152 O X F 
4 ; and three or four of them are permitted to fing at St. 
John’s, where the fervice is performed at other hours. 
They are educated free of expenfe in the grammar-fchool 
belonging to the foundation. The prefident requires 
them to be removed at fourteen years of age, unlefs the 
head-mafter of the fchool approves of the progrefs they 
have made in claffical learning. They have mufic-leffons 
three times a-week in the college-chapel. Dr. Sheppard 
has lately left by his will 6ol. a-year to be given to thofe 
ehorifters who are fons of clergymen, and either become 
members of the univerfity, or are bound apprentices to 
trades or profeffions. 
The buildings of this college, as defigned by the 
founder, compofe two quadrangular courts, one of 
fmall and another of large dimenfions. The entrance to 
the fir ft is through a modern portal of the Doric order, 
■which appears very inappropriate, and very badly ac¬ 
cords with the reft of the ftrufture. This court contains 
the prefident’s lodgings on the left, and in front is the 
entrance door-way to the chapel. This door-way is a 
very curious and beautiful fpecimen of architecture. In 
niches over it are fmall ftatues of Waynflete, Henry VI. 
St.John the Baptift, and St. Mary Magdalen, Handing in 
canopies of exquifite workmanffiip. The large qua¬ 
drangle remains nearly in the fame ftate in which the 
founder left it, the fouth cloifter being the only portion 
of the buildings that has been added fince his death. 
Here are the chapel, hall, and library, a part of the pre¬ 
fident’s lodgings, and chambers for the fellows and de¬ 
mies. Great pains have been taken to unriddle the 
meaning of the hieroglyphics which furround the cloifter. 
Some affirm that they are nothing more than the licen¬ 
tious invention of the mafon ; while others as warmly 
contend that they contain a complete fyftem of academi¬ 
cal difcipline. 
The chapel, a moft elegant ftrudure, has been de- 
fcribed by Mr. Chalmers in a manner that will intereft 
every reader. “ In this elegant chapel (fays Mr. C.) the 
original ftyle of building ftill predominates; but in the 
fcreen and pannelling, put up about the year 1740, which 
iaft covers the eaft wall, formerly of great beauty, we 
have thofe Grecian ornaments which were generally 
adopted in the feventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
The body is lighted by ten windows, painted with 
figures of the apoftles, fathers, faints, &c. in claro obfcuro. 
The weft window, containing the Lalt Judgment, was ex¬ 
ecuted after a defign of Chriftopher Schwartz, originally 
prepared for the wife of William duke of Bavaria, as ap¬ 
pears by a print engraved by one of the Sadelers. After 
being damaged by the high wind in 1703, it wasreftored 
in 1794 by Egginton to its priftine beauty. Eight of the 
lateral windows were removed from the anti-chapel in 
1741, and two new ones next the altar added by the 
younger Price, who died in 1765. The eight fine win¬ 
dows nowin the anti-chapel, put up in 1797, were exe¬ 
cuted from defigns of Egginton, and are filled with the 
college-arms, feripture-hiftory, and portraits of St.John 
the Baptift, St. Mary Magdalen, kings Henry III. and 
VI. the founders of Magdalen, New College, Corpus 
Chrifti, and Cardinal College, now Chrift-church ; the 
two laft of whom had been fellows of this college, admi¬ 
rably drawn and coloured. The prefent altar was con- 
ftruCted in 1740, andcorrefponds with themodern alter¬ 
ations in the interior of the chapel. The altar-piece by 
Fuller, reprefenting the Laft Judgment, has not been 
fortunate in attracting univerfal admiration. As an imi¬ 
tation of Michael Angelo, it falls far fhort of the fublime, 
although fometimes wild, imagination of that great ar- 
tift ; nor is the colouring harmonious or natural. Some 
of the figures, however, are correCHy drawn ; and he has' 
at leaft imitated the temper of Michael Angelo with fuc- 
cefs, in introducing among the damned the portrait of 
an hoftler at the Greyhound-inn, near the college, who 
had offended him. Mr. Addifon has honoured Fuller’s 
painting with an elegant Latin poem, in which he feems 
o R d; 
to praife the genius that ought to have predominated ins 
fuch a fubjeft. This painting was placed here about the 
ear 1680. Underneath is a nobler picture of Our Saviour 
earing his crofs, which was long fuppofed to have been 
painted by Guido, or, in the opinion of Mr. Byres of 
Rome, a very competent judge, by Ludovico Caracci j 
but it is now given to Moralez, ftyled El Divino, a Spa- 
niffi artift who flouriffied in the fixteenth century, and 
whofe works are rare in this country. Sherwin’s beauti¬ 
ful print from it is well known ; and Egginton made a 
copy for the eaft window of the church of Wanftead in 
Effex. It remains to be added, that this picture was 
brought from Vigo in 1702. by the laft duke of Ormond, 
and afterwards fell into the hands of William Freeman, 
efq. of Hamels in Hertfordlhife, who gave it to the col¬ 
lege. He gave alfo a new organ, and was in other re- 
fpeCts a coniiderable benefaCtor.” 
