THE EARLY BUILDINGS.
When Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, had induced Queen
Elizabeth to grant a Charter of Incorporation to a University to
be established in Dublin, he addressed himself to the Mayor and
Corporation of the City with a view to obtaining a suitable site.
And, happily for the success of the scheme which he and the more
academic Luke Challoner so successfully carried out, and for the
future welfare of the new Institution, a site the most suitable
and the most admirable that could have been found in Ireland was
at that moment at the disposal of the Corporation of Dublin--the
old Augustinian Monastery of All Hallows, lying to the eastward,
and just outside the City. As far as we can gather from the
recitals in the lease of the monastic buildings and site made by
the Mayor and Sheriffs in the year 1591 to John Spensfield, the
precincts, besides a church, consisted of “a steeple, a building
with a vault under it, the spytor, otherwise called the hall, with
appurtenances all along to the north cheek of the Bawn Gate.” We
find that there were also within the precincts of the Monastery the
sub-prior’s orchard and the common orchard, and a field called the
Ashe Park, wherein the prior and the monks had their haggard and
cistern, with the western storehouse by the Great Bawn, together
with a vestry cloister, a little garden within the precincts, and a
tower over the gate adjoining Hoggen Green. The buildings, without
the lands, appear to have been let to John Pepard, merchant, for
sixty-one years, at ten shillings a-year, with a clause restraining
him from taking stones, or slates, or timber out of the precincts;
the materials thereon were to be used only for building on the
site. Another lease was made to Edward Pepard, in 1584, of a
small orchard in All Hallows for thirty-one years, at twenty-four
shillings a-year; and in 1583 Edward Pepard had sub-let, for
twenty-one years, to Peter van Hey and Thomas Seele, a garden with
a vault at the north side of All Hallows, at a yearly rent of forty
shillings, with a covenant that they should keep up the garden
wall and the vaults. It would thus appear that at this time the
Pepards had acquired the site of the buildings and a small orchard,
possibly that formerly occupied by the sub-prior, as tenants on a
terminable lease. During the fifty years which elapsed from the
suppression of the Monastery, the buildings must have suffered
very considerable dilapidation. Most likely they had not been
originally erected in a very substantial and durable manner; and
as little care seems to have been taken as to the maintenance of
the church, the hall, and the monastic dwellings, they must have
been for the most part in a ruinous condition. The total value of
the site and precincts is stated in a letter from Queen Elizabeth
to have been £20 a-year. At the close of the Queen’s reign the
City of Dublin did not extend towards the east beyond St. George’s
Lane, now called South Great George’s Street. An open space of
ground stretched from thence to All Hallows, with paths diverging
to different parts of a small stream, beyond which lay the site of
the old Monastery. The whole of the precincts at that time covered
about twenty-eight acres, of which twelve were in meadow, nine in
pasture, and seven in orchard. On the north, towards the river,
there was a boggy strip of ground covered by the water at high
tide, and bounded on the south by the path leading to St. Patrick’s
Well, near the present entrance to Kildare Street, and bounded on
the east by lands formerly belonging to the Abbey of the Blessed
Virgin, but then in the tenure of John Dougan, on the site of the
modern Westland Row.[139]
And such was the influence of the Archbishop, supported by his
Archdeacon, Henry Ussher, and by Luke Chaloner, of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and two Scotch schoolmasters, James Hamilton and James
Fullerton, who were at the time in Dublin, that the Corporation
convened the citizens to a general assembly at the Tholsel, where
they, after due deliberation upon the proposal to grant the site
of the monastery for the intended College, immediately proceeded
to make the grant. A Charter of Incorporation had in the meantime
been obtained from the Queen, on the petition of Henry Ussher. The
letter of Elizabeth to Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy, and
to the Irish Council, announcing her consent to this arrangement,
is dated December 21st, 1591; and, on the 3rd of the following
March, Letters Patent passed the Great Seal.[140] The first stone
of the new building was laid on March 13th, 1592. Subscriptions
from the gentry in every part of Ireland were received for the
building, and on January 9th, 1594, the new College was completed.
No remains of this structure exist at the present day; indeed, no
buildings prior to the reign of William III. are now to be found
in Trinity College. The Elizabethan edifice consisted of a small
square court, which was always familiarly called The Quadrangle,
and which was removed early in the latter half of the eighteenth
century. Some parts of the old monastery were no doubt utilised in
the new building. As the visitor approached from Hoggen Green he
crossed an outer enclosed court, which formed an entrance to the
College; he then entered through the great gate, and found himself
in a small square, probably on the site of the southern portion of
the great main square of the College, then surrounded by buildings
constructed of thin red Dutch brick, with probably a good deal of
wooden framework inserted. On the north side lay the old steeple of
the monastery, having the porter’s lodge on the ground floor, and a
chamber over it; and on the second loft was hung the College bell.
Towards the east of the steeple lay the Chapel; on the same side
of the quadrangle was the Hall, paved with tiles, with a gallery,
and a lantern in the roof. The hall was separated from the kitchen
by a wooden partition, and in the same range with them was placed
the Library. This room was over the scholars’ chambers, and had
a gallery, and the lower part of it was fitted with ten pews for
readers. The Regent House seems to have been between the Chapel and
the Hall, and a gallery in the Regent House looked into the Chapel.
This range of buildings extended to the east side of the court,
beyond the site of the present Campanile. On the north of this
range lay the kitchen, buttery chamber, and the storehouse. The
east and west sides of the quadrangle contained students’ chambers,
and on the south side were placed houses for the Fellows. The three
sides composed in all seven buildings for residence--three on the
south side, and two on each of the east and west sides. The upper
story was lightened by dormer windows, with leaden lattices, and in
the centre of the quadrangle stood the celebrated College pump.[141]
THE ELIZABETHAN COLLEGE.
For this interesting section as to the Elizabethan College, the
writer is indebted to the Rev. J. W. Stubbs, D.D., S.F.T.C.D.:--
For a long period it was impossible to form an accurate idea of the
size and arrangements of the buildings of the original College.
The very foundations have long since been obliterated. Speed’s map
gives a rough idea of its site and general shape; and Rocque’s map,
which was constructed in 1751, before the structure was removed,
shows its position with regard to the present Library and some
of the portions of the College which remain. Dunton’s _Life and
Errors_ gives a description of the buildings as they stood one
hundred years after their erection, yet his details are in some
respects misleading.
In the present year, a paper in the handwriting of Sir William
Temple, Provost in 1523, has been found, giving the distribution
of the chambers in the College among the Fellows and students in
that year, and which, with the aid of the preceding authorities
and letters of the period, enables us to form a fairly accurate
conception of the buildings as they existed in the time of James
the First.
[Illustration: FROM ROCQUE’S MAP OF DUBLIN, 1750.]
The College was a quadrangle, the eastern and western sides being
longer than those on the north and south. The approach was through
a tower which lay on the north side, and which was the “steeple”
of the old Monastery, having the porter’s lodge on the ground
floor, and a chamber over it. In the second story was placed the
College bell. The remainder of the north side was occupied by the
Chapel and the Hall; the Chapel lay towards the east, and the Hall
towards the west, of the entrance. There appears to have been an
attic over one of these buildings, which contained four “studies”
for undergraduates. The Regent House seems to have been located
between the Chapel and the Hall, for candidates for degrees passed
through the Hall into the Regent House, and a gallery in the Regent
House looked into the Chapel. The Hall was paved with tiles, had
a lantern in the roof, and had a gallery, probably communicating
with the room over the porter’s lodge. On the south side of the
quadrangle, which lay between the present Library and the centre of
the present Examination Hall, there were four houses; the ground
floors of these houses were occupied by students’ rooms, there
being ten “studies” occupied by fourteen students. The house on
the east of the south side had no other chambers occupied, and the
first and second stories probably contained the library, which we
may learn from the College accounts of the period had a gallery and
a lower story which was fitted up with ten “pews” for readers. The
next house had two students resident on the ground floor, and two
Fellows on the first floor. The third house had three “studies”
on the ground floor, but the first and second stories were not
occupied by students or by Fellows. Possibly it was in this house
that Ussher’s books were afterwards placed. The fourth house had
two “studies” on the ground floor, and a Fellow and a student
occupied the first floor.
On the east side of the quadrangle there were six houses, each
having “studies” for three students on the ground floor. In the
first of these houses the remaining floors were unoccupied. In
the second, three students occupied the attic. Chambers were
there assigned also to one Fellow, one Master of Arts, and to
the Professor of Divinity. In the third house there were three
“studies” on the ground floor, but the remaining floors were
not assigned for chambers. In the fourth house there were three
“studies” on the ground floor--two Fellows and two Masters of Arts
occupied the first floor, and a Master of Arts the attic. The fifth
house had three “studies” on the ground floor--three Fellows and
one student had chambers on the first floor, and five students
resided in the attic story. The sixth house had three “studies” on
the ground floor, and three graduates resided over them.
On the west side there were three houses, with three “studies” on
the ground floor of each. The first house had no occupied chambers
over the ground floor. In the second house one Fellow and two
Masters of Arts had chambers on the first floor; one Master of Arts
and two students resided in the attic. The first floor of the third
house on this side was occupied by two Fellows and by one Master
of Arts, and the attic by two students, apparently brothers. The
remainder of the west side was possibly occupied by the Provost’s
chambers.
There was no approach to the interior of the College from Hoggen
Green, nor did the ground on the west side of the College at that
time belong to it. We find in 1639 a letter from Provost Bedell
to Ussher giving an account of a riot among the students, which
arose from an attempt of one Arthur to make an enclosure on that
side of the College on land which he had leased from the City of
Dublin. A petition was forwarded from the College to the Council
complaining of Arthur’s proceeding to erect a building on that side
of the College, by which a passage would be taken away where there
was in former times a gate or way leading into the site upon which
the College was built, which, although at that time closed, was
intended to be opened again by the College. It ended in the College
acquiring Arthur’s interest in the plot, and so preserving a right
of way.
COLLEGE GREEN.
