Magdalene College

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1959.

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'Magdalene College', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge, (London, 1959) pp. 137-147. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/pp137-147 [accessed 20 April 2024]

Magdalene College

Magdalene College Arms

(32) Magdalene College stands on the E. side of Magdalene Street, between the river and Chesterton Lane. The walls generally are of clunch with an external facing of red brick, now for the most part faced with stucco; the dressings are of clunch. Only the W. front of the Pepys Building is of Ketton stone ashlar. The roofs are slate and tile-covered. For descriptive purposes in the following account the Chapel is taken to be orientated due E. and W.

As the result of representations made to Henry VI that monks from Crowland (or Croyland) were sent to Cambridge to study canon law and theology but, because of the lack of a hostel for the Benedictine order, were compelled to lodge with seculars, the Abbot in 1428 obtained Letters Patent for the establishment of a hostel for them in two houses on the far side of the Great Bridge, on the site of the present college (L.P. 6. H VI, 2, m 21). Abbot Litlyngton, the applicant for the grant, died in 1469 and, according to the continuator of the Croyland Chronicle writing seventeen years later, his successor John de Wisbech (Abbot 1470–76) 'erected chambers convenient for repose and study in the monks' college of Buckingham' ('Historiae Croylandensis Continuatio' (1458–9) in T. Gale and W. Fulman Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum (Oxon. 1684), I, 560). A condition of the grant was that other Benedictine houses should be able to build rooms for their monks.

The establishment, though named the 'hostel called Monks' place' in a deed of 1472, was known as Buckingham College certainly from 1483, as then recorded in the Cambridge Borough accounts, but the exact connection with Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (executed 1483), or possibly his grandfather the 1st Duke, and the indebtedness to the family is unknown; the Dukes of Buckingham are reputed to have been benefactors of Crowland.

Dr. Caius (1510–73, student 1529–33) states that it was this Duke Henry who 'made a beginning' of the buildings of the college, in brick, which were continued by the monks, 'different monasteries building different portions; thus Ely one chamber, Walden a second, and Ramsey a third'. The date the sister monasteries contributed is not recorded.

As a result of this combined effort and with aid from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham, by the time of the dissolution of the College in 1539 a court with ranges on at least three sides had been completed, with the Hall in the E. range, a Chapel in the E. half of the N. range with perhaps chambers, including the Prior's room, in the rest and chambers occupying the S. range; probably the N. part of the W. range also was built. These buildings survive and form the major part of the existing First Court. Subsequent alterations have endowed them with greater architectural unity than they at first perhaps possessed, but it seems that the separate monastic camerae never had the diversity of appearance of those built in similar circumstances, and which survive largely unaltered, at Worcester College, Oxford.

The North Range, containing the Chapel, is of the late 15th century. The South Range is of similar date; here the blocks served by the separate staircases vary slightly from one another and appear to have been built as separate entities, thus corroborating Caius' statement. Further, the former existence of a doorway in the N.W. corner of the Court carved with the arms of Ely Cathedral priory, as recorded by Cole in 1777, seems to indicate a like origin for the N. part of the W. range.

According to an account of the College prepared for the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Cambridge in 1564, the Hall in the East Range was built in 1519 by Edward, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (executed 1521). The structural evidence indicates a rather earlier date for the remainder of the range, where the Kitchens formerly stood, though this has been considerably altered from time to time. It seems that the space available immediately S. of the Chapel was restricted and that a Hall of the size required could be built there only by projecting the bay containing the screens-passage into the northern end of the part of the range already standing.

Endowment of the College ceased at the Dissolution in December 1539. The grant to Thomas, Lord Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor, to refound the College was made on 3 April 1542; the new dedication was to St. Mary Magdalene. Audley died in 1544 and a Return of the King's Commissioners of 1546 shows the foundation to have been in a state of extreme poverty, precluding any building activity (P.R.O. E 315/440).

On the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1564, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Audley's sonin-law and great-grandson of Edward, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, promised the College £40 a year towards completion of the Court. This must apply to the incomplete West Range (see above). How far building had progressed by the time of his execution in June 1572 is unknown and the evidence of the stylised representation of the College in Richard Lyne's plan of 1574 is ambiguous. Hamond in 1592 shows the Court entirely enclosed. In 1585 Sir Christopher Wray, Thomas Parkinson and Edward Lucas had contributed some £18 towards the cost of the new gates; at the same period, expenses recorded in the Audit Books for paving the Gatehouse suggest that it was incomplete. Tradition attributes to Wray the Renaissance surround to the W. archway of the Gatehouse.

In an agreement dated 16 July 1587 between Wray and the College it is stated that he had lately at his own expense 'erected and new builded a portion of building' in the College; the terms of the agreement imply three storeys with four chambers each, twelve chambers in all. Tradition locates them in the E. range, S. of the Hall, but, further to the evidence of an earlier date for that fabric, exigences of space point rather to completion of the W. range and a remodelling of the existing N. end of the same.

Between 1733 and 1756 the interior of the late 15th-century Chapel was transformed to the Classical style, chiefly during the last two years of the period and under contract with Jeremiah Robinson, who prepared the designs. In 1754 the E. window had been blocked and in 1756 William Collins was paid for the relief panel, now in the Library, for the reredos. Between 1847 and 1851 the interior was again restored and most of the 18th-century additions were abolished; the flat plaster ceiling and the sets of attic-rooms contrived above were removed, the E. window was reopened and the wainscoting renewed. The work was supervised by John Buckler and cost some £2,000. At the same time a vestibule, with the Master's pew above, was converted into the present Ante-chapel by removing the S. entrance-doorway and replacing the E. wall of the vestibule by an oak screen. A new approach-passage was made by shortening the room to the W. now containing part of the College Library.

The Hall of 1519 was wainscoted in 1585 and a louvre built between 1586 and 1588. In 1714 £265 was spent on almost complete internal renovation, including a new ceiling, which may indicate that at this time the sets of rooms still over the Hall were first contrived between the original trusses.

The Combination Room is first recorded in 1712 when the floor above the Kitchen and Butteries was fitted to accommodate it. It was refitted in 1757; after 1810 the sash-windows in the W. wall, and on the floor below, were replaced by a single large four-light window. The Library is shown by Loggan in c. 1690 in the roof over the Chapel, but the date it was placed there is unknown; in 1733 it was moved to the room in the external N.W. angle of First Court and c. 1850 to the present position W. of the Chapel, in the dining-room and drawing-room of the old Master's Lodge.

The Master's Lodge was formerly in the N.W. corner of First Court; considerable extensions to it on the N., no longer standing, of which the dates are not recorded, are shown in Loggan's engraving of the College; they enclosed a small courtyard and a stable-yard beyond; the N. boundary-wall of the last in part survives. The accommodation was also extended by appropriating the rest of the N. range of First Court eastward as far as the Chapel. In 1834 it was decided to build a new Master's Lodge and Edward Blore was asked to prepare designs, but in the event John Buckler was the architect employed. Work was begun in 1835 to the N. of the site, adjoining Chesterton Lane; the foundation-stone was laid by H.R.H. Prince George of Cambridge.

