"It should seeme by some that she served three in France successively; Mary of England maryed to Lewis the twelfth, an. 1514, with whome she went out of England, but Lewis dying the first of January following, and that Queene (being) to returne home, sooner than either Sir Thomas Bullen or some other of her frendes liked she should, she was preferred to Clauda, daughter to Lewis XII. and wife to Francis I. then Queene (it is likely upon the commendation of Mary the Dowager), who not long after dying, an. 1524, not yet weary of France she went to live with Marguerite, Dutchess of Alanon and Berry, aLady much commended for her favor towards good letters, but never enough for the Protestant religion then in the infancy—from her, if I am not deceived, she first learnt the grounds of the Protestant religion; so that England may seem to owe some part of her happyness derived from that Lady." (Twysden's Notes quoted by Singer in his ed. of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, 1825, p.57.)

As Henry VIII. fell in love with his wife's maid of honour,—"began to kindle the brand of amours" at the light of Anne Boleyn's beauty, "her excellent gesture and behaviour,"—so we find in later times rich young men became enamoured of poor young women staying in the same house with them. Mr Bruce sends me an instance:

"the young lady was niece, you will perceive, to a well-beneficed clergyman, and a thriving gentleman well-advanced in the public service. She had lost her mother, and her father was in debt and difficulties. She was therefore placed by the influence of her uncles in a well-known family in Wiltshire."

State Papers. Dom. Car. I. Vol. ccclii. No. 29. Dr Matthew Nicholas, afterwards Dean of St Paul's, to Edward Nicholas, Clerk of the Council, and afterwards Secretary of State. Dated, West Dean, April 4, 1637.

"I have spoken with Miss Evelyn since I wrote last unto you, and enquired of her the cause w{hi}ch moued her to displace my coson Hunton. She told me much accordinge to what she had sayd unto my coson Hunton, w{i}th this addition, that she had respect in it as well unto her good as her owne convenience, for hauinge nowe noe employment for her but her needle, she founde that sittinge still at her worke made her sickly, and therefore thought she might doe better in another seruice where she might haue the orderinge of an huswifely charge, for w{hi}ch (she told me) she had made her very able. Iexpressed myselfe tender of the disgrace w{hi}ch would lay uppon my coson in beinge displaced in such a manner by warninge giuen, wherof whatsoeuer were the cause, it would be imagined by all that knowe it not, to be in her ill carriage, and wished she had done me that fauour as to haue acquainted me with her intents in such time as I might haue taken some course to haue disposed of her before it had bin knowne that she was to leaue her: she slubbered it ouer w{i}th a slight excuse that she had acquainted my wife ... but for my satisfaction she told me that she would be as mindfull of her when God should call her as if she were w{i}th her, and in testimony of her good likinge of her seruice she would allowe her forty shillings yearly towarde her maintainance as longe as herself should liue. Iam soe well acquainted w{i}th what she hath as yet disposed to her by will, and soe little value forty shillings to my coson Hunton's credit, as I gaue her noe thankes. Mr Downes (Iheare) is sent for home by his father w{i}th an intent to keepe him w{i}th him, but I doe imagine that when my coson Hunton shall be other where disposed off, he shall returne; for my conceit is stronge that the feare of his beinge match'd to his disadvantage, who was placed w{i}th Mr Evelyn a youth to be bred for his p{re}ferment, hath caused this alteration; howsoever there be noe wordes made of it. Iconfess that when I have bin told of the good will that was obserued betweene my coson Hunton and Mr Downes, Idid put it by w{i}th my coson Huntons protestation to the contrary, and was willinge by that neglect to have suffered it to have come to pass (if it mought have bin) because I thought it would haue bin to her aduantage, but nowe that the busines is come to this issue (as whatsoeuer be p{re}tended I am confident this is the cause of my cosons partinge) Ibegin to qustion my discretion.... Good brother, let me haue your aduise what todo."

[Headnote: PRIVATE TUITION IN EARLY ENGLAND.]

2. Home and Private Education. Of these, more or less must have been going on all over England, by private tutors at home, or in the houses of the latter. "In five years (after my baptism) Iwas handed over by my father to Siward, anoble priest, to be trained in letters, to whose mastery I was subdued during five years learning the first rudiments. But in the eleventh year of my age I was given up by my own father for the love of God, and destined to enter the service of the eternal King." —Orderic, vol. ii. p. 301, ed. Prevost.

From Adam de Marisco's Letters, 53, we find that Henry and Almeric, the eldest and youngest sons of the Earl of Montfort, were put under Grosseteste for tuition, he being then a Bishop. At Paris, John of Salisbury (who died in 1180) gained a living by teaching the sons of noblemen,—(instruendos susceperam, ?took them in to board). —Metalogicus, lib. 11, c.10.

Henry of Huntingdon says, "Richard, the king's (Henry I.'s) bastard son, was honourably brought up (festive nutritus) by our Bishop Robert (Blote of Lincoln), and duly reverenced by me and others in the same household I lived in." —Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. p. 696. Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of beating his cotanei et conscolares terr su, of being reproved for idleness by his uncle, the Bishop of St David's, and of being constantly chaffed by two of his uncle's chaplains, who used to decline durus and stultus to him. Also he alludes to the rod. Probably there was some sort of school at either Pembroke or St David's[[24a]].—De Rebus a se Gestis, lib. 1, c. 2.[25]

The Statutes of a Gild of young Scholars formed to burn lights in honour of some saint or other, and to help one another in sickness, old age, and to burial, will be printed for us by Mr Toulmin Smith in the Early English Text Society's books this year.

Under this head of Private Tuition we may class the houses of Abbots, where boys of good birth were educated. In his History of English Poetry, section 36, vol. iii. p. 9, ed. 1840, Warton says:

"It appears to have been customary for the governors of the most considerable convents, especially those that were honoured with the mitre, to receive into their own private lodgings the sons of the principal families of the neighbourhood for education. About the year 1450, Thomas Bromele, abbot of the mitred monastery of Hyde near Winchester, entertained in his own abbatial house within that monastery eight young gentlemen, or gentiles pueri, who were placed there for the purpose of literary instruction, and constantly dined at the abbot's table. Iwill not scruple to give the original words, which are more particular and expressive, of the obscure record which preserves this curious anecdote of monastic life. 'Pro octo gentilibus pueris apud dominum abbatem studii causa perhendinantibus, et ad mensam domini victitantibus, cum garcionibus suis ipsos comitantibus, hoc anno, xviil. ixs. Capiendo pro[26]...'" This, by the way, was more extraordinary, as William of Wykeham's celebrated seminary was so near. And this seems to have been an established practice of the abbot of Glastonbury, "whose apartment in the abbey was a kind of well-disciplined court, where the sons of noblemen and young gentlemen were wont to be sent for virtuous education, who returned thence home excellently accomplished.[27]" Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, who was cruelly executed by the king, during the course of his government educated near three hundred ingenuous youths, who constituted a part of his family; beside many others whom he liberally supported at the universities.[28] Whitgift, the most excellent and learned archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was educated under Robert Whitgift his uncle, abbot of the Augustine monastery of black canons at Wellhow in Lincolnshire, "who," says Strype, "had several other young gentlemen under his care for education." (Strype's Whitgift, v. i. ch. i. p.3.)

Of Lydgate—about 1420-30 A.D. I suppose—Prof. Morley says in his English Writers, vol. ii. Pt. I. p. 423:

"After studying at Oxford, Paris, and Padua, and after mastering with special delight the writings of such poets as Dante, Boccaccio, and Alain Chartier, Lydgate opened at his monastery of Bury St Edmund's a school of rhetoric in which he taught young nobles literature and the art of versifying!"

Richard Pace says in his De Fructu, 1517:

"Now the learning of music too demands its place, especially from me whom it distinguished when a boy amongst boys. For Thomas Langton, bishop of Winchester (the predecessor of him who is now living), whose secretary I was, when he had marked that I was making a proficiency in music far beyond my age (as himself—perchance from his too great affection for me—would point out and repeatedly say), 'The talent of this lad,' he said, 'is born for greater things,' and a few days afterwards he sent me, to pursue the study of literature, into Italy, to the school at Padua, which then was at its greatest prime, and benevolently supplied the annual expenses, as he showed wonderful favour to all men of letters, and in his day played the part of a second Mecnas, well remembering (as he ofttimes said) that he had been advanced to the episcopal dignity on account of his learning. For he had gained, with the highest commendation, the distinctions of each law[29] (as they say now-a-days). Also he so highly prized the study of Humanity[30] that he had boys and youths instructed in it at a school in his house; And he was vastly delighted to hear the scholars repeat to him at night the lessons given them by the teacher during the day. In this competition he who had borne himself notably went away with a present of something suitable to his character, and with commendation expressed in the most refined language; for that excellent governor had ever in his mouth the maxim that merit grows with praise."[31]

[Headnote: EDUCATION AT HOME AND AT TUTORS'.]

Palsgrave in 1530 speaks of "maister Petrus Vallensys, scole maister to his [Charles, Duke of Suffolk's] excellent yong sonne the Erle of Lyncolne."

