have suffered the school to languish wholly unsupported. Her successor enforced the right of election to studentships, restored the revenues, and the foundation of an Upper and Lower Master and forty scholars, and gave the present statutes, whence Elizabeth has received the honorable title of Foundress. This Queen added an important statute to regulate the mode of election of novitiates into St. Peter's College. Evelyn has recorded one of these examinations :

In 1661, May 13, I heard and saw such exercises at the election of scholars at Westminster School to be sent to the University, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, in themes and extemporary verses, with such readiness and will as wonderfully astonished me in such youths.

Dean Goodman was the next benefactor, in obtaining a perpetual grant of his prebend of Chiswick, to be a place of refuge for the members of the Chapter and College whenever pestilence might be desolating Westminster. During this Deanship, the scholars were lodged in one spacious chamber, their commons were regulated, and the apartments of the Masters received an increase of comfort and accommodation. Among the earliest grants is a perpetual annuity of twenty marks, made in 1594, by Cecil, Lord High Treasurer, to be presented as gifts to scholars elected to either of the Universities.

Before the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, the rudiments of the Greek language were taught to boys at Westminster School; and Harrison, in his preface to Holinshed, about 1586, states that the boys of the three great collegiate schools (Winchester, Eton, and Westminster) were "well entered in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek tongues and rules of versifying."

Dean Goodman had for his successor that man of prayer and "most rare preacher," Dr. Launcelot Andrewes, who would often supply the place of the Masters for a week together. It was one of his simple pleasures, "with a sweetness and compliance with the recreations of youth," always to be attended, in his little retirements to the cheerful village of Chiswick, by two of his scholars; and often thrice in the week, it is said, he assembled about him in his study those of the Upper Form; and the earnest little circle frequently, through the whole evening, with reverential attention, heard his exposition of the Sacred Text; while he also pointed out to them those sources of knowledge in Greek and Latin, from which he had gathered his own stores of varied learning.-Walcott's Memorials of Westminster.

Once more evil days fell upon the rising school. The Abbey was desecrated, and the families of the scholars were threatened or assailed by the horrors of the Great Rebellion, when Parliament, having for about four years exercised power over the School through a Committee, in 1649 assumed a protectorate, intrusting the management of the School to a government of fifty members established in the Deanery. The fee or inheritance of many of the Abbey estates was sold; old rents only being reserved to the College. This control lasted until the Restoration in 1660, since which period the scholars have been

maintained by the common revenues of the Collegiate Church, at a cost of about 12007. a-year.

The Queen's Scholars wear caps and gowns; and there are four Bishop's Boys" educated free, who wear purple gowns, and have 607. annually amongst them. Besides this foundation, a great number of sons of the nobility and gentry are educated here. Of the Queen's Scholars an examination takes place in Rogation week, when four are elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, and four to Christchurch, Oxford; scholarships of about 601. a-year.

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The scholars from the fourth, fifth, and Shell Forms "stand out" in Latin, Greek, and grammatical questionings, on the Wednesday before Ascension Day, in the presence of the Head Master, who presides as umpire, when the successful competitors being chosen to fill the vacancies, "the Captain of the Election" is chaired round Dean's Yard, or the school court. On Rogation Tuesday, a dinner is given to the electors, and all persons connected with the School, by the Dean and Chapter; and any old Westminster scholar of sufficient rank or standing is entitled to attend it. After dinner, epigrams are spoken by a large proportion of the Queen's Scholars. There are several funds available to needy scholars; and the whole foundation and school is managed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

The school buildings are in part ancient. You enter the School court from the Broad Sanctuary, through an archway in a block of houses of mediæval architecture. The porch of the School is stated to have been designed by Inigo Jones. On the north front is the racket-court, formed against part of the west wall of the dormitory. The venerable School itself, once the dormitory of the monks, ranges behind the eastern cloister of the Abbey. It is a long and spacious building, with a semicircular recess at one end, the Head Master's table standing in front of it; four tiers of forms, one above the other, are ranged along the eastern and western walls; and the room has a massive opentimber roof of chestnut. The Upper and Lower Schools are divided by a bar, which formerly bore a curtain: over this bar on Shrove Tuesday, at eleven o'clock, the College cook, attended by a verger, having made his obeisance to the Masters, proceeds to toss a pancake into the Upper School, once a warning to proceed to dinner in the Hall.

