chapel. The style is Late Perpendicular, but very rich. The interior, with the stained glass windows, was completed by Henry VIII., under the direction of Bishop Foxe.

JOHN CARPENTER AND THE CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL.

Toward the close of the long reign of Edward III. there was born in London a good citizen named John Carpenter, who being styled in the documents of his time clericus (clerk), was an educated man, and is supposed to have studied at one of the Inns of Court for the profession of the law. He became Town Clerk of the City; and compiled a large volume in Latin of the civic laws, customs, privileges, and usages, a book of great value and authority. He was at the expense of painting the celebrated "Dance of Death" in St. Paul's cloister, being an encourager of the arts, and he was a personal acquaintance of Lidgate, the monk of Bury. He was 20 years Secretary and Town Clerk, sat in parliament for the City, and was Governor of St. Anthony's Hospital, in Threadneedle-street. At his death he bequeathed certain property in the City "for the finding and bringing up of foure poore men's children with meate, drink, apparell, learning at the schooles in the universities, etc., until they be preferred, and then others in their places for ever." In 1633, however, this property yielded only 297. 13s. 4d. per annum, At this time the boys wore coats of London russet" with buttons; and they had periodically to show their copy books to the Chamberlain, in proof of the application of the charity. During the lapse of nearly four centuries, the value of Carpenter's estates had augmented from 197. 10s. to nearly 9007., or nearly five and forty fold. Int 1835, he funds were greatly increased by subscription, and a large and handsome school built by the city upon the site of Honey-lane market, north of Cheapside, at a cost of 12,000l., to accommodate 400 scholars. The citizens have, in gratitude, erected upon the great staircase of the school a portrait statue of Carpenter, in the costume of his age: he bears in his left hand his Liber Albus, a collection of the City laws, customs, and privileges. The statue is placed upon a pedestal, inscribed with a compendious history of the founder, and his many benevolent acts.

66

Such has been the goodly increase of Carpenter's charity. It is not unreasonable to suppose that he may have been prompted to the bequest by the celebrity of the schools of St. Anthony's Hospital, of which he was master. In the scholastic disputations amongst the grammar-schools, it commonly presented the best scholars. Out of this school sprung the great Sir Thomas More ; Dr. Heath, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor ;

Archbishop Whitgift; and the celebrated Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's School.

MERCERS' SCHOOL. THE FIRST GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

In the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Henry VI.-1447there was presented to Parliament a petition by four clergymen setting forth the lack of grammar-schools and good teachers in the City of London; and praying leave (which was granted to them) to establish schools, and appoint competent masters in their respective parishes. "It were expedyent," say they, "that in London were a sufficient number of scholes, and good enfourmers in gramer; and not for the singular avail of two or three persons grevously to hurt the multitude of yong peple of al this land. For wher there is grete nombre of lerners and few techers, and to noon others, the maistres waxen rid of monie, and the lerners pouerer in connyng, as experyence openlie shewith, agenst all vertue and ordre of well publik.”

This is generally considered to have been the origin of Free Grammar Schools, properly so called; but the only one of the schools established immediately in consequence of this petition which has survived to the present time is the Mercers' School, which was originally founded at St. Thomas de Acons (the site of Mercers' Hall, in Cheapside),* for 70 scholars of any age or place, subject to the management of the Mercers' Company. Among the early scholars were Dean Colet, Bishop Thomas, and Bishop Wren. The site of the school-house was changed four times; and it is now on College-hill, on the site of Whittington's Alms-houses, "God's House, or Hospital," which have been rebuilt at Highgate. It is at this day a strange location for a seat of learning, surrounded by hives of merchandise, and close to one of the oldest sites of commerce in the city, its turmoil grates harshly upon the quiet so desirable for a youth of study.

ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL FOUNDED.

In the reign of Edward IV., in 1466, there was born in the parish of St. Antholin, in the city of London, one John Colet, the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, Knight, twice Lord Mayor, who had, besides him, twenty-one children. In 1483, John Colet was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he passed seven years, and took the usual degrees in arts. Here he studied Latin, with some of the Greek authors through a Latin medium, and mathematics. Having thus laid a good foundation for learn

* In the porch of Mercer's Chapel, in Cheapside, Guy (founder of Guy's Hospital) was apprenticed to a bookseller in 1660; the house was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and was rented by Guy, then a master bookseller.

ing at home, he traveled in France and Italy from 1493 to 1497; he had previously been preferred to the rectory of Dennington, in Suffolk, being then in acolyth's orders. At Paris, Colet became acquainted with the scholar Budæus, and was afterward introduced to Erasmus. In Italy he contracted a friendship with Grocyn, Linacre, Lilly, and Latimer, all of whom were studying the Greek language, then but little known in England. Whilst abroad, he devoted himself to divinity, and the study of the civil and canon law. Colet returned to England in 1497, and subsequently rose through various degrees of preferment to be Dean of St. Paul's. By his lectures and other means, he greatly assisted the spirit of inquiry into the Holy Scriptures which eventually produced the Reformation. He had, however, many difficulties to contend with; and tired with trouble and persecution, he withdrew from the world, resolving in the midst of life and health, to consecrate his fortune to some lasting benefaction, which he performed in the foundation of St. Paul's School, at the east end of St. Paul's churchyard, in 1512; and, "it is hard to say whether he left better lands for the maintenance of his school, or wiser laws for the government thereof.”—Fuller.