The changes in the appearance of First Court between the late 17th century, see Loggan's view, and the present time were effected in 1702, in 1759–60 when the walls were faced with stucco, and between 1812 and 1815. In this last period, though the stucco was renewed, the recorded expenses are disproportionately heavy, and this fact, together with the known survival of plain eaves to within a short time before (see Harraden's view of the College dated 1810), suggests that it was also the period when the eaves were replaced by battlements, no change of this kind being recorded at a subsequent date. In 1955, (fn. 1) removal of the stucco facing and the battlements was begun; the E. side has been stripped and made good and the roof, now tiled, continued down to a slight eaves-cornice; this last is of stone and entirely new; similar work on the S. side is half completed (Summer 1956). The S. front to the river and the W. front to Magdalene Street were restored in 1873 and 1875 respectively by F. C. Penrose, the first after demolition of cottage properties standing between it and the river.

Beyond First Court only two buildings still surviving were added to the College in the 17th century, the Pepys Building forming the E. side of Second Court and, between it and the river, the timber-framed brewhouse, the latter built in 1629 and subsequently much altered. The Pepys Building, originally called the New Building, houses the Samuel Pepys library. Subscriptions for an extension to the College were solicited as early as 1640. No records of the beginning and completion of the Pepys Building survive and the evidence for dating it is largely incidental. By tradition it was begun during the Mastership of John Peachell, 1679–90, and completed during that of Gabriel Quadring, 1690–1713. A letter of 29 November 1679 to Pepys from John Maulyverer, Fellow, reads 'we had made a tender of it before this time' if subscriptions had not been so slow in coming in. 'We have not yet finished the inside, and I know not when we shall'. Thus it may have been begun while James Duport was Master, 1668–79, who is said to have given £235 towards it. In 1698–9 considerable payments were being made to Francis Percy, contractor and carver. Pepys contributed during Duport's Mastership, and subsequently, and in his will in 1703 bequeathed his library conditionally to Magdalene, to 'be in the New Building there', which seems to imply completion.

The architect also of the Pepys Building is unknown, but in 1677 Robert Hooke prepared a 'draught of Maudlin College' for Dr. Burton (Hooke's Diary in Walpole Soc. Papers (1936–7) XXV, 25 March 1677). It may be that he redrafted only the W. front of an older design prepared some time after c. 1640, the inference being that money then solicited was for this building; this would explain the curious dichotomy between the front and the rest of the building.

Pepys' library, contained in his own bookcases, was installed in the room occupying the whole of the first floor of the central block in 1724. In 1834 it was moved to the old Master's Lodge, to the ground-floor room next W. of the Chapel; about 1847 it was transferred to the new Master's Lodge and in 1853 back to the Pepys Building, to the first-floor room in the S.E. wing made fire-proof in 1879, where it remains.

Work done in the present century includes the addition in 1908–9 of a Kitchen block S. of the original Kitchen and Bright's Building designed by Sir Aston Webb on the S. side of Second Court. In 1911 A. C. Benson, then President and later (1915–25) Master, formed the Old Lodge, N. of the old Master's Lodge, by combining a number of small early 19th-century buildings and adding to them Benson Hall along the street front; in the same year the ceilings of the Hall and Combination Room were elaborated.

The Junior Combination Room was formed in the S.W. corner of First Court in 1923 and extended westward in 1935 but this area has recently been entirely remodelled and a new stair inserted. In 1926 the passage-way between the Ante-chapel and the Library was panelled and in 1928 carved shields-of-arms of Benedictine monasteries were inserted over the doorways in First Court from the designs of Kruger Gray.

Further accommodation provided in the present century on the opposite side of Magdalene Street includes Benson Court and Mallory Court. The former was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, but only the W. range was built, between 1930 and 1932. Mallory Court consists of a miscellany of buildings largely of the 19th century, some remodelled in 1924 and others recently. The Magdalene Street houses are now (1957) being converted into undergraduates' rooms.

Magdalene College in the 15th-century foundation was the only house of regular studies in Cambridge provided at first exclusively for Benedictine monks; the buildings of this period survive although to some extent obscured by later refacing and refitting. The S. range of First Court retains an exceptional example, almost intact, of the mediaeval arrangements of students' rooms, consisting of one large chamber with small studies opening from it. Stucco and battlements gave to First Court the appearance, unique among Cambridge colleges, of a work of the early 19th-century Romantic movement; they are now being abolished (1956). The heraldic painting and the staircase in the Hall are unusual. The Pepys Building is of considerable architectural interest and the Pepys library within is most notable, apart from its historical, literary and bibliographical importance, for the quality of the fittings. The relief-panel formerly in the Chapel reredos is a notable piece of plasterwork.

Architectural Description—In First Court (112½ ft. by 80 ft.) the West Range contains the Gateway well to the S. of centre. It is of two storeys with attics. The E. wall is mostly faced with Roman cement and has clunch dressings; the W. wall, to the street, is of red brick entirely refaced in 1875, with freestone dressings. The roofs are slate-covered. Entrance to the College has been from this direction certainly since 1574 and no doubt from the foundation, and the development of the range so far as it is ascertainable is outlined above. A thick cross-wall immediately N. of the Porter's Lodge may indicate the extent of the building of the first foundation. The rest of the range to the S. is of the second half of the 16th century and financed in building probably by the 4th Duke of Norfolk and Sir Christopher Wray, the earlier northern part being remodelled at the same time.

The W. arch of the Gateway is largely original, of c. 1585, with a chamfered semicircular arch on square responds with moulded imposts; the stone surround has flanking Roman Doric pilasters with enriched caps on pedestals supporting a full entablature with triglyphs and flower-like paterae in the metopes. The oak door, for which contributions were received in 1585, is hung on old strap-hinges; it is in two leaves, of thirteen and twelve linenfold panels on the face and latticeframed behind, with a wicket in the N. leaf. The E. arch has chamfered freestone jambs and a moulded four-centred head of clunch with a restored label (p. 394); over it is an achievement-of-arms of Richard Neville-Griffin, 3rd Lord Braybrooke, added between 1852 and 1854 (Plate 202). The Gatehall (22¼ ft. by 11¼ ft.) has a modern doorway and modern three-light window in the N. wall and a modern doorway in the S. wall.

The E. side of the W. range has a plain plinth and embattled parapet. On the ground floor the doorway to staircase 'A' has been completely restored and over it is a modern shield-of-arms of Ely Cathedral priory; the original doorway was probably some 4 ft. further S. where is a blocking below the adjacent window. The doorway to staircase 'B' has much weathered square jambs, a hollow-chamfered four-centred arch in a square head and a label; over it is a modern shield-of-arms of Crowland Abbey. The four windows of two and three lights, as shown on the plan, have four-centred openings in square heads with sunk spandrels and labels and are all of the second half of the 16th century; the glazing of the northernmost is set in modern oak framing. On the first floor is a range of seven two and three-light windows of similar character to the foregoing, the three to the S. being symmetrically placed over the three southern openings below. On the roof are five 18th or 19th-century flat-roofed dormer-windows.