Roger Ascham, author of the Scholemaster, &c., born in 1515,

"was received at a very youthful age into the family of Sir Antony Wingfield, who furnished money for his education, and placed Roger, together with his own sons, under a tutor whose name was Bond. The boy had by nature a taste for books, and showed his good taste by reading English in preference to Latin, with wonderful eagerness. This was the more remarkable from the fact that Latin was still the language of literature, and it is not likely that the few English books written at that time were at all largely spread abroad in places far away from the Universities and Cathedral towns. In or about the year 1530, Mr Bond the domestic tutor resigned the charge of young Roger, who was now about fifteen years old, and by the advice and pecuniary aid of his kind patron Sir Antony, he was enabled to enter St John's College, Cambridge, at that time the most famous seminary of learning in all England ... he took his bachelor's degree in 1531, Feb. 18, in the 18th year of his age ["being a boy, new bachelor of art," he says himself,] atime of life at which it is now more common to enter the University than to take a degree, but which, according to the modes of education then in use, was not thought premature. On the 23rd of March following, he was elected fellow of the College." Giles's Life of Ascham, Works, vol. i. p. xi-xiv.

Dr Clement and his wife were brought up in SirT. More's house. Clement was taken from St Paul's school, London, appointed tutor to More's children, and afterwards to his daughter Margaret, p. 402, col.1.

What a young nobleman learnt in Henry the Eighth's time may be gathered from the following extracts (partly given by Mr Froude, Hist., v. i. p. 39-40) from the letters of young Gregory Cromwell's tutor, to his father, the Earl of Essex, the King's Chief Secretary.

"The order of his studie, as the houres lymyted for the Frenche tongue, writinge, plaienge att weapons, castinge of accomptes, pastimes of instruments, and suche others, hath bene devised and directed by the prudent wisdome of Mr Southwell; who with a ffatherly zeale and amitie muche desiringe to have hime a sonne worthy suche parents, ceasseth not aswell concerninge all other things for hime mete and necessary, as also in lerninge, t'expresse his tendre love and affection towardes hime, serchinge by all meanes possible howe he may moste proffitte, dailie heringe hime to rede sumwhatt in thenglishe tongue, and advertisenge hime of the naturell and true kynde of pronuntiacn therof, expoundinge also and declaringe the etimologie and native signification of suche wordes as we have borowed of the Latines or Frenche menue, not evyn so comonly used in our quotidiene speche. Mr Cheney and Mr Charles in lyke wise endevoireth and emploieth themselves, accompanienge Mr Gregory in lerninge, amonge whome ther is a perpetuall contention, strife, and conflicte, and in maner of an honest envie who shall do beste, not oonlie in the ffrenche tongue (wherin Mr Vallence after a wonderesly compendious, facile, prompte, and redy waye, nott withoute painfull delegence and laborious industrie doth enstructe them) but also in writynge, playenge at weapons, and all other theire exercises, so that if continuance in this bihalf may take place, whereas the laste Diana, this shall (Itruste) be consecrated to Apollo and the Muses, to theire no small profecte and your good contentation and pleasure. And thus I beseche the Lord to have you in his moste gratious tuition.

At Reisinge in Norff[olk] the last daie of Aprill. Your faithfull and most bounden servaunte HENRY DOWES.

To his right honorable maister Mr Thomas Crumwell chief Secretary vnto the King's Maiestie." Ellis, Original Letters. Series I. vol. i. p. 341-3.

The next Letter gives further details of Gregory's studies—

"But forcause somer was spente in the servyce of the wylde goddes, it is so moche to be regarded after what fashion yeouth is educate and browght upp, in whiche tyme that that is lerned (for the moste parte) will nott all holelie be forgotten in the older yeres, Ithinke it my dutie to asserteyne yo^r Maistershippe how he spendith his tyme.... And firste, after he hath herde Masse he taketh a lecture of a Diologe of Erasmus Colloquium, called Pietas Puerilis, whereinne is described a veray picture of oone that sholde be vertuouselie brought upp; and forcause it is so necessary for hime, Ido not onelie cause him to rede it over, but also to practise the preceptes of the same, and I have also translated it into Englishe, so that he may conferre theime both to-githers, whereof (as lerned men affirme) cometh no smalle profecte[32] ... after that, he exerciseth his hande in writing one or two houres, and redith uppon Fabian's Chronicle as longe; the residue of the day he doth spende uppon the lute and virginalls. When he rideth (as he doth very ofte) Itell hime by the way some historie of the Romanes or the Greekes, whiche I cause him to reherse agayn in a tale. For his recreation he useth to hawke and hunte, and shote in his long bowe, which frameth and succedeth so well with hime that he semeth to be therunto given by nature."

Ellis, i. 343-4.

[Headnote: STUDIES OF YOUTHS, TEMP. HEN. VIII. AND ELIZABETH.]

Of the course of study of 'well-bred youths' in the early years of Elizabeth's reign we have an interesting account by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, father of the great Bacon, in a Paper by MrJ. Payne Collier in the Archologia, vol. 36, Part 2, p. 339, Article xxxi.[33] "Before he became Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon had been Attorney of that Court" [the Court of Wards and Liveries] "a most lucrative appointment; and on the 27th May, 1561, he addressed a letter to Sir William Cecil, then recently (Jan., 1561) made Master of the Wards, followed by a paper thus entitled:—'Articles devised for the bringing up in vertue and learning of the Queenes Majesties Wardes, being heires males, and whose landes, descending in possession and coming to the Queenes Majestie, shall amount to the cleere yearly value of c. markes, or above.'" Sir Nicholas asks the new Master of Wards to reform what he justly calls most "preposterous" abuses in the department:—"That the proceeding hath bin preposterous, appeareth by this: the chiefe thinge, and most of price, in wardeship, is the wardes mynde; the next to that, his bodie; the last and meanest, his land. Nowe, hitherto the chiefe care of governaunce hath bin to the land, being the meaneste; and to the bodie, being the better, very small; but to the mynde, being the best, none at all, which methinkes is playnely to sett the carte before the horse" (p. 343). Mr Collier then summarises Bacon's Articles for the bringing up of the Wards thus: "The wards are to attend divine service at six in the morning: nothing is said about breakfast,[34] but they are to study Latin until eleven; to dine between 11 and 12; to study with the music-master from 12 till 2; from 2 to 3 they are to be with the French master; and from 3 to 5 with the Latin and Greek masters. At 5 they are to go to evening prayers; then they are to sup; to be allowed honest pastimes till 8; and, last of all, before they go to bed at 9, they are again to apply themselves to music under the instruction of the master. At and after the age of 16 they were to attend lectures upon temporal and civil law, as well as de disciplin militari. It is not necessary to insert farther details; but what I have stated will serve to show how well-bred youths of that period were usually brought up, and how disgracefully the duty of education as regards wards was neglected.... It may appear singular that in these articles drawn up by Sir Nicholas, so much stress is laid upon instruction in music[35]; but it only serves to confirm the notion that the science was then most industriously cultivated by nearly every class of society." Pace in 1517 requires that every one should study it, but should join with it some other study, as Astrology or Astronomy. He says also that the greatest part of the art had perished by men's negligence; "For all that our musicians do now-a-days, is almost trivial if compared with what the old ones (antiqui) did, so that now hardly one or two (unus aut alter) can be found who know what harmony is, though the word is always on their tongue." (De Fructu, p. 54-5.) Ascham, while lamenting in 1545 (Toxophilus, p. 29) 'that the laudable custom of England to teach children their plain song and prick-song' is 'so decayed throughout all the realm as it is,' denounces the great practise of instrumental music by older students: "the minstrelsy of lutes, pipes, harps, and all other that standeth by such nice, fine, minikin fingering, (such as the most part of scholars whom I know use, if they use any,) is far more fit, for the womanishness of it, to dwell in the Court among ladies, than for any great thing in it which should help good and sad study, to abide in the University among scholars."

[Headnote: NEGLECT OF EDUCATION BY MOTHERS.]

By 1577 our rich people, according to Harrison, attended properly to the education of their children. After speaking "of our women, whose beautie commonlie exceedeth the fairest of those of the maine," he says:

"This neuerthelesse I vtterlie mislike in the poorer sort of them, for the wealthier doo sildome offend herein: that being of themselues without competent wit, they are so carelesse in the education of their children (wherein their husbands also are to be blamed,) by means whereof verie manie of them neither fearing God, neither regarding either manners or obedience, do oftentimes come to confusion, which (if anie correction or discipline had beene vsed toward them in youth) might haue prooued good members of their common-wealth & countrie, by their good seruice and industrie." —Descr. of Britaine, Holinshed, i. 115, col.2.

This is borne out by Ascham, who says that young men up to 17 were well looked after, but after that age were turned loose to get into all the mischief they liked:

"In deede, from seven to seventene, yong jentlemen commonlie be carefullie enough brought up: But from seventene to seven and twentie (the most dangerous tyme of all a mans life, and most slipperie to stay well in) they have commonlie the rein of all licens in their owne hand, and speciallie soch as do live in the Court. And that which is most to be merveled at, commonlie the wisest and also best men be found the fondest fathers in this behalfe. And if som good father wold seek some remedie herein, yet the mother (if the household of our Lady) had rather, yea, and will to, have her sonne cunnyng and bold, in making him to lyve trimlie when he is yong, than by learning and travell to be able to serve his Prince & his countrie, both wiselie in peace, and stoutlie in warre, whan he is old.

