Chapter XIV: Preface: TO RUSSELL’S BOKE OF NURTURE, and the Poems and (3)

_Cathedral Schools._ About the pre-Reformation Schools I can find only the extract from Tanner given above, p. xlii. On the post-Reformation Schools I refer readers to Mr Whiston’s _Cathedral Trusts_, 1850. He says:

“The Cathedrals of England are of two kinds, those of the old and
those of the new foundation: of the latter, Canterbury (the old
archiepiscopal see) and Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester,
and Worcester, old episcopal sees, were A.D. 1541-2 refounded, or
rather reformed, by Henry VIII. ... Besides these, he created five
other cathedral churches or colleges, in connexion with the five
new episcopal sees of Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, and
Peterborough. He further created the see of Westminster, which was
... subsequently (A.D. 1560) converted to a deanery collegiate by
Queen Elizabeth ... (p. 6). The preamble of the Act 31 Henry VIII.
c. 9, for founding the new cathedrals, preserved in Henry’s own
handwriting, recites that they were established ‘To the intente
that Gods worde myght the better be sett forthe, _cyldren broght
up in lernynge, clerces nuryshyd in the universities_, olde
servantes decayed, to have lyfing, allmes housys for pour folke to
be sustayned in, _Reders of grece, ebrew, and latyne to have good
stypende_, dayly almes to be mynistrate, mending of hyght wayes,
and exhybision for mynisters of the chyrche.’”

“A general idea of the scope and nature of the cathedral establishments, as originally planned and settled by Henry VIII., may be formed from the first chapter of the old statutes of Canterbury, which is almost identical with the corresponding chapter of the statutes of all the other cathedrals of the new foundation. It is as follows:

“On[68] the entire number of those who have their sustentation
(qui sustentantur) in the cathedral and metropolitical church of
Canterbury:

“First of all we ordain and direct that there be for ever in our
aforesaid church, one dean, twelve canons, six preachers, twelve
minor canons, one deacon, one subdeacon, twelve lay-clerks, _one
master of the choristers, ten choristers, two teachers of the boys
in grammar, one of whom is to be the head master, the other,
second master, fifty boys to be instructed in grammar_,[69] twelve
poor men to be maintained at the costs and charges of the said
church, two vergers, two subsacrists (_i.e._, sextons), four
servants in the church to ring the bells, and arrange all the
rest, two porters, who shall also be barber-tonsors, one
caterer,[70] one butler, and one under butler, one cook, and one
under-cook, who, indeed, in the number prescribed, are to serve in
our church every one of them in his own order, according to our
statutes and ordinances.”

In the Durham statutes, as settled in the first year of Philip and Mary, the corresponding chapter is as follows:

On[71] the total number of those who have their sustentation (qui
sustentantur) in the cathedral church of Durham.

“We direct and ordain that there be for ever in the said church,
one dean, twelve prebendaries, twelve minor canons, one deacon,
one sub-deacon, ten clerks, (who may be either clerks or laymen,)
_one master of the choristers, ten choristers, two teachers of the
boys in grammar, eighteen boys to be instructed in grammar_, eight
poor men to be maintained at the costs of the said church, two
subsacrists, two vergers, two porters, one of whom shall also be
barber-tonsor, one butler, one under-butler, one cook, and one
under-cook.”

“The monastic or collegiate character of the bodies thus
constituted, is indicated by the names and offices of the inferior
ministers above specified, who were intended to form a part of the
establishment of the Common Hall, in which most of the subordinate
members, including the boys to be instructed in grammar, were to
take their meals. There was also another point in which the
cathedrals were meant to resemble and supply the place of the old
religious houses, _i.e._, in the maintenance of a certain number
of students at the universities.”

R^t. WHISTON, _Cathedral Trusts and their Fulfilment_, p. 2-4.