The ground at present known as College Green was once the site of
a considerable village outside the walls of the City of Dublin,
known as Hog or Hogges.[142] A convent for nuns of the rule of St.
Augustine was founded on les Hogges in 1146 by Dermot MacMurchard,
King of Leinster, and the open space obtained the name of Hoggen
Green.[143] How the nunnery of St. Mary atte Hogge was dissolved,
and the buildings granted to the citizens of Dublin in 1534; how
it was proposed to turn the buildings into a jail or bridewell;
how, in consequence of some dispute with the builder, the property
was handed over to the University, and became a second College or
High School under the name of Trinity Hall; and how at length, in
1667, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Stearne, the President, Trinity
Hall was converted into the College of Physicians of Ireland,
is all very interesting, but it is quite outside the scope of
the present chapter. The modern Trinity Street marks the site of
Trinity Hall, which was only demolished about the year 1700. Hogges
Gate, the eastern gate of the City of Dublin opening upon Hoggen
Green, facing the College, and standing somewhere near the site of
the modern Forster Place, was removed in 1663 as being not only
useless, but ruinous. The equestrian statue of King William III.,
that is now so prominent a feature of College Green, was erected by
the Corporation of Dublin, and unveiled with great pomp on the 1st
of July, 1801. The figure of Henry Grattan was executed by J. H.
Foley, R.A., an Irish artist, and placed in its present position in
January, 1876. The fine bronze statues of Edmund Burke and Oliver
Goldsmith, truly distinguished students of Trinity College, which
are also the work of Foley, stand within the College railings on
either side of the Grand Entrance. That of Goldsmith was placed in
its present position in January, 1864; and that of Burke in April,
1868. They are both admirable. The statue of Goldsmith especially
is one of the finest, if not the finest work of the sculptor.
THE MODERN COLLEGE.
[Illustration: _Ampelopsis veitchii._]
The most distinguishing characteristic, from a material point of
view, of Trinity College as it now stands in the heart of the City
of Dublin, is perhaps that of spaciousness. It is the College of
magnificent distances; for a space of over twenty-eight acres is
enclosed by the outermost walls--twenty-eight acres of granite
and of green sward, of park and plantation, of shrubbery and
wilderness, of noble buildings and of uninteresting enclosures.
Like most people and many places, Trinity College has what
the French call _les défauts de ses qualités_. With abundant
elbow-room, yet not without a touch of dreariness; with a site
unsurpassed in any modern city, and needing nothing but variety
in elevation, and running water, to make it unrivalled in the
world--its very vastness makes it somewhat bare, its very dignity
makes it somewhat cold, its very spaciousness makes it somewhat
scattered. The granite of its buildings is grey; the limestone and
freestone are grey; the slated roofs are grey. It would require a
regiment of scarlet Lancers to give colour to the quadrangle.[144]
To compare is usually idle, and is often impertinent; but it
is obviously impossible to find, in an _enceinte_ of hard upon
thirty acres, the warmth and wealth of treatment, the perfection
of finish, the fulness and richness of detail, that are so
happily realised when the tender care of half-a-dozen centuries
has been devoted to the adornment of a single quadrangle, to the
artistic treatment of two or three acres of ground. And it must
be remembered that all that we now see in Trinity College is the
work of little over a century of most diligent and most faithful
care. For some hundred and fifty years after the foundation of
the University, the buildings of the new College seemed to have
sufficed for the accommodation of the students; but in October,
1751, a petition of the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of the
College of Dublin to the Irish Parliament set forth “That the
said College does not contain chambers sufficient for lodging
the number of young gentlemen who, for several years past, have
been sent thither for education, and that many of the buildings
of the said College are, from length of time, become ruinous, and
are not capable of being restored; that by the Statutes of the
College no provision is made for new buildings, or for any other
than the annual repairs of the buildings originally provided,
notwithstanding which the petitioners have expended several large
sums, which by great care they have saved out of the ordinary
expenses of the College, on necessary public buildings, and to
increase the number of chambers for the reception of students.”
Five thousand pounds were granted by Parliament in response to this
petition, and the money was expended on the necessary buildings.
Two years afterwards (1753) we find a further sum of ten thousand
pounds placed at the disposal of the College authorities by the
Irish Government. The money was spent, and well spent, on building.
And a further petition, on the 1st of November, 1755, was presented
to George II., and a further grant of twenty thousand pounds
made to the College to enable them to rebuild the West Front. In
1757, the College authorities appear once more as petitioners to
Parliament, stating that they have, with all possible expedition
and care, finished the said north side for which former grants
had been made, and are now rebuilding the front, for which
further funds were needed; and a further and final sum of ten
thousand pounds was then placed at their disposal by His Majesty’s
Government. And the College accounts show that between 1752 and
1763 a gross sum of £48,820 had been expended on the work of
construction.
Of the buildings that were erected in Trinity College at the end
of the sixteenth century, we have neither roof nor foundation now
remaining. Of the still older buildings that stood on Hoggen Green
in 1583, we have neither trace nor exact record, beyond that they
contained a church, a steeple, a building with a vault under it,
and the spytor already alluded to.
[Illustration: TRINITY COLLEGE--WEST FRONT.]
In a curious old print, however, of the beginning of the eighteenth
century, some buildings are figured abutting upon the Library,
and running westwards in the direction of the present Theatre,
which were probably a portion of the old buildings erected in
1594. The lines of the Cistercian Monastery are supposed by Mr.
Drew, the accomplished architect of the University, to have
been a square, of which the south side occupied the site now
partially covered by the Theatre, and extending to the north
about half way across the present main quadrangle of Parliament
Square. That a sixteenth-century College should retain no stone of
sixteenth-century masonry is certainly regrettable. But what is
far more remarkable is, that of the presumably more appropriate
and substantial structures which were in existence when William of
Orange landed at Torbay, not a vestige is standing at the present
time. And of the noble buildings which now compose the College, by
far the greater part is no older than the reign of King George III.
The University has ever been, as it is, one of the few entirely
satisfactory and successful institutions planted by England in
the sister isle, and it has ever promoted sound learning and
religious education; but architecture, or even good building, was
for the first century and a-half of its existence most certainly
not its strong point. Nor has Irish artistic feeling at any time
been commonly expressed in Architecture. Ireland has given to the
Empire soldiers and statesmen, poets and orators, philosophers and
divines, men of science and men of action, governors, ministers,
judges, in numbers and in eminence quite out of proportion to her
population and her advantages. But of architects of the first or
even of the second class, no Irishman has inscribed his name on
the roll of honour as a designer of great works at home or abroad.
The domestic architecture and the national ecclesiastical style
of building is poor, mean, and uninteresting; and although Dublin
to-day is adorned with many handsome structures, none of them
can be said to have any peculiarly national characteristics, and
of the most important now existing, none are the work of native
architects. Gandon, who built the Custom House and part of the
Houses of Parliament, was a Frenchman; Cooly, who designed the
Exchange and the Four Courts, was an Englishman;[145] Cassels, who
did some of the best eighteenth-century work in Trinity College,
was a German; Sir William Chambers, who designed the Theatre and
the Chapel in Parliament Square, and who was perhaps the greatest
British architect of the eighteenth century, was a Scotchman.[146]
Nor does the architect, native or foreign, appear to have been
held in honour at the University a hundred and fifty years ago.
The very name of the designer of the admirable west front of the
College is forgotten, unrecorded even in the College accounts;
and the architect of the Provost’s House, who bore the very Saxon
name of Smith, is stated to have received a fee of £22 15s. for
his services. The art could scarcely flourish on such very slender
patronage! But whoever the designers may have been, and however
remunerated, the College builders of the seventeenth century
must have been grossly incompetent. For though work of various
kinds seems to have been in constant progress from 1592 to the
beginning of the eighteenth century, we find in 1751 that many of
the buildings had, from length of time, become ruinous, and were
not even capable of being restored. Nor does any great improvement
appear even in the eighteenth century. The new Dining Hall, put up
in 1740, had to be taken down to prevent its tumbling about the
students’ ears in 1750; and the Bell Tower, completed only in 1746,
at a cost of nearly £4,000, was “removed” in 1791, as already,
after a life of only five-and-forty years, it was “entirely
unsafe.” But in the last half-century very different work has been
done. The noble Campanile, erected in 1853, is at once admirable
in design and most solid in construction, and, above all, most
appropriately placed. The New Square, which covers a part of what
was once suggestively termed the Wilderness, is irreproachable, if
not very interesting in design and workmanship; and the Venetian
Palace that forms its southern side affords some of that colour and
variety which is so sadly wanting in other parts of the College,
and is in itself a structure that would command admiration in any
town or country. And the new buildings of the Medical School, if
plain and unpretentious, are simple and appropriate and dignified
in design, and their cut granite looks well fitted to last for a
thousand years.
[Illustration: THE PROVOST’S HOUSE, FROM GRAFTON STREET.]
THE PROVOST’S HOUSE.
The Provost’s House is commonly said to be a copy of a design by
Lord Burlington for General Wade’s house in Piccadilly. General,
or rather Field-Marshal Wade was a notable person in his day.
He put down the Glasgow Riots in 1727, and did much towards the
pacification of Scotland by the construction of the celebrated
military roads in the Highlands. He also commanded the English
army in Lancashire and Yorkshire at the time of the Pretender’s
invasion of England in 1745. His house, which was built in 1723,
was not in Piccadilly, nor in any street leading out of it, but in
Cork Street, extending back as far as Old Burlington Street; and on
Marshal Wade’s death in 1748 it was sold by auction, according to
Horace Walpole,[147] to Lord Chesterfield, and seems afterwards to
have been the town house of the Marquess Cornwallis, and known as
Cornwallis House.[148] And in 1826 it was added to, and included
with Sir Thomas Neaves’ house, next door, as the Burlington Hotel,
now Nos. 19, and 20, Cork Street.[149] The façade and ground plan
of Lord Burlington’s design is given by Campbell, Moore, and
Gandon in their _Vitruvius Britannicus_, vol. iii., plate 10; and
the house is there said to be in Great Burlington Street (now Old
Burlington Street), a much older street than Cork Street. Marshal
Wade’s house has been scarcely altered since it was built in the
eighteenth century; his arms are still over the front entrance in
the court, and the interior is characteristic and interesting.[150]
The working plans of the Dublin house were prepared by a local
architect of the name of Smith; and he received for his work, as
already mentioned, the modest sum of £22 15s., as is shown by the
College accounts for 1759.