"The fault is in your selves, ye noble mens sonnes, and therfore ye deserve the greater blame, that commonlie the meaner mens children cum to be the wisest councellours, and greatest doers, in the weightie affaires of this realme." —Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, p. 39-40.

Note lastly, on this subject of private tuition, that Mulcaster in his Elementarie, 1582, complains greatly of rich people aping the custom of princes in having private tutors for their boys, and withdrawing them from public schools where the spirit of emulation against other boys would make them work. The course he recommends is, that rich people should send their sons, with their tutors, to the public schools, and so get the advantage of both kinds of tuition.

Girls' Home Education. The earliest notice of an English Governess that any friend has found for me is in "the 34th Letter of Osbert de Clare in Stephen's reign, A.D. 1135-54. He mentions what seems to be a Governess of his children, 'qudam matrona qu liberos ejus (sc. militis, Herberti de Furcis) educare consueverat.' She appears to be treated as one of the family: e.g. they wait for her when she goes into a chapel to pray. Ithink a nurse would have been 'ancilla qu liberos ejus nutriendos susceperat.'" Walter de Biblesworth was the tutor of the "lady Dionysia de Monchensi, aKentish heiress, the daughter of William de Monchensi, baron of Swanescombe, and related, apparently,[[35a]] to the Valences, earls of Pembroke, and wrote his French Grammar, or rather Vocabulary[36], for her. She married Hugh de Vere, the second son of Robert, fifth earl of Oxford. (Wright.) Lady Jane Grey was taught by a tutor at home, as we have seen. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII.'s "most dere and most entirely beloved suster, quene Mary, douagier of France," and no doubt wrote his Lesclaircissement de la Langue Francoise mainly for her, though also "desirous to do some humble service unto the nobilitie of this victorious realme, and universally unto all other estates of this my natyfe country." Giles Du Guez, or as Palsgrave says to Henry VIII., "the synguler clerke, maister Gyles Dewes, somtyme instructor to your noble grace in this selfe tong, at the especiall instaunce and request of dyvers of your highe estates and noble men, hath also for his partye written in this matter." His book is entitled "An Introductorie for to lerne to rede, to pronounce & to speke French trewly: compyled for the Right high, excellent, and most vertuous lady The Lady Mary of Englande, doughter to our most gracious soverayn Lorde Kyng Henry the Eight."

[Headnote: UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN EARLY ENGLAND.]

3. English University Education. In early days Cambridge and Oxford must be looked on, Isuppose, as mainly the great schools for boys, and the generality of scholars as poor men's children,[37] like Chaucer's 'poore scolares tuo that dwelten in the soler-halle of Cantebregge,' his Clerk of Oxenford, and those students, gifts to whom are considered as one of the regular burdens on the husbandman, in "God speed the Plough." Mr Froude says, Hist. of England, I.37:

"The universities were well filled, by the sons of yeomen chiefly. The cost of supporting them at the colleges was little, and wealthy men took a pride in helping forward any boys of promise[38] (Latimer's Sermons, p. 64). It seems clear also, as the Reformation drew nearer, while the clergy were sinking lower and lower, amarked change for the better became perceptible in a portion at least of the laity."

But Grosseteste mentions a "noble" scholar at Oxford (Epist. 129), and Edward the Black Prince and Henry V. are said to have been students of Queen's College, Oxford. Wolsey himself was a College tutor at Oxford, and had among his pupils the sons of the Marquess of Dorset, who afterwards gave him his first preferment, the living of Lymington. (Chappell.) [[38a]]

The legend runs that the first school at Oxford was founded by King Alfred[39], and that Oxford was a place of study in the time of Edward the Confessor (1041-66). If one may quote a book now considered to be 'a monkish forgery and an exploded authority,' Ingulfus, who was Abbot of Croyland, in the Isle of Ely, under William the Conqueror, says of himself that he was educated first at Westminster, and then passed to Oxford, where he made proficiency in such books of Aristotle as were then accessible to students,[40] and in the first two books of Tully's Rhetoric.—Malden, On the Origin of Universities, 1835, p.71.

In 1201 Oxford is called a University, and said to have contained 3000 scholars; in 1253 its first College (University) is founded. In 1244, Hen. III. grants it its first privileges as a corporate body, and confirms and extends them in 1245. In his reign, Wood says the number of scholars amounted to 30,000, anumber no doubt greatly exaggerated.

[Headnote: POVERTY OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS.]

In the reign of Stephen, we know that Vacarius, aLombard by birth, who had studied the civil law at Bologna, came into England, and formed a school of law at Oxford[41] ... he remained in England in the reign of Henry II. On account of the difficulty and expense of obtaining copies of the original books of the Roman law, and the poverty of his English scholars, Vacarius [ab. 1149, A.D.] compiled an abridgment of the Digests and Codex, in which their most essential parts were preserved, with some difference of arrangement, and illustrated from other law-books.... It bore on its title that it was "pauperibus presertim destinatus;" and hence the Oxford students of law obtained the name of Pauperists.—Malden, p. 72-3.

Roger Bacon (who died 1248)[[41a]] speaks of a young fellow who came to him, aged 15, not having wherewithal to live, or finding proper masters: "because he was obliged to serve those who gave him necessaries, during two years found no one to teach him a word in the things he learned." —Opus Tertium, cap. xx. In 1214 the Commonalty of Oxford agreed to pay 52s. yearly for the use of poor scholars, and to give 100 of them a meal of bread, ale, and pottage, with one large dish of flesh or fish, every St Nicholas day.—Wood's An. i. 185. Wood's Annals (ed. Gutch, v. i. p. 619-20) also notes that in 1461 A.D. divers Scholars were forced to get a license under the Chancellor's hand and seal (according to the Stat. 12 Ric. II., A.D. 1388, Ib., p. 519) to beg: and Sir Thos. More says "then may wee yet, like poor Scholars of Oxford, go a begging with our baggs & wallets, & sing salve Regina at rich mens dores." On this point we may also compare the Statutes of Walter de Merton for his College at Oxford, A.D. 1274, ed. Halliwell, 1843, p.19:

Cap. 13. De admissione scholarium.

Hoc etiam in eadem domo specialiter observari volo et decerno, ut circa eos, qui ad hujusmodi eleemosin participationem admittendi fuerint, diligenti solicitudine caveatur, ne qui prter castos, honestos, pacificos, humiles, indigentes, ad studium habiles ac proficere volentes, admittantur. Ad quorum agnitionem singulis, cum in dicta societate fuerint admittendi sustentationis gratia in eadem, ad annum unum utpote probationis causa primitus concedatur, ut sic demum si in dictis conditionibus laudabiliter se habuerint, in dictam congregationem admittantur.

See also cap. 31, against horses of scholars being kept.

Lodgings were let according to the joint valuation of 2 Magistri (scholars) and two townsmen (probi et legales homines de Villa). Wood, i. 255. An. 15 Hen. III. A.D. 1230-1.

In the beginning of the 15th century it had become the established rule that every scholar must be a member of some college or hall. The scholars who attended the public lectures of the university, without entering themselves at any college or hall, were called chamber dekyns, as in Paris they were called martinets; and frequent enactments were made against them.—Malden, p. 85, ref. to Woods Annals, 1408, -13, -22, and 1512, &c.

The following are the dates of the foundations of the different Colleges at Oxford as given in the University Calendar:—

University College, 1253-80[42] Balliol Coll., betw. 1263 & 1268 Merton College, founded at Maldon, in Surrey, in 1264, removed to Oxford in 1274 Exeter College 1314 Oriel " 1326 The Queen's College 1340 New " 1386 Lincoln " 1427 All Souls " 1437 Magdalen " 1458 The King's Hall and } College of Brasenose } 1509 Corpus Christi College 1516 Christ Church " 1526 Trinity College 1554 St John's " 1555 Jesus " 1571 Wadham " 1613 Pembroke " 1624 Worcester " 1714

HALLS

St Edmund Hall 1317 St Mary's " 1333 New Inn " 1438 Magdalen " 1487 St Alban " after 1547

[Headnote: UNDERGRADUATE'S EXPENSES AT OXFORD, 1478.]

'The Paston Letters' do not give us much information about studies or life at Oxford, but they do give us material for estimating the cost of a student there (ii. 124[43]); they show us the tutor reporting to a mother her son's progress in learning (ii. 130), and note the custom of a man, when made bachelor, giving a feast: "I was made bachelor ... on Friday was se'nnight (18 June, 1479), and I made my feast on the Monday after (21 June). Iwas promised venison against my feast, of my Lady Harcourt, and of another person too, but I was deceived of both; but my guests held them pleased with such meat as they had, blessed be God." The letter as to the costs is dated May 19, 1478.

"I marvel sore that you sent me no word of the letter which I sent to you by Master William Brown at Easter. Isent you word that time that I should send you mine expenses particularly; but as at this time the bearer hereof had a letter suddenly that he should come home, & therefore I could have no leisure to send them to you on that wise, & therefore I shall write to you in this letter the whole sum of my expenses since I was with you till Easter last past, and also the receipts, reckoning the twenty shillings that I had of you to Oxon wards, with the bishop's finding:—

s. d. The whole sum of receipts is 5 17 6 And the whole sum of expenses is 6 5 5 And that [= what] cometh over my receipts & my expenses I have borrowed of Master Edmund, & it draweth to 8 0

and yet I reckon none expenses since Easter; but as for them, they be not great."