”The nature of these schools, and the desire to perpetuate and improve them, may be inferred from ‘certein articles noted for the reformation of the cathedral churche of Excestr’, submitted by the commissioners of Henry VIII., unto the correction of the Kynges Majestie,’ as follows:

_The tenth Article_ submitted. “That ther may be in the said
Cathedral churche a free songe scole, the scolemaster to have
yerly of the said pastor and prechars xx. marks for his wages, and
his howss free, to teache xl. children frely, to rede, to write,
synge and playe upon instruments of musike, also to teache ther
A. B. C. in greke and hebrew. And every of the said xl. children
to have wekely xiid. for ther meat and drink, and yerly vi^s
viii^d. for a gowne; they to be bownd dayly to syng _and_ rede
within the said Cathedral churche such divine service as it may
please the Kynges Majestie to allowe; the said childre to be at
comons alltogether, with three prests hereaffter to be spoke off,
to see them well ordered at the meat and to reforme their
manners.”

_Article the eleventh_, submitted. “That ther may be a fre grammer
scole within the same Cathedral churche, the scole-master to have
xx^li. by yere and his howss fre, the ussher x^li. & his howss
fre, and that the said pastor and prechars may be bound to fynd
xl. children at the said grammer scole, giving to every oon of the
children xiid. wekely, to go to commons within the citie at the
pleasour of the frendes, so long to continew as the scolemaster do
se them diligent to lerne. The pastor to appointe viii. every
prechar iiii. and the scolemaster iiii.; the said childre serving
in the said churche and going to scole, to be preferred before
strangers; provided always, that no childe be admitted to
thexhibicion of the said churche, whose father is knowne to be
worthe in goodes above ccc^li., or elles may dispend above xl^li.
yerly enheritance.” --_Ibid._, p. 10--12.

“Now £300 at that time was worth about £5,000 now, so that these schools were _designed_ for the lower ranks of society, and open to the sons of the poorer gentry.

“An interesting illustration of this [and of the class-feeling in education at this time] is supplied,” says Mr Whiston, “by the narrative of what took place--

“when the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from monks
to secular men of the clergy, viz.: prebendaries or canons,
petty-canons, choristers and scholars. At this erection were
present, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop, with divers other
commissioners. And nominating and electing such convenient and fit
persons as should serve for the furniture of the said Cathedral
church according to the new foundation, it came to pass that, when
they should elect the children of the Grammar school, there were
of the commissioners more than one or two who would have none
admitted but sons or younger brethren of gentlemen. As for other,
husbandmen’s children, they were more meet, they said, for the
plough, and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the
learned sort; so that they wished none else to be put to school,
but only gentlemen’s children. Whereunto the most reverend father,
the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, ‘That he thought
it not indifferent so to order the matter; for,’ said he, ‘poor
men’s children are many times endued with more singular gifts of
nature, which are also the gifts of God, as, with eloquence,
memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and also
commonly more apt to apply their study, than is the gentleman’s
son, delicately educated.’ Hereunto it was on the other part
replied, ‘that it was meet for the ploughman’s son to go to
plough, and the artificer’s son to apply the trade of his parent’s
vocation; and the gentleman’s children are meet to have the
knowledge of government and rule in the commonwealth. For we
have,’ said they, ‘as much need of ploughmen as any other state;
and all sorts of men may not go to school.’ ‘I grant,’ replied the
Archbishop, ‘much of your meaning herein as needful in a
commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman’s son and
the poor man’s son from the benefits of learning, as though they
were unworthy to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon
them as well as upon others, is as much to say, as that Almighty
God should not be at liberty to bestow his great gifts of grace
upon any person, nor nowhere else but as we and other men shall
appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not
according to his most goodly will and pleasure, who giveth his
gifts both of learning, and other perfections in all sciences,
unto all kinds and states of people indifferently. Even so doth he
many times withdraw from them and their posterity again those
beneficial gifts, if they be not thankful. If we should shut up
into a strait corner the bountiful grace of the Holy Ghost, and
thereupon attempt to build our fancies, we should make as perfect
a work thereof as those that took upon them to build the Tower of
Babel; for God would so provide that the offspring of our
first-born children should peradventure become most unapt to
learn, and very dolts, as I myself have seen no small number of
them very dull and without all manner of capacity. And to say the
truth, I take it, that none of us all here, being gentlemen born
(as I think), but had our beginning that way from a low and base
parentage; and through the benefit of learning, and other civil
knowledge, for the most part all gentlemen ascend to their
estate.’ Then it was again answered, that the most part of the
nobility came up by feats of arms and martial acts. ‘As though,’
said the Archbishop, ‘that the noble captain was always
unfurnished of good learning and knowledge to persuade and
dissuade his army rhetorically; who rather that way is brought
unto authority than else his manly looks. To conclude; the poor
man’s son by pains-taking will for the most part be learned when
the gentleman’s son will not take the pains to get it. And we are
taught by the Scriptures that Almighty God raiseth up from the
dunghill, and setteth him in high authority. And whensoever it
pleaseth him, of his divine providence, he deposeth princes unto a
right humble and poor estate. Wherefore, if the gentleman’s son be
apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor
man’s child that is apt enter his room.’ With words to the like
effect.”
R. WHISTON, _Cathedral Trusts_, p. 12-14.

