The
old picturesque buildings on the High Street, taken over (1457) by
the Founder, William of Waynflete, from the already existing hospital
of St. John, were completed by his munificence in the most attractive
style of English fifteenth century domestic architecture; Chapel and
Hall, Cloisters and Founder's Tower, all alike are among the most
beautiful in Oxford. When classical taste prevailed, the
architectural purists of the eighteenth century were for sweeping
almost all this away, and had a plan prepared for making a great
classic quad; but wiser counsels, or lack of funds, thwarted this
vandalistic design, and only the north side of the new quad was
built, to give Magdalen a splendid specimen of eighteenth century
work, without prejudice to the old. And in our own day, the genius of
Bodley has raised in St. Swithun's Quad a building worthy of the best
days of Oxford, while the hideous plaster roof, with which the
mischievous Wyatt had marred the beauty of the hall, was removed, and
a seemly oak roof put in its place. It is a great thing to be
thankful for, that one set of college buildings in Oxford, though
belonging to so many periods, has nothing that is not of the best.
Pages:
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79