The W. side, to Magdalene Street, retains almost exactly the fenestration shown in Loggan's view of the College, c. 1690. On the ground floor is a range of ten two-light windows and a single-light window, and on the first floor of twelve two-light windows, all similar in character to those on the E. but entirely renewed externally. The changes since Loggan, excluding intermediate changes, among them the insertion of a Gothic doorway opposite doorway 'A', are the replacement of three small single-light windows on the ground floor by the third two-light window from the N., the abolition of a fourth small single-light window further S., and the entire rearrangement and renewal of the dormer-windows; these last, eight in number, are of 1873. The great shafted chimneystacks were rebuilt in the same period.

The N. and S. ends are gabled; the brickwork and stone dressings were very extensively renewed in 1875 and 1873. In the N. end is a modern doorway, under a modern porch, set in an area of 15th-century brickwork extending up to include on the first floor a restored 15th-century two-light window with cinque-foiled openings and a pierced spandrel in a four-centred moulded head with original relieving-arch. Further W. are two altered and restored windows of the 16th century set in brickwork of the same period; the first, on the ground floor, is of four lights, and the second, on the first floor, of three lights; both are of similar character to those of similar date described above. In the S. end, which retains original brickwork showing only up to the first-floor level, are four windows and a loop-light; the two on the ground floor, of one and two lights both transomed, are similar to the other 16th-century windows in the range but smaller and entirely restored externally; the oriel-window on the first floor and the window in the gable are of 1873.

The Interior of the W. range contains the Porter's Lodge N. of the Gateway, college offices at the S. end of the first floor and, for the rest, sets of chambers. Alterations at the N. end including readjustment of the staircase may account for the displacement of doorway 'A' and this, as indicated above, occurred either during or before the late 16th-century work on the range; further, the blocked light adjoining the second W. window from the N. on the first floor suggests either a displacement northward in 1875 of one of the two-light windows shown by Loggan or, accepting an earlier date for the alteration, the existence here of a three-light window antedating Loggan's view. Most of the rooms have been modernised, but they retain a number of exposed chamfered ceiling-beams; some 18th-century flush-panelled doors to the sets remain. In the N.W. corner of the northernmost room is a late 15th or 16th-century doorway with chamfered jambs and moulded four-centred head opening into a cupboard, perhaps originally a garderobe. In the N. wall of the room next S. of the Gateway are traces of a former doorway with four-centred head, now blocked, opening into the Gatehall.

On the first floor the northernmost room has the greater part of the E. wall lined to within about 2 ft. from the ceiling with panelling of c. 1600, in five heights with enriched frieze-panels. The main room N. of staircase 'B' has an 18th-century panelled dado and six-panel doors. The timber-framing of the partition between this staircase and the room to the S. is exposed on the S. side.

The North Range contains the Chapel and Ante-chapel to the E. divided by a narrow passage-way from the Library next to the W. on the ground floor. It is of one and two storeys with attics. Over the Library are a Fellow's rooms and, in the attics, sets of undergraduates' rooms. The walls are of brick very extensively refaced in the 19th century and with the S. side of the range, W. of the chapel, faced with Roman cement. It was built in the second half of the 15th century, after 1470, and has subsequently been much altered. In addition to the alterations to the Chapel already described, in 1876 the upper part of the W. gable was entirely rebuilt, incorporating a niche containing a figure of the patron saint. After the completion in 1835 of the new Master's Lodge, a staircase-wing of unknown date projecting northward from the old Master's Lodge in the W. half of this range was demolished; the Library was transferred to the present position, into the former dining-room and drawing-room, and new windows to light it were inserted towards the Court; further, the first floor of the old Lodge was converted into sets of chambers.

The Chapel (63½ ft. by 20 ft. including the Ante-chapel 10 ft. wide) has restored stone quoins to the N.E. angle. The E. end is gabled and the whole of the upper part has been refaced or rebuilt. The E. window is entirely renewed; it is of five cinque-foiled ogee lights with tracery in a four-centred head and replaces that, presumably of similar design, bricked up in 1754 and uncovered again in the restoration of 1847–51. The N. and S. walls have plain plinths and eaves; on the S. a modern two-stage buttress marks the W. end. The Chapel is lit from each side by three three-light windows; they replace mediaeval windows and are all of the mid 19th century except perhaps most of the jambs of the N.E. window.

The Interior of the Chapel, as a result of the mid 18th and mid 19th-century restorations, retains no original features except the roof. In 1847 removal of the 18th-century plaster ceiling exposed the roof to the Chapel. Removal of the panelling at the same time revealed four niches at the E. end with remains of canopies. The Roof is divided into eight bays by collar-beam trusses with braces forming high four-centred arches; these last spring from moulded wall-plates and have pierced tracery-panels in the spandrels; standing on the collars are king-posts supporting longitudinal braces forming four-centred arches below the ridge-piece. The principals, up to the collar, the collar-beams, the braces and the single purlins are moulded. The rafters are laid flat and have the extra support of tall vertical ashlar-pieces.

Magdalene College, Plan

Fittings—Door: in W. entrance, of oak, in two leaves, front with window-tracery panelling, latticed and enriched back, 1847–51. Floor-slab: In Ante-chapel, of William Gretton, S.T.P., 1813, Master, black marble. Glass: In E. window, figure subjects in each light, (1) St. Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Christ (Plate 36), (2) The Deposition, (3) St. Mary Magdalene, (4) the three Maries and St. John, (5) 'Noli me tangere', all with kneeling angels below bearing inscribed scrolls referring to the respective scenes, and canopies and geometrical patterns above, given in 1850, designed by Pugin and made by Messrs. Hardman of Birmingham. Niches: four; two flanking E. window, with side-standards, three-sided canopies and tall gabled and crocketed spires; two in N. and S. walls, at E. end, similar to the foregoing, but with lower spires, 1847–51, containing modern statues. Panelling: on N. and S. walls over the stalls, of oak, panels with cinque-foiled heads divided into bays by buttress-like standards and with continuous cornice carved with paterae, 1847–51, in the Gothic style. Reredos: see Library below. Screen: between Chapel and Ante-chapel, of oak, central opening with cusped and crocketed four-centred arch with pierced traceried panels above containing carved shields of France and England quarterly and Stafford, rest of E. side with two return-stalls under elaborate traceried canopies and all surmounted by a cornice carved with Royal and Stafford heraldic devices and brattishing, W. side panelled in two heights of tracery-headed panels, 1847–51, in the Gothic style. Stalls: against N. and S. walls, with return-stalls for the Master and President against screen, arranged as shown on plan, of oak, with shaped and moulded arm-rests with moulded cappings, desks with tracery-panelled fronts and panelled ends with carved poppy-heads, 1847–51, in the Gothic style. (see Screen). Pavement: of stone flags set diagonally with small black marble squares at the corners, the payment of £47 was made to Thompson, 2 September 1755; at E. end, modern.

