant parapet of open stone work, the design of which was suggested by Mr. Cleoburey, one of the Fellows. A prominent and handsome pinnacled oriel, adorned with sculptured heads of founders and worthies, now overhung the gateway, and another shallower oriel answered to it further east. It will be noticed that at the eastern corner is carved a bust of her present Majesty, with her new crown and sceptre, and the date 1838. In Skelton's print, however (1831), and in Mackenzie's (1836), the work is shown as finished, but the east end differs from the present design. The Almanack top of 1838 gives the front as it actually is. The explanation is that, in the hope of acquiring the Wolsey Almshouse, demolishing it, and then building a handsome front towards Christ Church, the College left the eastern end in a plain and unfinished state. But when this hope was abandoned, the eastern end was completed by the same architect, Mr. Evans. This was resolved upon on the first anniversary of the Queen's Accession. In Ollier's Views of Oxford (1843) there is a large plate by Delamotte showing the completed frontage and part of St. Aldate's, viz. Docklinton's aisle and the chamber over it. Carl Rundt, painter to the King of Prussia, has a plate of the front, looking east, in Views of the Most Picturesque Colleges, Part I. But in his drawing it lacks a parapet.

In the interior of the quadrangle an embattled parapet now ran over the second row of windows, just showing the roof, and the dormers in their old positions. The ground-floor and first-floor windows were re-arranged, but united as before with stringcourses. The large dormers were Gothicized and crowned with parapets. The drawing here presented, which I take from N. Whittock's Microcosm of Oxford, gives a view of the interior of the quadrangle in 1829, just before the alterations. A vignette in Napier's Boswell, by C. Stanfield, R.A., shows it during the alterations. Mackenzie shows it in 1836. The roof has been newly covered (in 1870) with excellent green Stonesfield slates, but the inferior stone with which the building was faced, and the introduction, everywhere but in the attics, of sashes and large panes have sadly robbed it of its character, much as sightless eyeballs make a face expressionless. The old masonry can be seen outside the east end, from the Almshouse. Over Brewers Street, the irregular back of the