436

THE WOLSEY ALMSHOUSE.

a College, he turned also these tenements into an Hospitall ("TWXodoxeior insigne ") to receive and have releife from it. But his designes failing before compassed, and falling into the King's hands, this with his college was left imperfect both in its buildings (as it now remaineth) and its revenews. But afterwards King Henry VIII, taking upon him to perfect the college in some sort in its endowment setled here also the number of 24 almesmen and each to have 6£ per annum; which continueth soe to this day! So Dr. Ingram speaks of the Almshouse as remaining till 1834 in an unfinished state,' 'having the appearance of ruins.' In his pictures, however, and in Skelton's (1819), the south portion is actually ruinous, not merely incomplete, and it was so, no doubt, in Wood's time also. Skelton considered the building to have the appearance of having been erected in the early part of the fifteenth century.' Possibly Wolsey found a tumbledown edifice (James Proctor cannot have needed the entire accommodation), and merely re-constructed the northern part of it. On the back of a deed belonging to Magdalen the almshouse is spoken of as 'de novo constructa 2. In the archives of St. Aldate's Church, in the twenty-sixth of Henry VIII, mention is made of 'a quit rent going out of a tenement or garden ground next ye South gate taken downe by ye sd Cardinall, 6d.' 'Brewer's tenement' on the New College ground (the east part of the College Old Quadrangle) was pulled down before the twentieth year of Henry. The fine open timber roof in the interior of the Almshouse is said to have been brought by Wolsey from Oseney Abbey. Skelton says: 'It is manifest from the present appearance of the ruins that these buildings once occupied a much larger space than is now covered by them; but the exact extent it would be perhaps difficult to determine.' This I fail to understand, as the limits are clearly defined.

men.

Wood is mistaken in saying that Henry VIII settled here his almsIn consequence of the King's death no lodging was built or provided for them. Indeed, though the building called, from the use to which Wolsey put it, 'le Almshouse' has at various times been

1 Wood, City, i. 193.

The deed relates to a tenement close to the churchyard, viz. in the corner as one goes from the church to the hall called le Bollehall,' and is endorsed Copia evidentiae pro domo Collegii [Magd.] prope Broadgates nunc infra domum eleemosynariam de novo constructam.' Wood MS. D. 2, fol. 165; see pp. 56, 57. Wood adds, 'Xt Ch. Almshouse q. whether this Bollehall did not stand where Ch. Ch. Almeshouse did stand.' But he writes in the margin, 'procul dubio haec dorsura est falsa.' 3 Wood MS. D. 2, foll. 67, 284.

The joiner's account for taking down the Oseney roofs is given by Wood, City, ii. 227.

THE WOLSEY ALMSHOUSE.

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appropriated to this purpose, no lodging has ever been provided for eight out of the four-and-twenty. And for a considerable period the place, or parcel of it, was tenanted as a yard for the store and sale of timber. The said Dean and prebendarys must forether Covenante to find there'-i.e. 'in the said cathedrall chorche,' not necessarily in the Almshouse-' for ever twenty-four pore Mene suche as shal be from tyme to tyme be appointed by the King's Majestie his heires and successores or such as he or they shall assigne for the same purpos, givinge yearlie unto every of them £6 o o.' The bedesmen, subject to the royal approval, have from the first been nominated by the Dean, and have usually been old soldiers or sometimes sailors. The deed of dotation is dated Dec. 11, 1546. In the statute 'de ecclesiâ frequentandâ' it is provided that the whole number of students, servants, and almsmen shall be present at the sermons on Sundays and Holidays.' All are to receive the Holy Sacrament, and 'before they shall resort thereto the Almsmen, Scholars and Servants shall repair to the Catechism to be instructed.' The Eleemosynarii are to frequent the church and pray for the King. Also 'that they be no Railers or Wailers of any, especially their superiors. That they live peaceably, quietly, and cleanly in their chambers.'