W. of the Chapel-block, approximately in the centre of the S. side of the N. range, is a doorway renewed in 1925; this replaced a window in the mid 19th-century alterations; beyond are five rectangular windows lighting the Library, with splayed heads and jambs, inserted either in or about 1834 when the Pepys library was moved here or 1847 when the College library was installed. On the first floor are seven much-weathered windows of the second half of the 15th-century, with some repairs; the first, third and fifth are of a single two-centred light, the others of two lights with a pierced spandrel in a four-centred head; any cusps they may have had have been removed. On the roof are four flat-roofed dormer-windows renewed in the 18th or 19th century.

On the N. side, W. of the Chapel-block, the door to the passage-way and the window above are modern and set in patchings of brickwork later than the rest. Much of the wall further W. is hidden by later additions; these are partly of one storey only, and in the exposed upper wall-face are traces of the W. jamb and springing of an original window close W. of a modern two-light window; further W., beyond a modern window set in a recess and impinging upon the blocking of an old doorway is a much restored original window of two pointed lights with a pierced spandrel in a four-centred head. The three late 16th-century chimney-stacks have had the upper parts rebuilt in the 19th century.

The Library (51¾ ft. by 20½ ft. overall), next W. of the passage-way adjoining the Chapel-block and occupying the drawing-room and dining-room of the former Master's Lodge has an extension of 1927 entered through a doorway in the N. wall of the E. room. The modern fireplace in the E. room has slips of 19th-century blue and white tiles; the overmantel is made up of fragments of carved 'Jacobean' woodwork, including arabesques, a perspective-arched panel, terminal figures and enriched and coupled attached columns. The wide doorway between the two rooms is of reset 18th-century material, with fluted Ionic pilasters in antis supporting a plain frieze and dentil-cornice; the double doors are each of six fielded panels. The W. room contains against the W. wall much of the reredos of 1756 (Plate 203) removed from the Chapel in the restoration of 1847–51, including the plaster relief-panel of the Maries at the Sepulchre after the Resurrection, for which William Collins was paid £31 10s. on 21 May 1756. The panel is flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting an entablature with guilloche-ornament on the soffit, scrolled acanthus on the frieze and a dentil-cornice. The fireplace has an overmantel made up of carved fragments, some perhaps old, with four panels containing cartouches painted in modern times with shields-of-arms.

The S. windows of the Library contain heraldic and other glass reset in 1916. It is presumably that (except 4 below) mentioned by Cole in the windows of the Gallery in the Master's Lodge, probably the long building shown by Loggan with an oriel-window. The arms etc. are as follows: E. window, (1) quarterly of sixteen, Neville, Clarence, Pole, Hastings, Earl of Warwick, Beauchamp, Monthermer, Montagu, Peverel, Hungerford, Clare, Spencer, Moels, Moleyns, Botreaux and Cornwall, for Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, K.G., but with the quarters misplaced and some back to front, all in a strapwork cartouche with a coronet; (2) five apparently unrelated quarterings including the arms of William Bruges, Garter King of Arms, 1415–50, and (unidentified 17), in a strapwork cartouche with a coronet. Second window, (3) of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, quarterly of six, Seymour marriage augmentation, Seymour, Beauchamp of Hache, Esturmi, Mackwilliam, and Coker, in a strapwork cartouche with a coronet; (4) the Tudor Royal arms in a strapwork cartouche with a crown above and two ostrich feathers below, and motto, 19th-century. Third window, (5) the figure of St. Lawrence in chasuble and amice holding book and gridiron; (6) kneeling angel in robe holding sceptre, book above. Fourth window, (7) quarterly of eight, Vere, Trussell, Colbrooke, Archdeacon, Sergeaux, Badlesmere (damaged), Sanford, and Bulbeck; (8) of William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester, Somerset quartering Herbert and Woodville, with Garter and coronet. Fifth window, (9) nimbed figure of a king holding a cross; (10) nimbed figure of St. Edmund the Martyr, with book and arrow. The above, (5), (6), (9) and (10) late 15th-century, much restored, the remainder, except (4), late 16th-century.

The passage-way immediately E. of the Library is lined with modern panelling incorporating four 18th-century Corinthian pilasters on pedestals from the English church of St. Mary at Rotterdam.

On the first floor, the E. room is lined with mid 18th-century panelling with a moulded dado-rail; the contemporary doors are of two panels. Adjoining it on the W. are a bedroom and lobby and, beyond, a sitting-room, which has the N. and W. walls and part of the S. wall lined with reset oak panelling of c. 1600. A late 16th-century clunch fireplace in the N. wall has moulded jambs and a four-centred arch in a square head with a cornice-shelf above; the overmantel is made up of 17th-century and modern materials. W. of the sitting-room, in the adjoining bedroom and passage, the 15th-century moulded wall-plates on the outer walls are exposed.

The East Range is of one and two storeys with attics, with the N. half containing the Hall, the S. half the Butteries with the Combination Room on the first floor, and a continuous run of attics from end to end. It is of red brick, consisting of bricks of 9 × 4½ × 2 ins., four courses measuring 11 ins., with clunch dressings and ashlar quoins to the S.E. angle. The roofs are slate and tile-covered. The Hall is said to have been built in 1519 in an account of the College written some forty-five years later; the part S. of the Hall is of a different build and slightly earlier. In 1586 the Hall was wainscoted at the expense of Edward Lucas and was repanelled in 1714, when 'new ceiled and paved and glazed'; the Combination Room having been formed in the present position in 1712, the double staircase to it from the Hall was contrived in the same period.

The Hall (25 ft. by 56½ ft. including the Screens 6¼ ft. wide) has brick plinths continued from the adjoining buildings but stepped up from the Chapel, a simple stone eaves-cornice to the E., a gabled N. end, and an embattled parapet to the W. (but see historical introduction). On the N. is a single-storey modern annexe. The Hall is lit by three windows on each side. Those on the E. are of early 16th-century style, being of three cinque-foiled lights in a four-centred head with a label, but much restored. Those on the W. are in the main original; the northernmost is of four cinque-foiled and transomed lights in an elliptical head with a label with carved headstops, that to the S. defaced; the other two windows are similar in design to those opposite but shorter and with 19th-century carved headstops to the labels. The original W. doorway to the screens-passage has moulded and shafted jambs with moulded caps and bases and a moulded four-centred arch under a square label with trefoiled spandrels carved with paterae; over it is a 17th-century carved achievement of the Audley arms within a Garter with lion supporters and the motto 'Garde ta foy' in a panel with flanking scrolls (Plate 202). The restored doorway at the opposite end of the screens-passage has moulded jambs, four-centred arch and label; above it, formerly lighting the gallery over the screens and now blocked by panelling inside, is a late 15th-century window of two four-centred lights with a pierced spandrel in a four-centred head. Just N. of these two features a change in the kind of brick used for the walling is marked by a distinct almost vertical mortar joint; this doubtless indicates the end of the earlier part of the range. Removal of the stucco facing of First Court (1955) has revealed a gallery window and mortar joint, generally similar to the foregoing, in the W. wall.