On this account Fenn says,

"he (Wm. Paston) had expended 6 5s. 5d. from the time he left his mother to Easter last, which this year fell on the 22nd March, from which time it was now two months, & of the expenses 'since incurred' he says 'they be not great.' We may therefore conclude the former account was from the Michaelmas preceding, and a moderate one; if so, we may fairly estimate his university education at 100 a-year of our present money. Imean that 12 10s. 11d. would then procure as many necessaries and comforts as 100 will at this day."

What was the basis of Fenn's calculation he does not say. In 1468, the estimates for the Duke of Clarence's household expenses give these prices, among others:

s. d. s. d. Wheat, a quarter 6 0 now, say 3 0 0 Ale, a gallon - 1 " - 1 0 Beves, less hide and tallow, each 10 0 " 15 0 0[*] Muttons " " 1 4 " 2 10 0[*] Velys " " 2 6 " 4 0 0[*] Porkes " " 2 0 " 5 0 0 Rice, a pound 3 " 5 Sugar " 6 " 6 Holland, an ell (6d., 8d., 16d.) 10 " 1 3 Diapre " 4 6 " 3 0 Towelles " 1 8 " 1 6 Napkyns, a dozen, 12s., 1, 2, 17 4 " 2 0 0 ————— ——————- 2 7 0 31 17 8

[*: Poor ones.]

This sum would make the things named nearly 14 times as dear now as in 1468, and raise Fenn's 100 to about 180; but no reliance can be placed on this estimate because we know nothing of the condition of the beves, muttons, veles, and porkys, then, as contrasted with ours. Possibly they were half the size and half the weight. Still, Ihave referred the question to Professor Thorold Rogers, author of the History of Prices 1250-1400 A.D., and he says:

"In the year to which you refer (1478) bread was very dear, 50 per cent. above the average. But on the whole, wheat prices in the 15th century were lower than in the 14th. Fenn's calculation, alittle below the mark for wheat, is still less below it in most of the second necessaries of life. The multiple of wheat is about 9, that of meat at least 24, those of butter and cheese nearly as much. But that of clothing is not more than 6, that of linen from 4 to5. Taking however one thing with another, 12 is a safe general multiplier."

This would make the cost of young Paston's university education 150 11s. 6d. a year.

Mr Whiston would raise Fenn's estimate of 100 to 200. He says that the rent of land in Kent in 1540 was a shilling or eighteenpence an acre,—see Valor Ecclesiasticus,—and that the tithes and glebes of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, which were worth about 480 a-year in 1542, are now worth 19,000.

The remaining Oxford letter in the Paston volumes seems to allude to the students bearing part of the expenses of the degree, or the feast at it, of a person related to royal family.

"I supposed, when that I sent my letter to my brother John, that the Queen's brother should have proceeded at Midsummer, and therefore I beseeched her to send me some money, for it will be some cost to me, but not much."

The first school at Cambridge is said to have been founded by Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred, but on no good authority. In 1223 the term University was applied to the place. The dates of the foundations of its Colleges, as given in its Calendar, are:

St Peter's 1257 (date of charter, 1264) Clare Hall 1326 Pembroke 1347 Caius 1349 Trinity Hall 1350 Corpus Christi 1351 King's 1441 Queen's 1446 (refounded 1465) St Catherine's Hall 1473 Jesus 1496 Christ's 1505 St John's 1511 Magdalene 1519 Trinity 1546 Emmanuel 1584 Sidney 1598 Downing 1800

[Headnote: FEW NOBLEMEN AT CAMBRIDGE.]

Lord Henry Brandon, son of the Duke of Suffolk, died of the sweating sickness then prevalent in the University, on the 16th July, 1551, while a student of Cambridge. His brother, Lord Charles Brandon, died on the same day. Their removal to Buckden was too late to save them (Ath. Cant., i. 105, 541). Of them Ascham says, 'two noble Primeroses of Nobilitie, the yong Duke of Suffolke and Lord H. Matrevers were soch two examples to the Courte for learnyng, as our tyme may rather wishe, than look for agayne.'—Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, p. 62. Besides these two young noblemen, the first 104 pages of Cooper's Athen Cantabrigienses disclose only one other, Lord Derby's son, and the following names of sons of knights:[44]

CAMBRIDGE MEN.

1443 Thomas Rotherham, Fellow of King's, son of Sir Thomas Rotherham, knight, and Alice his wife.

1494 Reginald Bray, high-steward of the university of Oxford, son of Sir Richard Bray, knight, and the lady Joan his second wife.

1502 Humphrey Fitzwilliam, of Pembroke Hall, Vice-Chancellor, appears to have been the son of Sir Richard Fitzwilliam of Ecclesfield, and Elizabeth his wife.

ab. 1468 Richard Redman, son of Sir Richard Redman and Elizabeth [Aldburgh] his wife; made Bp. of St Asaph.

1492 Thomas Savage, son of Sir John Savage, knight, Bp. of Rochester. Was LL.D. ? educated at Cambridge.

1485 James Stanley, younger son of Thomas Earl of Derby, educated at both universities, graduated at Cambridge, and became prebendary of Holywell in 1485, Bp. of Ely in 1506.

1497 William Coningsby, son of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, elected from Eton to King's.

1507 Thomas Elyot, son of Sir Richard Elyot, made M.A.

ab. 1520 George Blagge, son of Sir Robert Blagge.

Queen Elizabeth's favourite, Lord Essex, was at Trinity College, Cambridge. See his letter of May 13, from there, in Ellis, series II. v. iii. p. 73; the furniture of his room, and his expenses, in the note p. 73-4; and his Tutor's letter asking for new clothes for 'my Lord,' or else 'he shall not onely be thrid bare, but ragged.'

Archbp. Whitgift[45], when B.D. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, A.D. 1563, "bestowed some of his time and abilities in the instruction of ingenious youth, sent to the college for education, in good learning and Christian manners. And among such his pupils, were two noblemen's sons, viz. the Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Earl of Pembroke; and John, son and heir to the Lord North." (Life, by Strype, ed. 1822, vol. i. p.14.)

While Whitgift was Master of Trinity, Strype says he had bred up under him not only several Bishops, but also "the Earls of Worcester and Cumberland, the Lord Zouch, the Lord Dunboy of Ireland, Sir Nicolas and Sir Francis Bacon. To which I may add one more, namely, the son of Sir Nicolas White, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, who married a Devereux." (Life, i. 157, ed. 1822.)

[Headnote: NOBLES AND GENTLEMEN AT OXFORD.]

A search through the whole of the first volume of Wood's Athen Oxonienses, comprising a period of nearly 100 years, has resulted in the following meagre list of men of noble or knightly birth who distinguished themselves. There are besides many men of "genteel parents," some of trader-ones, many friars, some Winchester men, but no Eton ones, educated at Oxford.

1478 Edmund Dudley, son of John Dudley, Esq., 2nd son of John Lord Dudley, of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.

ab. 1483 John Colet, the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, twice lord mayor of London ... was educated in grammaticals, partly in London or Westminster.

" Nicholas Vaux, son of Sir Will. Vaux of Harwedon in Northamptonshire (not the Poet, Lord Vaux).

end of Edw. IV. John Bourchier, Lord Berners, eldest son of Sir John Bourchier, knight, Lord Berners of Hertfordshire ... was instructed in several sorts of learning in the university in the latter end of K. Edw. IV.; in whose reign, and before, were the sons of divers of the English nobility educated in academical literature in Baliol Coll.,[46] wherein, as 'tis probable, this our author was instructed also.

1497 Thomas More, son of Sir John More, knight. (The Sir Thomas More.)

?ab. 1510 George Bulleyn, son and heir of Sir Tho. Bullen, and brother of Anne Bulleyn.

? " Henry Parker, son of Sir William Parker, knight.

1515 Christopher Seintgerman, son of Sir Henry Seintgerman, knight.

? ab. 1520 Thomas Wyatt, son of Henry Wyatt of Alington Castle in Kent, knight and baronet, migrated from St John's, Cambridge.[47]

1538[48] John Heron, a Kentish man born, near of kin to Sir John Heron, knight.

? ab. 1520 Edward Seymoure, son of Sir John Seymoure, or St Maure of Wolf-hall in Wilts, knight, was educated in trivials, and partly in quadrivials for some time in this university. He was Jane Seymour's brother, and afterwards Duke of Somerset, and was beheaded on Jan.22, 1552-3.

1534 John Philpot, son of Sir Pet. Philpot, knight of the Bath. Fellow of New Coll.

ab. 15— Henry Lord Stafford (author of the Mirror for Magistrates), the only son of Edward, Duke of Bucks, 'received his education in both the universities, especially in that of Cambridge, to which his father had been a benefactor.'

1515 Reynold Pole (the Cardinal), a younger son of Sir Rich. Pole.

? ab. 1530 Anthony Browne, son of Sir Weston Browne, of Abbesroding and of Langenhoo in Essex, knight.

ab. 1574 Patrick Plunket, baron of Dunsary in Ireland, son of Rob. Plunket, baron of the same place.

ab. 1570 Philip Sidney (the poet), son of Sir Henry Sidney.

? John Smythe, son of Sir Clem. Smythe.

