"And love the high-embowed roof
With antique pillars massy proof."
MILTON
[Plate XVIII. Christ Church : The Hall Staircase]
When Wolsey began to build what he intended to be the most splendid
college in the world, the first part to be finished was the dining-
hall, with the kitchen. The wits of the time made very merry at this:
their epigram /Egregium opus! Cardinalis iste instituit collegium et
absolvit popinam/ may be rendered:
"Here's a fine piece of work! Your Cardinal
A college plans, completes a guzzling-hall."
Certainly the hall of Christ Church is the finest "popina" which has
ever been abused by envious critics; its size and magnificence place
it easily first among the halls of Oxford, and its great outline
stands conspicuous in all views of Oxford from the south, whether by
day, or when by night, to quote M. Arnold's "Thyrsis":
"The line of festal light in Christ Church Hall"
shines afar. And the kitchen, a perfect cube in shape, is worthy of
the hall which it feeds, and is, perhaps, more appreciated by many of
Oxford's visitors; for the taste for meringues is more common than
that for masterpieces of portraiture. The report to Wolsey, in 1526,
by his agent, the Warden of New College, is still true; the kitchen
is "substantially and goodly done, in such manner as no two of the
best colleges in Oxford have rooms so goodly and convenient."
The approach to the hall, seen in Plate XVIII, is later than Wolsey's
work, but is fully worthy of him. The beautiful fan tracery, which
hardly suffers by being compared with Henry VII's Chapel at
Westminster, was put up, extraordinary as it may seem, in the middle
of the seventeenth century, by the elder Dean Fell; all we know of
its origin is that it was the work of "Smith, an artificer of
London," surely the most modest architect who ever designed a
masterpiece. The staircase itself is later, the work of the notorious
Wyatt, who for once meddled with a great building without spoiling
it.
The history of Christ Church is very largely the history of the
University of Oxford. It is still our wealthiest and largest
foundation, although the disproportion between it and other colleges
is by no means so great as it once was; and, thanks to its having
been ruled by a series of famous and energetic deans, its periods of
inglorious inactivity have been fewer than those of most other
colleges. The roll of deans contains such names as those of John
Owen, the most famous of Puritan preachers, John Fell, theologian and
founder of the greatness of the Oxford Press, Henry Aldrich,
universally accomplished as scholar, logician, musician, architect,
Francis Atterbury, Jacobite and plotter, Cyril Jackson, who ruled
Christ Church with a rod of iron, and who ranks first among the
creators of nineteenth-century Oxford, Thomas Gaisford and Henry
George Liddell, great Greek scholars. It seems that a college gains
something by having its head appointed from outside; the Dean at
Christ Church is appointed by the Crown.
The importance of Christ Church is especially seen in its hall,
through its collection of portraits. It is not only that this is
superior to that of any one other college; it may well be doubted if
the combined efforts of all the colleges could produce a collection
equal to that of Christ Church in artistic merit, or superior to it
in historical importance. The prime ministers of England, of whom
Christ Church claims twelve (nine of them in the last century), are
represented among others by George Grenville, the unfortunate author
of the Stamp Act, George Canning, who called "the New World into
existence to redress the balance of the Old," and W. E. Gladstone;
among the eight Christ Church men who have been Governor-Generals of
India, the Marquess Wellesley stands out pre-eminent; Christ Church
has sent five archbishops to Canterbury and nine to York; there is a
portrait in the hall of Wake, the most famous of the holders of the
See of Canterbury. Lord Mansfield's picture worthily represents the
learning and impartiality of the English Bench. But even more
interesting than any of those already mentioned are the portraits of
John Locke, who was philosopher enough to forgive Christ Church for
obeying James II and expelling him, of William Penn, presented, as
was fitting, by the American state that bears his name, of John
Wesley and of Dr. Pusey, whose names will be for ever associated with
the two greatest of Oxford's religious movements. And it may well be
hoped that C. L. Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll") will delight children for
many generations to come, as he has delighted those of the last half-
century, by his Alice and her "Adventures."
An interest, rather historical than personal, attaches to the group
portrait that occupies a position of honour over the fireplace; it
represents the three Oxford divines--John Fell (already mentioned),
Dolben, who later was Archbishop of York, and Allestree, afterwards
Provost of Eton, who braved the penal law against churchmen by
reading the forbidden Church Service daily all through the time of
the Commonwealth.
Nowhere, so much as in Christ Church, is the poet's description of
Oxford appropriate; her students may:
"Stand, in many an ancient hall,
Where England's greatest deck the wall,
Prelate and Statesman, prince and poet;
Who hath an ear, let him hear them call."
[Plate XIX. Christ Church : The Hall Interior]