On the ridge of the Hall roof, centrally over the screens-passage, is a lead-covered timber lantern built after 1810, probably between 1812 and 1815. It is in three rectangular diminishing stages surmounted by an octagonal spire with a weather-vane. In the lowest stage are clock-faces to E. and W. and in each face of the two upper stages four and three-light windows respectively, in part blocked with boarding.

The Interior of the Hall (Plate 199) has a flat plaster ceiling with enrichments of 1911. Above the ceiling the original timber roof remains largely intact; it is in seven bays, the seventh representing the penetration into the earlier building. The six N. bays are divided by pairs of principals with cambered collar-beams stiffened by arched braces; the principals, collars, braces and two purlins on each side are moulded (p. 396) and the collar in the fifth truss is embattled. Dividing the sixth and seventh bays, is a seventh truss similar to those just described but built against and forming a fascia to a robust plainer truss belonging, with the truss now in the S. wall, to the earlier building beyond to the S. The centre part of the Hall floor is paved with stone flags set diagonally with small square blocks of slate at the angles, the sides with plain paving, laid in 1714. The walls are lined up to sill-level and to some 3 ft. higher on the N. wall behind the dais with panelling of 1714; this has a plain panelled dado, a moulded dado-rail, and large bolection-moulded and fielded panels between the rail and the crowning cornice. Behind the dais it is divided into three bays by reused late 16th or early 17th-century carved fragments made up into Ionic pilasters with carved cherub-heads and pendent bunches of fruit on the shafts; in the bays, fixed to the head-rail, are modern cartouches painted with the arms of (a) Crowland Abbey, (b) Audley, for the College, (c) Stafford. The whole of the face of the N. wall above the panelling, up to the ceiling, is painted with an elaborate armorial (Plate 202) with trompe l'œil marbled Corinthian columns at the sides supporting a draped cornice. Centrally placed in a painted framing is an achievement of the Royal arms of 1707–14; to each side are two smaller achievements, one above the other: E., upper, of Thomas, Lord Audley of Walden, with a coronet and Audley beast supporters, lower, of Sir Christopher Wray; W., upper, quarterly of Stafford, i Woodstock, ii Bohun of Hereford, iii Bohun of Northampton, iv Stafford, in a Garter with a coronet and swan supporters, lower, of Howard, with a coronet and lion supporters. The painting was cleaned and restored in 1949.

The double staircase at the S. end of the Hall (Plate 199) is arranged as shown on the plan, with short returns of the panelling from the side walls screening the half-landings and upper flights. The stairs have close moulded strings, turned balusters, moulded handrails and square newels. The Screen and gallery-front contained between the staircases have an elaborate central feature made up in part of reused materials of the late 16th or early 17th century and incorporating a single doorway. This last is set in panelling contained within an arch with rounded head, moulded archivolt and imposts and a tympanum carved with ribbons and a cartouche containing the painted arms of the See of Ely. The arch is flanked by enriched Ionic pilasters, similar to those behind the dais, and elaborate foliage carving of the early 18th century in the spandrels. The elaboration of the gallery-front above consists of fragments including terminal figures, niches and a central cartouche. The flanking bays of both screen and gallery have bolection-moulded panelling similar to that of 1714 elsewhere in the Hall and repeated on the reverse of the gallery-front.

The gallery over the screens-passage has an open screen of three bays between it and the Hall, with the pilasters dividing the bays based, structurally, on the gallery-front already described. The pilasters support a deep cornice below the ceiling. The wide centre bay contains an elliptical arch and the narrow side bays, at the head of the stairs, contain semicircular arches, all with moulded archivolts, key-blocks, moulded imposts and plain responds. The whole may be later than the woodwork below and represent a remodelling of 1757 when the Combination Room beyond was refitted. The gallery itself is lined with bolection-moulded panelling, similar to that in the Hall, with dado, dado-rail and entablature; flanking the doorway in the centre of the S. wall are pilaster-strips with fielded panels in the shafts, and reset above the doorway is a late 16th-century carved achievement-of-arms of Edward Lucas.

The Hall windows are mostly filled with 19th and 20th-century heraldic glass, but in the centre E. window is a small 16th-century shield of the arms of Audley impaling Grey quartering Hastings, Valence, Quincy, Astley, Woodville, Bonville, and Harrington for Thomas, Lord Audley, and his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Dorset; this was given to the College by Cole in 1776 (Monumental Inscriptions from Cambridgeshire, edit. Dr. W. M. Palmer, 278). In the N.W. window is the shield of Cust quartering Brownlow dated 1833, for John Hume, son of John, 1st Earl Brownlow.

The screens-passage is lined with 18th-century panelling in two heights of panels. The N. side is divided into bays by panelled pilasters and additional supports to the superstructure; over the doorway in the centre is a carved cartouche, perhaps modern, with a faded painting of the College arms.

S. of the Hall-block, the external brickwork of the E. wall is much patched. The plinth and eaves are continuous from the Hall. S. of the doorway to the screens are two modern cellarwindows interrupting the plinth and on the ground floor five one, two and three-light windows, all of the 16th century except the southernmost, which is modern; they have four-centred or elliptical openings in square heads with sunk spandrels and moulded labels. On the first floor are three irregularly spaced windows, the first two similar to that over the screens doorway, the third similar to those below but of four paired lights with a heavy centre mullion. The W. side has the plinth and embattled parapet continued from the Hall (but see historical introduction) and contains one large four-light transomed window; the latter is a 19th-century copy of the N.W. window in the Hall, with the upper part lighting the Combination Room, the lower part a service-passage. Traces of earlier windows show in the newly exposed brickwork.

The S. end of the E. range has the ground floor concealed by modern additions; the red brick upper part has been refaced in modern times and the large chimney-stack at the apex of the gable rebuilt. On the first floor are two restored late 15th-century two-light windows with four-centred heads and similar to the others of the same date in the N. and E. ranges; on the second floor are three late 19th-century windows.

The Interior of the E. range S. of the Hall block has been almost entirely modernised on the ground floor and rearranged; only the ceiling-beams remain to show the position of the Butteries and the central passage between them. The kitchenfireplace formerly against the S. wall has been removed and the fireplaces above supported on steel joists. The Kitchen is now in the modern annexe on the S.

