century, at
least, before they were erected, the students of Oxford had met for
worship and for business in the earlier church, which stood on the
site of the present St. Mary's.

The Bodleian Library occupies the old Examination Schools, which were
built, in the reign of James I, for the reformed University of
Archbishop Laud; within the memory of men who do not count themselves
old, the university examinations were still held in this building.
Finally, the shapely dome between the Bodleian and St. Mary's is the
work of James Gibbs, the greatest English architect of the eighteenth
century, to whom Cambridge owes its Senate House, and London the
noble church of St. Martin's in the Fields. The dome was built for a
separate library, the foundation of Dr. John Radcliffe, Queen Anne's
physician, the most munificent of Oxford benefactors; it is still
managed by his trustees, a body independent of the University, but
since 1861 they have lent it to the Bodleian Library for a reading-
room. It is fitting that the oldest public library in the modern
world, a title the Bodleian can proudly claim, should have the finest
reading-room, where 400 students can have each his separate desk, and
where, if so minded and so physically enduring, they can put in
twelve hours' work in a day. No other great library in Europe allows
such privileges.

Round these three University buildings are grouped three colleges:
Hertford, the youngest of Oxford foundations, the re-creation of an
old hall by a Victorian financial magnate. Sir Thomas Baring; All
Souls', standing a little beyond, of which the part here shown is the
corner of the great Law Library, founded by Sir William Codrington in
the days of good Queen Anne; while on the other side of the Radcliffe
is Brasenose College (for pictures of which see Plates II and XV). No
non-academic building fronts on the Square; the one or two houses
facing on the south-west corner are occupied by college tutors. The
academic influence has spread even under the earth, for between the
Bodleian and the Radcliffe there is a great subterranean chamber of
two stories, excavated 1909-1910, which, when full, will contain
1,000,000 books.

It is refreshing to turn from the thought of so much dead industry,
as these multitudes of unread books will represent, to the
inspiration of the buildings. They are the very epitome of Oxford.
The classic symmetry of Gibbs' dome looks across at the soaring spire
of the medi