stated times,
so that all might become aware of the rule under which they lived. The
names of those who had not discharged their College bills were publicly
read out by the Master. The elections of the Master and of the Fellows
and Scholars were held within it; of this practice the sole part that
remains is the election of a Master, which by the present statutes must
be held in the Chapel. The scholastic exercises of Acts and Opponencies,
in which certain doctrines were maintained and opposed, took place
there. The seal of the College was kept in the vestry, and the sealing
of documents took place in the Ante-Chapel. Though documents are now
sealed elsewhere, the stock of wafers for the College seal is kept by
the Chapel Clerk.

The erection of a new Chapel for the College was contemplated for about
200 years before it was carried out. Dr. Gunning, who was Master from
1661 to 1670, afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester and of Ely,
left by his will the sum of L300 "to St. John's College, towards the
beginning for the building for themselves a new Chapel." Gunning died in
1684, and in 1687 the College paid to Robert Grumbold the sum of L3 for
"a new ground plott modell of the old and new designed Chappell."
Nothing, however, came of the proposal at that time, though the idea
seems always to have been before the Society.

Preaching on Commemoration Day (May 6), 1861, Dr. William Selwyn, Lady
Margaret Professor of Divinity, and a former Fellow, pointing out that
the College was celebrating "its seventh jubilee," just 350 years having
passed since the charter was granted, pleaded earnestly for the erection
of a larger Chapel. The matter was taken up, and in January 1862 Sir
(then Mr.) George Gilbert Scott was requested "to advise us as to the
best plans, in his opinion, for a new Chapel." The scheme grew, and in
addition to the Chapel it was determined by the end of that year to have
also a new Master's Lodge, and to enlarge the Dining Hall. It was then
intended that the scheme should not involve a greater charge on the
corporate funds of the College than L40,000. As a matter of fact, before
the whole was carried out and paid for, the cost had risen to L97,641;
of this L17,172 was provided for by donations from members of the
College, the rest was met, partly out of capital, partly by a charge on
the College revenues, which ran for many years.

The Chapel was built on a site to the north of the old Chapel, and
thro