The Combination Room (Plate 201) (24¾ ft. by 21¼ ft.) on the first floor, adjoining the gallery over the Hall-screens on the S., is first referred to in this position in 1712. In 1757 it was completely refitted at a cost of £166. Newling was paid £93 for the wainscoting and floor, and Woodward for carving scrolls and the moulding round the fireplace. The plaster ceiling is of 1911. The walls are entirely lined with wainscoting with a moulded dado-rail, tall ovolo-moulded panels, and a modillioncornice with dentil-like fret. The door-case in the centre of the N. wall has an architrave, pulvinated frieze and pedimented cornice; the cases to the doors in the E. wall are with plain friezes and modillion-cornices. The fireplace has Portland stone slips within an enriched wood architrave-moulding with scrolled frieze and cornice-shelf. The overmantel contains a modern oil-painting on copper of the College, after Loggan, in a framing with foliated side-scrolls and a pedimented cornice. The subsidiary cornices in the room generally match the main cornice in design and enrichment. The woodwork throughout is of 1757. The windows contain early 19th-century heraldic glass consisting of four shields-of-arms surmounted by coronets; from the N., of (a) Lord Audley of Walden; (b) Lord Braybrooke, quarterly (i) Griffin, (ii) Brotherton, (iii) Howard, (iv) Audley of Walden; (c) Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, Woodstock quartering Stafford; (d) Griffin quartering Neville of Raby quarterly with Neville of Bulmer, for Richard Neville-Griffin, 2nd Lord Braybrooke.

The remainder of the S. end of the E. range is divided into two rooms. The Small Combination Room (14¼ ft. by 18½ ft.) to the E., approached through a narrow wall-passage from the Combination Room, has an open timber ceiling with a chamfered beam running N. and S. and a second of heavy scantling against the E. wall; the joists have been widened in modern times by the addition of roll-mouldings on either side. The walls are lined to within 2 ft. of the ceiling with panelling of c. 1600, of five panels in the height with an enriched frieze and small cornice; it is made up with some modern work. The clunch fireplace in the S. wall has stop-moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a square head with sunk spandrels. The oak overmantel supported on fluted Doric side-pilasters on panelled pedestals is in three bays divided and flanked by terminal figures; in each bay is a round-headed panel enriched with arabesque and the bracketed frieze is similarly enriched. The panelling, previously in No. 25 Magdalene Street (Monument (205)), was inserted in 1919.

The cloakroom adjoining the Small Combination Room on the W. retains a clunch fireplace with ovolo-moulded jambs and flattened three-sided head.

The main roof is original, in six bays divided by trusses simpler than those over the Hall, with the main timbers plain or only chamfered and the alternate trusses without braces. Only the E. half of the southernmost truss and part of the next survive. A seventh bay on the N. is now in the Hall block, over the screens-passage, and the trusses flanking it are referred to above with the Hall roof.

The South Range is of two storeys with attics. The N. side is faced with Roman cement and has clunch dressings; the river front is of red brick with entirely renewed stone dressings; the infilling of the walls is clunch. The roofs are slate-covered. It contains sets of chambers and was built in four sections in the second half of the 15th century, after 1470, the features of windows, doorways and fittings varying slightly from one section to another. The westernmost section was remodelled or rebuilt with the W. range in the 16th century. The attic rooms were added probably in the 18th century. At an unknown date all the external heads of the windows towards First Court were raised by the insertion of another stone-course at the springing, but leaving the rear-arches undisturbed.

The N. side has the plinth and embattled parapet continued from the flanking ranges (but see historical introduction). In the S.W. corner of the Court is a projecting stair-turret. The extent of the differing sections is indicated on the plan. The E. doorway has chamfered jambs and a moulded four-centred arch with a moulded label (p. 393), the second doorway moulded jambs and four-centred arch with traceried spandrels, the third doorway moulded jambs and segmental-pointed arch with traceried spandrels, and the fourth doorway, in the stair-turret, with chamfered jambs and four-centred arch with sunk spandrels in a square head; the last three are under square moulded labels. The windows are of one, two and three lights as shown on the plan; they have two or four-centred openings in square heads with sunk spandrels and labels, unless otherwise described below. The E. three windows had reveals of two hollow-chamfered orders, but the inner order has been cut away on the reveals thus creating eccentric openings. The next four have moulded reveals; the last of the four being in a different section of building has ogee heads to the lights. The eighth window has ogee lights similar to those in the preceding window.

Since the previous paragraph was written, removal of the stucco-facing in 1956 has revealed over the entrance to staircase 'F' a blocked opening, nearly square, with a rough segmental brick head, and over the entrance to staircase 'E' a small recess with a 15th-century clunch cinque-foiled head, possibly reset, and a Roman cement panel in the back with the modelled initial and date A 1813. Furthermore, a rough vertical joint in the brickwork has been disclosed close E. of the latter staircase.

In the first floor is a range of thirteen windows, including that to the stair-turret, placed above the openings below, except the ninth, tenth and eleventh which are set closer together; these last have elliptical openings whereas the rest have four-centred openings; all have moulded heads and reveals under square labels. The reveals and heads of the ground and first-floor two-light windows in the second section are being wholly renewed (1956).

The stair-turret is of two stages externally and three storeys, the uppermost stage rising above the adjacent parapets and embattled. The ground and first-floor wall-openings are described above; in the third stage is a single light window similar to that below.

The S. side was restored by Penrose in 1873, the wall heightened and the upper part of the chimney-stacks rebuilt. It has a chamfered plinth. Straight joints in the brickwork between the two chimney-stack projections towards the E. and in the plinth further to the W., where indicated on the plan, show the extent of the four sections of the building. The windows in the S. ends of the E. and W. ranges are described above; for the rest, all the windows are of one and two lights, except a four-light window on the first floor immediately W. of the E. projecting chimney-stack, mostly with four-centred openings in square heads with labels, and all entirely restored externally; four of those on the ground floor at the western end are transomed. At first-floor level, close E. of the second projecting chimney-stack from the E., is a stone outlet from the lavatory-recess described below.

The Interior of the S. range has been extensively modernised on the ground floor. Some of the two-centred rear-arches to the N. windows, at a lower level than the outer heads, as already described, remain visible. The open timber ceiling (p. 396) of the room E. of staircase 'D' is divided into four panels by heavy moulded cross and longitudinal beams mitred with similarly moulded wall-plates; the heavy joists are roll-moulded and laid flat. The main room on the opposite side of the staircase and approached from the entrance to staircase 'C' is similarly ceiled; the room opening from it on the W. contains a fireplace of the mid 18th century, with eared surround, plain frieze and cornice-shelf and modern eared overmantel enriched with rosettes and garlands.

