Imatges de pàgina
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the reformer Melancthon-that Scripture is little likely to be understood theologically by those who have never been at the pains to understand it grammati cally. Therefore, he enjoins upon his scholars, above all things, the study of GRAMMAR-"the foundation-stone, the gateway, the source of all other liberal arts and sciences," as he emphatically calls it. They were to be careful to maintain amongst themselves kindness, concord, and brotherly love; "to esteem no man's person," and to hold all distinctions of birth or wealth amongst themselves to be merged in the grand fraternity of letters. To all within the walls of St. Mary's College the admission itself was to be a patent of peerage; reverence was to be paid solely to the masters and the "prefects" of their own body. But outside the gates they were to give to the rank and station of such as they met the honor that was its due. So far was the founder from encouraging the notion that the scholar was like to be the unpolished, absorbed, unsocial being which he has been sometimes represented, that he specially recommends to the Winchester boys the observance of the "curialis modus"—that graceful and courtly bearing which they had opportunity of studying in the nobles who formed the king's personal retinue. He had taken as his own motto, "Manners makyth man."

The foundation, as the Bishop devised it, was for a warden and ten fellows, three chaplains and three clerks in orders, a head-master, (informator,) an under-master, (hostiarius,) seventy scholars, "poor and in need of help," and sixteen choristers. It has been always held that there was a religious symbolism in the numbers, though Wykeham himself gives no hint of it. The warden and fellows represent the eleven apostles, Judas' place being vacant; the six chaplains and clerks are the six orthodox deacons-Nicholas, by tradition, being a heretic; the masters and scholars are the body of disciples who were sent forth two by two-the Vulgate text giving the number at seventy-two; while in the sixteen choristers are set forth the prophets of the old dispensation, four "greater" and twelve "less."*

The founder was seventy-four years old when he saw the great design of his life completed. On the 28th of March, 1393-seven years after the opening of New College in Oxford-the warden and scholars of "St. Mary College of Winchester" left their temporary location on St. Giles' Hill, and took possession of the new buildings. The good Bishop himself, with his cross borne before him, his warden, John Morris, his "informator," John Milton, and the scholars under their charge, entered in solemn procession, with chant and litany at nine o'clock in the forenoon. No fellows appear to have been appointed until the following year, and then only five out of the ten proposed.

King Richard granted a liberal charter of privileges to the new foundation, which was confirmed by all his successors except Queen Mary. The frequent sojourn of the court at Winchester could not fail to bring a certain amount of royal favor and patronage. Henry VI was a frequent visitor at St. Mary's College, attending their chapel services, and making liberal offerings; and there he found his model for his own foundation at Eton. Whether Etonians will readily confess it or not now that the daughter has outgrown the mother, it is

* Perhaps it is with some notion of carrying out this scriptural symbolism, that the college boys (who have a very curious and copious argot of their own) have from time immemorial called the under-porters by the name of one of the minor prophets. The present official is Joel; the next is to be Amos in regular succession.

undeniably true that the Royal College was but a colony from Winchester. The first head-master was William of Waynflete, who migrated from the elder college (where he had taught for thirteen years) with five fellows and thirty-five scholars, in 1443. The bond of connection between the two societies continued to be close and intimate for many generations, although the migration of headmasters took a reverse direction; three at least-Clement Smyth, William Horeman, and Thomas Erlysman—in the course of the following half century, resigning their office at Eton for the more honorable and lucrative position of informator at Winchester. Mutual visits and hospitalities between their wardens and provosts kept up the kindly feeling of a common origin; and in 1445 there was drawn up and signed between them an instrument styled an "Amicable Concord," in which, after reciting the identity of object and common interest of both colleges, they undertake to support and protect each other in all lawful causes, ecclesiastical and civil, against all other persons or interests whatever. The use of a common grammar for some years contributed to maintain a feeling of fellowship among the scholars. King Henry is not recorded to have dined in hall at Winchester, although several of his court were entertained there on one occasion, when the society laid in "a pipe of red wine," which cost them eight pounds. It does not appear that his successor, Edward IV, ever paid them a visit in person; but in January, 1471, he sent one of his men to the college with a lion, whom perhaps the boys were quite as glad to see.

When Prince Arthur was born at Winchester, Henry VII visited the college in state, and was entertained in the warden's lodging. Henry VIII paid the society two visits—the first time accompanied by the Emperor Charles V. But the Wykehamists regard him as any thing but a patron or a benefactor. Not content with forcing upon them the exchange of some of their best manors and advowsons, he did his best to suppress them altogether by the terms of his new statute for the dissolution of colleges. John White, then warden, (afterwards Bishop of Lincoln,) has the credit of having prevented the application of this statute to his own college; and three years afterwards it was repealed by Ed ward's Statute of Exceptions. King Edward's commissioners insisted, however, on certain reforms; that in future the Scriptures should be read in hall in English instead of Latin; that each scholar should possess a New Testament; that they should omit from that time forth the singing or saying of Stella Cœli or Salve Regina, "or any such-like untrue or superstitious anthem;" and, amongst other regulations, that there should be "no excessive correction;" which latter proviso, at any rate, was likely to make the new injunctions popular with the college boys.

