basins in our piscina ; the right-hand basin is circular, that on the left forms a quatrefoil: they are very rudely formed: indeed the whole work, although most beautifully designed and having a very effective appearance, is seen, upon a close examination, to be rather roughly executed throughout. The sill, the shafts, and their bases are of Barnack stone, the arches of clunch. In the church of Histon near Cambridge there are two double piscina, one in the north and the other in the south transept, which resemble these at Cambridge by having similar intersecting arches with interpenetrating mouldings. But at Histon the arches spring from three sets of double shafts of Purbeck

marble. (See Cambridgeshire Churches, p. 73.)

The size of the piscina at St. John's College is a square of about 5 ft. 6 in., and the hollow penetrates 9 inches into the wall. It is 3 ft. 6 in. above the floor. The wood-cuts show the form and proportions of the mouldings of the central capital, which is 6 inches high and 9 inches wide at the top; also those of the arches.

Above the piscina there is a rectangular opening through the wall, of 3 feet in height and 1 ft. 6 in. in width. It is nearly plain, and was closed by a shutter. It seems to be original, and may have communicated with some narrow passage connecting this oratory with the dormitory of the brethren; not

FACE

for them to pass through, but to allow of a sight of the priest, when celebrating mass, being obtained without entering the oratory itself.

I have written in the present tense of these remains, but before the publication of this paper the piscina will have been removed into the new chapel. Other parts also cannot long continue in their ancient position. The photographs by Mr. Nichols from which the plates have been engraved were taken before any part of the ruins had fallen or the piscina been touched.

If we now direct our attention to the existing chapel (A) of the College we shall find that its walls are much older than the inserted windows, and that it belonged to the Hospital. Prof. Willis long since pointed out the presence of stringcourses and mouldings of the Early English style on the northern side, and also directed attention to the traces of the Early English windows which existed above, at the side of, and inclosing the existing Perpendicular openings. But the interior of the wall could not be examined until Mr. G. G. Scott was consulted about the new chapel, when he caused enough of the face of the wall to be removed to show that the original windows were in the Early English style when just changing into that called Decorated, i.e. were erected in the latter half of the x111th century, whereas the building (B) about which we have just been treating, was certainly built, 60 to 80 years earlier. The great arch, now much hidden by the organ, which divides the quire from the ante-chapel, is of the same date, and has similar mouldings to those of the original windows which are now embedded in the walls. The pointed crown of one of these old windows in the north wall may be seen rising above the much more obtuse top of the existing Perpendicular window. It has been laid open by the direction of Mr. Scott. The plate shows this top of the original window to the fight of the more ancient remains of the Hospital.

This chapel was originally 120 feet long; for we must include the space which is not shaded on my plan, and through which is the present approach to the Master's Lodge, and over which those who remodelled the buildings in the xvith century did not extend the new roof, but converted the upper part into chambers for the use of the Master. The quire occupied 74 feet of this length. The width is 25 feet. There were originally five windows on each side, or there may very probably have been six, for there is the proper space for one to the north and another to

the south in the secularized part above-mentioned. There now remain five windows on the south side and four on the north, but traces of the fifth are manifest over the entrance to Bishop Fisher's chapel. We do not know what was the original state of the east end which is now occupied by a large Perpendicular window. There was a large Early English window at the west end. Portions of the sill and one of the jams of this may now be seen in the wall which separated the Master's parlour from his bed-room. It is quite certain that the walls of this building are mainly those of the chapel of the Hospital; they seem to have been very much out of repair when the executors of the foundress took possession of the site; for the removal of the plaster has shown that although some parts are built with fine squared stones, other parts are patched with clunch and brick, and the whole surface rendered rough to furnish an attachment to the plaster, which was used to hide all the defects.

These two buildings are the only remains of the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist which are known to exist; but it is not improbable that parts of the walls of the first court of the College may have formed portions of the domestic buildings of the ancient house. That court was erected in its present form by Shorton, the first master of the College, A.D. 1511-16; except that the south side was refaced and altered in character in the time of Dr. Powell, who was master from A.D. 1765 to 1775. Baker informs us that the buildings required for the College, including the repair and refitting of the chapel, cost between four and five thousand pounds. He says, "the chapel was leaded, the stalls finished,...in the fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII” (A.D. 1513).

