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| STAIRCASE, NEW BUILDINGS, TRINITY COLLEGE. -The preceding sketch gives a view of the fine staircase in that portion of Trinity College, called the New Buildings, generally conceded to be the most artistic section of the famous Dublin university. The design was by the great architect, Sir Thomas Deane, and the buildings were erected in 1854-55, at a cost of £26,000. The style of architecture is Venetian throughout, and no part of the handsome edifice is more admired than the classic stairway pictured above. It is unfortunate that the more ancient portions of Trinity College have been so "reconstructed," as to destroy almost wholly their original form and reduce them to a monotonous condition of mediocrity. Hardly a suggestion of their original style remains, and it is only in the throughly modern sections of the institution that the justly acquired Irish reputation for antique taste in construction is maintained. If the "improving" architects had given more study in appearance and less to convenience, the old portions of Trinity might be held worthy to rank beside that noble quartette of buildings, the Irish Houses of Parliament, the Four Courts, the Custom House and the General Post Office. The New Buildings contain the Engineering school, the lecture rooms of the Divinity and Law schools and apartments devoted to special examinations. |
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