(Peter Levens or Levins, our Manipulus or Rhyming-Dictionary man, became a student in the university, an. 1552, was elected probationer-fellow of Mag. Coll. into a Yorkshire place, 18 Jan. 1557, being then bach. of arts, and on the 19th Jan. 1559 was admitted true and perpetual fellow. In 1560 he left his fellowship. Ath. Ox. p. 547, col. 2.)

?ab. 1570 Reynolde Scot, a younger son of Sir John Scot of Scotshall, near to Smeeth in Kent.

1590 Hayward Townshend, eldest son of Sir Henry Townshend, knight.

ab. 1587 Francis Tresham (of Gunpowder Plot notoriety), son of Sir Thomas Tresham, knight.

The number of friars and monks at the Universities before the Reformation, and especially at Oxford, must have been large. Tanner says,

In our universities ... were taught divinity and canon law (then, t.Hen. III., much in vogue), and the friers resorting thither in great numbers and applying themselves closely to their studies, outdid the monks in all fashionable knowledge. But the monks quickly perceived it, and went also to the universities and studied hard, that they might not be run down by the friers.[49] And as the friers got houses in the universities, the monks also got colleges founded and endowed there[50] for the education of their novices, where they were for some years instructed in grammar, philosophy, and school divinity, and then returning home, improved their knowledge by their private studies, to the service of God and the credit of their respective societies. So that a little before the Reformation, the greatest part of the proceeders in divinity at Oxford were monks and Regular canons.

[Headnote: FAVOURITISM OF THE RICH IN THE UNIVERSITIES.]

By Harrison's time, A.D. 1577[51], rich men's sons had not only pressed into the Universities, but were scrooging poor men's sons out of the endowments meant only for the poor, learning the lessons that Mr Whiston so well shows our Cathedral dignitaries have carried out with the stipends of their choristers, boys and men. "Les gros poissons mangent les menus. Pro. Poore men are (easily) supplanted by the rich, the weake by the strong, the meane by the mighty."[52] (Cotgrave, u. manger.) The law of "natural selection" prevails. Who shall say nay in a Christian land professing the principles of the great "Inventor of Philanthropy"? Whitgift for one, see his Life of Strype, Bk.I. chap. xiii. p. 148-50, ed. 1822. In 1589 an act 31 Eliz. c. 6, was passed to endeavour to prevent the abuse, but, like modern Election-bribery Acts with their abuse, did not doit.

[Headnote: BAD EXAMPLE OF RICH MEN AT COLLEGE.]

"at this present, of one sort & other, there are about three thousand students nourished in them both (as by a late serveie it manifestlie appeared). They [the Colleges at our Universities] were created by their founders at the first, onelie for pore men's sons, whose parents were not able to bring them up unto learning: but now they have the least benefit of them, by reason the rich do so incroch upon them. And so farre hath this inconvenence spread itself, that it is in my time an hard matter for a pore man's child to come by a fellowship (though he be neuer so good a scholer & worthie of that roome.) Such packing also is used at elections, that not he which best deserveth, but he that hath most friends, though he be the worst scholer, is alwaies surest to speed; which will turne in the end to the overthrow of learning. That some gentlemen also, whose friends have been in times past benefactors to certeine of those houses, doe intrude into the disposition of their estates, without all respect of order or statutes devised by the founders, onelie thereby to place whome they think good (and not without some hope of gaine) the case is too too evident, and their attempt would soone take place, if their superiors did not provide to bridle their indevors. In some grammar schooles likewise, which send scholers to these universities, it is lamentable to see what briberie is used; for yer the scholer can be preferred, such briberye is made, that pore men's children are commonly shut out, and the richer sort received (who in times past thought it dishonour to live as it were upon almes) and yet being placed, most of them studie little other than histories, tables, dice & trifles, as men that make not the living by their studie the end of their purposes; which is a lamentable bearing. Besides this, being for the most part either gentlemen, or rich men's sonnes, they oft bring the universities into much slander.[53] For standing upon their reputation and libertie, they ruffle and roist it out, exceeding in apparell, and hanting riotous companie (which draweth them from their bookes into an other trade). And for excuse, when they are charged with breach of all good order, thinke it sufficient to saie, that they be gentlemen, which grieveth manie not a little. But to proceed with the rest.

"Everie one of these colleges haue in like manner their professors or readers of the tongs and severall sciences, as they call them, which dailie trade up the youth there abiding privatlie in their halles, to the end they may be able afterwards (when their turne commeth about, which is after twelve termes) to show themselves abroad, by going from thence into the common schooles and publike disputations (as it were In aream) there to trie their skilles, and declare how they have profited since their coming thither.

"Moreover in the publike schooles of both the universities, there are found at the prince's charge (and that verie largelie) five professors & readers, that is to saie, of divinitie, of the civill law, physicke, the Hebrew and the Greek tongues. And for the other lectures, as of philosophie, logike, rhetorike and the quadriuials, although the latter (Imean, arithmetike, musike, geometrie and astronomie, and with them all skill in the perspectives are now smallie regarded in either of them) the universities themselves do allowe competent stipends to such as reade the same, whereby they are sufficiently provided for, touching the maintenance of their estates, and no less encouraged to be diligent in their functions."

On the introduction of the study of Greek into the Universities, DrS. Knight says in his Life of Colet:

"As for Oxford, its own History and Antiquities sufficiently confess, that nothing was known there but Latin, and that in the most depraved Style of the School-men. Cornelius Vitellius, an Italian, was the first who taught Greek in that University[54]; and from him the famous Grocyne learned the first Elements thereof.

"In Cambridge, Erasmus was the first who taught the Greek Grammar. And so very low was the State of Learning in that University, that (as he tells a Friend) about the Year 1485, the Beginning of Hen. VII. Reign, there was nothing taught in that publick Seminary besides Alexander's Parva Logicalia, (as they called them) the old Axioms of Aristotle, and the Questions of John Scotus, till in Process of time good Letters were brought in, and some Knowledge of the Mathematicks; as also Aristotle in a new Dress, and some Skill in the Greek Tongue; and, by Degrees, aMultitude of Authors, whose Names before had not been heard of.[55]

"It is certain that even Erasmus himself did little understand Greek, when he came first into England, in 1497 (13 Hen. VII.), and that our Countryman Linacer taught it him, being just returned from Italy with great Skill in that Language: Which Linacer and William Grocyne were the two only Tutors that were able to teach it." Saml. Knight, Life of Dr John Colet, pp. 17,18.

The age at which boys went up to the University seems to have varied greatly. When Oxford students were forbidden to play marbles they could not have been very old. But in "The Mirror of the Periods of Man's Life" (?ab. 1430 A.D.), in the Society's Hymns to the Virgin and Christ of this year, we find the going-up age put at twenty:

Quod resou{n}, in age of .XX. [gh]eer, Goo to oxenford, or lerne lawe[56].

This is confirmed by young Paston's being at Eton at nineteen (see below, p. lvi). In 1612, Brinsley (Grammar Schoole, p. 307) puts the age at fifteen, and says,

"such onely should be sent to the Vniuersities, who proue most ingenuous and towardly, and who, in a loue of learning, will begin to take paines of themselues, hauing attained in some sort the former parts of learning; being good Grammarians at least, able to vnderstand, write and speake Latine in good sort.

"Such as haue good discretion how to gouerne themselues there, and to moderate their expenses; which is seldome times before 15 yeeres of age; which is also the youngest age admitted by the statutes of the Vniuersity, as I takeit."

[Headnote: FOREIGN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.]

4. Foreign University Education. That some of our nobles sent their sons to be educated in the French universities (whence they sometimes imported foreign vices into England[57]) is witnessed by some verses in a Latin Poem "in MS. Digby, No. 4 (Bodleian Library) of the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century," printed by Mr Thomas Wright in his Anecdota Literaria, p.38.

Filii nobilium, dum sunt juniores, Mittuntur in Franciam fieri doctores; Quos prece vel pretio domant corruptores, Sic prtaxatos referunt artaxata mores.

An English nation or set of students of the Faculty of Arts at Paris existed in 1169; after 1430 the name was changed to the German nation. Besides the students from the French provinces subject to the English, as Poictou, Guienne, &c, it included the English, Scottish, Irish, Poles, Germans, &c. —Encyc. Brit. John of Salisbury (born 1110) says that he was twelve years studying at Paris on his own account. Thomas a Becket, as a young man, studied at Paris. Giraldus Cambrensis (born 1147) went to Paris for education; so did Alexander Neckham (died 1227). Henry says,

"The English, in particular, were so numerous, that they occupied several schools or colleges; and made so distinguished a figure by their genius and learning, as well as by their generous manner of living, that they attracted the notice of all strangers. This appears from the following verses, describing the behaviour of a stranger on his first arrival in Paris, composed by Negel Wircker, an English student there, A.D. 1170:—

The stranger dress'd, the city first surveys, A church he enters, to his God he prays. Next to the schools he hastens, each he views, With care examines, anxious which to chuse. The English most attract his prying eyes, Their manners, words, and looks, pronounce them wise. Theirs is the open hand, the bounteous mind; Theirs solid sense, with sparkling wit combin'd. Their graver studies jovial banquets crown, Their rankling cares in flowing bowls they drown.[58]

Montpelier was another University whither Englishmen resorted, and is to be remembered by us if only for the memory of Andrew Borde, M.D., some bits of whose quaintness are in the notes to Russell in the present volume.

Padua is to be noted for Pace's sake. He is supposed to have been born in 1482.