On the first floor, the set W. of staircase 'F' has been modernised. The set W. of staircase 'E' was restored in 1952 and the original features left exposed. It retains the original arrangement of one large common room, with lavatory and garderobe, with small studies opening from it, one on the E., two on the W.; one of the last is now incorporated in the adjoining set. The partitions are timber-framed and retain their doorways to the studies and staircase and much of the original plaster filling between the studs; the plaster is decorated with a simple geometrical patterning scored on the surface. The doorways have slightly restored elliptical heads. The clunch infilling of the outside walls is exposed and the fireplace on the S. wall has chamfered jambs and a square moulded head under a brick relieving-arch. Immediately E. of the fireplace is a lavatoryrecess with chamfered jambs and four-centred head with sunk spandrels; the sill, 2¼ ft. above floor-level, has a dishing with a central knob protecting the drain-holes; the sill, which originally projected, is now hacked back flush with the wallface; the outlet shows externally. Close E. of the recess is a doorway to a garderobe in the thickness of the wall; it has been damaged but retains a chamfered elliptical head and iron staples for door-hinges fixed in the S. end of the adjoining timber-framed partition.

Over the whole set is an open timber ceiling with moulded cambered cross-beams supporting a simply moulded longitudinal beam (p. 396). The N. and S. wall-plates are moulded and embattled, the E. and W. plates only moulded.

During the restoration of these rooms and behind the later wall-plaster were found miscellaneous Latin exercises in blackletter on vellum and paper and also fragments of late 17th-century wall-paper with a figure of a man in contemporary dress. The splays of the N. windows are covered with graffiti, mostly mediaeval, including names, often repeated, and some imperfect verses. Among the names are John Comberton, John Clopton, Bryngton, W. Walsingham, John Fryer, T. Highfield, Webster (Augustine Webster was B.A., 1509, possibly the Prior of Beauvale), Nicholas Merley five times, once in Greek, (a Nicholas Marley or Morley, B.D. 1506–7, D.D. 1516–7, is recorded). Among the verses are '[Thomas] hoc ca[m]po de celso' (Highfield), 'q[ui] bon[us] e[st] vir,' (illegible) 'tertio [com]posuit anglic[us] e[st] p[ro] gene[re], mu[n]do monachu sic (?) compar i[n] isto ne[m]pe joco'; and 'O q[uam] formosu[m] Robert[us] e[st] lep[os] Antru[m]' (Cave), 'om[n]ib[us] i[n] reb[us] nullus ei s[e]c[un]dus (?)'.

The rooms in the third section, each side of staircase 'D', have open timber ceilings lower than that of the preceding section. Each ceiling has a stop-chamfered longitudinal beam and moulded wall-plates. The fourth, westernmost, section has been remodelled and in part rebuilt. The bedroom to the N.E. now encroaches into the third section but the wall-plates defining the original extent of the latter show in the ceiling; immediately W. of the cross wall-plate is a late 16th-century chamfered ceiling-beam. The room adjoining on the S. and the room at the S. end of the W. range contain chamfered ceiling-beams; between these two rooms is a narrow storeroom, which perpetuates the position of a former staircase.

In Second Court (95 ft. by 104½ ft.), the Pepys Building (Plate 200), on the E., is of three storeys with attics and a cellar under the central block. It is a half-H on plan with the two wings extending eastward and rectangular stair-towers in the two reentrant angles. The main W. front is of finely finished ashlar and the other walls are of red brick with stone dressings; the roofs are tiled. The little known of the building is outlined above, it is in the main a work of the last quarter of the 17th century. Loggan's view of c. 1690 shows none of the existing carvings on the W. front, and although it is to be inferred from the title that the engraving anticipated completion of the building (cf. Loggan's view of Clare College), some of the enrichments would seem to be later additions. The Pepys Library was not installed here until 1724 after the death of John Jackson, Pepys' nephew, and then largely at the expense of Arthur Annesley, 5th Earl of Anglesey.

The W. front (Plate 200) is in effect symmetrical although with slight irregularity in the setting-out, a peculiarity present in the layout of the whole building. The face of the central block is in five bays with an open arcade on the ground floor, an accentuated middle bay, plat-bands at first and second-floor levels, the lower moulded, a crowning frieze and cornice, and a balustraded parapet. On each flank are gabled projections both with rusticated quoins at the angles, a continuation of the moulded plat-band, and a chimney-stack at the apex; these projections express architecturally the wings lying behind; immediately over their inward facing slopes are secondary three-quarter gables flush with the face of the central block and with stacks at their apices.

The arcade (Plate 213) consists of a semi-elliptical arch in the centre and semicircular arches to each side springing from columns and half-round responds with moulded caps and bases; the archivolts are moulded and have very shallow keystones carved with animal and human masks. The six centre spandrels between the arches and the lower plat-band are carved in bold relief with elaborate acanthus foliage and two blank cartouches all applied and attached to the wall by iron dowels. Flanking the centre arch are Roman Doric pilasters, their caps mitred across the bay as an entablature with 'Bibliotheca. Pepysiana. 1724' painted on the frieze; superimposed on the Doric pilasters are plain Ionic pilasters on panelled pedestals rising the full height of the two upper storeys and supporting architraves and returns of the main frieze and cornice. At either end of the back wall of the arcade-walk are plain openings to staircases.

The first-floor windows of the central block are of two rectangular stone-mullioned and transomed lights with narrow moulded architraves, entablatures and sills. The middle window has extra elaboration of side-scrolls, a pulvinated frieze with central panel, console-brackets supporting the cornice and a curved pediment containing a cartouche painted with the arms of Pepys quartering Talbot and flanked by swathes of flowers. The second and fourth windows have male busts, after the antique, in light-coloured stone standing on the flat cornices. The end windows have pulvinated friezes and tall triangular pediments containing cartouches painted with the arms of Wray on the N. and Peckard quartering Ferrar (Master 1781– 97) on the S. The aprons below these five windows are elaborately carved with drapery, garlands and cherub-heads, that under the centre window, of rather different character from the others, enclosing a panel inscribed with Samuel Pepys' motto 'Mens cujusque is est quisque'; all have the appearance of being cut on shallow slabs and reset. The painted heraldry and the motto are of the late 18th or early 19th century. The second-floor windows, of two rectangular stone-mullioned lights, have narrow architraves and sills; they are contiguous to the main frieze and cornice, which break forward over them. The main balustraded parapet above, which is divided into six bays by narrow pedestals with panelled dies, stops against the secondary gables.

The gabled flanking projections are alike; both have two windows on each floor, all of two rectangular stone-mullioned and transomed lights with architraves similar to those described above and with entablatures over the first-floor windows. The kneelers of the gables are cut to the section of a coved classical cornice.

The brick E. side has continuations of the plinth and first-floor plat-band returned from the W. front, but in brick with stone dressings, flush stone quoins at all salient angles, stone window-openings and a coved eaves-cornice in plaster. The wall-face above the plat-band is set back behind that below. The two wings, the two stair-towers and the middle part of the wall of the central block are gabled to the E., but the walls of the last three rise well above eaves-level before the start of the gables; below the middle gable at eaves-level is a relieving-arch two courses deep and of shallow curve spanning the whole width of the bay. On the ground floor, the windows in the wings, as shown on the plan, are of two rectangular transomed lights; the others are of two lights placed high in the wall; in the E. wall of the S. stair-tower is a modern doorway. All the first-floor windows, over those below, are similar to those just described in the wings. Those in the top stages of the stairtowers and the pair in the middle gable again are of two lights. All these windows have narrow architraves. In the roofs are four dormer-windows.