The scandalous way in which the choristers and poor boys were done out of their proportion of the endowments by the Cathedral clergy, is to be seen in Mr Whiston’s little book.

[Headnote: POOR MEN’S SONS HAVE HEADS AS WELL AS RICH ONES’.]

6. _Endowed Grammar Schools._ These were mainly founded for citizens’ and townsmen’s children. Winchester (founded 1373) was probably the only one that did anything before 1450 for the education of our gentry. Eton was not founded till 1440. The following list of endowed schools founded before 1545, compiled for me by Mr Brock from Carlisle’s _Concise Description_, shows the dates of all known to him.

BEFORE 1450 A.D.

bef. 1162 Derby. Free School.
1195 St Alban’s. Free Grammar School.
1198 St Edmund’s, Bury. Fr. Sch.
1328 Thetford. Gr. Sch.
? 1327 Northallerton. Gr. Sch.
1332 Exeter. Gr. Sch.
1343 Exeter. High School.
bef. 1347 Melton Mowbray. Schools.
1373 Winchester College.
1384 Hereford. Gr. Sch.
1385 Wotton-under-Edge. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1395 or 1340 Penrith. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1399-1413 (Hen. IV.) Oswestry. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1418 Sevenoaks. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1422 Higham Ferrers. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1422-61 (Hen. VI.) Ewelme. Gr. Sch.
1440 Eton College.
1447 London. Mercers’ School, but founded earlier.

SCHOOLS FOUNDED 1450--1545 A.D.

