ioned pilasters divide the wall-space
into 33 compartments, each of which is from 3 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. wide, and
9 ft. high, exclusive of the plinth and cornice, and fitted with six
shelves, which are apparently at the original levels.

The gallery is approached by a staircase contrived in the thickness of the
south-west pier. It is 5 ft. wide, and fitted with bookcases ranged
against the wall in the same manner as those below, but they are loftier,
and of plainer design. The balustrade, a molded cornice of wood, supported
on pilasters of the same material, which recall those separating the
compartments below, and the great stone piers, enriched with a broad band
of fruit, flowers, and other ornaments set in a sunk panel, are striking
features of this gallery.

The material used throughout for the fittings is oak, which fortunately
has never been painted, and has assumed a mellow tone through age which
produces a singularly beautiful effect.

If we now return to Cambridge, we shall find that the influence of Wren
can easily be traced in all the library fittings put up in the course of
the 18th century. The first work of this kind undertaken was the provision
of additional fittings to the library of Emmanuel College[510] between
1702 and 1707. The tall cases, set up at right angles to the walls in
1679, were moved forward, and shelves in continuation of them were placed
against the side-walls. The same influence is more distinctly seen in the
library of S. Catharine's Hall[511], which was fitted up, according to
tradition, at the expense of Thomas Sherlock, D.D., probably while Master,
an office which he held from 1714 to 1719. The room is 63 ft. 6 in. long
by 22 ft. 10 in. wide; and it is divided by partitions into a central
portion, about 39 ft. long, and a narrow room at each end, 12 ft. long.
Each of these latter is lighted by windows in the north and south walls;
the former has windows in the south wall only. The central portion is
divided into three compartments by bookcases which line the walls, and
project from them at right angles; in the two smaller rooms the cases only
line the walls, the space being too narrow for any other treatment.

When the building of the new Senate House had set free the room called the
Regent House, in which the University had been in the habit of meeting
from very early times, it was fitted up, between 1731 and 1734, as part of
the University Library[512]. Wren's example was followe