The young King Edward, during his short reign, paid Winchester a visit, on which occasion the scholars of the college presented him with no less than forty-two copies of Latin verses. Thomas Hyde, the head-master at the time, was "a person of great gravity and severity, and a lover of virtuous men," says John Pitts, himself an eminent Wykehamist; "very stiff and perverse," Strypo calls him-testimonies which are not quite so contradictory as they seem, when the bias of the witnesses is taken into account. On the accession of Elizabeth, not being inclined to adopt the reformed faith, he retired to Douai. The feelings of Wykeham's society, as of all collegiate bodies founded under the old discipline, were naturally hostile to the Church reformers, and there was little inclination on the part of the latter to deal in the least tenderly with what

many of them looked upon as nests of monkery. The very name of the "Col. lege of St. Mary" was odious to their ears. In the year following King Edward's visit, Queen Mary was married in the cathedral to Philip of Spain, and the bride and bridegroom attended service in the college chapel; but only twenty-five of the scholars were able to produce congratulatory verses on the occasion.

Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the college in 1570. Her scholarly tastes were well known, and the Wykehamists, of course, improved the occasion. George Coryatt and William Rainolds, fellows of New College, met her at the gates with an oration; and she had to listen to no less than forty complimentary effusions, in Latin and Greek verse, by the scholars. There is a copy of then all to be seen amongst Ashmole's manuscripts at Oxford; all are in the prevalent vein of flattery, and few have any merit besides brevity. But, if the traditionary story be true, there was one young scholar whose wit and readiness deserved a purse of gold better than Master Coryatt's oration. Her Majesty pleasantly asked him whether he had ever made acquaintance with that celebrated rod whose fame had reached even her royal ears. Both the question and the questioner would have embarrassed most school-boys; but he replied by an admirable quotation from Virgil-a familiar line, which the Queen was like enough to have understood:

Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem.*

It is very ungrateful of the Wykehamists not to have preserved his name. It was possibly the same youthful genius, or at least a very worthy successor, who depicted upon the wall of "sixth chamber"-where it may still be traced-a representation of that same renowned implement of discipline, with the grimly facetious motto underneath—“Animum pictura pascit inani." The Winton rod, in fact, deserves a more special notice than might be thought appropriate in the case of the ordinary birch, whose modest worth (though undeniable) is usually held to be best veiled in obscurity, especially since Mr. Tupper's proverbs have superseded Solomon's. It is not a birch at all; it is four slender apple-twigs set into a wooden handle; immemorial custom rules that the twigs should be provided by two juniors, who hold the responsible office of rod-maker, under the orders of the prefect of hall. It is by no means a severe-looking implement; but possibly it must be felt to be fully appreciated. It need hardly be said that it is applied in the ordinary fashion; six cuts forming what is technically called a "bibling"-on which occasion the Bible clerk (prefect of school) introduces the victim; and four being the sum of a less terrible operation called a "scrubbing." The invention of this very peculiar instrument is ascribed to Dr. John Baker, who was thirty-three years warden, (1454-87,) but of whose acts and deeds little more is on record than the Latin distich in which this contribution to college discipline is immortalized :

Si laus est, inventa quidem Custode Bakero

Ex quadripartito vimine flagra ferunt.

If we wish to know something of the internal economy and general working of the college at the time of Queen Elizabeth's visit, it so happens that there ex

* Virg. Æn. ii. 3:—

"Great Queen, what you command me to relate

Renews the sad remembrance of our fate."-DRYDEN.

ists a record of it, drawn up by the very best authority, and which enters pretty fully into detail. The head-master at that time was one Christopher Johnson— a man of very elegant scholarship, of varied accomplishments, who wrote a life of the founder, and a long poem in hexameters describing the arrangement of the several chambers, the hours of work and recreation, and the peculiar customs of the college as they then existed.