1461-83 (Edw. IV.) Chichester. The Prebendal School.
bef. 1477 Ipswich.[72] Gr. Sch.
1484 Wainfleet. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1485-1509 (Hen. VII.) or before. Kibroorth, near Market
Harborough. Fr. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1486 Reading. Gr. Sch.
1486 Kingston upon Hull. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1487 Stockport. Gr. Sch.
1487 Chipping Campden. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1491 Sudbury. Fr. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1495 Lancaster. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1497 Wimborne Minster. Fr. Gr. Sch.
time of Hen. VII., 1485-1509 King’s Lynn. Gr. Sch.
1502-52 Macclesfield. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1503 Bridgenorth. Fr. Sch.
1506 Brough _or_ Burgh _under_ Stainmore. Fr. Sch.
1507 Enfield. Gr. Sch.
1507 Farnworth, in Widnes, near Prescot. Fr. Gr. Sch.
ab. 1508 Cirencester. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1509 Guildford. Royal Gr. Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Peterborough. Gr. Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Basingstoke. Gr Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Plymouth. Gr. Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Warwick. College or Gr. Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Earl’s Colne, near Halsted. Fr. Gr. Sch.
t. Hen. VIII. 1509-47 Carlisle. Gr. Sch.
1512 Southover and Lewes. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1513 Nottingham. Fr. Sch.
1515 Wolverhampton. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1517 Aylesham. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1512-18 London.[73] St Paul’s Sch.
1520 Bruton or Brewton. Fr. Gr. Sch.
ab. 1520 Rolleston, nr. Burton-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1521 Tenterden. Fr. Sch.
1521 Milton Abbas, near Blandford. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1522 Taunton. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1522 Biddenden, near Cranbrook. Free Latin Gr. Sch.
bef. 1524-5 Manchester. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1524 Berkhampstead. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1526 Pocklington. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1526 Childrey, near Wantage. Fr. Sch.
bef. 1528 Cuckfield. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1528 Gloucester. Saint Mary de Crypt. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1528 Grantham. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1530 Stamford, or Stanford. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1530 Newark-upon-Trent. Fr. Gr. Sch.
bef. Reform. Norwich. Old Gr. Sch.
t. Ref. Loughborough. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1532 Horsham. Fr. Sch.
1533 Bristol. City Fr. Gr. Sch.
ab. 1533 Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Royal Gr. Sch.
ab. 1535 Stoke, near Clare. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1541 Brecknock. Gr. Sch.
1541 Ely. Fr. Sch.
1541 Durham. Gr. Sch.
1541-2 Worcester. The King’s [t.i. Cathedral Grammar] or
College School.
1542 Canterbury. The King’s School.
1542 Rochester. The King’s Sch.[74]
1542 Findon, properly Thingdon, near Wellingborough. Fr. Sch.
1542 Northampton. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1543 Abergavenny. Fr. Gr. Sch.
1544 Chester. [Cathedral] Gr., or King’s School.
1544 Sutton Coldfield. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1545 Gloucester. Cathedral [t.i. King’s], or College School.
1545 St Mary of Ottery. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1547 Wisbech. Gr. Sch.
bef. 1549 Wellington. Gr. Sch.

About 1174 A.D., Fitzstephen speaks of the London schools and scholars thus:--I use Pegge’s translation, 1772, to which Mr Chappell referred me,--

“The three principal churches in London[75] are privileged by
grant and ancient usage with schools, and they are all very
flourishing. Often indeed through the favour and countenance of
persons eminent in philosophy, more schools are permitted. On
festivals, at those churches where the Feast of the Patron Saint
is solemnized, the masters convene their scholars. The youth, on
that occasion, dispute, some in the demonstrative way, and some
logically. These produce their enthymemes, and those the more
perfect syllogisms. Some, the better to shew their parts, are
exercised in disputation, contending with one another, whilst
others are put upon establishing some truth by way of
illustration. Some sophists endeavour to apply, on feigned topics,
a vast heap and flow of words, others to impose upon you with
false conclusions. As to the orators, some with their rhetorical
harangues employ all the powers of persuasion, taking care to
observe the precepts of art, and to omit nothing opposite to the
subject. The boys of different schools wrangle with one another in
verse; contending about the principles of Grammar, or the rules of
the Perfect Tenses and Supines. Others there are, who in Epigrams,
or other compositions in numbers, use all that low ribaldry we
read of in the Ancients; attacking their school-masters, but
without mentioning names, with the old Fescennine licentiousness,
and discharging their scoffs and sarcasms against them; touching
the foibles of their school-fellows, or perhaps of greater
personages, with true Socratic wit, or biting them more keenly
with a Theonine tooth: The audience, fully disposed to laugh,

‘With curling nose ingeminate the peals.’”

