Oxford University Commissioners' Ordinances (1852) may hold a visitation whenever he thinks proper, or, without holding a visitation, is empowered to require written answers touching any matter upon which he deems information to be necessary.

Simultaneously abolishing all local and founder's kin preferences, this same Oxford University Commission made an order, in 1857, that no candidate for a scholarship at Winchester is to be considered ineligible on account of property or pecuniary circumstances as specified in the statutes; nor on the ground of any bodily imperfection which might incapacitate him for holy orders. Boys over fourteen were not to be eligible as collegers. Hence, as at Eton, the eleemosynary character of the foundation has been completely transformed.

Among the special recommendations of the Clarendon Commission, to which legislative sanction was subsequently given, were the following regarding Winchester :

"The Governing Body of Winchester College should consist of a Warden and eleven Fellows, of whom four should be stipendiary and seven honorary. . . . Unless prevented by sickness or by some urgent cause allowed by the Governing Body, the Warden should reside at Winchester during the whole of every School term, and each of the paid Fellows during three months in every year. .. That no ecclesiastical preferment in the gift of the College, should be tenable with the Wardenship, nor with a stipendiary Fellowship. That the 7 honorary Fellows shall be entitled to no emoluments and not required to reside."

In conclusion, let it be said there are to-day no boys upon the foundation of Winchester College who are the sons of small shopkeepers, artisans, or peasants. Here, as at Eton, a multi-millionaire's son may win and enjoy the emoluments of " a poor and needy boy's" scholarship. For, says the 1864 Commission's Report, "no boy has yet been excluded from the competition on the ground

of comparative affluence." Fees for boarders at this expensive school for rich boys average £210 a year, and this would by no means liquidate all expenses in term time. Moreover, each scholarship boy, who has probably been educated at a costly preparatory school, is required to pay an annual sum of £21 a year.

CHAPTER IV

ETON COLLEGE

POOR AND NEEDY SCHOLARS AT FOUNDATION-DANGER UNDER EDWARD IV. AND HENRY VIII.-KIng Death OUT-HUSTLES A ROYAL HUSTLER-CONSTITUTION of Eton-First Endowments-REVERSION OF ALIEN PRIORY PROPERTY-THE Sons of Villeins and a CURIOUS RETROGRESSION-PATRICIAN STUDENTS " Be Good Boys!"-LAND AT HAMPSTEAD GARDEN CITY-ALMSFolk, a Dream of the PASTTHE RED WINE OF GASCONY-HENRY VI. DIES STICKEN WITH A DAGGER "-LIFE AND LABOUR IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY-JANE SHORE AND A Charming Portrait at ETON-ROGER, PROVOST LUPTON, FOUNDER OF SEDBERGH, ORIGINALLY FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOLENORMOUS INCREMENTAL LOSS-THE AMOROUS ONE AGAIN-SOCIETY BRIGANDS-EDWARD VI.'S BOGUS REPUTATION-HUSH-MONEY AND ADROIT BRIBERY-A SIXTEENTH CENTURY AGITATOR"-QUEEN BESS AND ETON-PROVOST FOILED BY WOMAN'S INTRIGUE-NATIVITY OF THE FELLOWS' " BIRTHRIGHT.'

"

ETON College, situated in stately beauty by Thames side in Bucks, within sight of Windsor, was founded in 1440 by Henry VI., under the name of the " Blessid Marie of Etone beside Wyndesore." The charter of foundation was signed in the autumn of 1441, and by an instrument dated September 12th, 1440, Henry appropriated Eton Parish Church for collegiate purposes for his proposed establishment. On December 21st, 1443, the King despatched his commissioners to give solemn admission to the " Provost, Fellows, Clerks, and Scholars into the building," and in May of the following year, the several grants made by the King's letters patent were incorporated in an Act of Parliament, the completed statutes being accepted by the visitors appointed to the college, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop, Dean, and Chapter of Lincoln, within the diocesan jurisdiction of the second of whom Eton parish lay.

Apparently Henry desired to form his college of Eton on the model of Wykeham's foundation at Winchester

a supposition which would seem to gain some confirmation by the fact that Waynflete, the contemporary master of Winchester School, drew up Eton's Statutes of Foundation, themselves an approximation to the Winchester code. Synchronistically the Royal founder established King's College, Cambridge, to which he intended his "poor scholars of St. Mary of Eton" should proceed. Henry's scholars, styled "the twenty-five King's Scholars," were desired by him to take precedence over all others who might thereafter be educated at the Grammar School, and their statutable qualifications emphasise that "they be Pauperes et Indigents (i.e., the poor and needy), apt for study, and of good morals."

Edward IV. is reported to have regarded with great jealousy the establishments endowed by "the piety and munificence" of his predecessor; and on his accession he curtailed the endowments of King's College, Cambridge, and of Eton; deprived them of "movable property of considerable value; and at one time obtained a Bulla Unionis from Pope Pius II. for dissolving Eton College and uniting it with Windsor College-an establishment of which Edward is said to have been a warm patron. Owing, however, to the energetic protests and resistance of William Westbury (Provost of Eton), Edward was persuaded to seek a dissolution of the bull; and subsequently, by way of compensation, he endowed Eton with the "free, pure, perpetual alms of the Priory of Ponnington, in Dorset, with the lands, tenements, &c., belonging thereto," with the proviso that from the revenues of the same five poor students, educated at Eton School, were to be maintained at Oxford. In 1506 the annual revenue of Eton was £652 (£8,400 modern money). Under Henry Tudor the revenues of the college were materially improved; for besides confirming the charters and privileges of Eton, he granted" licenses to divers persons" to enable them to bequeath their lands for the aggrandisement of the college, unrestricted by the Act of Mortmain. Subsequently, the