The Death Mask of Cromwell.

In the college library there is one room which is very seldom visited by the hundreds of men who use the library every day. This is the room directly over the delivery room, and it is reached by the iron stairs that run up just to the west of the card catalogue. Like a great many other sights about the college which visitors see and which are often unknown to most of the students, this room in the library contains a number of very interesting things, well worth a visit.

The most striking thing in the whole room is a ghastly death mask. It is a copy of the original death mask of Oliver Cromwell, and contains quite a history. A number of years ago, the sculptor, Thomas Woolner, who is the author of the famous bust of Carlyle, presented to the historian a cast taken directly from the original death mask of Cromwell, which is in his possession. In 1873, Carlyle. in turn, gave it to Charles Eliot Norton. Later, when Carlyle left to Harvard his valuable library of works on Cromwell, which he had collected during the studies for his essay on him, Professor Norton presented the cast to the college and since then it has been in the library.