The mansion stands on the east side of Grafton Street, about twenty
yards from the western side of the Parliament Square. The main
entrance is from Grafton Street, through a spacious courtyard,
enclosed by a granite wall 310 feet in length, and is entered
by a handsome gateway. There is a private corridor, or covered
way, which connects the house directly with Parliament Square
within the walls of the College. The façade is of granite, finely
ashlared. The ground story is of icicled and rusticated work, over
which a range of Doric pilasters, with their architrave, frieze,
and cornice supporting a high pitched roof with no eave. In the
principal story are five windows, with balusters beneath, arranged
two on either side of a large Venetian window, with columns and
ornaments of the Tuscan order. The interior of the house is
original and interesting; the hall and ante-hall are spacious and
dignified; the circular staircase, which is lighted by a lofty
domed skylight, leads up to a fine suite of apartments. On the
ground floor, with an entrance from the hall, and approached
through an ante-room, is the large dining-room, which is now
used as the Provost’s Library and as the Board-room, where the
Provost and Senior Fellows assemble in council to deliberate upon
the administration and government of the College. In this room
and in the ante-room is a collection of portraits of all the
Provosts, from the time of Adam Loftus to Dr. MacDonnell, and of
many of the distinguished Fellows and Professors of the College,
and other important personages connected with the University.
On the staircase is a portrait of George I., by Sir Godfrey
Kneller; another of George III., by Allan Ramsay; and one of Hugh
Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, painted by Bindon for the Foundling
Hospital. All these are full-length portraits. The most interesting
picture in the house is, perhaps, a half-length portrait of Queen
Elizabeth, by Zucchero, hanging in the large drawing-room; where
there is also a full-length portrait by Gainsborough--the artistic
gem of the collection--of John Russell, Duke of Bedford, Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, 1757, and Chancellor of the University of
Dublin. There is also in the drawing-room a half-length portrait
of Archbishop Ussher, one of the earliest Fellows of the College
(Professor of Divinity, 1607; Vice-Chancellor of the University,
1614; and Archbishop of Armagh, 1624), and buried, like Primate
Boulter, in Westminster Abbey. In the Provost’s apartments on the
ground floor is a picture of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin and
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1567, and first Provost of Trinity
College, 1592, by an unknown artist, as well as a copy of the same
by Cregan; and a head of Archbishop Ussher. There are two portraits
said to be of Samuel Winter, the Puritan Provost appointed by
Cromwell in 1562, but possibly portraits of Luke Challoner, one
of the more distinguished founders of the University. There are
also portraits of Sir William Temple, Provost of Trinity College,
1609; John Stearne, M.D., Fellow of Trinity College, 1660; Michael
Ward, D.D., Provost, 1674, Vice-Chancellor of the University, 1678;
Anthony Dopping, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, 1662; Narcissus
Marsh, Provost of Trinity College, 1678; St. George Ashe, D.D.,
Provost, 1692; Peter Browne, D.D., Provost, 1699; H.R.H. George,
Prince of Wales, Chancellor of the University of Dublin, 1715;
Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., M.D. of the University of Dublin, who
died in 1752; Sir Philip Tisdall, Privy Councillor and M.P. for
the University, 1739; William Clements, M.D., Fellow of Trinity
College, 1733, M.P. 1761; Francis Andrews, LL.D., Provost, 1758, by
Antonio Maroni; Bryan Robinson, M.D., Regius Professor of Physic
in the University, 1745, by Wilson; John Hely Hutchinson, LL.D.,
Provost, 1774, and Secretary of State for Ireland, by Peacock;
Richard Murray, D.D. Provost, 1795, by Cumming; Hugh Hamilton,
D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, 1751; Henry Dalzac, D.D., Fellow
of Trinity College, 1760; John Forsayeth, D.D., Fellow of Trinity
College, 1762; John Kearney, D.D., Provost, 1799, by Cumming;
Matthew Young, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College, 1775; George Hall,
D.D., Provost, 1806, by Cumming; Arthur Browne, LL.D., Fellow
of Trinity College, 1777, by Hamilton; Thomas Elrington, D.D.,
Provost, 1811, by Foster; Bartholomew Lloyd, D.D., Provost, 1831,
by Campanile; Samuel Kyle, D.D., Provost, 1820; Franc Sadleir,
D.D., Provost, 1837; Richard MacDonnell, D.D., Provost, 1852, by
Catterson Smith.
[Illustration: DRAWING ROOM, PROVOST’S HOUSE.]
The various offices attached to the house are conveniently disposed
in the wings, the height of the ground story. The rooms at the back
of the mansion look out upon a large lawn and pleasure-ground,
beyond which are the Fellows’ Garden and the College Park. From
the windows of the house to the Cricket Pavilion at the further
end of the Park is nearly a quarter of a mile of green sward, a
noble expanse in the heart of a great city. The only intervening
structure is a small building of Portland stone, of pseudo Greek or
classical design--the Magnetical Observatory. This little temple
of modern science was built in the year 1837 at the instigation of
the celebrated mathematician, Dr. Humphrey Lloyd, afterwards (1867)
Provost of Trinity College; and at the time of its completion in
1838 it was the only observatory specifically devoted to magnetic
research--with the exception of that at Greenwich, under the
direction of the Astronomer-Royal--in the United Kingdom. And
it was here that Dr. Lloyd conducted those numerous and most
interesting experiments, of which the results were communicated to
many successive meetings of the British Association. The building
itself, in the Doric order of architecture, was erected under the
superintendence and from the design of Mr. Frederic Darley, of
Dublin. The front elevation is not ungraceful, being partly copied
from an Athenian model. But the architectural beauty of the rest
of the building has been sacrificed to the scientific necessities
of the interior, and the result is very far from satisfactory as a
work of art. It stands in latitude 53° 21′ N. and longitude 16° 6′
W. It is forty feet in length by thirty feet in width, constructed
of Portland stone, the interior being of the calpe, or argillaceous
limestone of the valley of Dublin. Several specimens of each
of these stones were submitted to severe tests, and found to be
entirely devoid of any magnetic influence. To preserve a uniform
temperature, and also as a protection from damp, the walls are
studded internally. The nails employed in the wood-work are all of
copper, and all locks and metal work of every kind throughout the
building of brass or gun metal. No iron, of course, was used in any
part of the work. The interior is divided into one principal room
and two smaller rooms, lighted by a dome at the top, and by one
window at either end of the building.
A complete account of this Observatory within and without, and of
the numerous and most interesting instruments which it contains,
will be found in _An Account of the Magnetical Observatory of
Dublin, and of the Instruments and Methods of Observation employed
there_, by the Rev. Humphrey Lloyd, D.D., University Press, 1842.
WEST FRONT.
The principal or west front of Trinity College, looking on to
Grafton Street, College Green, and the old Houses of Parliament,
now occupied by the Bank of Ireland, is a Palladian façade three
hundred feet in length and sixty-five feet in height, occupying
the whole of the eastern side of the large paved space which is
still called College Green. The centre or principal _corps de
logis_ is one hundred feet in length. The entablature is supported
by four detached columns with Corinthian capitals; and a bold but
simple pediment surmounts the whole. At either corner is a square
pilaster with a Corinthian capital. The building is continued on
either side of this centre to a distance of seventy feet of plain
and unadorned construction; the ground story of rustic ashlar, the
remainder of fine cut granite. The north and south extremities of
this great front are formed by two square pavilions rising above
the height of the wings, and projecting about ten feet from the
curtain line. The pavilions are pierced by four handsome Palladian
windows, in the north and west and in the south and west fronts
respectively; and the construction is ornamented at the projecting
angles by coupled pilasters of the Corinthian order, supporting
an attic story, surmounted by a very satisfactory balustrade. In
the entire façade are fifty-one windows regularly disposed, giving
light to four stories of rooms. According to the original plan the
centre of the building was to have been crowned by a dome, and the
abandonment of what might have given additional nobility to the
whole is said to have been merely due to want of sufficient funds.
But the elevation as it is, is not wanting in dignity; and though
somewhat severe in its outlines, it gives the impression at once of
simplicity without meanness, of solidity without heaviness, and of
richness without extravagance of detail.
[Illustration: TOP OF STAIRCASE, REGENT’S HALL.]
The principal masonry is of finely grained and dressed granite,
quarried in the mountainous district of the County Dublin. The
columns and pilasters which support the entablature are throughout
of Portland stone. The ashlaring is entirely of fine granite. The
only independent ornamentation is in the form of rich wreaths of
fruit and flowers, carved in bold relief above and below the large
centre window and the windows in the pavilion. In the centre of
this west front is a handsome doorway, surmounted by a circular
arch, and immediately within is an octagonal vestibule with a
groined and vaulted roof. On the left of the entrance is the
porter’s lodge. The entire length of this doubly vaulted gateway is
seventy-two feet. The interior or eastern front of the building,
facing the quadrangle, is simpler, but on similar lines to that
already described as facing the street. The pavilions, however,
are wanting in the eastern front, their place being taken by the
adjoining buildings looking to the north and the south, forming
an angle with the front, and making three sides of the incomplete
quadrangle to which the principal doorway affords an entrance.
Above the great gateway, in the centre of the façade, with windows
looking both to the west over College Green and to the east over
the great square of the College, is a large room or hall, at
first used as a Regent House for the meetings of Masters of Arts,
afterwards as a Museum, and from the transfer of the specimens to
the new Museum in the College Park in 1876 as an Examination Hall.
This fine room is reached by a spacious staircase from the great
gateway of the College. It is sixty-two feet long by forty-six
feet broad, well lighted, but somewhat bare. Three pictures are
hung on the walls--one of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Napier,
Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Vice-Chancellor of the University
in 1867, in his state robes; a poor picture of the great Bishop
Berkeley; and a pleasant portrait of Dr. William Hales, sometime
Fellow of Trinity College, painted in 1769.
