Ely the stonemason for making the staircase. The mention of a payment for "bryke" is valuable because the walls of the existing chambers next the Churchyard are partly constructed of brick1.

[The rolls for the next two years have unfortunately perished, and that for 1441-2 is imperfect. Then there is a break in the series till 1445-6, when a single line suffices for the work done to the Library: a carpenter is employed for fifteen days.] In 1447-82 the fittings in woodwork and windows are going on. [Carpenters were sent for from Ely to contract for making the desks the ironwork for the windows was ordered, and the doorway set. In 1450 the desks of the old Library were broken up, and sixteen locks and two keys were ordered; which marks the period of the transfer of the books from the old to the new apartment3. Each lock no doubt required the presence of two officials of the College to open it, as at Trinity Hall and elsewhere.]

In the roll for 1450 the new work of the kitchen, and the making of the upper chamber over the buttery, together with the partition wall between the buttery and pantry, was going on 1.

Then follows a continuous series of rolls from 1455 to 1465 (wanting only 1459-60) in every one of which the heading "Expense nove fabrice" has its place. The work consists of

1 "Et de x solutis Reginaldo Ely lathamo pro factura gradus noue librarie ... Et de xv. viijd. solutis pro mille et cccis et di [350] tabulis serratis de arboribus succisis in orto collegii. Et de xx. solutis pro iiiml de Bryke..." 2 1447-8.

["Et de viijd. solutis carpentariis venientibus de Ely ad paciscendum pro factura descorum librarie. Et de vli. iijs. iiij d. solutis carpentariis pro fabrica descorum librarie in grosso. Et de vijd. in uno lapide pro volta ostii librarie. Et de viij d. solutis lathomo aptanti dictum ostium. Et de xxijd. in xv hamis ferreis pro fenestris orientalibus Et de xvij s. x d. in vitriacione duarum fenestrarum librarie et alterius parve fenestre super gradus librarie. Et de viijd. in hamis ferreis pro fenestris occidentalibus librarie. Et de ijs. vd. in quingentis de broddis ferreis pro descis librarie."]

3 1450. ["Et de vjd. in resolutione descorum librarie antique. Et de viijs. iiijd. in xvj. seris pro descis librarie et ijs. clavibus."]

4 "Et de xliijs. iiijd. Willelmo Herward pro factura solarii super promptuarium cum pariete dividente botlariam et pantleriam in grosso." In 1449 Magister T. Lane gave £3 to the work of the new fabric and of the kitchen. Bishop Wren's extracts from the Register of Peterhouse, MSS. Baker, xlii. 197.

masonry for walling, window jambs and monials, iron work, &c. In 1460 the Master's chamber was begun, for the heading "Expense fabrice camere Magistri" occurs for the first time in that year, and the whole sum spent under it is £21. 4s. 2d.

In 1461, £25. 17s. 3d. were spent, and in 1462, £28. 5s. 7d., but in these two years there is no specific indication of the nature of the building'. In 1463, a carpenter, John Bacon of Halsted, is employed as well as the masons.

Fig. 5. Doorway in ancient boundary wall, from the outside.

In 1464-5, amongst other mason work, mantel-pieces for the parlour and the room over it are mentioned: also windows, timber, tylpyns, "rofetyle," and the placing of them.

In 1466-7, the "Expense nove fabrice" include various cartloads of clunch sent to the College, together with foundations

[It is called simply "novum opus." The two poor scholars are again employed "ad carian dam terram."]

["Et de iiijs. in iiij lapidibus pro le mantils caminorum in parleto (parletorio?) et camera superiori." That this was a rebuilding, and not a new work, is proved by the following entry in the roll for 1464—5. "Et de x. solut... pro reparacione antiquorum ferramentorum que erant in fenestris veterum fenestrarum camere magistri."]

of new chambers, and of the "Parleyre" and a room called "the inner chamber 1."

After this year there remains a broken series of rolls beginning with that for 1469-70 which I have carefully searched as far as 1520, without finding any notice of buildings with the exception of small repairs, so that the College was completed for the time about 1467.

