President Dr. Buckley, there might be seen his small tombstone near the entrance, with the following epitaph:
Siste hospes; saxum hoc Bretti premit ossa Joannis
Quern magnis meritis busta minora tegunt
Artubus in lapsis, mens Integra, longa lahorum
Tœdia pro Patribus lustra per octo tulit.
The period which closes with the Presidentship of Father Watkinson, 1707, may be said to constitute the most brilliant portion of the history of the College. For the space of eighty years from its commencement in 1628, the services which it rendered to the cause of religion were numerous and important. Its supplies of Missionaries were frequent, and the reputation which its members acquired for it in England, was not less than that which the learning and abilities of its Professors maintained amongst the Portuguese. These results become the more remarkable when it is remembered that they were accomplished in the face of difficulties of no ordinary nature, arising from very limited means, and restricted pecuniary resources. The building as originally erected was wretchedly mean and unsightly; the apartments few, small and inconvenient, insomuch that for the first century after the foundation of the College, our ancestors may be said to have lived in ruins rather than in a house.
The College fare seems to have been in keeping with the wretched fabric. Except on Friday which then, as in England, was observed out of Paschal time as a strict fast, each individual in the house received for breakfast three ounces of bread and one ounce of butter, which might be washed down by draughts of cold water ad libitum. For dinner, half a pound of meat was allotted by the Rules to each person; Rules alas, like so many others, frequently " more honoured in the breach than the observance," for often the resources of the Establishment could not provide so liberal an allowance! The same Rules, with equal generosity, allowed another half pound of meat for supper, but it may be easily surmised