[Illustration: PARLIAMENT AND LIBRARY SQUARES.]
[Illustration: LIBRARY SQUARE.]
The name of the accomplished architect who designed the west façade
of the College is, strange to say, lost to history; but we know at
least that Sir William Chambers, the architect of Somerset House,
designed the buildings looking on Parliament Square, as well as the
fronts of the Theatre and Chapel, and that the work was carried
out from his drawings--for he never visited Ireland--by his very
accomplished assistant, a Lancashire artist of the name of Mayers,
who also designed and superintended the internal decorations
of the Theatre and the Chapel. There is good reason to suppose
that some of the ornamental work of the façade, by whomsoever
originally designed, was carried out by Smith, the modest architect
or handicraftsman who prepared the plans for the Provost’s House
in 1759. There are two large clocks--separate timepieces--placed
over the inner and outer pediments of the façade respectively,
showing the time within and without the College. They are built
upon horizontal cast-iron plates, with 7in. main wheels, dead
beat escapements, and electro-magnetic seconds. The pendulums are
connected by wire with the Observatory at Dunsink. The time is
indicated upon cast-iron dials, enamelled dark blue, and each 6ft.
6in. in diameter. Both these clocks were placed in their present
position in 1878.
The noble expanse of ground that is enclosed by the principal
buildings of the College is too large to be called a quadrangle,
being six hundred and ten feet long, by three hundred and forty
feet broad, at the widest part, and it is too irregular in shape
to be called a square. It is the survival of at least five more
ancient and less spacious enclosures--(1) the Old Square,[151]
built in 1685, and taken down in 1751 to make room for the present
handsome granite buildings known as Parliament Square, in grateful
memory of the source from which the funds had been provided for
the building; the Library Square, built in 1698, and the oldest
portion of the College buildings now in existence, and which was
itself divided into two quadrangles (2 and 3) by some new buildings
standing east and west, which were taken down in the middle of the
eighteenth century. The space between the present Dining Hall and
the Fellows’ Garden was also divided into two quadrangles (4 and
5) by the old Hall and the old Chapel, which formed a continuation
of these departed “New Buildings” to the westward, as far as the
centre of Parliament Square.
THE CHAPEL.
The front of the Chapel, designed by Sir William Chambers, and
erected between 1787 and 1789, at a cost of £22,000, is similar
to that of the Theatre that stands opposite. Facing due south, it
is ninety-six feet wide, with a deep and very handsome tetrastyle
portico, forty-eight feet wide, of the Roman Corinthian order,
immediately within which is a narthex or ante-chapel, in which is
the main doorway of the building. The interior of the Chapel is
eighty feet in length, exclusive of a semicircular apse six feet in
diameter, at the north end. It is forty feet wide and forty-four
feet high, having an organ loft and semicircular gallery over
the entrance, of good carved oak. In the choir are four ranges
of seats, rising gradually from the aisle to the side walls. The
back row of stalls at the west and east sides are appropriated to
the Fellows and Professors. The walls are wainscoted with finely
polished oak panels to the height of twelve feet, over which is a
broad surbase, from which spring the plain round-headed windows.
The woodwork is elaborately carved, and cost over £5,300. The
piers between the windows are ornamented with coupled pilasters,
fluted, of the Ionic order, surmounted by an ornamented frieze and
cornice. From the latter springs the coved and groined ceiling,
which is painted and enriched with florid stucco ornaments of
Italian design, similar to those employed in the same position
in the Theatre. The ceiling of the Chapel is, however, somewhat
more elaborate in design. In the year 1817, the number of students
resident within the walls of the College increased to such an
extent, that to afford accommodation for the necessarily increased
attendance at Chapel, an iron gallery was put up along the east
and west walls of the building. This was removed in 1872, when the
floor of the Chapel was laid in black and red tiles of good design,
and the marble steps and rails before the Communion Table were
presented by the Provost, Dr. Humphrey Lloyd. At the same time,
the oil lamps that were fitted to the fine brass chandeliers that
hung from the east and west walls were replaced by gas burners. In
the apse are three large round-headed windows, without tracery or
ornamentation, which have recently been filled with painted glass.
That on the north-west, representing the Recapitulation of the Law
by Moses, and the Restoration under Solomon, was erected in memory
of Dr. Richard Graves, by his son and other relations, in 1865. The
window facing north-east was erected in memory of the great Bishop
Berkeley by the Right Hon. R. R. Warren, when Attorney-General for
Ireland, in 1867.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL.]
The central window directly over the Communion Table was erected
in memory of Archbishop Ussher by Dr. Butcher, Bishop of Meath,
in 1869. This window was painted in Munich, and the price, £300,
which was paid by Dr. Butcher, was one quarter’s salary of the
Regius Professorship of Divinity, of which office he continued
for three months to perform the duties, after his consecration
as Bishop of Meath. Partly over the narthex or ante-chapel, in
the deep recess under the portico, and partly over the stalls of
the Provost and Senior Fellows, is the spacious organ gallery, in
which is placed the organ. When the present Chapel was approaching
completion, a commission was given to Green, the favourite
organ-builder of George III., to provide an instrument suitable
for the new building. The price was to be five hundred guineas.
And an instrument sweet rather than powerful in tone, like most of
Green’s, was accordingly placed in the organ loft. All that now
remains of this organ of Green’s is the present choir manual of
only four stops. On account of the beauty of its stopt diapason
(deep, and not deformed by the usual quintation effect), the Board
retained this choir organ manual, but they were induced in 1838
to abandon the remainder to Telford, a local builder, who sold
it to the Church at Durrow, Queen’s County, where Mr. Flower,
subsequently Lord Ashbrook, maintained for some time a choir
and the Cathedral service. In its place in the College Chapel,
Telford put up a Great Organ and Swell Organ, which were used in
conjunction with Green’s older manual and an imperfect pedal organ.
In 1879 these two manuals and the pedals were enlarged, altered,
and greatly improved, and further additions were made by Hill &
Son, of London; and the mahogany cases of Green’s instrument were
enlarged to admit of this augmentation. The organ as it stands at
present contains the following stops, all effective and brilliant,
but with none of the harshness to be heard in so many organs of the
present day:--
No. 1.--Swell Organ (Upper Row of Keys).
Compass, double C to F.
Soft Bourdon, 16 feet tone.
Open Diapason, 8 ” ”
Dulciana, 8 ” ”
Flute, 4 ” ”
Principal, 4 ” ”
Fifteenth, 2 ” ”
Piccolo, 1 ” ”
Soft Mixture of 3 ranks, 12, 15, 17.
Oboe, 8 ” ”
Vox humana, 8 ” ”
Trumpet, 8 ” ”
No. 2.--Second Manual or Great Organ, CC to
F Compass.
Open Diapason, 8 feet.
Stopt Diapason, 8 feet tone.
Delicate Gamba, 8 (to tenor C only).
Flute, 4 feet.
Principal, 4 feet.
Fifteenth, 2 feet.
Mixture (bright tone), 3 ranks.
Sesqui altera (soft tone), 3 ranks.
Clarionet (to tenor C), 8 feet tone.
Contra-fagotto, 16 feet (throughout).
Trumpet, 8 feet.
No. 3.--Old Choir Organ, by Green. Compass,
GGG, 12 feet to E in Alt.
Stopt Diapason, 8
Dulciana, 8
Principal, 4
Fifteenth, 2
No. 4.--Two Octaves and a third, in Compass
(Pedal Organ) CC to E.
Sub-Bass, 32
Double Open Diapason, 16
Double Stopt Diapason, 16 feet tone.
Open Diapason, 8 feet.
Among accessory stops, &c., may be counted three coupling actions,
great b pedals, swell to pedals, swell to great organ, tremolo
by a horizontal bar, three hand-levers for shifting stops of the
great organ, labelled “_ff_,” “_mf_,” and “_p_.” The choir organ is
placed behind the performer, like the “Ruck-positif” of Continental
examples.
In the ante-Chapel, on either side of the entrance door, are two
slabs of white marble let into the wall, with the following names
inscribed:--Fr. Sadleir, 1851; Ric. Macdonnell, 1867; Carol. Wall,
1862; Sam. Kyle, 1848; Henric. Wray, 1847; Thom. Prior, 1843;
Steph. Sandes, 1842; Francis C. Hodgkinson, 1840; Bart. Lloyd,
1835; Richd. Murray, 1799; Gul. Newcome, 1800; Matt. Young, 1800;
John Brinkley, 1835; Thom. Elrington, 1835; Geo. Hall, 1811;
John Law, 1810. These are all buried within the precincts of the
Chapel; and the slabs were put up by Provost Lloyd, when it was
determined that intra-mural burial should cease. There are also in
this wall ten mural tablets, with Latin inscriptions, to the memory
of Henricus Wray, ob. 1846; George Hall, 1811; Thomas Elrington,
1835; Geo. Longfield, 1818; Stephen Creagh Sandes, 1842; Thos.
Prior, 1843; Bartholomew Lloyd, 1837; Samuel Kyle, 1848; Sam. John
McClean, 1829. The only inscription of any peculiar interest is to
the memory of Bishop Newcome, and runs as follows:--
Ut singularem qua bonas literas literatosque omnes per totum
vitæ decursum est prosecutus charitatem signaret reliquias suas
in cellula huic vestibulo supposita condi voluit amplissimus
præsul Gulielmus Newcome, D.D., Archiepiscopus Armachanus; Coll.
Hertford apud Oxonienses cujus per novennium negocia Vice-Præses
feliciter administravit. Ab Hiberniæ pro Rege illust. comite
de Hertford ad dignitatem evocatus episcopalem sedem obtinuit;
Dromorensem, Feb., 1766; Ossoriensem, Ap. 1775; Waterford et
Lismore, Oct. 1779; Ardmach totiusque ecclesiæ Hiberniæ Primatum,
Mense Januario, 1795. Natus Abingdonæ in com. Oxon, April 19,
1729. Educatus in coll. Pembroch Oxon. Decessit, Dublini, Jan.
11, 1800. Pietatem summe venerandi antiscitis vitæ morumque
sanctitatem ætas in qua vixit agnovit, ingenium scripta declarant.