In Mr. G. V. Cox's Recollections (1868), the writer says that 'forty or fifty years ago' Christ Church resolved to pull the Almshouse down, and gave the few remaining occupants notice to quit. But one, a fine old Scotsman named Carrick, refused to go, reminding the Chapter that he held his place by the same tenure and from the same source as themselves. The Chapter gave way, and the Wolsey Hospital was preserved. Mr. Cox observes that Pembroke College, until it was new fronted, was not very distinguishable from it.

A very favourite project at the time Mr. Cox speaks of, with a view to improve the appearance both of Oxford and of Pembroke, was the removal of the old Hospital. The Crypt or Receptacle for Things Past, vol. i. part 2, p. 204 (1829), says: Another grand improvement we are happy to learn is again talked of, the demolition of a few ruinous almshouses between Christ-church and Pembroke, by which the latter College may be new fronted, and the intermediate space laid down in grass. The fine façade of Christ-church could then be seen to some advantage, while at present it is nearly lost; and as these almshouses are the property of the crown and of no value to any one, we are not without hopes that this will be effected '.'

1 Dr. Tatham's Oxonia Explicata et Ornata (1773) had suggested the demolition of the houses in the churchyard and the widening of the lane in front of Pembroke, in order to give a better view of Christ Church.

438

THE WOLSEY ALMSHOUSE.

On Feb. 16, 1832, it was resolved by the Pembroke Society to write as follows to Christ Church:

'Should the consent of the Crown be obtained for the removal of the Alms Houses and the rebuilding them elsewhere (not at the expence of Pembroke College), the Master and Fellows would engage to furnish a plot of ground in the parish of Cowley for that purpose. The Almshouses being removed, the College proposes to take down and rebuild, on their own ground, the Eastern end of their College in a style corresponding with the work on the North side lately completed. The area in front (having no wish to build thereon, and desirous that no one else might be permitted to build) they would enclose with a wall and iron railing, and plant the interior with shrubs.

'On the subject of the houses between the Alms Houses and Pennyfarthing Street they have nothing to offer, desirable as it is that they should also be removed; but they consider that this object is in progress.' This plan would have given the College for the first time a frontage to a principal street. Until 1844 no carriage could drive up to the College from that side.

In 1834, with a view to the great improvements projected in this part of the city,' the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church-the negotiation with Pembroke having fallen through-restored the Almshouse from the very creditable designs of Mr. Underwood, who refaced much of the structure, added the battlements and the large gables, and put the building back on the north so as no longer to project in front of the College. The walk before the College was relaid, and railings took the place of the churchyard wall. The cost of widening the street' 'to lay open the new front of Pembroke College,' and of buying the fee simple of the four houses standing against the east end of the church, was £2,500, raised by subscription, the University giving £200, the Commissioners under the Oxford Mileways Acts £600, Sir Robert Inglis £100, T. B. Estcourt, Esq., £100, Davies Gilbert, Esq., President of the Royal Society, £100, and Lord Grenville, the Chancellor, Visitor of the College, £50.

In 1868 the Dean and Chapter petitioned Chancery for a reconstitution of King Henry VIII's trust. The old building, they said, required constant repairing. The accommodation being limited, there was only room for single men. As at that time the number of almsmen had fallen from twenty-four to nine it might be supposed that in so large a building, covering 1,266 superficial yards, there

Wood says, after speaking of the church (City, i. 194): 'Hamel here and then the hall. Hamel hath been bigger before the Hospitall was partly built upon it.' Which, however, Mr. Clark refers to the strip of land between the Almshouse and the College, running north and south.

THE ALMSHOUSE; THE BACK LODGINGS.

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would be no lack of accommodation. However, it was thought that the veterans would be more happy and contented among their own friends, and it was proposed to send them to their homes, their yearly shot being increased from £6 to £16. By which doubtless necessary reform one more picturesque element was subtracted from our drab urban civilization 1.

The Wolsey Hospital next became the residence of the Treasurer of Christ Church, the Rev. R. Godfrey Faussett, and in 1877 it underwent some slight external and considerable internal modification.

