middle class, of well-to-do tradesmen and others to compete. This governing body declined to supplement the scholarship by a grant out of their own wealthy endowments of the comparatively small sum then necessary to support the really poor boy at Christ's Hospital. So much, then, for the worth of this so-called privilege to the indigent and able poor scholar in our modern secondary schools, located, at any rate, in the west of England!

The Christ's Hospital governors are the patrons of several churches, chiefly in Essex and Surrey. Part of the income of the foundation is devoted to apprenticing boys and girls and for leaving exhibitions from the school, and five or six members of the highest forms, called "Grecians," are annually sent to Oxford or Cambridge, with exhibitions of £70 yearly, for three to four years.

The Charity Organisation Society's Twenty-third Annual Digest and Register, of 1914, states, in regard to Christ's Hospital, that

"No child is admitted on the foundation whose parents, friends, or guardians, are not in need of assistance, in the opinion of the Council of Almoners. Management: By the Council of Almoners. Income (1912): £78,945 (approximately); there are 818 boys, and 259 girls. The London County Council hold an examination on the results of which the Governors of the Hospital allocate places to boys and girls. Estimated value £70 p.a.

"In connection with the eleemosynary branch of the foundation, the governors, it may be noted, administer Hetherington's Charity (established 1774), for the aged. Objects: annuities of £10 to aged persons who have known better days.'

Admission by election. Applicants must be fifty-five at least; English by birth (not Wales or Berwick-on-Tweed); resident in parish or locality two years, and not in possession of means equal to £20 a year. "Those who have never occupied a better or higher position than day labourers or journeymen, or domestic or menial services, or who have ever begged or received parochial relief, are ineligible. Manage

ment by the Committee of Almoners of Christ Hospital. Income (all from endowment) = £8,018 per annum.'

Probably the two following paragraphs may serve as an indication of the wealth to-day of this institution in such widely separated counties as Sussex and Lincoln. The London Daily Chronicle, of January 12th, 1914, states that :

"The governors of Christ's Hospital have decided to dispose of their estates at Ford and Climping, in Sussex. The property practically adjoins the town of Littlehampton. It extends to 2,200 acres, and produces £3,310 per annum.

"

The western portion of the Littlehampton golf course is on the estate, which extends along the coast for over a mile, and includes several interesting old houses, as well as the village of Climping. Bailiff's Court was once the residence of the Bailiff of Seez, from which it derives its name. The moat surrounding the house remains, and there is a little thirteenth century chapel, with beautiful windows and carvings."

And the London Daily Telegraph, of March 14th, 1914, informs its readers that the hospital was about to sell :"the Skellingthorpe estate, situated about 3 miles from the city of Lincoln, and including the manor house, six farms, small holdings, practically all the village, with its picturesque cottages, and about 500 acres of valuable woodlands, extending in all to about 2,308 acres. They will also offer the Hill Farm, Roxwell, near Chelmsford, the property of the governors, and extending to 208 acres, with farmhouse, two new cottages, and extensive farm buildings."

It may be noted that when these estates were sold, according to the periodical Truth (May 20th, 1914), the auctioneer informed the assembled and prospective purchasers at Skellingthorpe that the governors of the hospital had as reason for selling their estates merely―

'their desire more evenly to distribute their investments (subject to the approval of the Board of Education). He ran the estates up amidst keen competition to £33,000, a price representing about 28 years' net purchase of the present rents."

"

Later, on June 3rd, Truth's correspondent states that :—

The policy of the directors of Christ's Hospital in disposing of a portion of their estates has been justified by results. The auctioneer was quickly successful in disposing of the Ford and Climping estates at Littlehampton. . . . Divided from the town by the river Arun they extend to 2,240 acres and more of fertile land, and there are 2 miles of sea frontage. Ford and Climping is one of the oldest holdings of the hospital and this sale severs some connections which have existed for centuries, the name of one of the tenants being recorded in the manor roll of 1701. After keen competition the whole estate was sold for £62,000 to a Lincolnshire firm, which shows twentyeight years' purchase of the net rents. Hill Farm, Roxwell, also hospital property, was then sold at £20,000, or thirty-five years' purchase of the present rents, less tithe.”