Of the sports of the boys, Fitzstephen gives a long description. On Shrove-Tuesday, each boy brought his fighting cock to his master, and they had a cock-fight all morning in the school-room.[76] After dinner, football in the fields of the suburbs, probably Smithfield. Every Sunday in Lent they had a sham-fight, some on horseback, some on foot, the King and his Court often looking on. At Easter they played at the Water-Quintain, charging a target, which if they missed, souse they went into the water. ‘On holidays in summer the pastime of the youths is to exercise themselves in archery, in running, leaping, wrestling, casting of stones, and flinging to certain distances, and lastly with bucklers.’ At moonrise the maidens danced. In the winter holidays, the boys saw boar-fights, hog-fights, bull and bear-baiting, and when ice came they slid, and skated on the leg-bones of some animal, punting themselves along with an iron-shod pole, and charging one another. A set of merry scenes indeed.

“In general, we are assured by the most learned man of the
thirteenth century, Roger Bacon, that there never had been so
great an appearance of learning, and so general an application to
study, in so many different faculties, as in his time, when
schools were erected in every city, town, burgh, and castle.”
(Henry’s Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 472-3.)

In the twenty-fifth year of Henry VI., 1447, four Grammar schools were appointed to be opened in London[77] for the education of the City youth (_Carlisle_). But from the above lists it will be seen that Grammar Schools had not much to do with the education of our nobility and gentry before 1450 A.D.

[Headnote: AN ETON BOY IN A.D. 1478.]

Of Eton studies, the Paston Letters notice only Latin versifying, but they show us a young man supposed to be nineteen, still at school, having a smart pair of breeches for holy days, falling in love, eating figs and raisins, proposing to come up to London for a day or two’s holiday or lark to his elder brother’s, and having 8d. sent him in a letter to buy a pair of slippers with. William Paston, a younger brother of John’s, when about nineteen years old, and studying at Eton, writes on Nov. 7, 1478, to thank his brother for a noble in gold, and says,

“my creanser (creditor) Master Thomas (Stevenson) heartily
recommendeth him to you, and he prayeth you to send him some money
for my commons, for he saith ye be twenty shillings in his debt,
for a month was to pay for when he had money last; also I beseech
you to send me a hose cloth, one for the holy days of some colour,
and another for working days (how coarse soever it be, it maketh
no matter), and a stomacher and two shirts, and a pair of
slippers: and if it like you that I may come with Alweder by
water”--would they take a pair-oar and pull down? (the figs and
raisins came up by a barge;)--“and sport me with you at London a
day or two this term-time, then ye may let all this be till the
time that I come, and then I will tell you when I shall be ready
to come from Eton by the grace of God, who have you in his
keeping.” _Paston Letters_, modernised, vol. 2, p. 129.

This is the first letter; the second one about the figs, raisins, and love-making (dated 23 Feb. 1478-9) is given at vol. ii. p. 122-3.

Tusser, who was seized as a Singing boy for the King’s Chapel, lets us know that he got well birched at Eton.

“From Paul’s I went · to Eton sent
To learn straightways · the Latin phrase
When fifty-three · stripes given to me
At once I had:

For fault but small · or none at all
It come to pass · thus beat I was.
See, Udall,[78] see · the mercy of thee
To me poor lad!”

I was rather surprised to find no mention of any Eton men in the first vol. of Wood’s _Athenæ Oxonienses_ (ed. Bliss) except two, who had first taken degrees at Cambridge, Robert Aldrich and William Alley, the latter admitted at Cambridge 1528 (Wood, p. 375, col. 2). Plenty of London men are named in Wood, vol. 1. No doubt in early times the Eton men went to their own foundation, King’s (or other Colleges at) Cambridge, while the Winchester men went to their foundation, New College, or elsewhere at Oxford. In the first volume of Bliss’s edition of Wood, the following Winchester men are noticed:

p. 30, col. 2, William Grocyn, educated in grammaticals in Wykeham’s
school near Winchester.

p. 78, col. 2, William Horman, made fellow of New Coll. in 1477.
Author of the _Vulgaria Puerorum_, &c. (See also Andrew
Borde, p. xxxiv, above, note.)

p. 379, col. 2, John Boxall, Fellow of New Coll. 1542.
402, col. 2, Thomas Hardyng „ „ „ 1536.
450, col. 2, Henry Cole „ „ „ 1523.
469, col. 1, Nicholas Saunders „ „ „ 1548.
678, col. 2, Richard Haydock „ „ „ 1590.

