The Wren-Ashmole-Plot Memorial Windows at Oxford

Abstract

HE public unveiling of the memorial windows to Sir Christopher Wren, Ashmole, and Dr. Plot by the Chancellor of the University, Lord Cave, took place at Oxford on May 17 in ideal circumstances of weather, after the ceremony of the presentation of honorary degrees to MM. Doumergue and Briand. Speeches were delivered in the Divinity School by the representatives of the bodies who have given the windows. Mr. Madan, on behalf of Brasenose College, spoke on Ashmole as the founder of the oldest museum of natural history; Mr. Guy Dawber, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, pronounced an 6loge on Wren; and the Public Orator, Mr. Poynton, representing University, Magdalen, and Hertford Colleges, made a witty speech on Dr. Plot. The windows are a notable addition to the beauty of the staircase of the Old Ashmolean Museum, and will recall to generations of visitors the great pioneer work of this interesting group of men of science of the seventeenth century, some of whose work is illustrated in the Lewis Evans Collection on the upper floor of the building. The Chancellor expressed the grateful thanks of the University to the respective donors. He also paid a well-deserved tribute to Dr. R. T. Gunther, the Curator of the Lewis Evans Collection of Scientific Instruments, to whose zeal and energy are to be attributed the excellent arrangement and appropriate housing of the Lewis Evans Collection, and at whose instigation the donors of the memorial windows were moved to undertake these admirable additions to the interest of the historic building that contains them.