CEMETERIUM.
In a neglected corner on the outside of the Chapel, looking
towards the east, railed in, but unprotected from the weather, is
a little burying-ground, where may be seen the tombs of some few
of the Provosts and other distinguished Fellows of the College.
Simple stone slabs on the ground mark the last resting-place of
Dr. Temple, Provost in 1609, and of other unnamed and forgotten
dignitaries, whose remains were removed from the old Chapel when
the new building was consecrated in 1798. The inscription on the
plain flag nearest the entrance is as clear as the day it was cut,
and runs as follows:--
Piae memoriæ sacrum Gulielmi Temple, LL.D., armigeri.
hujusce Collegii Propositi A.D. 1609
atque aliorum quorum reliquiæ
sub antiquo sacello sepultæ
in hoc Cœmeterium translatæ fuere
Anno Domini 1799.
Next to him lies Richard Andrews--
Cujus beneficio Observatorium
Astronomicum conditum atque in
perpetuo constitutum fuit.
He was Provost in 1758, and died in 1774.
The third slab is--
Piæ Memoriæ sacrum
Ricardi Baldwin S.T.P.
hujusce collegii socii
deinde Prœpositi
postremo munificentissimi benefactoris
In præposituram electus fuit
A.D. 1717.
Obiit die 30 Septembris
A.D. 1758.
A large mural tablet with Corinthian columns and alabaster
mantlings, and bearing a long and not particularly interesting
inscription, is raised to the memory of Dr. Browne, the Provost who
is said to have been killed by a brickbat thrown in a College riot
in 1699. The long inscription to his many virtues is silent on this
point.
On the left-hand side of Dr. Browne’s pompous monument is a plain
stone slab in memory of Dr. Stearne, who built the University
Printing House, and was in other ways a distinguished benefactor of
the College. The very curious inscription runs as follows:--
ΚΑΤΑΡΑ ΕΣΤΙ ΜΗ ΑΠΟΘΑΝΕΙΝ[152]
Dixit Epictetus, Credidit
Johannes Stearne
M. & J. U. D. Collegii SS Indiv.
Trinitatis Dublin Socius Senior.
Medicorū ibidem Præses primus qui natus
fuit Arbrachæ 26 Novembris 1624
Denatus fuit Dublin 18 Novembris 1669,
Cujus exuviæ olim resumendæ hic depositæ sunt.
Philosophus Medicus Sumūs Theologus idem
Sternius hâc, nullus jam, requiescit humo
Scilicet ut regnet, Natura quod edidit unum,
Dividit in partes Mors inimica duas,
Sed modo divisus coalescet Sternius, atque
Ibit ab extremo, totus in astra, die.
On the right-hand side, and like all the other monuments removed
from the old Chapel in 1798, is a slab with the following
interesting inscription in Latin verse:--
P.M.S. Thomæ Seele, S.T.D. Hujusce Collegii Dignissimi præsidis et
instauratoris qui obiit Feb 11, Anno Domini MDCLXXIV. Ætatis Suæ
LXIII.
Nuper ab exilio cum Principe Regna redibant,
Et posuere suas Prælia lassa minas.
His solis deerant tam publica commoda tectis,
Exilium Ars passa est, exiliumque Fides.
Præposuit Seelum Carolus, quo præside Musæ
Proscriptæ veteres incoluere Lares.
Tecta Chalonerus pia condidit, obruta Seelus
Instauravit, erat forte creasse minus.
Magna viri doctrina, modestia magna, ruberet
Si sua perlegeret carmine iusta cinis.
Convenit urna loco, debebaturque Sacello.
Non alio sterni pulvere templa decet.
And lastly, there is a large tomb, surmounted by a ghost-like
effigy of Luke Challoner, the real founder of the College in 1592,
which occupies the most important place in the cheerless little
enclosure. The monument, houseless on the destruction of the old
Chapel, could not apparently find shelter in the new building of
1798. The recumbent figure of soft alabaster may once have been
a work of art; at a later stage it may have been interesting to
the antiquarian; at the present day it is merely remarkable as a
geological specimen, a curious illustration of the grotesque result
of the action of water upon alabaster, under certain conditions.
The simple inscription on the tomb reads as follows:--
P.M.S.
Lucæ Chaloner
qui inter primos socios
Collegii S.S. Trinitatis.
A Regina Elizabetha
Constitutus fuit.
A.D. 1592.
obiit die 27 aprilis, A.D. 1613.
The shorter the epitaph the greater the man!
The vaults under the Chapel were closed in 1867. Several of the
Provosts and Senior Fellows were buried in them; the last burial
was that of Provost MacDonnell.
THE THEATRE.
The Examination Hall, or Theatre, as it is more correctly called,
was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1777, and corresponds
in its external appearance exactly with that of the Chapel,
although its interior arrangement is naturally very different.
Ten pilasters, with feeble capitals of a tasteless composite
order, are disposed round the walls, standing each one singly at
intervals of twelve feet on a rustic basement ten feet high, and
supporting a handsome stucco frieze and bold cornice, the work
of Italian artists. The pilasters themselves are ornamented with
stucco scroll-work of florid Roman character. From the cornice
springs the ceiling, which is also very richly ornamented in
stucco, designed, modelled, and painted in the same style as the
ceiling of the Chapel, by Mayers, under the direction of Sir
William Chambers. In the five panels on the east side of the Hall
are placed full-length portraits of Queen Elizabeth, the foundress,
in her state robes; of Archbishop Ussher, Archbishop King, Bishop
Berkeley, and Provost Baldwin.[153] In four of the panels on the
opposite side are portraits of Edmund Burke--not by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, as is usually asserted, but by Hoppner; of William
Molyneux; of Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare, by Stewart (an American
artist of some reputation); and of Dean Swift. Under the centre
panel is placed an elaborate monument (which is represented in the
accompanying engraving) to Provost Baldwin, who died in 1758. The
monument is some nine feet long and about six feet high and four
feet in depth from the wall, and consists of three figures in white
marble standing over a sarcophagus of dark porphyry. It is the work
of a Dublin artist of the name of Hewetson, who executed it at his
studio at Rome. The Hall is seventy feet long to the base line
of the semicircular apse, which extends to a further distance of
twenty feet, and is forty feet wide and forty-four feet high. It
is lighted by three windows in the circular apse at the upper end,
and by a range of small fan-shaped windows placed over the cornice.
An elaborate gilt chandelier, designed to hold sixty wax candles,
remarkably light and graceful in character, and which belonged to
the old House of Commons in College Green, hangs in the centre of
the Hall (_see page_ 130). At the lower end, and over the deep
portico and doorway, is a room in which is placed a small organ
that formerly stood in the old Chapel, and which is traditionally
said to have been taken out of a Spanish ship which formed part of
the Armada, and was wrecked on the coast of Ireland.
[Illustration: BALDWIN’S MONUMENT.]
But the legend is without form or foundation. The true history of
the organ and its acquisition, however, is sufficiently interesting
to be worth recording. On the 11th of October, 1702, a fleet of
twenty-five English and Dutch ships of war, under the supreme
command of Admiral Rooke, having been foiled in an attack on
Cadiz, sailed into Vigo Bay, where the combined French and Spanish
fleets were then collected. A body of 2,500 soldiers, under the
command of Richard, second Duke of Ormonde,[154] landed under
some fortifications eight or nine miles from the town of Vigo,
silenced the batteries, and captured no less than forty pieces of
cannon. A large number of the enemy’s ships were burned and sunk
by the British fleet, including six great galleons with treasure
on board to the extent of 14,000,000 pieces of eight; and a number
of vessels of all kinds were taken as prizes. Among them was a
ship containing, carefully packed as part of her freight, an
organ destined in all probability for Mexico or Peru--the gift,
it may be, of his most Catholic Majesty Philip the Fifth to some
favoured church in Spanish America. Rooke declined to attack the
town, and sailed away with his prizes to England. He was tried by
court-martial on his arrival, and honourably acquitted, and lived
to earn undying fame two years later by the taking of Gibraltar.
But the Duke of Ormonde enjoyed all the credit of the victory at
Vigo,[155] and was soon after appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
(1703), when he presented the organ, so strangely acquired, to
Trinity College, Dublin. There was a solemn Thanksgiving Service at
St. Paul’s in honour of Ormonde’s victory, at which Queen Anne was
present, and a medal was struck in commemoration of the event, of
which an example may be seen in the College Library. The organ is
said to have been originally built in the Spanish Netherlands, and
was repaired and enlarged in Dublin by Cuvillie in 1705, before it
was placed in the old Chapel. But the instrument that now stands
in the gallery of the Theatre is not the organ as it was presented
by the Duke of Ormonde, or even as it left the hands of Cuvillie.
“When the University Choral Society,” writes Sir Robert Stewart,
“was founded (1837), they resolved to erect an organ for their
accompaniments; and by the aid of the Lord Primate, who contributed
£50 to the cost, this was done, and an instrument of two rows of
keys and pedals was placed at the north end of the Commons Hall
about 1839. But the Society, finding it useless for their purpose,
sold it to the Board, who were glad to remove it from the space
which was required for Commons, Examinations, and Lectures. The
organ case which stands in the gallery of the Examination Hall
contains at present the pipes of the organ built by Telford for
the University Choral Society in 1839. All the old Spanish pipes
having been removed from its interior, the case closely resembles
all those organs built in the eighteenth century, a familiar type
abounding in cherubs, heraldic mantlings, rococo scroll-work, all
being surmounted by the Royal Arms.”[156]
Another more modern legend connected with this Theatre may be worth
recording. When George IV. visited Dublin, he was entertained, as
it was fitting that he should be, by the University. And to make
his way plainer from the Provost’s House to the Theatre, where the
Degrees were conferred in his presence, a part of the wall of the
apse facing the Provost’s House, where his Majesty was received,
was removed, and the grand procession entered the Hall without the
necessity of going round to the main doorway. The masonry on the
outside of the Hall still bears evidence of the destruction and
restoration that was necessitated by this most loyal smoothing of
the path of the royal guest.
