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the crumbling ruins are now a few vine-clad walls, washed by the Monmow. From this castle, tradition says, that being a sickly child, Henry was sent to Cornfield, six or seven miles distant, to be nursed there; and the cradle in which he was rocked was shown there some thirty years since. In the Wardrobe Accounts of Henry's father we find an entry of a charge for a "long gown" for the young Lord Henry; and we further learn that very shortly after he ascended the throne, he settled an annuity of 207. upon his nurse, Johanna Waring, "in consideration of what was done to him in former days. In the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, in the year 1397, is the charge of 8d. paid "for harp-strings purchased for the harp of the young Lord Henry;" 12d. "for a new scabbard of a sword;" and "ls. 6d. for threefourths of an ounce of tissue of black silk for a sword of young Lord Henry." In 1396, we find a charge of " 4s. for seven books of grammar contained in one volume, and bought at London for the. young Lord Henry." There is reason to believe that so early as 1399, Henry was placed in Queen's College, Oxford, under the superintendence of his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, then Chancellor of the University; so that even the above volume of grammar may have been first learned under the direction of the future Cardinal.

In the old building of Queen's College, a chamber used to be pointed out by successive generations a Henry the Fifth's* It stood over the gate-way opposite to St. Ed · mund's Hall. A portrait of him in painted glass, commemorative of his residence there, was seen in the window, with an inscription (as it should seem of comparatively recent date) in Latin:

To record the fact forever.

The Emperor of Britain,

The Triumphant Lord of France,

The Conqueror of his enemies and of himself,

Henry V.

Of this little chamber,

Once the great Inhabitant.

The tender age of Henry at this period does not render the tradition improbable; for many then became members of the University at the time they would now be sent to school. Those who were designed for the military profession were compelled to bear arms, and go to the field at the age of fifteen; consequently, the little education they received was confined to their boyhood. Hence it may be inferred that Henry (though perhaps without himself being enrolled among the regular academics) lived with his uncle, then chancellor, and studied under his superintendence. It is nearly certain that before the October term, 1398, Henry had been removed to King Richard's palace, carefully watched; whilst in 1399 he accompanied that monarch in his expedition.

* Fuller, in his Church History, informs us that Henry's chamber over the College gate was then inhabited by the historian's friend, Thomas Barlow, and adds, "his picture remaineth there to this day in brass.

to Ireland. Shortly after his return, on his father's accession, he was created Prince of Wales; and had he subsequently become a student of the University, its archives would have furnished evidence of the fact; but, as the boy of the Earl of Derby, or the Duke of Hereford, living with his uncle, the omission of his name is not remarkable. In all probability his uncle superintended his general education, intrusting the details to others more competent to instruct him in the various branches of literature. Among his college associates was John Carpenter, of Oriel; and Thomas Rockman, an eminent astronomer and learned divine, of Merton. Among other pious and learned persons much esteemed by Henry was Robert Mascall, a Carmelite friar, confessor to his father; and Stephen Partington, a popular preacher, whom some of the nobility invited to court. It is impossible to read Henry's letters, and reflect on what is authentically recorded of him, without being impressed by a conviction that he had imbibed a very considerable knowledge of Holy Scripture, even beyond the young men of his day; whilst chroniclers bear testimony that "he held in great veneration such as surpassed in learning and virtue." Here we take leave of Henry, since an event in the autumn of 1398 turned the whole stream of his life into an entirely new channel, and led him by a very brief course to the inheritance of the throne of England.*

Prior to the reign of Henry V., specimens of English correspondence are rare; letters previously to that time, were usually written in French or Latin, and were the the productions chiefly of the great or the learned. The letters of learned men were verbose treatises, mostly on express subjects; those of the great, who employed scribes, resembled, from their formality, legal instruments. We have nothing earlier than the 15th century which can be termed a familiar letter. The material, too, upon which these let ters were written, up to the same period, was usually vellum; very few instances, indeed, occurring, of more ancient date, of letters written on common paper. The earliest royal signature known in this country is the signature of Richard III.--Ellis's Original Letters, 1st series, p. 9.

EARLY PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS-SCHOOLS IN CHURCHES.

