THE HALL. 685 



with a long jack-towel on a roller, at which the fellows made 

 their scanty and occasional ablutions. For some time it 

 appears that the occupants of the high table did not enjoy 

 the luxury of chairs, but sat, like the juniors, on forms, settles, 

 or stools, though the form was probably in their case backed. 



The walls of the hall were decorated with a few pictures, in 

 the colleges with those of the founder, when these could be 

 procured, or sometimes imagined. Such were the painting, 

 framing and gilding of the pictures of Chicheley and Wayn- 

 flete by New College for the modest sum of 3 in 1662. 

 These were imaginary portraits, except in so far as the 

 monuments of these prelates supplied the hints for the artists, 

 for there do not appear to have been any English painters in 

 the fifteenth century, though foreign artists settled here in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth. But in 1626, New College paid 

 4 for a portrait of the Bishop of Bath and Wells 1 by 

 Urecubury, an artist whom I conceive the New College 

 bursar has saved from total oblivion. So after Master married 

 in 1665, he paid 6 to a Mr. Adolphus for portraits of him- 

 self and his wife in 1670, and a further 2 los. for his own 

 'picture in little.' In wealthier houses and colleges part of 

 the walls of the hall, below the lights, were wainscotted or 

 decorated, perhaps permanently, perhaps only on state oc- 

 casions, with tapestry, such as that which in 1613 Robins 

 devised to Eton. 



The high table was spread with pewter dishes and plates in 

 early times, and in some places with the better sort of 

 trenchers, called Flanders trenchers, and bought by the 

 Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. In later years they had 

 ' new-fashioned plates.' But the inferiors had common trenchers 

 only, made of square pieces of beech board. For a long time 

 the guests were not, it seems, supplied with knives, still less 

 with forks, each person having his own knife. Besides his 

 plate or trencher, it would appear that saucers were put on the 



1 This is no doubt Arthur Lake, Warden from 1613 to 1616, and Bishop of 

 Wells from 1616 to 1626. It was probably painted after the Bishop's death. 