[Headnote: POST-REFORMATION GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.]

That the post-Reformation Grammar Schools did not at first educate as many boys as the old monastic schools is well known. Strype says,

“On the 15th of January, 1562, Thomas Williams, of the Inner
Temple, esq. being chosen speaker to the lower house, was
presented to the queen: and in his speech to her ... took notice
of the want of schools; that at least an hundred were wanting in
England which before this time had been, [being destroyed
(I suppose he meant) by the dissolution of monasteries and
religious houses, fraternities and colleges.] He would have had
England continually flourishing with ten thousand scholars, which
the schools in this nation formerly brought up. That from the want
of these good schoolmasters sprang up ignorance: and covetousness
got the livings by impropriations; which was a decay, he said, of
learning, and by it the tree of knowledge grew downward, not
upward; which grew greatly to the dishonour, both of God and the
commonwealth. He mentioned likewise the decay of the universities;
and how that great market-towns were without schools or preachers:
and that the poor vicar had but 20_l._ [or some such poor
allowance,] and the rest, being no small sum, was impropriated.
And so thereby, no preacher there; but the people, being trained
up and led in blindness for want of instruction, became obstinate:
and therefore advised that this should be seen to, and
impropriations redressed, notwithstanding the laws already made
[which favoured them].--Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, vol.
i. p. 437.

Of the Grammar Schools in his time (A.D. 1577) Harrison says:

Besides these universities, also there are a great number of
Grammer Schooles throughout the realme, and those verie liberallie
endued for the better relief of pore scholers, so that there are
not manie corporate townes, now under the queene’s dominion that
have not one Gramer Schole at the least, with a sufficient living
for a master and usher appointed to the same.

There are in like manner divers collegiat churches, as Windsor,
Wincester, Eaton, Westminster (in which I was sometime an
unprofitable Grammarian under the reverend father, master Nowell,
now dean of Paules) and in those a great number of pore scholers,
dailie maintained by the liberality of the founders, with meat,
bookes, and apparell; from whence after they have been well
entered in the knowledge of the Latine and Greek tongs, and rules
of versifying (the triall whereof is made by certain apposers,
yearlie appointed to examine them), they are sent to certain
especiall houses in each universitie[79], where they are received
& trained up in the points of higher knowledge in their privat
halls till they be adjudged meet to show their faces in the
schooles, as I have said alreadie.

[Headnote: STUDY OF ENGLISH RECOMMENDED IN 1582-1612.]

Greek was first taught at a public school in England by Lillye soon after the year 1500. This was at St Paul’s School in London, then newly established by Dean Colet, and to which Erasmus alluded as the best of its time in 1514, when he said that he had in three years taught a youth more Latin than he could have acquired in any school in England, _ne Liliana quidem excepta_, not even Lillye’s excepted. (Warton, iii. 1.) The first schoolmaster who stood up for the study of English was, I believe, Richard Mulcaster, of King’s College, Cambridge, and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1561 he was appointed the first head-master of Merchant-Taylors School in London, then just founded as a feeder or pro-seminary for St John’s College, Oxford (_Warton_, iii. 282). In his Elementarie, 1582, he has a long passage on the study of English, the whole of which I print here, at Mr Quick’s desire, as it has slipt out of people’s minds, and Mulcaster deserves honour for it:--