The N. and S. ends are alike, with continuations of the plinth and first-floor plat-band from the E. side, and a coved plaster cornice; in the centre the main wall is continued up through the roof to form the front wall of a gabled dormer-window. The arrangement of the ground-floor windows shown on the plan is repeated on the first floor; the windows are similar to those in the E. end of the wings. In both the dormers is a four-light stone-mullioned window.

The Interior was extensively modernised in the 19th century. After the removal of Pepys' library in 1834, the first floor of the central block (21 ft. by 55 ft.) was divided by the insertion of partitions to form sets of rooms. The original fittings remaining in situ in the building include the two staircases, some chamfered ceiling-beams and a fireplace-surround. The staircases have close moulded strings, turned balusters, moulded handrails and square newels. The fireplace-surround in the N.W. ground-floor room has the slips faced with English 18th-century blue and purple delft tiles; it is of stone, with an architrave flanked by small panels of alternating design and mitred round a single panel in the head, a frieze with modern inscription 'Fay bien crain rien', and a cornice. The late 17th-century wood overmantel has a bolection-moulded panel with panelled side-pilasters. The walls of the same room are lined with pieced-out panelling with dado-rail and heavy cornice. In the S. wing, the windows in the N.E. room have 18th-century panelled soffits, splays and seats and in the S. wall is a glazed door hung in two leaves on old hinges; the S.W. room has a panelled dado, small wood cornice and six-panel door, all of the 18th century.

On the first floor, in the N. wing, the E. room is lined with 18th-century panelling in two heights of panels with a cornice; the early 19th-century fireplace has a reeded surround with rosettes in squares at the corners. The W. room contains a mid 18th-century fireplace-surround brought from Elsworth and inserted in modern times: it has grey marble slips, a carved wood architrave-moulding and scroll-brackets supporting a cornice-shelf. In the central block, the N. room is lined from floor to ceiling with late 17th-century bolection-moulded panelling with moulded dado-rail and cornice; that on the N. wall is in three heights of panels, on the other walls in two heights. The fireplace-surround in the same room is an addition and probably modern. In the S. room is a wood bolection-moulded surround to the fireplace, probably of the late 17th century.

The Pepys Library is in the S. wing, in the E. first-floor room. It contains twelve bookcases, of red oak, in all probability those referred to in Pepys' diary under 24 August 1666, 'then comes Sympson to set up my other new presses for my books'. They are all alike, with a squat lower section for folios and a tall upper section with shelving for quarto and octavo books, both with glazed doors hung in two leaves. Each case has a plinth-mould, a moulded offset between the two sections and a cornice, all elaborately carved and the last with a cartouche in the centre, painted with a class number. Two of the cases have angle-pieces, both consisting of a Corinthian pilaster surmounted by a small urn, to fill the gap between the upper sections when two cases are placed together at a right angle; to fill similar gaps when the cases are placed together in line, four tall bevelled mirrors in wood frames with shaped and carved heads are preserved. Matching the cases is Pepys' flat-topped, pedestal writing-desk, with drawers, glazed doors to the pedestals, and enriched mouldings. The fireplace in the same room has a wood bolection-moulded surround and the windows have shutters of fielded panelling.

Extending N. from the N.W. angle of First Court are a number of two-storey buildings arranged round a small courtyard, which incorporates parts of 19th-century cottages etc. previously on the site. Their building, remodelling and unification in 1911–12 was the work of A. C. Benson (President). They now contain sets of chambers. They include a length of some 60 ft. of 17th-century brick walling running parallel with and 78 ft. from the N. wall of the N. range of First Court.

The Master's Lodge stands beside Chesterton Road. It is of three storeys, with walls of grey-brown bricks and stone dressings. The foundation-stone was laid on 8 July 1835; John Buckler was the architect. It is built in a spare Tudor style. The plinths and parapets are plain. The stone-mullioned windows have square heads and labels; those to the principal rooms on the ground floor and to the staircase are transomed. The main front is to the S. while the main entrance is through a porch on the W.; over the porch entrance are carved a Tudor Rose and a portcullis.

Inside the house the rooms are lofty and well-proportioned. In the Drawing-room, to the S.E., over the double-doors to the Dining-room, is a reset early 17th-century overmantel in two bays divided and flanked by coupled Doric columns supporting a dentil-cornice with scrolled cresting; in the bays are geometrical panels and, below, the shelf and frieze are enriched with arabesques. On each leaf of the double-doors are fixed two cartouches, probably of the 19th century, painted with the arms of (a) the 1st Lord Braybrooke, quarterly of Griffin, Brotherton, Howard and Audley, (b) the 3rd Duke of Buckingham, Woodstock quartering Stafford, (c) Audley, (d) the 2nd Lord Braybrooke, quarterly of Griffin, and Neville of Raby and Neville of Bulmer quarterly. In the base-panels are linked addorsed profile-busts of women and angels, probably also 19th-century. In the Dining-room is a mid 19th-century fireplace-surround in the French taste of the mid 18th century.

The high Boundary-walls, perhaps of the late 16th century, enclosing Second Court on the N. and S., are of rough ashlar and rubble, largely reused, with chamfered plinths on the outer sides, that on the N. ragged, and the upper parts rebuilt in brick. The E. end of the N. wall has been rebuilt at an angle to leave access to a late 17th-century doorway adjoining the Pepys Building; this has rusticated head and jambs, moulded architrave, and plain frieze and cornice surmounted by a ball-finial on a pedestal flanked by ramped scrolls. In the W. end of the N. wall and in either end of the S. wall are three doorways, all alike and that to the S.E. probably of the late 18th century, with square heads, moulded architraves and stone panels above. The three panels contain recut inscriptions, 'Unum sufficit', 'Omnes honorate fraternitatem diligite', and 'In dies ad diem' the first and last apophthegms, the second from the Vulgate (I Peter ii, 17).

The wall continuing N. from the W. front of New Building, dividing the Master's Garden from the Fellows' Garden, and shown by Loggan in c. 1690, is of rubble; it extends about half-way to Chesterton Lane and is then continued by a modern wall.

In the boundary-wall to Magdalene Street, 24½ ft. N. of the N.W. external angle of First Court, is a late 16th or early 17th-century doorway with moulded jambs, four-centred head and square label; it is in the position of that shown by Loggan and no doubt the same, but reset in a length of rebuilt wall.

For the Range of houses on the W. side of Magdalene Street owned and partly in use by the College, see Monuments (201– 211).

For the Earthwork in the Fellows' Garden, see Preface p. lxii.

Footnotes

  • 1. After this account had been set up in galley-proof.