John's College]

Many of the College examinations are held in the Hall, and in the days
of the brazier, examinees were warned by their Tutors not to sit too
near the brazier; the comfort from the heat being dearly purchased by
the drowsiness caused by the fumes of the charcoal.

Many interesting portraits hang on the walls. That of the foundress in
the centre of the north wall is painted on wooden panel, and is very
old. She is flanked by Lord Keeper Williams, and by Sir Ralph Hare,
K.C.B., both benefactors to the College. Other noteworthy portraits are
those of Sir Noah Thomas, physician to King George III., by Romney;
William Wordsworth, poet-laureate, by Pickersgill; Professor John E. B.
Mayor, by Herkomer; Professor B. H. Kennedy, long headmaster of
Shrewsbury School, by Ouless; Professor E. H. Palmer, Lord Almoner's
Reader of Arabic in the University, and a famous oriental scholar, by
the Hon. John Collier; and Professor G. D. Liveing, by Sir George Reid.

The shields in the windows are those of distinguished members of the
College, or benefactors. The further oriel window has busts of Sir John
F. W. Herschel and Professor John Couch Adams.

_The Combination Room._

We enter by the staircase at the north end of the Hall. This was
originally about 187 feet long, extending the whole length of the Second
Court, and was used as a gallery in connection with the old Master's
Lodge. The ceiling dates from 1600, and the panelling from 1603. In 1624
about 42 feet were sacrificed to obtain a staircase and vestibule for
the Library; the ceiling can be traced right through. In the eighteenth
century partitions were put up, dividing up the gallery into rooms.
When the new Master's Lodge was built these partitions were removed, and
the whole now forms two Combination Rooms.

In the oriel window on the south side is an old stained-glass portrait
of Henrietta Maria, Queen of King Charles I. The tradition runs that the
marriage articles between Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria were signed
in this room; King James I. was at that time holding his Court in
Trinity College.

A number of interesting portraits hang on the walls: George Augustus
Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand, afterwards of Lichfield, by George
Richmond, R.A.; a chalk drawing (also by Richmond) of William Tyrrell,
Bishop of Newcastle, New South Wales; of Sir John Herschel and Professor
J. C. Adams; of William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, the opponents
of t