“But bycause I take vpon me in this Elementarie, besides som
frindship to secretaries for the pen, and to correctors for the
print, to direct such peple as teach childern to read and write
English, and the _reading_ must nedes be such as the writing leads
vnto, thererfor, (_sic_) befor I medle with anie particular
precept, to direct the Reader, I will thoroughlie rip vp the hole
certaintie of our English writing, so far furth and with such
assurance, as probabilitie can make me, bycause it is a thing both
proper to my argument, and profitable to my cuntrie. For our
naturall tung being as beneficiall vnto vs for our nedefull
deliuerie, as anie other is to the peple which vse it: & hauing as
pretie, and as fair obseruations in it, as anie other hath: and
being as readie to yield to anie rule of Art, as anie other is:
why should I not take som pains to find out the right writing of
ours, as other cuntrimen haue don to find the like in theirs? & so
much the rather, bycause it is pretended, that the writing thereof
is meruellous vncertain, and scant to be recouered from extreme
confusion, without som change of as great extremitie? I mean
therefor so to deall in it, as I maie wipe awaie that opinio{n} of
either vncertaintie for co{n}fusion, or impossibilitie for
directio{n}, that both the naturall English maie haue wherein to
rest, & the desirous st[r]anger maie haue whereby to learn. For
the performa{n}ce whereof, and mine own better direction, I will
first examin those means, whereby other tungs of most sacred
antiquitie haue bene brought to Art and form of discipline for
their right writing, to the end that by following their waie,
I maie hit vpo{n} their right, and at the least by their president
deuise the like to theirs, where the vse of our tung, & the
propertie of our dialect will not yeild flat to theirs. That don,
I will set all the varietie of our now writing, & the vncertaine
force of all our letters, in as much certaintie, as anie writing
ca{n} be, by these sene{n} precepts,-- 1. _Generall rule_, which
concerneth the propertie and vse of ech letter: 2. _Proportion_
which reduceth all words of one sou{n}d to the same writing:
3. _Composition_, which teacheth how to write one word made of mo:
4. _Deriuation_, which examineth the ofspring of euerie originall:
5. _Distinction_ which bewraieth the difference of sound and force
in letters by som writen figure or accent: 6. _Enfranchisment_,
which directeth the right writing of all incorporat foren words:
7. _Prerogatiue_, which declareth a reseruation, wherein common
vse will continew hir precèdence in our En[g]lish writing, as she
hath don euerie where else, both for the form of the letter, in
som places, which likes the pen better: and for the difference in
writing, where som particular caueat will chek a common rule. In
all these seuen I will so examin the particularities of our tung,
as either nothing shall seme strange at all, or if anie thing do
seme, yet it shall not seme so strange, but that either the self
same, or the verie like vnto it, or the more strange then it is,
shal appear to be in, those things, which ar more familiar vnto vs
for extraordinarie learning, then required of vs for our ordinarie
vse. And forasmuch as the eie will help manie to write right by a
sene president, which either cannot vnderstand, or cannot entend
to vnderstand the reason of a rule, therefor in the end of this
treatis for right writing, I purpos to set down a generall table
of most English words, by waie of president, to help such plane
peple, as cannot entend the vnderstanding of a rule, which
requireth both time and conceit in perceiuing, but can easilie run
to a generall table, which is readier to their hand. By the which
table I shall also confirm the right of my rules, that theie hold
thoroughout, & by multitude of exa{m}ples help som maim (_so_) in
precepts. Thus much for the right writing of our English tung,
which maie seme (_so_) for a preface to the principle of
_Reading_, as the matter of the one is the maker of the
other.--1582. Rich^d. Mulcaster. The First Part of the
Elementarie, pp. 53-4.

