in velvet, covered with gold lace and seed pearls. In 1873 the College resolved to appropriate a portion of the funds of the Library to the special subject of Classical Archæology, and to create an Undergraduates' Library, both of which designs have been carried into effect.

THE HALL

Sconcing exists at present at Worcester College exactly as it existed at Lincoln College in the years 1876 to 1879, according to the account given by the Rev. Andrew Clark in his "History of Lincoln College" in this series. In recent years there have been some signs of the decline of the custom. One of the rules existing at Worcester is to the effect that a man who is sconced and successfully floors the sconce that is to say, drains it at one draught-may sconce the whole table. A sconce may be inflicted for obtaining a first-class in the schools, or for any other notable distinction. Grace is said by the junior scholar in Hall as soon seniority have reached the high table.

as the

The grace before meat is the old Latin grace and somewhat long, and a custom, not commendable, has of late years grown up for the undergraduates to come in after its conclusion. The grace after meat, in which the founder was duly commemorated, has fallen into desuetude, the junior members, inclusive of the scholars, being permitted to quit the Hall, each at the conclusion of his own dinner, without waiting for the High Table or asking leave, as in other colleges. At present men sit in Hall in order of seniority, the scholars occupying a separate table. Dr. Bloxam, who was a member of the College circa 1826, tells us how in his

days the tables were allotted according to the habits of their occupants. The table on the right was occupied by the gay men of the College, and was called the Sinners'

Table.
Table.

The table on the left was called the Smilers'

These formed a distinct set between the Sinners and the Saints, who occupied the table nearest the High Table on the left. The "Invitation Table," as it was more decorously and appropriately designated, survived into the seventies. The Bachelors, who then resided for their M.A. degree, used to appear in Hall in full evening dress, silk stockings, etc. Undergraduates, however, had left off dining in white neckcloths. The College Tonsor, an official whose salary was provided for in the original Statutes, and who was still in existence in 1860, was put in requisition to do the necessary hairdressing.

The Hall, till 1877 a plain though admirably proportioned room, was in that year decorated in accordance with the designs of the late Mr. Burges, at a cost of some £2,000, of which about £1,100 was subscribed by members of the College. Dr. Gabriel's grate was replaced by a handsome marble fireplace; the walls were lined with richly panelled woodwork, inlaid with the armorial bearings of members of the College, past and present; a handsome buffet was given by Mr. Greswell; and a window representing banqueting scenes from Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, and Milton was contributed by the junior members of the College.

THE COLLEGE GARDENS

The College is surrounded on all sides, except that facing the street, with a belt of gardens. The garden to which the public have access is one of the chief

UNIVERSITY

In

beauties of the College. The site was purchased of Mr. Thomas Wrench in 1741 for the sum of £850. In former days it was nothing but a water-meadow, intersected with lanes of water from the adjacent river. the earlier part of this century a snipe or a stray Witham pheasant might be flushed in its solitudes. It was laid out in its present form by Richard Greswell during his Bursarship in 1827. In the spring, when the flowering shrubs and trees are in bloom, the beauty of the gardens is at its height, but at all seasons the tree-shaded landscape, bounded by the Pool, possesses what is for Oxford a unique charm.

Worcester is almost the only College in Oxford which possesses a fives court. It used to boast of two. One -an open court-was situated in the Fellows' Garden, for the use of the older members; the other is in the principal garden-a covered building with a gallery of the usual type. It was built about the middle of the present century as a present of the Common Room to the junior members of the Society, whose other recreations have changed with the fashion of the dayarchery, bowls, croquet, lawn-tennis. The Pool, in which are some fair jack, tench, etc., has for many years been tenanted by a pair of swans. Peacocks were kept till insomnia and ruined flower-beds rendered them unendurable. A fine eagle, brought by Mr. Muckleston from Norway, was at one time kept in the Fellows' Garden, and still in its glass case recalls the memory of a small clique of Scandinavian enthusiasts in days before Norway had become the fashion.