number, we will that in their election regard shall be chiefly had to their teachableness, the goodness of their disposition, their learning, good behaviour and poverty (. . . Virtutis et inopia). And the more any of the candidates excels the rest in these respects, the more, as is right, he shall be preferred; and the choristers of the college and the sons of tenants of the college property, if they answer to the other requirements, shall always have the preference. Election day shall be Monday after St. Peter and St. Paul's day (i.e., June 29th). The electors shall be the Dean of our college of Westminster, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Master of Trinity, Cambridge . . with 3 other examiners . . . masters of art... and the schoolmaster of Westminster School." At eight o'clock on the day mentioned the examiners were to meet in the hall, dining-room, or other suitable place in the college, when the schoolmaster was to submit to them for examination and election his best scholars of the highest forms. Themes were to be set on which, next day at 2 p.m., the said scholars were each to give out before the electors, "in verse and prose, by heart or in writing, his sentiments on the themes. Meanwhile, all who want to be elected" were to be examined by the electors "on their proficiency in grammar, the humanities, and writing. And each of them shall write with his own hand his name, parentage, age and county and town in which he was born. None shall be admitted a scholar before he is 7 years old, nor remain in the school after " eighteen.

On the Wednesday following was to take place the election, first, of those promoted to the Universities, "in accordance with the agreements made as to this between the 3 royal colleges; second, of scholars to be admitted to Westminster School who have thoroughly learnt by heart at least the 8 parts of speech and can write at least moderately well.”

Appendix pro Discipulorum Electione in Collegium Westmonasterii ("Appendix for the election of scholars to

Westminster College "): "We will that no one shall be elected into our college who has not been educated in our said school for a whole year before the date of election, and not more than one shall be elected out of the same county in one election. Further, none shall be chosen into this number who is already heir, or who shall be heir on his father's death, to an inheritance of more than £10 yearly. Those elected shall, as soon as there are vacant places, be admitted in order kneeling, by the Dean, or in his absence, the Sub-dean, publicly in hall, either before dinner or after supper, in these words:

"I (name) Dean, or Sub-dean, of this collegiate church, admit thee (name) a pupil, scholar of this college, according to the Statutes of the same. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

CAP. VI. De Pensionariis, Tutoribus, et Pupillis ("Pensioners, tutors, and wards "):

"Paying scholars (pensioners) may be received into college as companions in study" if "not deficient in good character or in learning. They shall be bound by the same laws as the scholars, the same things shall be required of them and they shall render the same obedience." The dean should have no more than six, no prebendary more than two, and the schoolmaster and usher jointly no more than six pensioners. The same conditions in regard to character, promise, fitness, and elementary education applied to them as to the eleemosynary scholars; and the same standard was to regulate "the admission of townboys, strangers, and others into our college. And to prevent the masters being over-burdened with scholars, we will and decree that not more than 120 of all kinds of scholars, besides the choristers, shall ever be admitted into the school or allowed to stay in it."

CAP. IX. De cultu dei ("Divine worship"):

"We ordain there shall be in our church 10 choristers, boys of tender age, with clear voices. . . . We will that for this

office (i.e., chorister's Master) doctors and bachelors of Music shall be chosen. . . . He shall look after the boys' health, and we commit to his trust and care their education and liberal instruction in grammar (until they shall be thought fit to be admitted to our school), and in modesty of behaviour and manners."

If negligent and idle in teaching, or not careful of the boys' health, three warnings, if ineffectual, were sufficient for his dismissal.

"The choristers' Master shall be bound by oath faithfully to perform his duty in person. The choristers, after they have learnt the eight parts of speech by heart, and know how to write fairly well, shall come to our school every week-day, so as to become more proficient in grammar, and shall stay there for 2 hours at least and be instructed by the Master."

CAP. XVI. ("The Teaching and Ordering of Scholars"):

"All the scholars shall spend the night in one or two chambers, two in a bed. . . . At 5 o'clock, one of the chamber præpostors (to be four in number) shall intone 'surgite' ('get up!).... Prayers finished, they shall make their beds. Then each shall take any dust or dirt, there may happen to be under his bed, into the middle of the chamber... to be swept up afterwards into a heap by 4 boys appointed by the monitor. Then by twos in a long line shall they all go down to wash their hands," afterwards taking their places in school.