One of the greatest improvements of recent times in the College
precincts--a happy artistic inspiration--has been effected at
comparatively small cost either of money or of trouble. In matters
of art and taste, when the right thing is done, the result is
commonly quite out of proportion to the material magnitude of the
work. In the spring of 1892, the low granite wall, with its high
iron railing, which ran from the north-east corner of the Library
Buildings to the side of the Examination Hall, was moved back
some fifty feet. As it stood before, it not only broke in upon
the fine eastern façade of the Examination Hall, ninety feet in
length, but it entirely concealed the lower story of the western
end of the Library, and blocked up the main door of that building;
and its lines were as meaningless and inappropriate as they are
now harmonious and satisfactory. The actual amount of ground thus
thrown into the quadrangle is only about five hundred square yards,
or perhaps one-fiftieth part of the total area of the great square
of the College. But it would be difficult to find a unit to express
the magnitude of the improvement.
THE CAMPANILE.
The old Hall, which extended from the present Campanile in the
direction of the College gate, and parallel to the Library, had a
plain end towards the west, in which was the doorway. The view of
the Hall from the gateway being somewhat unsightly, a sum of £600
was bequeathed to the College by Dean Pratt, formerly Provost, for
the purpose of having an ornamental front erected at this end of
the Hall; and Dr. Gilbert had also left by his will a further sum
of £500 towards the building of a new Belfry. The Board accordingly
employed Mr. Cassels to furnish a design for the combination of
the two objects. The building was commenced in 1740, and in 1746
the new front to the Hall, with a Bell Tower surmounted by a
dome and lantern, was completed, at a total cost of £3,886: and
in 1747 the great Bell of the College, which had been cast at
Gloucester in 1742, and which weighs nearly 37 cwt., was then hung
in this Tower.[157] The upper portion of this Belfry was removed
in 1791, having been condemned as unsafe, and the entire front
was taken down in 1798. The present Belfry, or _Campanile_, as
it is usually called, is the gift of Lord John George Beresford,
when Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, in 1852. It
is an isolated monumental building in the centre of Parliament
Square--an architectural composition of three stages. The lower
or basement stage is square in plan, and of the Doric order,
elevated on a bold podium or sub-basement of rusticated granite
ashlar. Each side presents an open archway between two pairs of
Doric pilasters, the pilasters being raised on pedestals, and
the whole surmounted by a Doric entablature. The keystones of
arches have carved heads, representing Homer, Socrates, Plato, and
Demosthenes. This story is built of granite, with chamfered joints
and raised panels, the alternate courses of pilasters being raised
in the same manner. From the blocking of the entablature rises a
stage of circular steps, the angles of blocking being occupied
by pedestals supporting figures representing Divinity, Science,
Medicine, and Law. From the upper step of this chamber rises the
bell-chamber--circular in plan, and formed by eight Corinthian
columns, attached, and raised on pedestals. The space between
each pair of columns is pierced by a semicircular-headed opening,
filled with ornamental ironwork. The Corinthian entablature above
is broken over each column. From this level rises the dome, divided
vertically by bands in continuation of the columns below, the
intervals being carved to resemble overlapping leaves. This dome
is surmounted by a small open lantern, formed by piers and arches;
above these is a small dental cornice, finished by a smaller dome,
carved like the one below. The whole is surmounted by a gilt cross.
Portland stone is used from the upper circular step; the rest is
cut granite. The total height is about one hundred feet.[158]
The gradation of the composition from the square basement to the
circular belfry stage is designed with remarkable artistic ability.
It is by a series of stepped courses, and the angles or “broaches”
are happily filled by the sitting figures, adapted to their
place with great skill by the late Mr. Thomas Kirke, R.H.A., the
sculptor. The whole design, while of refined and “correct” classic
detail, is of an original character, skilfully adapted to its
isolated position. The architect engaged in its erection in 1852-3
was the late Sir Charles Lanyon, R.H.A., then Mr. Lanyon, and,
associated with him, Mr. W. H. Lynn, R.H.A., both of whom continued
to design buildings in the Roman Classic manner with skill and
refinement throughout a period known as that of the Gothic revival,
when this style was for a time under undeserved popular disfavour.
Few architects of the day would have been found to adapt a design,
with such good judgment and restraint, to the _genius loci_ of
Trinity College, and to the surrounding architecture, the work in
the previous century of Sir William Chambers. The foundation-stone
of the Campanile was laid by the donor, His Grace Lord John George
Beresford, Lord Primate of all Ireland, who was also Chancellor of
the University, on the 1st of December, 1852; and the great Bell
was first rung in the new Belfry before Divine Service on Sunday,
November 26th, 1854.
[Illustration: THE BELL TOWER, FROM THE PROVOST’S GARDEN.]
THE HALL.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, the want of a
commodious and appropriate Dining Hall for the use of the members
of the College began to be seriously felt. In a pamphlet of the
year 1734, it is stated that attendance of the Fellows at Commons
was never as good as could be wished, and that this was attributed
to the uncomfortable condition of the then existing Hall, which
was a large and spacious room, flagged, open to the air at both
ends, never warmed by fire--“in fact, the coldest room in Europe.”
There was, moreover, no Common Room in the College, in which the
Fellows could pass the evening together. In 1740, Dr. Elwood, the
Vice-Provost, bequeathed £1,000 for the use of the College, which
the Board determined to apply to the purpose of building a Hall.
Plans were prepared by Mr. Cassels, and the work at once put in
hand; and the new building was completed in 1745. But the Hall, so
erected at a total cost of £3,020, must have been unusually badly
built, for we find that at a meeting of the Board--November 13,
1758--it was ordered that the Dining Hall should be pulled down,
the foundation walls having sagged to a dangerous extent on the
laying of the new kitchen; and “Mr. Plummer, the bricklayer”--the
name reads like a jest--was dismissed from the service of the
College for his negligence in connection with the execution of the
work. Mr. Plummer was apparently replaced by a better workman.
A new building was at once commenced, and although Mr. Cassels,
the architect, had unfortunately died while superintending the
construction of the Duke of Leinster’s new house at Carton, his
plans were carefully followed, and the Dining Hall as we now see
it was finished about 1761, and is apparently as solid as it
was the day Mr. Plummer’s successor laid the last stone of the
edifice.[159] It is a detached building, in the lower part of which
are the kitchen, cellars, and other offices. It presents a handsome
front, fifty feet wide, of granite, with an angular pediment
supported by six Ionic pilasters of cut granite. The main door is
approached by a broad flight of ten steps, rising to a height of
five feet from the base line, the whole width of the front.
[Illustration: THE DINING HALL, VIEWED FROM LIBRARY SQUARE.]
The clock in the pediment was for a long time the only public dial
in the College, and though it neither is nor was of any particular
interest as a timepiece, it was, until October 15th, 1870, somewhat
remarkable as timekeeper, the College time being a quarter of an
hour behind the world in Dublin.[160] Within the building, and
approached through a spacious outer hall or vestibule, is the
Dining Room or Hall proper, a fine room 70 ft. long, 35 ft. broad,
and 35 ft. high; it is wainscoted to the height of 12 ft. with oak
panels surmounted by a plain moulding. Over this, on the east side,
are four large plain round-headed windows carried quite up to the
cornice, which, together with a handsome Venetian window at the
north or upper end, opposite to the entrance, and over the Fellows’
tables, gives abundant light to the Hall. The west side is without
windows, but in their place are seven recesses, in each of which
hangs a full-length portrait of some one of the many distinguished
graduates of the University. The niches are finished with broad
mouldings in stucco, and immediately over them runs a bold deep
cornice, of Italian design. From this cornice springs the ceiling,
which is coved for about 10 ft. from the cornice, and flat in the
middle throughout its whole length. In this uppermost rib have
lately been fixed two fine sunlights for gas, by which the Hall is
brilliantly illuminated without heat or glare.
Round the room hang the following pictures:--
1. Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Hudson.
2. Provost Baldwin.
3. Archbishop Price.
4. } { Viscount Avonmore, }
5. } Four Judges, { Lord Downes, } all by Joseph.
6. } { Viscount Kilwarden, }
7. } { Chief Baron Hussey Burgh, }
8. Primate Lord John Beresford, by Catterson Smith.
9. Lord Chancellor Cairns, by Duncan.
10. Henry Grattan, by Hill.
11. Henry Flood.
12. The Earl of Rosse, Chancellor of the University, by
Catterson Smith.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF DINING HALL.]
The Common Room over the great Entrance Hall is fifty feet
long by nearly thirty feet broad, with a number of pictures of
distinguished Fellows hung round the walls--Provost Barrett,
by Joseph, and Provost Wall, by Catterson Smith; the great
Bishop Berkeley, by Lathem, with an engraving of the same by
Brooks, and a letter relating thereto framed and hung under the
portrait;[161] Dr. Townsend; the present Provost--Dr. Salmon, Dr.
Haughton, and Dr. Longfield, by Miss Purser; the late Provost,
Dr. Jellett, by Chancellor; Dr. Magee, Archbishop of Dublin,
and grandfather of the late Bishop of York, by Sir Martin Archer
Shee, P.R.A.; Archbishop Palliser, by an unknown artist. A copy of
a portrait of the Earl of Mornington, sometime Professor of Music
in the University, and father of the great Duke of Wellington:
the original, by Yeats, is now at Apsley House. And the last
acquisition is a portrait of the first Provost, Adam Loftus,[162]
presented to the College by Lord Iveagh in 1891. There is also hung
in the ante-room another smaller portrait of Provost Loftus in an
oval frame.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL, FROM COLLEGE PARK.]
THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL.