Plain Education dates from the fourteenth century; reading and writing were the chief branches, but children were also taught grammar. Parochial grammar-schools occur in the fifteenth century; but so few were they, and so low was the grammar-learning taught in them, that in 1477, several clergymen of London petitioned Parliament for leave to set up schools in their respective churches, not only to check schools conducted by illiterate men, but also to provide for the great demand for tuition,

* Selected and abridged from Henry of Monmouth. By J. Endell Tyler, B.D. It is a curious fact, not generally known (says Mr. Tyler), that Henry IV. in the first year of his reign took possession of all the property of the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College (on the ground of mismanagement), and appointed the Chancellor, the Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, and others, guardians of the College. This is, we think, scarcely consistent with the supposition of his son being resident there at the time, or of his selecting that college for him afterward.

in consequence of the law which made it illegal to put children to private teachers, enacted to prevent the spread of Wicklivism, or the doctrines of Wickliffe. This church school was held in a The custom is alluded

room at or over the porch called parvise.* to by Shakspeare; and we find it as late as the seventeenth century, for John Evelyn, the son of a gentleman of fortune, and born at Wotton, in 1620, states in his Diary that he was not initiated into any rudiments till he was four years old, and then one Frier taught him at the church porch.

EDUCATION AT HOME-MUSIC.

Education, in all the early stages, was very rarely conducted at home, but at courts, or in the houses of nobles, etc. The period of infancy and boyhood was intrusted to women, and at the age of eleven years, tuition was commenced in earnest. In royal houses, the parents selected some veteran and able soldier of noble family, under whose roof their son was placed, and in whose castle, commencing his services as a page, he received instructions in the exercises and accomplishments befitting his condition. Thus, Edward the Black Prince delivered his son Richard, afterward Richard II., to Sir Guiscard d'Aigle, as his military tutor. Henry IV. intrusted the education of his son Henry, afterward the valorous Henry V., to Sir Thomas Percy, a brave and veteran warrior; and James I. of Scotland being taken prisoner, and confined in the Tower of London and Windsor Castle, received there an excellent education through Henry IV. of England, who placed him under the care of Sir John de Pelham, constable of Pevensey Castle, a man of note, both as a statesman and a warrior.

James, during his captivity in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle, composed "The King's Quair," that is, the King's quire, or book. It is a serious poem, of nearly 1400 lines, arranged in seven-line stanzas; the style in great part allegorical; the subject, the love of the royal poet for the Lady Joanna Beaufort, whom he eventually married, and whom he is said to have first beheld walking in the garden below from the window of his prison. In the concluding stanza James makes grateful mention of his-

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and he is evidently an imitator of the great Father of English poetry. The poem, too, must be regarded as written in English rather than in Scotch, though the difference between the two dialects was not so great at this early date as it afterward became; and although James, who was in his eleventh year when he was carried away to England in 1405, by Henry IV., may not have altogether avoided the peculiarities of his native idiom.-G. L. Craik, M.A.

*The Sergeant-at-law in Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims had been at parvise. The choristers of Norwich Cathedral were formerly taught in the parvise, i. e., the porch The chamber over a porch in some churches may have been the school meant-as at Doncaster Church, and at Sherborne Abbey Church. "Responsions," or the preliminary examinations at Oxford, are said to be held in parvise, i. e. in the porch, or antechamber before the schools. Wotton Church porch has not a room.

The King's Quair contains poetry superior to any except that of Chaucer, produced in England before the reign of Elizabeth. Two other poems of considerable length, in a humorous style, have also been attributed to James I.-"Peebles to the Play," and Christ's Kirk on the Green"- both in the Scottish dialect; but they are more probably the productions of his equally gifted and equally unfortunate descendant, James V., slain at Flodden, in 1513. Chalmers, however, assigns the former to James I.

Among the elegant accomplishments which were blended with the early tuition of both sexes, we should not omit to notice music, which was intended to render the learner a delightful companion in the hall at home, as his skill in warlike exercises was calculated to make him a formidable enemy in the field. The science of music, both instrumental and vocal; the composition and recitation of ballads, roundelayes, and other minor pieces of poetry; and an acquaintance with the romances and popular poems of the times, were all essential branches in the system of education which was adopted in every castle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The brave and accomplished military leader, Sir John Chandos, sang sweetly, and solaced his master, Edward III. on a voyage, by his ballads; and the Count de Foix, a celebrated hero, frequently requested his secretaries, in the intervals of severer occupation, to recreate themselves by chanting songs and roundelayes. Again, Churchmen studied music by profession; and the law students at the Inns of Court learned singing, and all kinds of music. A few of our early sovereigns were skilled in music: Richard II. is known to have assisted at divine service, and to have chanted a collect-prayer; Henry IV. is described as of shining talents in music; and Stow tells us that Henry V. "delighted in songs, meters, and musical instruments."