An interesting tradition is attached to the bar at the time it bore a curtain. Two boys at play, by chance made a grievous rent in the pendent drapery; and one of the delinquents suffered his generous companion to bear the penalty of the offense-a severe flogging. Long years went by; the Civil War had parted chief friends; and the boys had grown up to manhood, unknown to each other. One of them, now become a Judge and sturdy Republican, was presiding at the trial of some captive cavaliers, and was ready to upbraid and sentence them, when he recognized in the worn features of one gray-haired veteran,

the well-remembered look of the gallant boy who had once borne punishment for him. By certain answers, which in the examination he elicited, his suspicions were confirmed; and with an immediate resolve, he posted to London, where, by his influence with Oliver Cromwell, he succeeded in preserving his early friend from the scaffold.-Walcott's Memoria's of Westminster.

The School is fraught with pious memories. Here "that sweet singer of the Temple, George Herbert," was reared; and that love of choral music, which "was his heaven upon earth," was, no doubt, implanted here, while he went up to pray in the glorious Abbey. And it was here that South, in his loyal childhood, reader of the Latin prayers for the morning, publicly prayed for Charles I. by name, "but an hour or two at most before his sacred head was struck off." Nor can we forget among the ushers, the melody of whose Latin poems had led him to be called "Sweet Vinny Bourne;" or the mastership of Busby, who boasted his rod to be the sieve to prove good scholars, and walked with covered head before Charles II.; then humbly at the gate assured his Majesty that it was necessary for his dignity before his boys to be the greatest man there, even though a king were present. How successfully, too, is Busby commemorated in the whole-length portrait of the great schoolmaster standing beside his favorite pupil, Spratt. Upon the walls are inscribed many great names; and in the library is preserved part of the form on which Dryden once sat, and on which his autograph is

cut.

In the Census Alumnorum, or list of foundation scholars, are Bishops Overall and Ravis, translators of the Bible; Hakluyt, collector of Voyages; Gunter, inventor of the Scale; "Master George Herbert;" the poets Cowley and Dryden; South; Locke; Bishops Atterbury, Spratt, and Pearce; the poet Prior, and Stepney the statesman; Rowe and "Sweet Vinny Bourne," the poets; Churchill, the satirist; Warren Hastings; Everard Home, surgeon; Dr. Drury, of Harrow School, etc. Among the other eminent persons educated here are Lord Burleigh; Ben Jonson; Nat Lee; Sir Christopher Wren; Jasper Mayne, the poet; Barton Booth, the actor; Blackmore, Browne, Dyer, Hammond, Aaron Hill, Cowper, and Southey, the poets; Horne Tooke; Gibbon, the historian; Cumberland, the dramatist; Colman the Younger; Sir Francis Burdett; Harcourt, Archbishop of York; the Marquis of Lansdowne; Lord John Russell; the Marquis of Anglesey; Sir John Cam Hobhouse (Lord Broughton); George Bidder, of calculating fame, now the eminent civil engineer.

Among the eminent Masters are Camden, "the Pausanias of England," who had Ben Jonson for a scholar; and Dr. Busby,

who had Dryden, and who, out of the bench of bishops, taught sixteen.