The modern Venetian Palace in which the Engineering School of
the College is so nobly lodged--a building which called forth
the hearty commendation of Mr. Ruskin--was designed by the firm
of Sir Thomas Deane, Son & Woodward, who subsequently were the
architects of the University Museum at Oxford. The contractors were
Gilbert Cockburn & Son. The building was erected in 1854-5, at a
cost of £26,000. The carving of the capitals and other stone-work
was done by two Cork workmen of the name of O’Shea, who were
afterwards employed by the architects in the elaborate carvings
executed for the Oxford Museum. The style has been described as
Byzantine Renaissance of a Venetian type; but the building is
in truth a highly original and beautiful conception worked out
into a harmonious and satisfactory whole. The base is, critically
considered, perhaps the best part. The exterior may suggest Venice,
and the interior certainly suggests Cordova; and yet there is
nothing incongruous with the very different surroundings, nor is
there in the work any of that patchiness so often apparent in
adaptations of foreign styles. It is something in itself complete,
dignified, and appropriate. The general dimensions are--length,
160ft.; width, 91ft.; height, 49ft. to the eaves. The building
is faced with granite ashlar, with Portland stone dressings
elaborately carved. The building, as is shown in the accompanying
drawing of the southern façade, looking on the College Park, is
of two stories, with a broad and richly carved string course
marking the division. The round-headed windows are disposed most
effectively in groups: in the façade there is a group of four in
the centre, one on either side, and a group of three at either
end; in the east and west fronts there is a group of three in the
centre, and one on either side. The arches of all these spring from
square pilasters carved in florid style in Portland stone, and
under the windows of the upper story are low balustrades. Between
the groups of windows in either façade are discs of coloured
marble let into the masonry, and with a circular bordure of carved
Portland stone and smaller pieces of marble; the whole harmonising
with the windows and forming a most effective ornament--simple,
original, and interesting. At each corner of the building are
scroll pilasters of great beauty. The roof is low pitched, and an
Italian cantilever cornice forms the eaves.
[Illustration: HALL AND STAIRCASE, ENGINEERING SCHOOL.]
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO ENGINEERING SCHOOL.]
The accompanying illustration represents the main doorway opening
on to the New Square, and looking to the north. Within the building
is a spacious Hall lined with Bath stone ashlar, with low marble
pillars and rich stone capitals, twenty-four in number, disposed
at different levels, and supporting Moorish arches; the whole
suggestive, at least, of the architecture of Moslem Spain. The
first floor is reached by a broad staircase of Portland stone,
with a handrail. Irish marble is used in the pillars and Irish
Serpentine in the handrail of the staircase. Two pillars of
Penzance Serpentine are the only pieces of marble not of Irish
production.[163] The whole is lighted by two low pendentive domes
constructed of coloured enamelled bricks, arranged in geometric
patterns, and singularly light and free in construction. The height
from the floor is 46ft. 6in. The illustration on next page shows
the Hall and Staircase looking east. Half-way up the staircase,
facing the main entrance, is the clock in magnetic connection
with the Observatory at Dunsink. It is a Regulator, fitted with
an electro-magnetic pendulum; and was put up in March 1878. An
electric current is sent out automatically every second by the
standard clock at Dunsink Observatory. This current goes first
through and controls the clock which releases the Time Ball at the
Port and Docks Offices, then through the public clock in front
of that office, and on to the standard clock in Trinity College.
From this clock the current is sent out through the two timepieces
over the Entrance Gate within and without the College, and then
on to the Royal Dublin Society, where it controls the clock in
the Entrance Hall. The Time Ball at the Port and Docks Office is
furnished with an electrical arrangement, designed by Sir Robert
Ball,[164] which automatically signals at Dunsink the moment the
Time Ball falls, so that any error in time is immediately known to
the person in charge. All the electrical arrangements were made and
fitted up by Messrs. Yeates & Son of Grafton Street.
[Illustration: CARVINGS AT BASE OF STAIRCASE.]
In addition to a fine Drawing School and numerous Lecture Rooms,
some of which are used by the Professors of Divinity and Law,
this building also contains the Geological and Mineralogical
collections, a series of engineering models, and a collection of
instruments for Natural Philosophy researches. For the workshops
attached, the motive power is supplied by an Otto gas engine.
THE PRINTING HOUSE.
The Printing House, a charming little antique temple standing
at the extreme north-east of the Library Square, was designed
by Cassels, and built between 1726 and 1734, at a cost of about
£1,200, which was almost entirely provided by Dr. Stearne, Bishop
of Clogher. The tetrastyle portico is of Roman Doric, nearly
8 ft. in width, with a bold cornice and triglyphs, and a plain
metope, all in fine Portland stone. And the smoke of a hundred and
fifty years has already sufficed to give it a somewhat venerable
appearance. Underneath the portico and immediately over the door is
the following inscription:--
R. R. Joannes Stearne,
Episcopus Clogherensis,
Vice-Cancellarius hujus Academiæ,
Pro benevolentia quam habuit
In Academiam et rem literariam
Posuit, A.D. 1734.
[Illustration: THE PRINTING OFFICE, FROM NEW SQUARE.]
BOTANY BAY.
Botany Bay Square, said by Mr. Wright[165] to have been designed by
Provost Murray, lies to the extreme north, and behind the northern
buildings of Library Square. It was built in 1812, and is a cold
and somewhat neglected-looking quadrangle without any architectural
pretensions. It encloses just one statute acre and a-half of
ground, with some grass in the centre, fenced in by a poor railing,
and planted with the scarlet flowering hawthorn. Were the buildings
covered with ivy, the square enlivened with trim green sward and
flowering shrubs, and the present railing removed, Botany Bay would
still be a long way behind picturesque Port Philip. But its name
would be somewhat better justified than it is at present.
THE LIBRARY.
As regards the Library, one of the most ancient of the existing
buildings in the College precincts, and in many ways the most
interesting, not only as regards the books which it contains, but
the very admirable and satisfactory structure in which the volumes
are so worthily housed, a full and detailed account will be found
in Chapter VII.
[Illustration: VIEW IN THE COLLEGE PARK--LIBRARY--ENGINEERING
SCHOOL.]
ST. PATRICK’S WELL LANE--THE COLLEGE PARK.
In the year 1688, a most interesting monument of antiquity in
Dublin was demolished to make way for City improvements. The old
Danish _Thingmote_, or Parliament Hill, an artificial mound some
forty feet high, that stood on the spot now partially occupied by
the new Ulster Bank, and not a hundred yards from the Provost’s
House, was levelled with the ground.[166] And the earth of the old
mound, as it was removed, was carted away and thrown down in front
of a poor street, St. Patrick’s Well Lane, facing the dreary and
neglected expanse of waste land that is now the College Park. The
street so widened and levelled was called--in honour of William
of Orange Nassau, Protestant King of England--Nassau Street. The
College authorities soon afterwards built a high brick wall on the
boundary between the City and the College property; and the level
of the street, in consequence of the immense accumulation of added
soil from the _Thingmote_, was left, as it now is, some six feet
higher than that of the College land which adjoins it. The College
Park was first laid out and planted with elm and plane trees in
1722; and in the same year a wall was built on the north-eastern
boundary of the College grounds, with a gateway and lodge for a
porter.[167]
For over a hundred years there was no great change of any kind,
either in the Park or in its surroundings; but in 1842, one of the
greatest improvements that has been made for the last half-century
in the Dublin streets was effected by the College authorities, who
pulled down the ugly brick wall of 1688, and supplied its place by
the present fine granite wall, surmounted by a round coping and
a handsome iron railing, which marks the boundary of the College
Park on the north side of Nassau Street. The stonework is four feet
six inches in height; the railing rises about seven feet higher,
and is the work of the once well-known firm of William Turner
& Co. And about the time this most admirable change was made,
Nassau Street was still further improved by the demolition of some
houses and shops, of which the leases fell in to the College, at
the north-west corner of the street, and a considerable slice of
ground was given up by the College to the City to widen and improve
the street. The new stables--of fine cut granite--attached to the
Provost’s House were erected at the same time. Nassau Street,
thus raised, as it were, by favour of the University, from a
third-rate to a first-rate street, became and continued for some
considerable time to be the chosen afternoon resort of fashionable
Dublin. But of late, although the street has been greatly improved
by new buildings and high-class shops, it is neglected by the
smart pleasure-seekers, who have to a great extent abandoned the
town for more attractive residences in the suburbs. And a place of
public meeting--like Hyde Park or the Boulevards, the Prater or the
Prado, the Corso or the Rambla, Unter den Linden or even “Under the
Trees”--is one of the most marked wants of modern social Dublin.
Under the granite wall and railings of 1842, just within the
Fellows’ Garden, and opposite the northern end of Dawson Street,
is the old Holy Well of St. Patrick, a sacred spring from which
St. Patrick’s Well Lane took its earlier name; now neglected and
ill-cared for, but once the most celebrated holy well in Dublin,
and the resort of numerous pilgrims and devotees from all parts of
Ireland. At the extreme south-east corner of the College precincts,
opening on to Lincoln Place, is a handsome granite gateway, with
large iron gates and a porter’s lodge in cut stone, erected in
1855, in place of a mean doorway familiarly known as “The Hole in
the Wall.” This entrance, which affords the most convenient access
to all Collegians residing in the east and south-east, at present
the more fashionable quarters of the town, is of special advantage
to the Medical students, whose Lecture Rooms and Laboratories
are situated just inside the gate. When these were completed in
1888, the ground between them and the gate was newly laid out and
planted. And it is proposed, on the falling in of the leases of
the row of houses between the Lincoln Place gate and the east end
of the granite wall and railings in Nassau Street, to pull down
the houses and shops, and continue the railings up to the gate
in Lincoln Place, a distance of 120 yards; an improvement which
will be equally great both to the College and the adjacent City
property. One of the most striking views of the College grounds is
from the windows of Kildare Street Club, the finest house in Nassau
Street, and itself a striking object as seen from the College Park.
THE MEDICAL SCHOOL.
[Illustration: THE MEDICAL SCHOOL.]
