|TRINITY COLLEGE was founded by Sir Thomas Pope, a rich lawyer, in
1555. The site was previously occupied by Durham College, a now
extinct foundation, which existed for the training of students from the
Benedictine monastery of Durham.
There is much that is admirable about the buildings and grounds of
Trinity; and its position is so little secluded that anyone passing down
Broad Street or Parks Road can hardly help noticing its beauties. The
first illustration shews the College as seen from Broad Street. In the
foreground are the handsome wrought-iron gates--there is a companion
pair at the verge of the garden, in Parks Road--beyond which is the
square Entrance Tower leading to the Small Quadrangle, decorated by four
figures representing Astronomy, Geometry, Divinity, and Medicine. The
old cottage buildings on the right of the Porter's Lodge, facing Broad
Street, which are now used as College rooms, are in striking contrast
with the new buildings designed by Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A., and finished
in 1887; these are some of the last century's most successful additions
to ancient Oxford.
The Chapel has an unwonted fragrance, for the wainscot is of cedar; it
is famous also for its carving, being in this particular one of the best
examples of the work of Grinling Gibbons. The Hall has an unusually good
collection of portraits. Of all the buildings the Buttery is probably
the most ancient.
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[Illustration: 0232]
The second illustration, taken from Parks Road, shews a part of the
garden, with the Inner Quadrangle in the background; this latter is
built in the Italian manner, after Wren's design. The costume of the
loiterers in the garden, of both sexes, suggests that Mr. Matthison
painted his picture on some warm day of spring. On such a day it is
pleasant to fleet the time carelessly amid such scenes as these; nor
must the beautiful Lime Tree Walk escape mention, whose pleached boughs
form a continuous archway of foliage.
Trinity can point to a remarkably long list of distinguished members, of
whom it may suffice to name here the poets Lodge and Denham, Harrington
(author of _Oceana_), Chatham, Professor Freeman, Bishop Stubbs, and
Richard Burton. But Burtons stay was a short one; he heard already "the
call of the wild."