[Illustration: The Hall, St. 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.
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 the slave-trade. There is also a very beautiful sketch of the head of William Wordsworth; this study was made by Pickersgill to save the poet the tedium of long sittings for the portrait in the Hall. It was presented to the College by Miss Arundale, a descendant of the painter. The smaller Combination Room contains many engraved portraits of distinguished members of the College.