The scholars at this time were expected to rise at the sound of "first peal" at five o'clock, and were recommended to say privately a short Latin selection from the Psalms as soon as they were dressed. They then swept out their chambers and made their beds, (consisting in those days of nothing better than bundles of straw* with a coverlet,) and "second peal," at half-past five, summoned them to chapel. But these early hours appear to have been as distasteful to some of the young Wykehamists of that day as they are to modern schoolboys; for in a copy of verses, either of Mr. Johnson's composition or correction, Melpomene is represented as going round the scholars' beds in the morning, and finding some of them snoring at unlawful hours, to that indefatigable virgin's extreme disgust. At six they went into school, and came out at nine to a breakfast of bread and beer, for which they must by that time have had a pretty vigorous appetite. At eleven they went into school again, and at twelve came dinner. Under the superintendence of the præfectus olla, (prefect of tub,) portions of beef, called dispars,† were served out to the boys in messes of four, with a sufficiency of bread, and beer in large black jacks; the Bible clerk mean. while reading aloud a chapter from the Old Testament. The choristers waited at table. An antiphonal grace and psalm were sung, after which the choristers and college servants took their dinner. Between the two doors inside the hall stood, as it stands now, the olla or tub-a strong chest bound with iron hoopsinto which all the fragments of the meal were put, and afterwards distributed amongst the poor. Until the last few years the "prefect of tub" (whose duty it was to examine the quality of the meat sent in by the college butcher, and after dinner, to see to the proper collection and distribution of the remains) retained his title, though the office had become almost nominal. School opened again at two o'clock; at half-past three came an interval called "bever-time," when the boys had again bread and beer allowed them. At five the school was dismissed, and the whole resident society-warden, fellows, masters, and scholars-went in procession round the cloisters and the whole interior circuit of the college, which was called going circum. Thus they passed into the hall, where a supper of mutton was served-one dispar to every three boys. Even-song in chapel was at eight, after which, in those primitive days, the young Wykehamists thought it full time to go to bed.

The school-room was still "seventh chamber"-Magna illa domus, as the founder's directions call it-though, as some of the commoners must have been taught together with the scholars, it is difficult to understand how so many could have found room there without great confusion. Johnson remarks, indeed, that they had no fire in this room, for that the warm sunbeams and the warm breaths were quite sufficient; and certainly, if any thing like a hundred

* Hence, in college, to this day, clean sheets are spoken of as clean straw.

ti. e., portions, (dispertio.)

+ "Nec schola nostra focum complectitur, attamen omnes

Phœbeis radiis, halituque calescimus oris."-CHR. JOHNSON

boys were there collected, that sort of natural heating apparatus must have been very powerful. But the younger commoners, probably, seldom came into school, and in summer-time the whole of the scholars usually adjourned for lessons into the adjacent cloisters; a delightful arrangement, from which the latter portion of the "long half" is still called "cloister-time." The tiers of stone seats, which may still be noticed in the deep recesses of the windows, were the places in which the prefects sat when the boys were arranged in their respective books— the term still used at Winchester for what in other schools would be called "forms" or "classes." There was then, as now, four books only, though the highest was and is numbered as the "sixth." Then followed the fifth, fourth, and second-fourth. The work of the sixth book comprised Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Cicero, Martial, and Robinson's Rhetoric. There were twelve college prefects "in full power," of whom one was of "hall," one of "cloisters," one of "school," (called also ostiarius, whose duties seem to have been, in fact, those of a porter to open the door for the masters,) two of " chapel," and one of “tub;" there were also six of lower authority. Tuesdays and Thursdays were partial holidays, on which the boys went out to "hills" twice; once in the morning, returning at nine to breakfast, and again in the afternoon, coming off at three. Friday was the day of doom, when all arrears of flogging incurred during the week were punctually cleared off.

The upper rooms in the buildings were occupied by the fellows, three in each. The warden had his private lodging "above the inner northern gate," with some rooms east and west of it: the present election chamber was probably his hall; and from this there is a continuous communication by doors and passages throughout the whole upper story, which would enable him at any time to visit and overlook the members of his collegiate body. The head-master and his subordinate were lodged together, and the three chaplains had a room in common near the kitchen. Of the chambers below the scholars occupied six and the choristers one; and it was considerately enjoined, that no occupant of the rooms above was to throw any thing down upon their heads to the detriment of themselves or their goods and chattels. In each of the scholars' rooms were to be three of the eighteen prefects, as enjoined by the founder's statutes; boys "more advanced than the rest in years, discretion, and learning," who were to exercise a supervision over their fellows; so ancient is the system, which, adopted by Eton from Winchester, has long become a recognized feature in all our public schools-the intrusting more or less of the discipline to an aristocracy of the scholars themselves, whether under the name of prefects, monitors, or prepostors. One part of their duty was to instruct the juniors; and this early employment of the monitorial system must have been a very necessary part of the constitution of the school, if, as seems likely, the head-master had only one regular assistant. It is still continued in the college under a modified form; each of the junior boys has still his tutor amongst the prefects, the ten seniors having six or seven pupils each allotted to them, whom they are expected to assist in school difficulties generally, and especially in preparation for "standingup" time, as the junior examinations at the end of the summer half are called. In earlier times it would appear that this kind of deputy teaching was extended to the younger commoners as well, and led to some degree of abuse and neglect. In 1655, during the head-mastership of Dr. Burte, a little boy of six years old was placed at Winchester as a "commoner in college," with other young boys,

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