We must now endeavour to determine the use of the earlier of these buildings (B), supposed by Baker, when he wrote the text of his History, to be the chapel of the old house; but in a note added afterwards, to have been the chapel of St. John the Baptist, "whereof mention is made both in Bishop Alcock's register and Caius." But is not this

an oversight, and that he had in view St. John's Hostel, which stood near St. John the Baptist's church, on the site of King's College, for I cannot find any notice of it in Caii Historia, nor his De Antiquitate Cantabrigiensis Academia? Or may it have arisen from the mistake made in 1312, when the Master of this house was taxed to a tallage as of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist?

The Hospital of St. John the Evangelist (often called St. John's House) was founded for the "reception of poor,

infirm, and sick persons" by Henry Frost, a burgess of Cambridge, in the reign of Henry II. i.e. between A.D. 1154 and 1189, or possibly at a slightly earlier date, for Mr. Cooper (Ann. of Cambr. 1. 25) places it in 1135. Almost immediately after the foundation, religious brethren, subject to the rule of St. Augustine, were introduced. It is clear from a judicial enquiry concerning its right to the church of St. Peter (now St. Mary the Less), which had been given to it by Henry, son of Segar, that the Hospital existed in the year 1194. (Selden, Hist. of Tithes, 386). Before 1197 Hervey, son of Eustace Dunning, gave seven acres of land at Chesterton to sustain "two beds and bed-clothes for the use of the sick in the stone house of the Hospital." About 1208 the Bishop of Ely made an ordinance to secure the parson of All Saints' Church from any injury that might be caused to him by the master and brethren admitting the parishioners of All Saints to any sacraments or oblations: and thereupon the prioress and convent of St. Rhadegund granted the master and brethren free and pure chantry in the Hospital for ever. There must, therefore, at that time have been some sort of chapel; but it may have been only the oratory in the Infirmary. In 1280 Hugh de Balsham introduced a community of secular scholars into the House, but they could not agree with the regular brethren, and were soon removed to form St. Peter's College.

At a little after the middle of the xvth century, when John Dunham the younger was Master, and Thomas Rotheram was Chancellor of the University, the Hospital was admitted to the privileges of the latter body; as is shewn by the "letter of privilege" entered upon the old cartulary preserved amongst the muniments of the College. (Baker, Hist. of St. John's College, 46).

Up to the time of the dissolution, the prior or master and brethren were required to allot a considerable portion of their revenue to the support of sick people in the Hospital. We must therefore now consider what was the kind of building usually provided by bodies established for the especial purpose of receiving and supporting sick and infirm people, or by the monasteries for the reception of their sick, infirm, and aged monks. It was usually a large, long hall, lighted by windows on each side, or even divided into three parts by arches (resembling the nave and aisles of a church), and then often furnished with aisle and clerestory windows. In this hall the beds of the sick were arranged along each side throughout the greater part of its length; but at the eastern

end a small space was shut off by a screen, and provided with an altar and the other requisites for saying mass. Thus the sick could be present at the service without removing from their beds. Prof. Willis has proved that what used to be called the Saxon Church at Ely was the infirmary of that great House. The remains of a similar building can be traced at Peterborough, and on the sites of other monastic houses. I have seen such an arrangement in several old hospitals which still exist, only that now the altar has become a communion-table, and the beds for the infirm have been separated by wooden partitions, so as to form little chambers or cells, one for each inmate. My friend Mr. E. A. Freeman. tells me that there are a great many hospitals with a chapel at one end opening into the domestic part of the building. The chapel is often a mere oratory, just large enough for an altar. A similar arrangement was frequent in domestic houses where some ordinary room occupied the place of the infirmary, and like it opened into the chapel. He refers to St. Mary's Hospital at Chichester as a fine example, in which the oratory was large enough to form a sort of chapel with stalls on each side, and I quote the following short account of it from the Archæol. Journal (x. 267). "It consists of a lofty hall. At the eastern end there is a chapel, accessible only through the hall, being separated from it by an open screen. The hall has side aisles, in which are constructed small distinct dwellings opening into it for the poor inmates." Such an arrangement is also not unfrequent in the Roman Catholic countries of the European continent, at the present day. The old Hospital of St. Thomas at Northampton had a very small space of this kind at its east end, only affording room enough for the priest who said mass.

When these remains were first exposed, the idea occurred to me that they were part of an infirmary, such as has just been described, provided by the Hospital for the use of the sick people brought to it; and I am very happy to learn that Professor Willis formed the same opinion. The Hospital contained a very small number of brethren (not more than five or six), and it is therefore quite possible that they may not at first have possessed any chapel for their devotions, other than that provided for the benefit of their patients. It will be recollected that the date of their foundation was probably considerably before 1195, and that this infirmary must have been built almost immediately after their establishment, perhaps even by their founder.

If, as I firmly believe, this was really the Infirmary, the