Although the idea of making an eastern front to Pembroke College had been given up, the hope that a building so important and so of a piece with the College would some day become part and parcel of it was still entertained. In 1857, as already mentioned (p. 305), the Reverend Christopher Cleoburey left a large sum to the College with this object. After several fruitless communications at intervals had passed between the two bodies, Christ Church finally, in 1888, offered to sell the freehold. And thus Segrym's Mansions' at last were added to our House. The purchase, though prudent in view of the dignity and possibly the amenity of the College, was somewhat heroic. Should the Society ever require to extend its borders, there will be no necessity to build; but at present it cannot itself use this handsome and roomy building. It is now employed for a private residence 2, and has even been thought of for an episcopal palace.

In Turner's water-colour of Tom Tower in the National Gallery (No. 805) the Almshouse, as it was before 1834, is seen projecting in the foreground of the picture. Mackenzie's print (1835) shows it as altered. There are views of the Almshouse in Ingram and (exterior and interior) in Skelton (1819).

THE BACK LODGINGS.

Until 1844 there were standing on the south side of Beef Lane, where the New Buildings are now, two old detached gabled buildings, commonly called the Back Lodgings. Three cuts in Ingram show the back and front of them, under the name of 'Ancient Halls.' I have also before me some coloured sketches made by an artistic undergraduate before and during

1 It was about this time (in 1869) that the pensioners in Greenwich Hospital were allowed to take money in lieu of their board and lodging, and go where they liked.

2 The late Prof. G. J. Romanes came to reside there in 1890, and there his death took place a few years later.

440

THE BACK LODGINGS.

their demolition. These chambers are delineated, in whole or in part, in the bold line engravings of Vertue (1744), Williams (1733), Burghers (1700) and Loggan (1675). The less lofty and more western of the two was a double building, shaped like the letter L, the two parts having no connexion and being entered by separate doors. In Vertue's drawing, however, which alone gives the whole College, there is no hint of any edifice at right angles to Beef Hall Lane, and in Ingram the projection of this part is not well marked. The more eastern set of chambers was modernized on the south side, apparently about a century ago. In the unpublished collection of drawings made by J. C. Nattes in 1804, now in the Bodleian, there is a very striking and picturesque sketch of these tenements from the side of the lane. The windows have stone mullions, labels, and the upper ones transoms. Those on the ground floor have heavy wooden 'shuts.'

The Rev. HENRY ROBINSON WADMORE, who has kindly sent me his water-colour drawings referred to above, writes about the character of these buildings:

'They were late Tudor-almost Jacobean... My rooms were in the westernmost part. The buildings were very dilapidated, and the ground floor and top floor were not used. When my old rooms were being pulled down and the paper hung on canvas removed, the wall was seen to be frescoed with panels marked out with lake and the centre green-a rough imitation of marble. On removing the fire-place the original stone fireplace was found, very broad and certainly Tudor. It must have been used for wood burning.' Several correspondents who had rooms in this building write that the ceilings were very low, and that on entering you went down a step-a sign of the outside ground having risen. The present Master tells me that these Back Lodgings had every appearance of very considerable antiquity. They have not the Elizabethan look of the front of the Master's House, as seen in Loggan, with its wooden casements and projecting upper storey. That was rebuilt in 1596. The rooms in the easternmost building were considered the best in College1.

Are the Back Lodgings to be identified then with the mediæval halls for students of which an account has been given above (pp. 40-49) ? These were Mine or Minote Hall on the ground belonging to St. John's Hospital (Magdalen), just west of the present Master's House; the double hall of St. Michael and St. James on the All Souls land next it; Beef Hall on ground belonging to the University; Wylde's Entry on Magdalen land at the end of Beef Hall Lane; and south of that Wolstan or Dunstan Hall, belonging to the University. The last three were in St. Ebbe's parish, the others in St. Aldate's. The parish boundary, by the last Ordnance Survey, is a line drawn from the west end of the Chapel to the Common-room servants' room. Some crosses, however, to be seen in Brewers Street, let into the wall, are about fifteen feet west of the end of the Chapel 2.

1 One who lived in the western building within a decade of Waterloo writes: 'My room had a large square window with iron bars, very convenient for introducing late Suppers from Inns and cookshops.' He speaks of roast hare, flanked by bowls of 'bishop' and ' archbishop.'

2 Sir J. Peshall mentions a 'cross within Pembroke College' as the bound.