Few or no boys of poorer middle or of working class origin in London and country may to-day enter Christ's Hospital by the avenue of competition.

CHAPTER XVIII

DULWICH COLLEGE

ANOTHER MELANCHOLY EXAMPLE-ALLEYN, THE SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR AND Keeper of THE KING'S BEAR-GARDEN-POOR SCHOLARS AND "FOREIGNERS "-FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENTS OF DULWICH COLLEGE-A ROMANCE OF THE MERRY OLD GENTLEMAN-ALLEYN'S LONDON Almshouses-STATUTES MODIFIED-ENLIGHTENMENT

NOT

VOUCHSAFED-ALIENATION OF THE COLLEGE-ITS SCANDALOUS CONDITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY-SIR FRANCIS BACON'S LETTER TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM-" A PRINCELY WORK"-Court of WARDS-BACON, A POETICAL STENOGRAPHER ?—Our Collective BEST FRIEND'S HANDS TIED-THE CHANCERY TRIBUNALS-FINE PICTURE GALLERY OF MURILLOS AND DUTCH MASTERS-UPPER AND LOWER SCHOOL AT DULWICH-CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY'S REPORT ON DULWICH COLlege and ALLEYN'S CHARITIES (1914)—ELEEMOSYNARY BRANCH VERY LITTLE EXPANDED SINCE 1870, DESPITE ENORMOUS GROWTH OF "UNEARNED INCREMENT "-OFFICIAL SCHOLARSHIP REGULATIONS OF DULWICH College-TO-DAY.

"ALLEYN'S College of God's Gift at Dulwich," better known as Dulwich College, presents another melancholy exhibition of what has, in this country, so often happened to a founder's eleemosynary intentions subsequent to his death. Founded under letters patent of James I., by Edward Alleyn, the famous actor (keeper of James I.'s bear-garden) and intimate friend of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, this college was originally established for a master, a warden, four fellows, six poor brethren, six poor sisters, and twelve poor scholars, of whom the brethren, sisters, and scholars were to be elected from four specified parishes. It was opened in great state on September 13th, 1619, in the presence of Lord Chancellor Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Arundell, and Inigo Jones, and by the founder's statutes, bearing date 1626, the educational advantages were extended to all sons of residents in Dulwich, and to so many others (without restrictive qualification of any kind) as would make up the total

G.E.S.

289

T

number of boys receiving education at the college to eighty in all. By these statutes Alleyn ordained the education of three classes, viz., twelve poor scholars; children of Dulwich inhabitants, who were to be taught freely; and "towne or foreign schollers," who were to "pay for such allowance as the master and wardens shall appoint."

The Calendar of Domestic State Papers (James I.) states under date" July 18th [1618] Westminster. Licence to Edw. Allen of Dulwich, Surrey, to found and incorporate a college and hospital there and to give lands to the value of £800 a year.' Sir Francis Calton, the contemporary owner of Dulwich manor, to whom and others the land had passed, at the Reformation, from the possession of the Cluniac monks of Bermondsey, was bought out by Alleyn at the then enormous cost of £10,000, and on June 20th, 1619, the patent of incorporation at last passed under the Great Seal.

Besides Dulwich manor, the endowment of the college comprised property in Bishopsgate and Lambeth, with a very valuable freehold in the old Fortune Theatre. A curious anonymous play, written about 1601-2, and entitled The Return from Parnassus, would appear to refer sarcastically to Alleyn :

"With mouthing words that better wits have framed, They purchase lands, and esquires now are made."

And John Aubrey, the seventeenth century Wiltshire antiquary, has the romantic statement (in his Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey, 1711, p. 190) that Alleyn's purchases of domains for charitable purposes were due to remorse quickened by the apparition of the merry old gentleman (to wit, old St. Nicholas) when our actor was personating a demon in one of Shakespeare's plays. The founder himself managed the affairs of his college, the average yearly expenditure on that head being £1,700.