scholars who are to learn grammar'; and also of twenty-five poor and infirm men, whose duty it shall be to pray there continually for our health and welfare so long as we live, and for our soul when we shall have departed this life, and for the souls of the illustrious Prince, Henry our father, late king of England and France; also of the Lady Katherine of most noble memory, late his wife, our mother; and for the souls of all our ancestors and of all the faithful who are dead: [consisting] also of one master or teacher in grammar whose duty it shall be to instruct in the rudiments of grammar the said indigent scholars and all others whatsoever who may come together from any part of our kingdom of England to the said College, gratuitously and without the exaction of money or any other thing."

It is indeed evident that King Henry had taken active steps towards the realisation of his pious purpose at even an earlier period of his reign, than the date of this Charter. He had before this purchased the advowson of the parish church of Eton, and his procuratory bears date on the 12th of September in his nineteenth year, by which instrument he empowered certain persons to act as his proctors, and to treat in his behalf with the Bishop of Lincoln, respecting the appropriation of the then parish church of Eton to the intended College: it being his design that the chapel of the College should be erected on the site of the old church, and that it should be the parish church of Eton as well as the College chapel.

Attention has justly been drawn to the time of Henry's life when he addressed himself to this great work; and it has been truly observed in honour of Eton College, and its sister foundation King's College, Cambridge, "that they were not erected to atone for former acts of injustice, cruelty, and murder, or the enormities of a licentious and profligate life, which have too often been the principal, if not the sole causes of the erection of religious houses, and the forming collegiate societies. Many of these foundations may be said to have been laid in rapine, in sacrilege, and in blood: and the structures were considered by those who caused them to be erected, as permanent acts of penitence and remorse." " But Henry's royal munificence

1 Grammatica. This formed the first part of the Trivium of the Schoolmen, and treated of the ancient languages exclusively.

2 Ackerman's History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, &c., p. 7.

proceeded from the love of good, and not from the fear of ill. "And," as the same historian of our public schools observes, "it is also to the honour of this founder, and his colleges, that when his piety and love of learning had suggested the magnificent designs, the means for ending them were not, as too often happened in similar foundations, obtained from plundering other establishments, nor from the forfeited estates of subjects condemned for treason; of whom there were so many examples, and which he was advised to do, his coffers being by no means in an overflowing state; or from the patrimony of minors, who, as his wards, were at his mercy, but whose rights he protected by his justice: on the contrary, the ample provision he made for the completion of his munificent designs were from his own demesne lands, and the estates of some of the alien priories, which, founded in England, were appropriated to religious houses abroad, and several of them in places which were confederated in active hostilities against him, and, therefore, withdrawn by their own acts and deeds from his protection. These endowments he accordingly assumed, as supreme lord of the land; not, as his rapacious successor, Henry the Eighth, afterwards did, for secular purposes, to say no worse of them; but, on the united principles of justice and humanity, from which he never deviated, he continued them in perpetuity to purposes of the same religious spirit, but far superior utility."

Thus did King Henry the Sixth in the early part of his life and reign, a period which, though saddened by defeat abroad, and troubled by factions at home, was a period of tranquillity compared with the War of the Roses, which soon followed, show that his truly noble ambition was "to enlarge the boundaries of religion and science in the bosom of peace." Nor did he ever abandon this his earliest undertaking. The civil war which soon broke out, and the temporary ruin of the House of Lancaster, prevented him from establishing his Colleges on the full scale of princely grandeur which he had designed. But, "what he was enabled to do, he did well;" and he left Eton and King's so far firmly planted, that they have flourished for four hundred years in efficiency and renown even beyond the most exalted expectations, in which their royal Founder could ever have indulged."

In the passage already translated and quoted from the original charter of Eton, King Henry speaks of the "Hostels, halls, and

other pious places," then existing in England, and “ copiously established through the devotion of his royal progenitors in affluence of goods and substance." Numerous places of religious education had already been endowed, both by royal and private founders, in England before Henry's time; but the magnificent foundations of William of Wykeham, at Winchester and Oxford, were the examples which King Henry principally followed. His uncle and tutor, Cardinal Beaufort, had, as Bishop of Winchester, been the Visitor of Winchester College and New College, Oxford; and Beckington, who became Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Lord Chancellor of England, one of Henry's favourite statesmen, had been educated on Wykeham's foundation. Their influence over Henry would naturally lead him to make careful inquiry into the constitution of Winchester and New College, and would predispose him to take William of Wykeham as his chief model; nor could he have selected a nobler one. He resolved, like Wykeham, that the school which he founded, should be connected with a College in one of the Universities, whither the best of the foundation scholars of his school should proceed to complete their education, and where a permanent provision of the amplest nature should be made for them.

The College which he founded at Cambridge for this purpose, and to which he gave the name of King's College, was the largest and most splendidly endowed collegiate foundation in that University. Henry ordained that it should comprise a Provost, and seventy Fellows or Scholars, who were to be supplied from Eton, as vacancies occurred in their number. His final design for the Collegiate body at Eton (for, the scheme of the original charter was considerably modified by him), was, that it should consist of a Provost, ten fellows, ten chaplains, ten clerks, sixteen choristers, an upper and an under master, seventy scholars, and thirteen servitors. These were to form the members of the foundation; but a careful examination of Henry's charters shows that he not only designed Eton to be a College where gratuitous instruction and maintenance should be provided for indigent scholars, and whence King's College at Cambridge should be recruited, but that he contemplated Eton becoming (as it speedily did become) a central place of education, whither the youth from every part of England should resort.