The College Hall, originally the Abbot's refectory, was built by Abbot Litlington, temp. Edward III.: the floor is paved with chequered Turkish marble; at the south end is a musician's gallery, now used as a pantry, and behind are butteries and hatches at the north side, upon a dais, is the high table; those below, of chestnut-wood, are said to have been formed out of the wreck of the Armada. The roof-timbers spring from carved corbels, with angels bearing shields of the Confessor's and Abbot's arms; and a small louver rises above the central hearth, upon which in winter a wood and charcoal fire used to burn until the year 1850.* The Library is a modern Italian room, and contains several memorials of the attachment of "Westminsters." The old dormitory, built in 1380, was the granary of the monastery; and was replaced by the present dormitory in 1722, from the designs of the Earl of Burlington: its walls are thickly inscribed with names. Here Latin plays are represented upon the second Thursday in December, and the Monday before and after that day. These performances superseded the old Mysteries and Moralities in the reign of Queen Mary, when the boy actors were chiefly the acolytes, who served at mass. Warton mentions that this "liberal exercise is yet preserved, and in the spirit of true classical purity, at the College of Westminster." Garrick designed scenery for these pieces; but the modern dresses formerly used were not exchanged for Greek costume until 1839. The plays acted of late years have been the Andria, Phormio, Eunuchus, and Adelphi, of Terence, with Latin prologue and epilogue pleasantly reflecting in their humor events of the day. Two new scenes were drawn for the theatre, in 1857, by Professor Cockerell, R.A.

Boating is a favorite amusement of the Westminsters, who have often contested the championship of the Thames with Eton. On May 4, 1837, the Westminsters won a match at Eton; when, by desire of William IV., the victors visited Windsor Castle, and were there received by the good-natured king.

A POOR WESTMINSTER SCHOLAR.

Dr. Stubbe, the eminent physician, one of the most learned men of his time, was born in 1631, near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, whence his father, an Anabaptist minister, removed to Ireland; but when the Rebellion broke out in that country in 1641, his mother fled with him to London, walking thither on foot from

* Fires continued to be made on a hearth in the middle of the hall called the reredos, in many college halls in Oxford and Cambridge, until about the year 1820.

Liverpool. She maintained herself in the metropolis by her needle, and sent her son, then about ten years old, to Westminster School. Here he frequently obtained pecuniary relief from his school-fellows, as a remuneration for writing their exercises. Busby was struck by Stubbe's rare talents and assiduity, and introduced him to Sir Henry Vane, who happened one day to come into the school; when Sir Henry relieved the immediate wants of the lad, and remained for ever afterward his steady friend; assisting him at his election to Oxford, where he became of considerable consequence; his reputation for learning increased daily, and he used to converse fluently in Greek in the public schools.

MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL FOUNDED.

The royal example of Edward VI. was nobly followed by one of the great City companies founding, in the succeeding reign, a grammar-school in the metropolis, principally through the personal benevolence of its members. In the year 1561, the Merchant Taylors' Company, chiefly by the gift of 500l., and other subscriptions of members of the Court of Assistants, raised a fund for this great educational object. Among the contributors was Sir Thomas White, some time master of the Company, and who had recently founded St. John's College, Oxford. With the above fund, the generous band of citizens purchased a certain property lying between Cannon-street and the Thames, part of "the Manor of the Rose," a palace originally built by Sir John Poultney, Knt., five times Lord Mayor of London, in the reign of Edward III. In these premises, consisting principally of a gate-house and court-yard, the Company established their school. The Great Fire, however, destroyed the ancient buildings; and in 1675, the present school and the head-master's residence were erected: it includes a library (on the site of an ancient chapel), which contains a fair collection of theological and classical works. The school now consists of about 260 boys, who are charged 107. per annum each: they are admitted at any age, on the nomination of the members of the Court of the Conpany in rotation; and the scholars may remain until the Monday after St. John the Baptist's Day preceding their nineteenth birthday. Hebrew, Greek, and Latin have been taught since the foundation of the school; mathematics, writing, and arithmetic were added in 1829, and French and modern history in 1846. There is no property belonging to the school except the buildings: it is supported by the Merchant Taylors' Company out of their several "funds,” without any specific fund being set apart for that object; it has, therefore, been exempt from the inquiry of the Charity Commis