Later, the custom of sending young noblemen and gentlemen to Italy—to travel, not to take a degree—was introduced, and Ascham's condemnation of it, when no tutor accompanied the youths, is too well known to need quoting. The Italians' saying, Inglese Italianato un diabolo incarnato, sums itup.[59]

[Headnote: MONASTIC AND CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS.]

5. Monastic and Cathedral Schools. Herbert Losing, Bp. of Thetford, afterwards Norwich, between 1091 and 1119, in his 37th Letter restores his schools at Thetford to Dean Bund, and directs that no other schools be opened there.

Tanner (Not. Mon. p. xx. ed. Nasmith), when mentioning "the use and advantage of these Religious houses"—under which term "are comprehended, cathedral and collegiate churches, abbies, priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories (Knights Templars' houses), and frieries"—says,

"Secondly, They were schools of learning & education; for every convent had one person or more appointed for this purpose; and all the neighbours that desired it, might have their children taught grammar and church musick without any expence to them.[60]

In the nunneries also young women were taught to work, and to read English, and sometimes Latin also. So that not only the lower rank of people, who could not pay for their learning, but most of the noblemen and gentlemen's daughters were educated in those places."[61]

[Headnote: LYDGATE'S TRICKS AT SCHOOL.]

As Lydgate (born at Lydgate in Suffolk, six or seven miles from Newmarket) was ordained subdeacon in the Benedictine monastery of Bury St Edmunds in 1389[62], he was probably sent as a boy to a monastic school. At any rate, as he sketches his early escapades—apple-stealing, playing truant, &c.,—for us in his Testament[63], Ishall quote the youth's bit of the poem here:—

[Line numbers in the following selections were added by the transcriber for use with sidenotes.]

Harleian MS. 2255, fol. 60.

Duryng the tyme / of this sesou{n} ver I meene the sesou{n} / of my yeerys greene Gynnyng fro childhood / strecchith{e}[A] vp so fer to e yeerys / accountyd ful Fifteene bexperience / as it was weel seene The gerissh{e} sesou{n} / straunge of condiciou{n}s Dispoosyd to many vnbridlyd passiouns 7

[Sidenote: [fol. 60 b.]]

Voyd of resou{n} / yove to wilfulnesse Froward to vertu / of thrift gaf[B] litil heede loth to lerne / lovid no besynesse Sauf pley or merthe / strau{n}ge to spelle or reede Folwyng al appetites / longyng to childheede lihtly tournyng wylde / and seelde sad Weepyng for nouht / and anoon afftir glad 14

For litil wroth / to stryve with my felawe As my passiou{n}s / did my bridil leede Of the yeerde somtyme / I Stood in awe to be scooryd[C] / that was al my dreede loth toward scole / lost my tyme in deede lik a yong colt / that ran with-owte brydil Made my freendys / ther good to spend in ydil / 21

[Sidenotes (by line number): [1] In my boyhood, [4] up to 15, [10] I loved no work but play [17] yet I was afraid of being scored by the rod.]

I hadde in custom / to come to scole late Nat for to lerne / but for a contenaunce with my felawys / reedy to debate to Iangle and Iape / was set al my plesaunce wherof rebukyd / this was my chevisaunce to forge a lesyng / and therupon to muse whan I trespasyd / my silven to excuse 28

[Sidenote: [fol. 61.]]

To my bettre / did no reverence Of my sovereyns / gaf no fors at al wex obstynat / by inobedience Ran in to garydns / applys ther I stal To gadre frutys / sparyd hegg[D] nor wal to plukke grapys / in othir mennys vynes Was moor reedy / than for to seyn[E] matynes 35

My lust was al / to scorne folk and iape Shrewde tornys / evir among to vse to Skoffe and mowe[F] / lyk a wantou{n} Ape whan I did evil / othre I did[G] accuse My wittys five / in wast I did abuse[H] Rediere chirstoonys / for to[I] telle Than gon to chirche / or heere the sacry[K] belle 42

[Sidenotes (by line number): [22] I came to school late, [25] talked, [27] lied to get off blame, [29] and mocked my masters. [32] I stole apples and grapes, [36] played tricks and mocked people, [40] liked counting cherry-stones better than church.]

Loth to ryse / lother to bedde at eve with vnwassh handys[L] / reedy to dyneer My pater noster / my Crede / or my beleeve Cast at the[M] Cok / loo this was my maneer Wavid with ech{e} wynd / as doth a reed speer Snybbyd[N] of my frendys / such techchys fortame{n}de[O] Made deff ere / lyst nat / to them attende 49

[Sidenote: [fol. 61 b.]]

A child resemblyng / which was nat lyk to thryve Froward to god / reklees[P] in his servise loth to correcciou{n} / slouh{e} my sylf to shryve Al good thewys / reedy to despise Cheef bellewedir / of feyned[Q] trwaundise this is to meene / my silf I cowde feyne Syk lyk a trwaunt / felte[R] no maneer peyne 56

My poort my pas / my foot alwey vnstable my look my eyen / vnswre and vagabounde In al my werkys / sodeynly chaungable To al good thewys / contrary I was founde Now ovir sad / now moornyng / now iocounde Wilful rekles / mad[S] stertyng as an hare To folwe my lust / for no man wold I spare. 63

[Sidenotes (by line number): [43] Late to rise, I was; dirty at dinner, [49] dea to the snubbings of my friends, [51] reckless in God's service, [54] chief shammer of illness when I was well, [57] always unsteady, [60] ill-conducted, [62] sparing none for my pleasure.]

[Collations: A: strecched. (These collations are from Harl. 218, fol. 65, back.) B: toke. C: skoured. D: nedir hegge. E: sey. F: mowen. G: koude. H: alle vse. I: cheristones to. K: sacryng. L: hondes. M: atte. N: Snybbyng. O: tamende. P: rekkes. Q: froward. R: and felt. S: made.]

At these monastic schools, I suppose, were educated mainly the boys whom the monks hoped would become monks, cleric or secular; mostly the poor, the Plowman's brother who was to be the Parson, not often the ploughman himself. Once, though, made a scholar and monk there, and sent by the Monastery to the University, the workman's, if not the ploughman's, son, might rule nobles and sit by kings, nay, beard them to their face. Thomas a Becket, himself the son of independent[[63a]] parents, was sent to be brought up in the "religious house of the Canons of Merton."

In 1392 the writer of Piers Plowman's Crede sketches the then state of things thus:

Now mot ich soutere hys sone seten to schole, And ich a beggeres brol on the book lerne, And worth to a writere and with a lorde dwelle, Other falsly to a frere the fend for to serven; 4 So of that beggares brol a [bychop[64]] shal worthen, Among the peres of the lond prese to sytten, And lordes sones[65] lowly to tho losels alowte, Knyghtes crouketh hem to and cruccheth ful lowe; 8 And his syre a soutere y-suled in grees, His teeth with toylyng of lether tatered as a sawe.

[Sidenotes (by line number): [1] Now every cobbler's son and beggar's brat turns writer, then Bishop, [7] and lords' sons crouch to him, [9] a cobbler's son.]

Here I might stop the quotation, but I go on, for justice has never yet been done[66] to this noble Crede and William's Vision as pictures of the life of their times,—chiefly from the profound ignorance of us English of our own language; partly from the grace, the freshness, and the brilliance of Chaucer's easier and inimitable verse:—

Alaas! that lordes of the londe leveth swiche wreechen, And leveth swych lorels for her lowe wordes. They shulden maken [bichopes[64]] her owen bretheren childre, Other of som gentil blod And so yt best semed, 4 And fostre none faytoures[64] ne swich false freres, To maken fat and fulle and her flesh combren. For her kynde were more to y-clense diches Than ben to sopers y-set first and served with sylver. 8 A grete bolle-ful of benen were beter in hys wombe, And with the bandes[A] of bakun his baly for to fillen Than pertryches or plovers or pecockes y-rosted, And comeren her stomakes with curiuse drynkes 12 That maketh swyche harlotes hordom usen, And with her wikkid word wymmen bitrayeth. God wold her wonyynge were in wildernesse, And fals freres forboden the fayre ladis chaumbres; 16 For knewe lordes her craft treuly I trowe They shulden nought haunten her house so ho[m]ly[64] on nyghtes, Ne bedden swich brothels in so brode shetes, 20 But sheten her heved in the stre to sharpen her wittes.

[Sidenotes (by line number): [1] Lords [3] should make gentlemen Bishops, [5] and set these scamps [7] to clean ditches, [9] and eat beans and bacon-rind instead of peacocks, [13] and having women. [17] If Lords but knew their tricks, [20] they'd turn these beggars into the straw.]

[Textnote A: ? randes. Sk.]

[Headnote: EDUCATION OF FIELD LABOURERS.]

There is one side of the picture, the workman's son turned monk, and clerk to a lord. Let us turn to the other side, the ploughman's son who didn't turn monk, whose head was 'shet' in the straw, who delved and ditched, and dunged the earth, eat bread of corn and bran, worts fleshless (vegetables, but no meat), drank water, and went miserably (Crede, l. 1565-71). What education did he get? To whom could he be apprenticed? What was his chance in life? Let the Statute-Book answer:—

A.D. 1388. 12 Rich. II., Cap.v.