The state of literature in England and indeed in Europe in

general, was by no means brilliant at this period. Some learned Greeks had already left Constantinople for Italy, and communicated some acquaintance with their language; but it was almost unknown in the Western kingdoms. Latin, from being the language of the Church, had never ceased to be studied; but it was more the Latin of the missals and the schoolmen than that of the classics. The Roman law formed one of the branches of learning in our Universities (involving also the study of the Latin tongue), but the logic and metaphysics of the schoolmen continued to form the main pursuits of men who devoted themselves to a learned life.

All these studies were blended with divinity, and their professors were almost invariably ecclesiastics. But laymen also, as Hallam remarks, received occasionally a learned education; and indeed. "the great number who studied in the Inns of Court is a conclusive proof that they were not generally illiterate." The common law required some knowledge of two languages; and we may consider, on the same high authority, that in 1440 "the average instruction of an English gentleman of the first class would comprehend common reading and writing, a tolerable familiarity with French, and a slight tincture of Latin; the latter retained or not, according to his circumstances and character, as school learning is at present."

3

By letters patent, dated at Wyndesore, 12th September, An. Reg. 19, Henry nominated and appointed Robert Kent, William Lynde, and William Warryn, "for the oversight of our Rioll College of our Lady of Eaton, beside Wyndesore." The works were commenced in 1441; the chapel being the first part of the College that was built. The first stone of this was laid on the third day of July, in that year, William Lynde being clerk of the works, and John Hampton,' surveyor. Roger Keyes was

4 Hampton's accounts, and other accounts respecting the expenses of the building, are preserved in the College Archives, and a copy of them may be seen in the MS. History of Eton in the British Museum, vol ii., p. 157, et seq. In the December of the first year of the building, twelve carpenters, thirty-three freemasons, and two stonemasons, besides twelve labourers, were employed. The freemasons received 3s. a-week each, without deducting for holidays; the stonemasons and carpenters had 2s. 6d. a-week, if it was a week with one or more holidays in it; for a week without holidays their wages were 3s. The labourers had 4d. a day each, but were only paid for working days, which were on an average not more than five a week, as nothing was done on any

master of the works, and gave such satisfaction to Henry that he made him a grant of arms. For the purpose of expediting the building, workmen were forcibly collected from every part of the realm. This arbitrary power was then a branch of the Royal Prerogative often exercised on similar occasions. The letter is extant by which Henry required his Chancellor to grant the necessary warrants for impressment' to John Westerley and John

of the festivals or fast-days in the calendar. Throughout the period of the works in Henry the Sixth's time, the wages seem to have been much the same: skilled workmen, such as plumbers, sawyers, tilers, &c., receiving 6d. a day, and common labourers 4d. The same accounts give some curious information as to prices of various articles. Ale cost three half-pence per gallon; four skins of parchment cost 3d; glue was 8d. per pound. The charge for sending a man to London is 2s., which is stated to be at the rate of 8d. per day for his necessary expenses. This would seem to include entertainment for man and horse, as another item is :-" Ric Halley: for his expenses riding to ye Chaunshelers for ii Commyssyounss, by ii dayes at 8d. ye day, 1s. 4d." The Caen stone, which was imported for building the chapel, cost from 8s. to 9s. per ton. The ragg stone [i. e. stone in great masses], which was brought from Boughton, near Maidstone, for the same purpose, cost 18. per ton at the quarry. The carriage to London cost ls. per ton, and the further carriage to Eton cost ls. 4d. more. The ashlar stone [i. e. freestone of different lengths and thickness], which was dug at Maidstone, was wrought at the quarry by workmen at the King's expense. About 16 or 20 feet of ashlar thus wrought made a ton. A hundred feet of ashlar cost 9s. The conveyance to London cost 6s. 11d., and the further freight to Eton was 68. 8d. more. Very large quantities of stone were also brought from Hudleston, and Stapulton in Yorkshire. This cost at the quarry 1s. per ton. The land-carriage to the river Humber was 18. Thence it came down that river and by sea to the Tower of London. This cost 48. a ton, and the further freight up the Thames to Eton was 1s. 4d. more. About the latter end of the second year of the building, the brick-kiln was finished. This was at Slough. The bricklayers are then first distinctly mentioned in the accounts. They received 6d. per day each, with 2d. more to Robert Chirche, called the Wardenlayeer and Brekelayeer. Large quantities of straw are mentioned in the accounts, which were brought to be used at the brick-kiln, and for the workmen's beds. The straw, including carriage, cost some of it 10d. and some 12d. per load.

The bricks were principally burnt with thorns, but some seacoal was used, which cost 78. a chaldron.

The labourers were sharply fined for any fault. If they lost or broke anything it was stopped out of their wages. Fines on different labourers are entered :-" For chiding, 2d; for letting of his fellowes, 8d.; for looking abaut, 2d.; for shedding lime, 6d." &c., &c. Only one fine of a skilled workman is booked; it is of a stonemason, who was fined 3d. for going away without licence.

The reader will observe from the next note, that many if not most of the workmen and labourers were pressed forcibly into the service.

5 BY THE KING.

"REVEREND FADER IN GOD. Right trusty and right well-beloved. We grete you wel and wol and charge you that you do make our letters of commission severally in due forme; oon [one] directed unto Robert Westerley, maister mason of the werkes of oure newe Collaige of Eton, yeving hym power by the same to take as many masons wheresoever they may be founden, as may be thought necessary for the said werke;