THIS College, in respect of its buildings and its endowments, is one of the most splendid in the University. Its founder, William of Wykeham, rose through the favour of Edward III. to high positions in Church and State, being made Bishop of Winchester in 1366 and Chancellor of England in the following year. He was a man of affairs, liberal and tolerant, who took delight in building, and had himself great skill in architecture. He had already, before he designed New College, as Clerk of the Works to Edward III., rebuilt Windsor Castle. Doubtless, zeal for education was one of his incentives; but he must have known a deep gratification, as the work went on, in the growth of the stately buildings which were to perpetuate his name. Richard II.'s sanction was given in 1379, and Wykeham's Society took possession of its completed home in 1386. During the six years which followed, its founder was occupied with the building of Winchester College, the other great institution connected with his name. He died in 1404, in his eightieth year, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral, having lived long enough to see his two Foundations prosperously started upon their several careers.
New College, as left by William of Wykeham, consisted of the chief Quadrangle (which includes the Chapel, Hall, and Library), the Cloisters with their tower, and the gardens. It is this Quadrangle (shewing the Chapel) which appears in Mr. Matthison's first drawing; but it is not quite as Wykeham saw it, for the third storey was added, as at Brasenose, in the seventeenth century, when the windows also were modernised.
Passing through this Quadrangle, the visitor reaches the Garden Court, which is also the creation of the seventeenth century, and was built in imitation of the Palace of Versailles. Seen from the garden (as in the second illustration) it certainly has, with its fivefold frontage and its extensive iron palisade, a most imposing appearance.
The garden contains a structure older by several centuries than any of the Colleges—that fragment of the old City Wall which is shewn in Mr. Matthison's third drawing. Its reverse side is visible from the back of Long Wall Street, and another fragment now acts as the wall of Merton garden. The city wall existed in its entirety in Wykeham's time, though already falling into decay: there is a brief of Richard II., issued to the then mayor and burgesses of Oxford, wherein the king complains of the ruinous state of the fortifications, and demands that they be at once repaired. He thought of taking refuge in Oxford, it appears, if his enemies in France should invade the country. He was soon to learn, at Flint Castle, how impotent is any masonry to protect a sovereign against subjects whose affections he has estranged. One may climb the old wall in New College garden and think of the days when it was a real defence, when the occupants of the "mural houses" at its base were exempted from all imposts, with the reservation that they should defend the wall with their bodies, in the event of an enemy's assault. On some part of the ground now occupied by the College and its garden stood several of those Halls where students lodged in the pre-collegiate days; but the greater part was waste land, strewn with rubbish and haunted by all sorts of bad characters. Certainly the whole community benefited, and not Wykeham's scholars only, when king and pope sanctioned his undertaking.
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The Cloisters, of which two views are given, are singularly beautiful. They were designed, together with the area which they enclose, as a burial-ground for the College. It is unfortunate that many of the brass tablets were removed during the Civil War, when the College was used as a garrison. Royalist pikes, in those days, were trailed in the Quadrangle, and ammunition was stored in Cloisters and Tower. Later on the College was tenanted by soldiers of the Commonwealth, who in course of fortifying it did some damage to the buildings.
The Chapel is perhaps the finest extant specimen of the Perpendicular style. It suffered severely during the Reformation, when the niches of the reredos were denuded and filled up with stone and mortar, with a coat of plaster over all. In course of time the original east end was rediscovered, and the reredos renewed. By 1894 statues were erected in the niches; and as the open timber roof had been replaced in 1880, the whole may now be considered to have been restored, as far as is possible, to its original appearance. The west window (in the ante-chapel) is famous as having been designed by Reynolds. An illustration of it is here given. The beauty of the figures and of the colouring is universally admitted.
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The last illustration shews the New Buildings, through which is a back entrance to the College, as seen from Holywell Street. Of these it must be said that they are far less interesting than the quaint old street in which they are situated. The best of them is the most recent addition, a fine tower put up in 1880 to the memory of a former Bursar, Mr. Robinson.
The Hall is a fine building, though its original proportions have been altered, not for the better. Here on August 29, 1605, King James I. with his queen and the Prince of Wales were entertained to dinner; and here on festival days the scholars were bidden by their Founder to amuse themselves after supper with singing and with recitations, whose themes were to be "the chronicles of the realm and the wonders of the world." On the walls are portraits of Chichele and William of Waynflete, members of the College, who were presently to rival, as Founders, the munificence of William of Wykeham himself; of Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, friend of Erasmus and promoter of humanism; and of Sydney Smith.
The exclusive connection between Winchester and New College, which the Founder planned, proved in course of time a disadvantage. In 1857 half the fellowships and a few scholarships were thrown open to public competition. Since then the College has largely increased its numbers, and representatives of all the great schools of England are sojourners within its walls. The Founder's motto, "Manners Makyth Man," is of too wide an application to be limited to the members of any one school; and it is permissible to think that William of Wykeham, shrewd and liberal-minded as he was, would approve the change. An earlier alteration he would certainly have endorsed. He secured as a special privilege to the Fellows of his Foundation, that they should be admitted to all degrees in the University without asking any grace of congregation, provided they passed a satisfactory examination in their own College. His object was to impose a severer educational test than that which the University then afforded; when, however, University examinations became a reality, his good intention was nullified. Wykehamists pleaded their privilege, and so evaded the ordeal which members of other Colleges must undergo. Thus was an originally good custom corrupted. The College, to its credit, voluntarily abjured this questionable privilege in 1834; and is now second only to Balliol in the intellectual race.
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