Item. It is ordained & assented, That he or she which used to labour at the Plough and Cart, or other Labour or Service of Husbandry till they be of the Age of Twelve Years, that from thenceforth they shall abide at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond of Apprentie (so) be from henceforth made to the Contrary, the same shall be holden for none.

A.D. 1405-6. 7 Henri IV., Cap. xvii.

.....And Whereas in the Statutes made at Canterbury among other Articles it is contained That he or she that useth to labour at the Plough or Cart, or other Labour or Service of Husbandry, till he be of the age of Twelve Years, that from the same time forth he shall abide at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond be made from that time forth to the contrary, it shall be holden for none: Notwithstanding which Article, and the good Statutes afore made through all parts of the Realm, the Infants born within the Towns and Seignories of Upland, whose Fathers & Mothers have no Land nor Rent nor other Living, but only their Service or Mystery, be put by their said Fathers and Mothers and other their Friends to serve, and bound Apprentices, to divers Crafts within the Cities and Boroughs of the said Realm sometime at the Age of Twelve Years, sometime within the said Age, and that for the Pride of Clothing and other evil Customs that Servants do use in the same; so that there is so great Scarcity of Labourers and other Servants of Husbandry that the Gentlemen and other People of the Realm be greatly impoverished for the Cause aforesaid: Our Sovereign Lord the King considering the said Mischief, and willing thereupon to provide Remedy, by the advice & assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and at the request of the said Commons, hath ordained and stablished, That no Man nor Woman, of what Estate or Condition they be, shall put their Son or Daughter, of whatsoever Age he or she be, to Serve as Apprentice to no Craft nor other Labour within any City or Borough in the Realm, except he have Land or Rent to the Value of Twenty Shillings by the Year at the least, but they shall be put to other labours as their Estates doth require, upon Pain of one Year's Imprisonment, and to make Fine and Ransom at the King's Will. And if any Covenant be made of any such Infant, of what Estate that he be, to the contrary, it shall be holden for none. Provided Always, that every Man and Woman, of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall be free to set their Son or Daughter to take Learning at any manner School that pleaseth them within the Realm.

A most gracious saving clause truly, for those children who were used to labour at the plough and cart till they were twelve years old[67]. Let us hope that some got the benefit ofit!

These Acts I came across when hunting for the Statutes referred to by the Boke of Curtasye as fixing the hire of horses for carriage at fourpence a piece, and they caused me some surprise. They made me wonder less at the energy with which some people now are striving to erect "barriers against democracy" to prevent the return match for the old game coming off.—However improving, and however justly retributive, future legislation for the rich by the poor in the spirit of past legislation for the poor by the rich might be, it could hardly be considered pleasant, and is surely worth putting up the true barrier against, one of education in each poor man's mind. (He who americanizes us thus far will be the greatest benefactor England has had for some ages.)—These Statutes also made me think how the old spirit still lingers in England, how a friend of my own was curate in a Surrey village where the kind-hearted squire would allow none of the R's but Reading to be taught in his school; how another clergyman lately reported his Farmers' meeting on the school question: Reading and Writing might be taught, but Arithmetic not; the boys would be getting to know too much about wages, and that would be troublesome; how, lastly, our gangs of children working on our Eastern-counties farms, and our bird-keeping boys of the whole South, can almost match the children of the agricultural labourer of 1388.

[Headnote: NO BONDSMAN'S SON TO BE AN APPRENTICE.]

The early practice of the Freemasons, and other crafts, refusing to let any member take a bondsman's son as an apprentice, was founded on the reasonable apprehension that his lord would or might afterwards claim the lad, make him disclose the trade-secrets, and carry on his art for the lord's benefit. The fourth of the 'Fyftene artyculus or fyftene poyntus' of the Freemasons, printed by Mr Halliwell (p. 16), is on this subject.

Articulus quartus (MS. Bibl. Reg. 17A, Art. I., fol. 3, &c.)

The fowrthe artycul thys moste be, That the mayster hym wel be-se That he no bondemon prentys make, Ny for no covetyse do hym take; For the lord that he ys bond to, May fache the prentes whersever he go. [Gh]ef yn the logge he were y-take, Muche desese hyt my[gh]th ther make, And suche case hyt my[gh]th befalle That hyt my[gh]th greve summe or alle; For alle the masonus that ben there Wol stonde togedur hol y-fere. [Gh]ef suche won yn that craft schulde dwelle, Of dyvers desesys [gh]e my[gh]th telle. For more [gh]ese thenne, and of honest, Take a prentes of herre[A] degr. By olde tyme, wryten y fynde That the prentes schulde be of gentyl kynde; And so sumtyme grete lordys blod Toke thys gemetry that ys ful good.

[Text Note: A: higher.]

I should like to see the evidence of a lord's son having become a working mason, and dwelling seven years with his master 'hys craft to lurne.'

[Headnote: POST-REFORMATION CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS.]

Cathedral Schools. About the pre-Reformation Schools I can find only the extract from Tanner given above, p. xlii. On the post-Reformation Schools I refer readers to Mr Whiston's Cathedral Trusts, 1850. He says:

"The Cathedrals of England are of two kinds, those of the old and those of the new foundation: of the latter, Canterbury (the old archiepiscopal see) and Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester, and Worcester, old episcopal sees, were A.D. 1541-2 refounded, or rather reformed, by Henry VIII. ... Besides these, he created five other cathedral churches or colleges, in connexion with the five new episcopal sees of Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, and Peterborough. He further created the see of Westminster, which was ... subsequently (A.D. 1560) converted to a deanery collegiate by Queen Elizabeth ... (p.6). The preamble of the Act 31 Henry VIII. c. 9, for founding the new cathedrals, preserved in Henry's own handwriting, recites that they were established 'To the intente that Gods worde myght the better be sett forthe, cyldren broght up in lernynge, clerces nuryshyd in the universities, olde servantes decayed, to have lyfing, allmes housys for pour folke to be sustayned in, Reders of grece, ebrew, and latyne to have good stypende, dayly almes to be mynistrate, mending of hyght wayes, and exhybision for mynisters of the chyrche.'"

"A general idea of the scope and nature of the cathedral establishments, as originally planned and settled by Henry VIII., may be formed from the first chapter of the old statutes of Canterbury, which is almost identical with the corresponding chapter of the statutes of all the other cathedrals of the new foundation. It is as follows:

"On[68] the entire number of those who have their sustentation (qui sustentantur) in the cathedral and metropolitical church of Canterbury:

"First of all we ordain and direct that there be for ever in our aforesaid church, one dean, twelve canons, six preachers, twelve minor canons, one deacon, one subdeacon, twelve lay-clerks, one master of the choristers, ten choristers, two teachers of the boys in grammar, one of whom is to be the head master, the other, second master, fifty boys to be instructed in grammar,[69] twelve poor men to be maintained at the costs and charges of the said church, two vergers, two subsacrists (i.e., sextons), four servants in the church to ring the bells, and arrange all the rest, two porters, who shall also be barber-tonsors, one caterer,[70] one butler, and one under butler, one cook, and one under-cook, who, indeed, in the number prescribed, are to serve in our church every one of them in his own order, according to our statutes and ordinances."

In the Durham statutes, as settled in the first year of Philip and Mary, the corresponding chapter is as follows:

On[71] the total number of those who have their sustentation (qui sustentantur) in the cathedral church of Durham.

"We direct and ordain that there be for ever in the said church, one dean, twelve prebendaries, twelve minor canons, one deacon, one sub-deacon, ten clerks, (who may be either clerks or laymen,) one master of the choristers, ten choristers, two teachers of the boys in grammar, eighteen boys to be instructed in grammar, eight poor men to be maintained at the costs of the said church, two subsacrists, two vergers, two porters, one of whom shall also be barber-tonsor, one butler, one under-butler, one cook, and one under-cook."

"The monastic or collegiate character of the bodies thus constituted, is indicated by the names and offices of the inferior ministers above specified, who were intended to form a part of the establishment of the Common Hall, in which most of the subordinate members, including the boys to be instructed in grammar, were to take their meals. There was also another point in which the cathedrals were meant to resemble and supply the place of the old religious houses, i.e., in the maintenance of a certain number of students at the universities."

R^t. WHISTON, Cathedral Trusts and their Fulfilment, p. 2-4.

"The nature of these schools, and the desire to perpetuate and improve them, may be inferred from 'certein articles noted for the reformation of the cathedral churche of Excestr', submitted by the commissioners of Henry VIII., unto the correction of the Kynges Majestie,' as follows:

The tenth Article submitted. "That ther may be in the said Cathedral churche a free songe scole, the scolemaster to have yerly of the said pastor and prechars xx. marks for his wages, and his howss free, to teache xl. children frely, to rede, to write, synge and playe upon instruments of musike, also to teache ther A.B.C. in greke and hebrew. And every of the said xl. children to have wekely xiid. for ther meat and drink, and yerly vi^s viii^d. for a gowne; they to be bownd dayly to syng and rede within the said Cathedral churche such divine service as it may please the Kynges Majestie to allowe; the said childre to be at comons alltogether, with three prests hereaffter to be spoke off, to see them well ordered at the meat and to reforme their manners."

