Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: XVI CHRIST CHURCH DUILDINGS—The oldest part of the college is the building to the South of the Cathedral, which was formerly the Refectory of St Frideswyde's. This was the original Library of the college, but was converted into rooms in 1775. The first part of Wolsey's buildings to be finished was the kitchen, a commencement over which the wits of the time made very merry. One epigram may be quoted: " Egregium opus! Cardinalis iste instituit Collegium et absolvit popinam," which may be rendered: " Here's a fine piece of work ! Your Cardinal A college plans, completes a guzzling hall." Wolsey was true to the old Oxford tradition, which has never neglected the body in its care for the mind. The rest of the Cardinal's completed work consisted of the East, South, and part of the West sides of the great quadrangle. The buildings may still be seen in the fine portrait of Wolsey, by Holbein, which hangs in the Hall.1 This magnificent room is far the finest of the Halls of Oxford, and measures 115 feet by 40; it is said to have been originally paved with green and yellow tiles, the effect of which must have been very curious. Wolsey's statue over the great gate and under Tom Tower was made by an Oxford man, Bird, in 1719, at the expense of Trelawny (by Kneller), Bishop of Winchester, one of the Seven Bishops, and the hero of the famous ballad :— " And must Trelawny die ? " After Wolsey's fall, the buildings remained at a standstill for a century; then Dr Samuel Fell, Dean under Charles I., attempted to complete the great quadrangle, the North side of which had been destined for Wolsey's Chapel, an 1 The collection of portraits in Christ Church Hall is unrivalled in Oxford. Besides those that are men- tioned later, the most artistically important are the Reynolds,...