Certainly the contemporary poor scholars' education was a liberal one-no mere eighteenth century apology for a grammar school education, tinctured with the servility deliberately calculated to produce 'umble Uriah Heeps, or their affinities-for it embraced such classical, post-classical, and Renaissance authors as Demosthenes, Homer, Æsop, Plutarch, Vergil, Terence, Justin, Cicero, Sallust, Cæsar, Cato, Ludovico Vives, Ovid, Erasmus (conversations), Corderius, Martial, Catullus, Horace, Lucan (dialogues), and Silius Italicus.

But: "Quoniam vers canendi peritia et usum plurimum - valere deprehenditur ad clarum et distinctam vocis elocu

tionem, volumus omnes scholæ grammaticæ discipulos binas horas singulis septimanis, etc." (i.e., "As a knowledge of singing is found to be of the greatest use for a clear and distinct elocution, we ordain that all the pupils in the grammar school shall spend 2 hours weekly... in the art of music . . . and we will that the choristers' master shall take from each of them (except previous choristers) 6d. for each term from their tutors ").

By the statutes "punishment day" was fixed for Fridays.

As to the statutory origin of the Westminster Plays, whose topical Latin puns and quips are nowadays given before a select upper and upper-middle class audience from which the original and statutory plebeian element is, of course, conspicuously absent, it is perhaps worth quoting the instructions thereon given in the clause “De Comadiis et Ludis in Natali Exhibendis" (Comedies and Plays to be shown at Christmas) :—

"That the youth may spend Christmas-tide to greater advantage and become the better familiarized with proper action and elocution we ordain that, every year within 12 days after Christmas day, or afterwards, with the leave of the Dean, the Master and Usher together shall cause their pupils and the choristers to act, in public or private, a Latin comedy, or tragedy in Hall, and the Choral Master, an Englishman. If they do not each their part, the defaulter shall be mulcted in a fine of 10 shillings."

CAP. XI. De Commeatu in aula et stipendiis (“Of Commons in Hall and stipends") :—

"The Dean shall keep his table at his own expense in Hall, if he desires, or in the common room or his chamber, unless he prefers to live at a common table with the residentiary canons.

At the second table the Grammar masters, who we will and decree shall always be in commons, unless they are ill, the chaplains, clerks, and gentlemen shall sit. The other tables shall be occupied by the scholars and pensioners in their proper order. . . . Any one absent shall lose his allowance, and any one present shall receive an allowance proportionate to the days he is there."

As we have already mentioned the respective statutory emoluments of the masters and scholars of Westminster, we need only say that, of the stipends, each part of which "due shall be paid by the Treasurer at the end of each term," the dean's yearly benefice totalled £244 13s. 4d. (at least £3,700 to-day), comprising £100 yearly stipend ; £4 15s. for yearly livery; and daily allowances of 7s. 6d. aggregating £139 18s. 4d. Each prebendary received £27 5s. annually; the choirmaster II IIS. 8d. annually, and the ten singing boys each £3 14s. 2d. yearly (i.e., over £60 modern value).

"Besides the common allowance prescribed for each week, the College shall provide on Christmas day, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday, Purification of Mary (February 2) and St. Peter's day for the chaplains, masters, clerks, gentlemen and the like 4d. each for commons, and 2d. for each boy and college servant. On condition that the boys of the higher forms compose verses while the rest write out some sacred or philosophical sentiment and hang them on the screen in Hall with their names affixed. On other recognized feasts the masters and others of the order shall have 2d., the boys and college servants Id."

CAP. XIII. De exitu extra Collegii ambitum ("Of going outside the College precincts"):

"The master shall never, not even for a day, be away from home, except for the most urgent cause, to be approved by the Dean [or his deputy], and then no longer than has been directed. The boys shall never leave the company of their fellows on pain of the rod, and shall never go outside the College gate without leave from the Sub-dean and Schoolmaster, and then not without a companion of good character; and if they do they shall be severely beaten with the rod. But if parents or friends have summoned their boys from our school for one day or more for what shall appear. . . a reasonable cause, the boys shall write with their own hands in the register, and if they stay away more than 20 days in a year they shall wholly lose their place in college."

CAP. XIV. De vitanda aris contagione ("Of avoiding the Contagion of Air "):