, and improved; it may be that some
of Dallam's work still remains, though this is uncertain. The present
organ is one of the best in Cambridge; its tone throughout is uniformly
beautiful.

The brass reading-desk was given to the old Chapel by the Rev. Thomas
Whytehead, a Fellow of the College; the pedestal is copied from the
wooden lectern in Ramsay Church, Huntingdonshire; the finials, which are
there wanting, having been restored, and the wooden desk replaced by an
eagle.

As we return to the Ante-Chapel we may note the great west window,
representing the Last Judgment; this was given by the Bachelors and
Undergraduates of the College. There are also windows in the Ante-Chapel
to the memory of Dr. Ralph Tatham, Master of the College, and to the
Rev. J. J. Blunt, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity.

The oil-painting which hangs on the south wall of the Ante-Chapel near
the door--a Descent from the Cross--is by Anthony Raphael Mengs. It was
given to the College in 1841 by the Right Hon. Robert Henry Clive, M.P.
for Shropshire.

_The Hall._

We enter the Hall from the Screens, between the First and Second Courts.
The southern end is part of the original building of the College. It was
at first about seventy feet long, with one oriel only, the old
Combination Room being beyond it. When the new Chapel was built the Hall
was lengthened, and the second oriel window added. The oak panelling is
of the old "linen" pattern, and dates from the sixteenth century; that
lining the north wall, beyond the High Table, is very elaborately
carved, being the finest example of such work in Cambridge. Within
living memory all this oak work was painted green. The fine timbered
roof has a lantern turret, beneath which, until 1865, stood an open
charcoal brazier. From allusions in early documents it would appear that
members of the Society gathered round the brazier for conversation after
meals. In addition to its use as a dining-room, the Hall also served as
a lecture-room, and for the production of stage plays. On these latter
occasions it seems to have been specially decorated, for Roger Ascham,
writing 1st October 1550, from Antwerp, to his brother Fellow, Edward
Raven, tried to picture to him the magnificence of the city by saying
that it surpassed all others which he had visited, as much as the Hall
at St. John's, when decorated for a play at Christmas, surpassed its
appearance at ordinary times.

[Illustration: The Hall, St.