We obtain an interesting glimpse of Female Education from a curious book of Advice to Ladies, written in the year 1371. At this time, in the upper ranks, the education of females was generally conducted in the monasteries, or in the family of some relative or friend, if possible, of superior rank; the latter from its being thought that abroad daughters would be more likely to form advantageous connections than at home. Under all these forms, however, the character of the education seems to have been nearly the same. It consisted of needle-work, confectionery (or the art of preserving fruits, etc.), surgery (or a knowledge of the healing art,) and the rudiments of church music; to which, in an education at a monastery, was generally added the art of reading; The prejudices of the times, and particularly of the male sex, were opposed to any higher degree of cultivation of the mind: arising, probably, from a suspicion, that it might render women an overmatch for their admirers. Nor is it certain that the reading of the time was beneficial. "Instead of reading bokes of wisdom and science," says the author of the Advice, "they studye in nought but the bokes that speak of love's fables, and other worldlie vanities;" he also considers writing as dangerous and unnecessary, and thinks it better "if women can nought of it." He appears to have set two priests and two clerks to select a book of "ensamples," or extracts from the Bible, the acts of Kings, the chronicles of France, Greece, and England. In speaking of female manners, one of the first faults which he corrects, and which was natural to ignorant and uneducated girls, was that of levity. Among other points, he fixes on their conduct at mass, at which the grossest irreverence and disorder are known to have prevailed. The church, during the celebration of the service, seems to have been an established scene of gossip and flirtation. The men came with their hawks and dogs, walking to and fro to converse with their friends, to make bargains and appointments, and to show their splendid coats.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF HENRY THE SIXTH.

It has been shrewdly observed that there are few instances of kings who ascend the throne at a very early age answering the expectations of their people. In our own history Richard II. and Henry VI. are striking instances of this remark; for which there seems to be an obvious reason, viz, that a minor king received generally a worse education than he who is only destined to a throne.

Henry VI., called of Windsor, from having been born there in 1421, was not quite nine months old when the death of his father, Henry V., left him King of England. Fabian relates this extraordinary instance of the adulation paid to this minor sovereign : "Henry VI., when but eight months old, sat in his mother's lap in the parliament chamber; and the speaker made a famous præposition, in which he said much of the providence of God, who had endowed the realm with the presence of so toward a prince and sovereign governor." His childhood was passed at Windsor Castle. In accordance with the will of his dying father, the boy Henry, when six years old, was placed under the tutelage of Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the companion in arms of Henry V. This appointment was made under the authority of the Council: Warwick was to instruct his pupil in all things worthy to be known, nurturing him in the love and fear of his Creator, and in hatred of all vice. The Earl held this office till the King was sixteen: his discipline was very strict; for the pupil was not to be spoken to, unless in the presence of Warwick, or of the four knights appointed to be about his person; "as," says the entry in the Rolls of Parliament, "the King, by the speech of others in private, has been stirred by some from his learning, and spoken to of divers matters not behoveful." The Earl appears to have complained to the Council of the King's misconduct, for they promised to assist him in chastising his royal pupil for his defaults. Warwick applied for this aid as protection against the young Henry's displeasure and indignation, "as the King is grown in years, in stature of his person, and in conceit of his high authority." Severe corporal punishment was, it appears, considered the most efficient instrument of good education at this period; and Warwick, doubtless, belashed the young King.

How much of the fire of the Platnagenets was trodden out of Henry VI. by the severities of his early discipline cannot now be estimated. He was born to a most unhappy position; but it is satisfactory to believe that his hard lot was solaced by that religious trust which lightens the burthens of the wretched, whether on a throne or in a dungeon. The Earl of Warwick, who, like many other leaders of chivalry, was an enthusiastic in the efficiency of vows and pilgrimages, may have injured his pupil by that strong feeling of ceremonial devotion which caused him long to be regarded as a saint. To a right direction of that

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