THE CHAPEL.

PARLIAMENT AND LIBRARY SQUARES.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 timewithin 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.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 timewithin 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 westand 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 anextent, 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.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 thisaugmentation. 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.No. 2.—Second Manual or Great Organ, CC to F Compass.Soft Bourdon,16 feet tone.Open Diapason,8 feet.Open Diapason,8 ” ”Stopt Diapason,8 feet tone.Dulciana,8 ” ”Delicate Gamba,8 (to tenor C only).Flute,4 ” ”Flute,4 feet.Principal,4 ” ”Principal,4 feet.Fifteenth,2 ” ”Fifteenth,2 feet.Piccolo,1 ” ”Mixture (bright tone),3 ranks.Soft Mixture of 3 ranks, 12, 15, 17.Sesqui altera (soft tone),3 ranks.Oboe,8 ” ”Clarionet (to tenor C),8 feet tone.Vox humana,8 ” ”Contra-fagotto,16 feet (throughout).Trumpet,8 ” ”Trumpet,8 feet.No. 3.—Old Choir Organ, by Green. Compass, GGG, 12 feet to E in Alt.No. 4.—Two Octaves and a third, in Compass (Pedal Organ) CC to E.Stopt Diapason,8Sub-Bass,32Dulciana,8Double Open Diapason,16Principal,4Double Stopt Diapason,16 feet tone.Fifteenth,2Open 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 PropositiA.D.1609atque aliorum quorum reliquiæsub antiquo sacello sepultæin hoc Cœmeterium translatæ fuereAnno Domini 1799.Next to him lies Richard Andrews—Cujus beneficio ObservatoriumAstronomicum conditum atque inperpetuo constitutum fuit.He was Provost in 1758, and died in 1774.The third slab is—Piæ Memoriæ sacrumRicardi Baldwin S.T.P.hujusce collegii sociideinde Prœpositipostremo munificentissimi benefactorisIn præposituram electus fuitA.D.1717.Obiit die 30 SeptembrisA.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, CrediditJohannes StearneM. & J. U. D. Collegii SS Indiv.Trinitatis Dublin Socius Senior.Medicorū ibidem Præses primus qui natusfuit Arbrachæ 26 Novembris 1624Denatus fuit Dublin 18 Novembris 1669,Cujus exuviæ olim resumendæ hic depositæ sunt.Philosophus Medicus Sumūs Theologus idemSternius hâc, nullus jam, requiescit humoScilicet ut regnet, Natura quod edidit unum,Dividit in partes Mors inimica duas,Sed modo divisus coalescet Sternius, atqueIbit 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 MusæProscriptæ veteres incoluere Lares.Tecta Chalonerus pia condidit, obruta SeelusInstauravit, erat forte creasse minus.Magna viri doctrina, modestia magna, ruberetSi 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 Chalonerqui inter primos sociosCollegii S.S. Trinitatis.A Regina ElizabethaConstitutus 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 page130). 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.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 atpresent 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 wasthe 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, orCampanile, 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 aboutone 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 thegenius lociof 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.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 completedin 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.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 themiddle 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.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.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 isa 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.HALL AND STAIRCASE, ENGINEERING SCHOOL.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.

PARLIAMENT AND LIBRARY SQUARES.

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 timewithin 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.

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 timewithin 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.

LIBRARY SQUARE.

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 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 westand 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 anextent, 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.

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 thisaugmentation. 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.No. 2.—Second Manual or Great Organ, CC to F Compass.Soft Bourdon,16 feet tone.Open Diapason,8 feet.Open Diapason,8 ” ”Stopt Diapason,8 feet tone.Dulciana,8 ” ”Delicate Gamba,8 (to tenor C only).Flute,4 ” ”Flute,4 feet.Principal,4 ” ”Principal,4 feet.Fifteenth,2 ” ”Fifteenth,2 feet.Piccolo,1 ” ”Mixture (bright tone),3 ranks.Soft Mixture of 3 ranks, 12, 15, 17.Sesqui altera (soft tone),3 ranks.Oboe,8 ” ”Clarionet (to tenor C),8 feet tone.Vox humana,8 ” ”Contra-fagotto,16 feet (throughout).Trumpet,8 ” ”Trumpet,8 feet.No. 3.—Old Choir Organ, by Green. Compass, GGG, 12 feet to E in Alt.No. 4.—Two Octaves and a third, in Compass (Pedal Organ) CC to E.Stopt Diapason,8Sub-Bass,32Dulciana,8Double Open Diapason,16Principal,4Double Stopt Diapason,16 feet tone.Fifteenth,2Open 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.

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 PropositiA.D.1609atque aliorum quorum reliquiæsub antiquo sacello sepultæin hoc Cœmeterium translatæ fuereAnno Domini 1799.

Piae memoriæ sacrum Gulielmi Temple, LL.D., armigeri.

hujusce Collegii PropositiA.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 ObservatoriumAstronomicum conditum atque inperpetuo constitutum fuit.

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 sacrumRicardi Baldwin S.T.P.hujusce collegii sociideinde Prœpositipostremo munificentissimi benefactorisIn præposituram electus fuitA.D.1717.Obiit die 30 SeptembrisA.D.1758.

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, CrediditJohannes StearneM. & J. U. D. Collegii SS Indiv.Trinitatis Dublin Socius Senior.

Medicorū ibidem Præses primus qui natusfuit Arbrachæ 26 Novembris 1624Denatus fuit Dublin 18 Novembris 1669,Cujus exuviæ olim resumendæ hic depositæ sunt.Philosophus Medicus Sumūs Theologus idemSternius hâc, nullus jam, requiescit humoScilicet ut regnet, Natura quod edidit unum,Dividit in partes Mors inimica duas,Sed modo divisus coalescet Sternius, atqueIbit ab extremo, totus in astra, die.

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 MusæProscriptæ veteres incoluere Lares.Tecta Chalonerus pia condidit, obruta SeelusInstauravit, erat forte creasse minus.Magna viri doctrina, modestia magna, ruberetSi sua perlegeret carmine iusta cinis.Convenit urna loco, debebaturque Sacello.Non alio sterni pulvere templa decet.

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 Chalonerqui inter primos sociosCollegii S.S. Trinitatis.A Regina ElizabethaConstitutus 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 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 page130). 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.

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 atpresent 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 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 wasthe 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, orCampanile, 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 aboutone 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 thegenius lociof 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.

THE BELL TOWER, FROM THE PROVOST’S GARDEN.

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 completedin 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.

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 themiddle 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.

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.

THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL, FROM COLLEGE PARK.

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 isa 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.

HALL AND STAIRCASE, ENGINEERING SCHOOL.

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.

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