Befides the two courts above-mentioned, there are a 
tower, and feveral other ranges of buildings belonging 
to Magdalen-college, which have been ereCted at differ¬ 
ent periods, and were not included in Waynfiete’s de¬ 
fign. The tower is a ftruCture of very fine proportion ; 
and is fuppofed to have been defigned by Wolfey, while 
he was burfar of this college. It was commenced in 
1492, and finiffied in 1498. A few years afterwards the 
chaplain’s court was built j and fome further rooms, to¬ 
wards the eaft, were added in 1635. At the beginning 
of the laft century, a plan was propofed, and agreed to, 
for the building of a new quadrangle, but only one fide 
of it has yet been finiffied. By this plan, three fides of 
the old quadrangle were to have been demoliffied, leav¬ 
ing only the half, chapel, and fouth cloifter. 
Magdalen-college being bound by its ftatutes to enter¬ 
tain the kings of England and their fons when at Oxford, 
the hall has frequently been the feene of royal and princely 
feftivity. Edward IV. and Richard III. were both enter¬ 
tained here by the founder. In 1496, prince Arthur 
paid a viiit to this college ; and in 1604 James I. held his 
court within its walls, upon which occafion Henry prince 
of Wales was admitted a member of the fociety. Oliver 
Cromwell, Fairfax, and other principal officers of the 
parliamentary army, alfo had a fumptuous dinner pro¬ 
vided for them here in 1649, and afterwards played at 
bowls in the college-green, which, with the grove and 
water-walk, form pleafure-grounds of great extent and 
beauty. 
11. Brazen-nose College. This noble inftitution 
was founded by William Smyth, biftiop of Lincoln, in 
concert with his friend fir Richard Sutton. The build¬ 
ings were begun about the year 1509, and fliortly after 
the fociety was formed, and accommodated in fome of 
the ancient premifes which occupied the fite of the pre¬ 
fent college, and moft probably in the tenement called 
Brazen-nofe Hall, whence the new foundation derived 
its name. By the charter of incorporation, which is 
dated the 15th of January, 1511-12, this fociety was to 
confift of a principal and fixty fcholars ; but, in 1621, a 
revifion of the ftatutes having been made by the furviving 
founder, fir Robert Sutton, the members were limited to 
a principal and twelve fellows. They were foon, how¬ 
ever, augmented by the munificence of fucceeding bene¬ 
factors, fome of whom added fellowffiips, others Icholar- 
ffiips and exhibitions, others leCturefliips in philofophy, 
in humanity, Hebrew, Greek, and mathematics. Thefe 
laft were founded by fir John Port, John Barnefton, D. D. 
Richard Harper, a judge of the common pleas, and Tho¬ 
mas Wefton, reClor of Criffelton, near Chefter. The 
other contributors are too numerous to be mentioned ; 
fo that we lhall only obferve, that, by their conjunct do¬ 
nations, the fociety now confifts of a principal, twenty 
fellows, thirty-two fcholars, and fifteen exhibitioners, 
befides-a great number of independent members. The 
biffiop of Lincoln is vifitor. 
The buildings of this college are arranged round a 
large quadrangle and a fmaller court to the fouth, with 
the 