The original school-house, built 1508-12, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt by Wren. This second school was taken down in 1824, and the present school built of stone from the designs of George Smith: it has a handsome central portico upon a rusticated base, projecting over the street pavement. The original endowment and for several years the only endowment of the school, was 557. 14s. 10 d., the annual rents of estates in Buckinghamshire, which now produce 1858. 16s. 10 d. a-year; and, with other property, make the present income of the school upward of 5000l. Lilly, the eminent grammarian, the friend of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, was the first master of St. Paul's, and "Lilly's Grammar" is used to this day in the school; the English rudiments were written by Colet, the preface to the first edition probably by Cardinal Wolsey; the Latin syntax chiefly by Erasmus, and the remainder by Lilly: thus, the book may have been the joint production of four of the greatest scholars of the age. Colet directed that the children should not use tallow, but wax candles in the school; fourpence entrance-money was to be given to the poor scholar who swept the school; and the masters were to have livery gowns, "delivered in clothe."

Colet died in his 53d year, in 1519. He wrote several works in Latin; the grammar which he composed for his school was called "Paul's Accidence." The original Statutes of the school, signed by Dean Colet, were many years since accidentally

picked up at a bookseller's, and by the finder presented to the British Museum. The school is for 153 boys "of every nation, country and class;" the 153 alluding to the number of fishes taken by St. Peter (John xxi. 2). The education is entirely classical; the presentations to the school are in the gift of the Master of the Mercers' Company; and scholars are admitted at fifteen, but eligible at any age after that. Their only expense is for books and wax tapers. There are several valuable exhibitions, decided at the Apposition, held in the first three days of the fourth week after Easter, when a commemorative oration is delivered by the senior boy, and prizes are presented from the governors. In the time of the founder, the "Apposition dinner” was an assembly and a litell dinner, ordayned by the surveyor, not exceedynge the pryce of four nobles.'

66

In the list of eminent Paulines (as the scholars are called) are, Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Paget, privy counselors, to Henry VIII.; John Leland, the antiquary; John Milton, our Great epic poet; Samuel Pepys, the diarist; John Strype, the ecclesiastical historian; Dr. Calamy, the High Churchman; the Great Duke of Marlborough; R. W. Elliston, the comedian; Sir C. Mansfield Clarke, Bart.; Lord Chancellor Truro, etc. Among the annual prizes contended for is a prize for a copy of Latin Lyrics, given by the parent of a former student named Thurston, the High Master to apply a portion of the endowment to keeping up the youth's gravestone in the Highgate Cemetery.

EDWARD THE FOURTH AND HIS TUTORS.

Edward IV., born at Rouen, in 1441, has little if any claim to be recorded as a promoter of education. We have seen how he impoverished the two royal Colleges of his predecessor, Henry VI., at Eton and Cambridge, by seizing upon their endowments, and endeavoring to divert the streams of their munificence. The whole life of Edward was divided between the perils of civil war, and unrestrained sensual indulgence. Nevertheless, Edward drew up for the observance of his offspring, a set of regulations, which so closely corresponded with those made by his mother, that it may be fairly inferred he followed the same plans which had been strictly enforced in the education and conduct of himself and his brothers in their own youth in Ludlow Castle.* Though the discipline was constant and severe, the noble children expressed with familiarity their childish wishes to their father and communicated to him their imaginary grievances. This is instanced in a letter preserved in the Cottonian MSS. from

* In this celebrated fortress, now a mass of picturesque ruins, Milton produced his masque of Comus; and in a room over the gateway, Butler wrote Hudibras.

Edward to his father, written when he was a mere stripling, petitioning for some "fyne bonnets" for himself and his brother; and complaining of the severity of "the odious rule and demeaning" of one Richard Crofte and his brother, apparently their tutors.

In another letter, one of the earliest specimens extant of domestic and familiar English correspondence-it being written in 1454, when Edward the Earl of March was twelve, and the Earl of Rutland eleven, years of age addressing their father as Right high and mighty Prince, our most worshipful and greatly redoubted lord and father," they say:

And if it please your highness so know of our welfare at the making of this letter, we were in good health of body, thanked be God; beseeching your good and gracious fatherhood of your daily blessing. And where you command us by your said letters to attend specially to our learning in our young age, that should cause us to grow to honor and worship in our old age, please it your highness to wit, that we have attended our learning since we came hither, and shall hereafter, by the which we trust to God your gracious lordship and good fatherhood shall be pleased.

crown.

Yet, Edward's attachment in his maturer years to his tutor Crofte, of whom he complains above, was evinced by the emoluments which he bestowed upon him after his accession to the Sir Richard Crofte espoused the lady governess of the young Plantagenets: he lived to a great age, and was one of the most distinguished soldiers of his time; he survived every member of the family in whose service he had been engaged, and had to mourn the premature and violent deaths of the whole of his princely pupils. — Retrospective Review, 2d S. vol. i.

Edward has, perhaps, a better title to be considered a legislator than any other King of England, as he actually presided in the courts of justice, according to Daniel, who states that in the second year of his reign Edward sat three days together, during Michaelmas term, in the Court of King's Bench, in order to understand the law; and he likewise, in the 17th year, presided at the trials of many criminals.

COSTLINESS OF MANUSCRIPT BOOKS.

The books that were to be found in the palaces of the great at this period, were for the most part highly illuminated manuscripts, bound in the most expensive style. In the wardrobe accounts of King Edward IV., we find that Piers Baudwyn is paid for "binding, gilding, and dressing" of two books, twenty shillings each, and of four books sixteen shillings each. Now, twenty shillings in those days would have bought an ox. the cost of this binding and garnishing does not stop here: for there were delivered to the binder six yards of velvet, six yards of silk, laces, tassels, copper and gilt clasps, and gilt nails. The

But