Article the eleventh, submitted. "That ther may be a fre grammer scole within the same Cathedral churche, the scole-master to have xx^li. by yere and his howss fre, the ussher x^li. & his howss fre, and that the said pastor and prechars may be bound to fynd xl. children at the said grammer scole, giving to every oon of the children xiid. wekely, to go to commons within the citie at the pleasour of the frendes, so long to continew as the scolemaster do se them diligent to lerne. The pastor to appointe viii. every prechar iiii. and the scolemaster iiii.; the said childre serving in the said churche and going to scole, to be preferred before strangers; provided always, that no childe be admitted to thexhibicion of the said churche, whose father is knowne to be worthe in goodes above ccc^li., or elles may dispend above xl^li. yerly enheritance." —Ibid., p. 10—12.

"Now 300 at that time was worth about 5,000 now, so that these schools were designed for the lower ranks of society, and open to the sons of the poorer gentry.

"An interesting illustration of this [and of the class-feeling in education at this time] is supplied," says Mr Whiston, "by the narrative of what took place—

"when the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from monks to secular men of the clergy, viz.: prebendaries or canons, petty-canons, choristers and scholars. At this erection were present, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop, with divers other commissioners. And nominating and electing such convenient and fit persons as should serve for the furniture of the said Cathedral church according to the new foundation, it came to pass that, when they should elect the children of the Grammar school, there were of the commissioners more than one or two who would have none admitted but sons or younger brethren of gentlemen. As for other, husbandmen's children, they were more meet, they said, for the plough, and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the learned sort; so that they wished none else to be put to school, but only gentlemen's children. Whereunto the most reverend father, the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, 'That he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter; for,' said he, 'poor men's children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as, with eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and also commonly more apt to apply their study, than is the gentleman's son, delicately educated.' Hereunto it was on the other part replied, 'that it was meet for the ploughman's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to apply the trade of his parent's vocation; and the gentleman's children are meet to have the knowledge of government and rule in the commonwealth. For we have,' said they, 'as much need of ploughmen as any other state; and all sorts of men may not go to school.' 'I grant,' replied the Archbishop, 'much of your meaning herein as needful in a commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman's son and the poor man's son from the benefits of learning, as though they were unworthy to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as well as upon others, is as much to say, as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow his great gifts of grace upon any person, nor nowhere else but as we and other men shall appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not according to his most goodly will and pleasure, who giveth his gifts both of learning, and other perfections in all sciences, unto all kinds and states of people indifferently. Even so doth he many times withdraw from them and their posterity again those beneficial gifts, if they be not thankful. If we should shut up into a strait corner the bountiful grace of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon attempt to build our fancies, we should make as perfect a work thereof as those that took upon them to build the Tower of Babel; for God would so provide that the offspring of our first-born children should peradventure become most unapt to learn, and very dolts, as I myself have seen no small number of them very dull and without all manner of capacity. And to say the truth, Itake it, that none of us all here, being gentlemen born (as I think), but had our beginning that way from a low and base parentage; and through the benefit of learning, and other civil knowledge, for the most part all gentlemen ascend to their estate.' Then it was again answered, that the most part of the nobility came up by feats of arms and martial acts. 'As though,' said the Archbishop, 'that the noble captain was always unfurnished of good learning and knowledge to persuade and dissuade his army rhetorically; who rather that way is brought unto authority than else his manly looks. To conclude; the poor man's son by pains-taking will for the most part be learned when the gentleman's son will not take the pains to get it. And we are taught by the Scriptures that Almighty God raiseth up from the dunghill, and setteth him in high authority. And whensoever it pleaseth him, of his divine providence, he deposeth princes unto a right humble and poor estate. Wherefore, if the gentleman's son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor man's child that is apt enter his room.' With words to the like effect." R. WHISTON, Cathedral Trusts, p. 12-14.

The scandalous way in which the choristers and poor boys were done out of their proportion of the endowments by the Cathedral clergy, is to be seen in Mr Whiston's little book.

[Headnote: POOR MEN'S SONS HAVE HEADS AS WELL AS RICH ONES'.]

6. Endowed Grammar Schools. These were mainly founded for citizens' and townsmen's children. Winchester (founded 1373) was probably the only one that did anything before 1450 for the education of our gentry. Eton was not founded till 1440. The following list of endowed schools founded before 1545, compiled for me by Mr Brock from Carlisle's Concise Description, shows the dates of all known to him.

BEFORE 1450 A.D.

bef. 1162 Derby. Free School. 1195 St Alban's. Free Grammar School. 1198 St Edmund's, Bury. Fr. Sch. 1328 Thetford. Gr. Sch. ? 1327 Northallerton. Gr. Sch. 1332 Exeter. Gr. Sch. 1343 Exeter. High School. bef. 1347 Melton Mowbray. Schools. 1373 Winchester College. 1384 Hereford. Gr. Sch. 1385 Wotton-under-Edge. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1395 or 1340 Penrith. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1399-1413 (Hen. IV.) Oswestry. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1418 Sevenoaks. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1422 Higham Ferrers. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1422-61 (Hen. VI.) Ewelme. Gr. Sch. 1440 Eton College. 1447 London. Mercers' School, but founded earlier.

SCHOOLS FOUNDED 1450—1545 A.D.

1461-83 (Edw. IV.) Chichester. The Prebendal School. bef. 1477 Ipswich.[72] Gr. Sch. 1484 Wainfleet. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1485-1509 (Hen. VII.) or before. Kibroorth, near Market Harborough. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. 1486 Reading. Gr. Sch. 1486 Kingston upon Hull. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1487 Stockport. Gr. Sch. 1487 Chipping Campden. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1491 Sudbury. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. 1495 Lancaster. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1497 Wimborne Minster. Fr. Gr. Sch. time of Hen. VII., 1485-1509 King's Lynn. Gr. Sch. 1502-52 Macclesfield. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1503 Bridgenorth. Fr. Sch. 1506 Brough or Burgh under Stainmore. Fr. Sch. 1507 Enfield. Gr. Sch. 1507 Farnworth, in Widnes, near Prescot. Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1508 Cirencester. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1509 Guildford. Royal Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Peterborough. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Basingstoke. Gr Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Plymouth. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Warwick. College or Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Earl's Colne, near Halsted. Fr. Gr. Sch. t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Carlisle. Gr. Sch. 1512 Southover and Lewes. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1513 Nottingham. Fr. Sch. 1515 Wolverhampton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1517 Aylesham. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1512-18 London.[73] St Paul's Sch. 1520 Bruton or Brewton. Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1520 Rolleston, nr. Burton-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. 1521 Tenterden. Fr. Sch. 1521 Milton Abbas, near Blandford. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1522 Taunton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1522 Biddenden, near Cranbrook. Free Latin Gr. Sch. bef. 1524-5 Manchester. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1524 Berkhampstead. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1526 Pocklington. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1526 Childrey, near Wantage. Fr. Sch. bef. 1528 Cuckfield. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1528 Gloucester. Saint Mary de Crypt. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1528 Grantham. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1530 Stamford, or Stanford. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1530 Newark-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch. bef. Reform. Norwich. Old Gr. Sch. t. Ref. Loughborough. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1532 Horsham. Fr. Sch. 1533 Bristol. City Fr. Gr. Sch. ab. 1533 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Royal Gr. Sch. ab. 1535 Stoke, near Clare. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1541 Brecknock. Gr. Sch. 1541 Ely. Fr. Sch. 1541 Durham. Gr. Sch. 1541-2 Worcester. The King's [t.i. Cathedral Grammar] or College School. 1542 Canterbury. The King's School. 1542 Rochester. The King's Sch.[74] 1542 Findon, properly Thingdon, near Wellingborough. Fr. Sch. 1542 Northampton. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1543 Abergavenny. Fr. Gr. Sch. 1544 Chester. [Cathedral] Gr., or King's School. 1544 Sutton Coldfield. Gr. Sch. bef. 1545 Gloucester. Cathedral [t.i. King's], or College School. 1545 St Mary of Ottery. Gr. Sch. bef. 1547 Wisbech. Gr. Sch. bef. 1549 Wellington. Gr. Sch.

About 1174 A.D., Fitzstephen speaks of the London schools and scholars thus:—I use Pegge's translation, 1772, to which Mr Chappell referredme,—

"The three principal churches in London[75] are privileged by grant and ancient usage with schools, and they are all very flourishing. Often indeed through the favour and countenance of persons eminent in philosophy, more schools are permitted. On festivals, at those churches where the Feast of the Patron Saint is solemnized, the masters convene their scholars. The youth, on that occasion, dispute, some in the demonstrative way, and some logically. These produce their enthymemes, and those the more perfect syllogisms. Some, the better to shew their parts, are exercised in disputation, contending with one another, whilst others are put upon establishing some truth by way of illustration. Some sophists endeavour to apply, on feigned topics, avast heap and flow of words, others to impose upon you with false conclusions. As to the orators, some with their rhetorical harangues employ all the powers of persuasion, taking care to observe the precepts of art, and to omit nothing opposite to the subject. The boys of different schools wrangle with one another in verse; contending about the principles of Grammar, or the rules of the Perfect Tenses and Supines. Others there are, who in Epigrams, or other compositions in numbers, use all that low ribaldry we read of in the Ancients; attacking their school-masters, but without mentioning names, with the old Fescennine licentiousness, and discharging their scoffs and sarcasms against them; touching the foibles of their school-fellows, or perhaps of greater personages, with true Socratic wit, or biting them more keenly with a Theonine tooth: The audience, fully disposed to laugh,