The Medical School, which is shown in the illustration on p. 229,
was built in 1886, from the designs of Mr. J. M‘Curdy (who died in
that year), developed by Mr. Thomas Drew, under whose supervision
the entire work was carried out. The site is one of the finest,
and would be, perhaps, the finest in the College, were it not for
the ugly back view of a building in dull grey cement, put up for
the accommodation of the Cricket Club, that shuts off the view of
and from the College Park. The Medical School has a frontage of
140 feet to the west, and two wings, extending 150 feet eastward,
at right angles to the façade. The whole of this 440 feet is in
fine cut granite. The main door is in the centre of the principal
elevation, and three tiers of fourteen windows, those in the
first and third stories being square, those in the second story
round-headed, are disposed in pairs, without ornamentation or
special architectural feature of any kind. Yet the building, if
somewhat severe in character, is appropriate to the objects for
which it is destined, and is, as a whole, entirely satisfactory.
For six feet from the ground the masonry is of rustic ashlar; from
thence to the eaves, fine cut granite. Behind the building, and
enclosed by the wings, is a yard containing the pumping engine, by
which the Park is kept dry even in the wettest weather. The water
is drained into a reservoir, and pumped from thence through iron
pipes into the river Liffey, which at low tide only is some feet
below the College Park. In comparatively recent times all this
part of the grounds was swampy, and in wet winters impassable.
And that part of the Park between the Museum and the New Square
is still called the Wilderness. To the north of the yard of the
Medical School, and separated by six feet from the north wing of
the Museum, is the Histological Laboratory, built in 1880. It is
85 feet long by 30 feet broad, with two tiers of seven windows,
alternately square and round headed, looking to the north.
[Illustration: THE MUSEUM (TENNIS COURT).]
THE ANATOMICAL MUSEUM.
The Anatomical Museum, built in 1875-6 from the design of Mr. J.
M‘Curdy, for a long time architect to the College, is placed some
seventy feet to the north of the Medical School, has a façade
of 150 feet looking west, and a depth of forty-five feet. It is
constructed of cut granite, without ornament or special features.
Two doors and nine windows on the ground floor are surmounted by
eleven windows on the upper story, all square, simple, solid, and
harmonious. In this building are found the Museum collections
both of Anatomy and of Natural History, and on the ground floor
is the Anthropometric Laboratory, where measurements and records
are taken on a somewhat more extended plan than that introduced by
Captain Francis Galton at South Kensington. And a metric system of
notation has been adopted similar to that in use on the Continent
of Europe, especially in Paris, and lately introduced into the
Anthropometric Department of the Military Medical School at
Washington.
[Illustration: THE DISSECTING ROOM.]
The Anatomical School presents the great advantage of having all
its Lecture Rooms and Laboratories on the ground floor.
The Dissecting Room is large, well lighted, and well ventilated--so
spacious and so well arranged that three hundred students can work
at the same time without inconvenience. It is in every respect well
suited for the work that is carried on, and presents none of that
dinginess so generally characteristic of rooms of the kind. It is
lighted by the electric light. The floor is of oak parquet. Round
the walls are a series of cases, in which are placed permanent
typical specimens, which are largely used by the students. Every
inch of wall space above these cases is made use of for framed
plates and diagrams appropriate to the subjects, and in the centre
of the room on lofty pedestals stand two statues, the Venus of
Milo and the Boxer, bearing witness to the fact that Anatomy has
artistic as well as medical aspects.
The Bone Room and the Lecture Theatre are entered directly from
the Dissecting Room. The Bone Room is a lofty room surrounded by
a gallery. On the floor, osteological specimens are arranged in
revolving cases on long narrow tables. Few anatomical departments
can boast of so numerous and so varied an assortment of teaching
preparations. The gallery is chiefly devoted to specimens which
bear upon the applications of anatomy to the practice of medicine.
It is here also that are displayed (1) the large series of
models prepared in the department to illustrate cerebral growth
and the cranio-cerebral topography of the child and the adult;
(2) the series of models representing the anatomy of inguinal
hernia, also prepared in the department; (3) the mesial sections
of the four anthropoid apes--gorilla, chimpanzee, orang, and
gibbon--preparations which are unique. The Theatre is capable of
seating 400 students. It is not handsome; but it is comfortable
and, most important of all, its acoustic property admirably well
adapted for the purpose for which it was designed. There are also a
Museum of Surgical and Medical Pathology, and one of Materia Medica.
THE CHEMICAL SCHOOL.
The Chemical Department adjoins the Medical School, and is in the
southern part of the buildings, just within the Lincoln Place
gate of Trinity College. The new Lecture Theatre of the School is
situated between two groups of Laboratories, and is fitted with all
modern appliances for lecture-illustration in the various branches
of Chemical Science. The seats are numbered, and are assigned in
the order of entry for the different courses of lectures. Behind
the Lecture Theatre is a large Demonstration Room, fitted with
Assay and Cupelling furnaces and other apparatus, and beyond
are the Laboratories for Qualitative Analysis and Preparation.
These consist of four lofty and well-ventilated rooms, capable
of accommodating 112 students, who work at compartments fully
provided with the necessary apparatus tests and materials. Off the
larger room of this series are (1) a special sulphuretted-hydrogen
chamber, with separate ventilation, (2) a general store, and (3)
cases of apparatus used at lectures. These Laboratories, as well
as the Lecture Theatre and other rooms, are heated by means of hot
water pipes, and the special ventilation required for carrying off
fumes, &c., from the different compartments is obtained by the
powerful draught of a chimney stack, sixty feet high, connected
with the furnace of the heating apparatus. The Quantitative and
Research Laboratories and their related rooms are at the east front
of the new buildings. The main Laboratory is a fine room, provided
with all modern appliances, and adjoining it are special rooms for
(_a_) Balances and other instruments of precision, together with
the special apparatus required for Quantitative Analysis; (_b_)
for Organic Analysis; (_c_) for Pressure Tube work; (_d_) for Gas
and Water Analysis, and for Spectrum Analysis. In addition to all
these there is a Chemical Museum, containing a great variety of
specimens for use at lectures, and everything that is required
for the prosecution of the various researches conducted in the
School. The Professor’s Rooms and private Laboratory are on the
floor immediately above the Quantitative Laboratory, and in direct
communication with all the departments.[168]
[Illustration: THE PRINTING OFFICE.]
[Illustration: PULPIT NOW IN DINING HALL, ONCE IN OLD CHAPEL.]
FOOTNOTES:
[139] Stubbs’ _History of the University of Dublin_, pp. 5, 6.
[140] Stubbs, _op. cit._ p. 7.
[141] Stubbs, _op. cit._ pp. 11, 12.
[142] Derived by Gilbert from a Hoge--a small sepulchral mound.
[143] Hoggen Green was long the Tyburn of Dublin.--Gilbert, iii. 3.
[144] The _Ampelopsis veitchii_ planted on the eastern front in
1887 by G. L. C. & E. P. W., as seen in summer and autumn, has
done wonders for the New Square. The hawthorns in every quadrangle
brighten the whole face of the College in early summer.
[145] He began life as a house carpenter.
[146] There are in Dublin, at the present day, accomplished
architects who have done, and are doing, good work both within and
without the College walls. It is obvious that these remarks have no
application nor reference to them, save in so far that even their
best work has in it nothing peculiarly Irish.
[147] Letter to Montagu, May 18th, 1748.
[148] _Graphic_, May 29th, 1886.
[149] Milizia: _Lives of Architects_, p. 295.
[150] I am obliged to Mr. George Cook, the manager of the
Burlington Hotel, for this information, and for afterwards showing
me over the house.
[151] The Old Square of 1685 occupied apparently the site of two
yet older quadrangles.
[152] “It is an accursed thing not to die.” This strange saying
will be found in Epictetus, Diss. II. VI. 12, where the philosopher
adds that man, like corn, having once been sown, must look forward
with satisfaction to the harvest when he shall also be reaped. The
slave moralist may perhaps have met St. Paul at Rome.
[153] These are modern pictures of no value or interest. There is
an authentic and most interesting portrait of Bishop Berkeley in
the Common Room.
[154] Born 1665; died 1745.
[155] Vigo Street, built at this time, takes its name from this
most popular victory.
[156] Sir Robert Stewart, Mus. Doc., Professor of Music in the
University, and Organist of the College Chapel, to whom my best
thanks are due, not only for this information, but for many details
as to the Chapel Organ kindly communicated in MS.
[157] The clapper weighs 2 cwt. 13 lbs., and the total cost was
£230.
[158] The belfry stage is not of sufficient size to admit of
the swinging of so great a bell as that of the College; it is
accordingly rung by chiming only.
[159] One corner, indeed, had to be strengthened about the middle
of the present century.
[160] The clock was made by Chancellor in the year 1846; it has a
duplex escapement, and strikes the hours and half-hours. It was
repaired and added to by Dobbyn in 1870.
[161] See _Notes and Queries_, I., vii., 428.
[162] This portrait was purchased by Lord Iveagh at Messrs.
Christie & Manson’s, at a sale of some of the present Marquess of
Ely’s pictures, in 1891.
[163] Cork, Midleton, Armagh, Kilkenny, Clare, and Connemara are
all represented.
[164] Now Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge.
[165] _Historical Guide to Dublin_, Rev. G. N. Wright, 1821.
[166] St. Andrew’s Church appears in old documents as _Parochia
Sancti Andrea de Thengmothe_.
[167] Stubbs: _History of the University of Dublin_, p. 145.
[168] A Grace passed the Senate of the University on the 20th
of June, 1890, authorising admission to the degree of Doctor
in Science of those who shall have been engaged in Scientific
Investigation for not less than three years after graduating in
Arts, and published results of independent work tending to the
advancement of any branch of Science, and judged of sufficient
merit by the Provost and Senior Fellows. Graduates of Trinity
College who desire to devote themselves to the pursuit of any
branch of Science can therefore now obtain a Scientific Degree on
the ground of research. Facilities are afforded in the various
schools for those who desire to acquire experience in conducting
scientific researches, either by assisting in carrying out
investigations actually in progress, working independently, or
pursuing inquiries arising out of those recently conducted in the
Schools.
[Illustration: (Decorative chapter heading)]