[In 1491-2, the Hall was repaired, and it was tiled on the north side2, a work which was still going on in 1501-23, in which year it was also paved, and in 1502-3 the making of "ly harth" is recorded, which is interesting as shewing that an open fire of some sort was then in use. In 1501-2 a stone wall was erected near the water (juxta aquam) at a cost of £23. 12s. 2d. This can be no other than the wall mentioned in Chapter I., to defray part of the expenses of which John Warkworth (Master, 1473-1500) gave one hundred shillings to the College. It is built of large blocks of clunch, with a few blocks of stone added in some places, especially at its northern extremity. It has been a good deal patched with brick, and a coping of red brick has been added along a portion of it, as shewn in fig. 5, which represents an ancient doorway (C, fig. 1), which gave access to the fen, and is evidently part of the original construction. Over this door on the outside are the arms of John Hotham, Bishop of Ely (1316-1337), and on the inside those of John Alcock, Bishop of the same see (1486—1500).]

1 ["Pro opera fundi parleyrie et camere interioris, et pro positione lapidum in fundo omnium camerarum dicti operis," i.e. the " novum opus."]

2 The following item in the roll for 1469 is curious for the latinization of the technical word "pointing." "Item iijli. ixs. iiijd. solut' cuidam tectori pro reparacione et punctuatione lij. polorum, precium le pole xvjd.”

3 ["Et de x. pro posicione tegularum in Aula, et de iijs. iiijd. pro factura ly synk in Aula, et de xvjs. pro pavyng in Aula."]

...

[1502-3. "Et de viij d. pro factura ly harth in aula."]

5 ["Item dedit 100 solidos monete Anglie ad novum murum lapideum ex parte occidentali collegii." Old Register, 99.]

CHAPTER III.

COMPARISON OF THE EXISTING BUILDINGS OF THE COLLEGE WITH THE ACCOUNTS. LIBRARY, KITCHEN, HALL, AND BUTTERY. COMBINATION ROOM. MASTER'S CHAMBER. NORTH RANGE. OTHER BUILDINGS.

THE information conveyed by this valuable series of building rolls can only be summed up by comparing it with the buildings themselves, assisted by the annexed map and plan (figs. 1, 2), assuming for the moment the dates of some of the modern buildings whose history will be given below.

The present College consists of a principal quadrangle measuring 86 feet from north to south, by 148 feet from east to west1; and of an entrance court next to the street rather broader than the quadrangle, and of a mean length of 80 feet, the north side being much shorter than the south. The chapel, built in 1628, stands in the midst of it, its gable forming part of the east side of the great quadrangle, the remaining portions of which side are made up by two cloisters, originally forming part of the design of the chapel. The south side of the entrance court is bounded by the College Library built about 1590, and the north side by a range of chambers erected in 1738, so that the whole of this entrance court is now of post-Reformation work.

The great quadrangle appears within to be entirely modern, but is substantially the medieval College to which our account rolls of the fifteenth century belong, as its venerable outer surfaces in the churchyard on the north, and in the gardens and kitchen court on the south, abundantly attest. The outer wall to the west is unfortunately masked by a white brick facing to bring it into harmony with the modern Gisborne

1

1 [Like most medieval courts and structures it is asymmetrical, the south side being 3 feet longer than the north.]

buildings, with the exception of a small portion at its northern extremity.

We may now compare more particularly the separate parts of the buildings with the accounts. These have shewn us that a Hall and some chambers existed before 1374, and that in 1424 extensive building-works were going on, probably a range of chambers, whose position is not indicated. We then come to the Library, concerning which the rolls have shewn us that the contract for building it was drawn up in 1431, that in 1438-9 the staircase was constructed by Reginald Ely, and that in 1447-8 the carpenters were at work upon the desks.

This Library remained in use until it was superseded by the present one at the end of the sixteenth century. It occupied part of the western side of the quadrangle, where it may easily be traced at present by its large staircase and its roof. The incongruous ashlaring and sash windows of Burrough applied to its eastern face in 1754, and the white brick facing with which its western face was equally disguised in 1825, have completely destroyed its ancient exterior, and its interior was divided into chambers after the new Library was built. The staircase, however, of Reginald Ely, a handsome stone vice or spiral staircase, nine feet in diameter, still gives access to its floor (A, fig. 2), and the