Brinsley follows Mulcaster in exhorting to the study of English:

“there seemes vnto mee, to bee a verie maine want in all our
Grammar schooles generally, or in the most of them; whereof I haue
heard som great learned men to complain; That there is no care had
in respect, to traine vp schollars so as they may be able to
expresse their minds purely and readily in our owne tongue, and to
increase in the practice of it, as well as in the Latine or
Greeke; whereas our chiefe indeuour should bee for it, and that
for these reasons. 1. Because that language which all sorts and
conditions of men amongst vs are to haue most vse of, both in
speech & writing, is our owne natiue tongue. 2. The purity and
elegancie of our owne language is to be esteemed a chiefe part of
the honour of our nation: which we all ought to aduance as much as
in vs lieth. As when Greece and Rome and other nations haue most
florished, their languages also haue beene most pure: and from
those times of Greece & Rome, wee fetch our chiefest patterns, for
the learning of their tongues. 3. Because of those which are for a
time trained vp in schooles, there are very fewe which proceede in
learning, in comparison of them that follow other callings.

John Brinsley, _The Grammar Schoole_, p. 21, 22.

His “Meanes to obtaine this benefit of increasing in our English tong,
as in the Latin,” are

1. Daily vse of Lillies rules construed.
2. Continuall practice of English Grammaticall translations.
3. Translating and writing English, with some other Schoole exercises.

_Ibid._, side-notes, p. 22, 23.

On this question of English boys studying English, let it be remembered that in this year of grace 1867, in all England there is just one public school at which English is studied historically--the City of London School--and that in this school it was begun only last year by the new Head-Master, the Rev. Edwin A. Abbot, all honour to him. In every class an English textbook is read, _Piers Plowman_ being that for the highest class. This neglect of English as a subject of study is due no doubt to tutors’ and parents’ ignorance. None of them know the language historically; the former can’t teach it, the latter don’t care about it; why should their boys learn it? Oh tutors and parents, there are such things as asses in the world.

[Headnote: A GRAMMAR-SCHOOL BOY’S DAY IN A.D. 1612.]

Of the school-life of a Grammar-school boy in 1612 we may get a notion from Brinsley’s p. 296, “chap. xxx. Of Schoole times, intermissions and recreations,” which is full of interest. ‘1. The Schoole-time should beginne at sixe: all who write Latine to make their exercises which were giuen ouernight, in that houre before seuen’.--To make boys punctual, ‘so many of them as are there at sixe, to haue their places as they had them by election[80] or the day before: all who come after six, euery one to sit as he commeth, and so to continue that day, and vntill he recouer his place againe by the election of the fourme or otherwise.... If any cannot be brought by this, them to be noted in the blacke Bill by a speciall marke, and feele the punishment thereof: and sometimes present correction to be vsed for terrour.... Thus they are to continue vntill nine [at work in class], signified by Monitours, Subdoctour or otherwise. Then at nine ... to let them to haue a quarter of an houre at least, or more, for intermission, eyther for breakefast ... or else for the necessitie of euery one, or their honest recreation, or to prepare their exercises against the Masters comming in. [2.] After, each of them to be in his place in an instant, vpon the knocking of the dore or some other sign ... so to continue vntill eleuen of the clocke, or somwhat after, to counteruaile the time of the intermission at nine.

(3.) To be againe all ready, and in their places at one, in an instant; to continue vntill three, or halfe an houre after: then to haue another quarter of an houre or more, as at nine for drinking and necessities; so to continue till halfe an houre after fiue: thereby in that halfe houre to counteruaile the time at three; then to end so as was shewed, with reading a peece of a Chapter, and with singing two staues of a Psalme: lastly with prayer to be vsed by the Master.’

To the objectors to these intermissions at nine and three, who may reproach the schoole, thinking that they do nothing but play, Brinsley answers,-- ‘2. By this meanes also the Schollars may bee kept euer in their places, and hard to their labours, without that running out to the Campo (as the[y] tearme it) at school times, and the manifolde disorders thereof; as watching and striuing for the clubbe,[81] and loytering then in the fields; some hindred that they cannot go forth at all. (5.) it is very requisite also, that they should have weekly one part of an afternoone for recreation, as a reward of their diligence, obedience and profiting; and that to be appointed at the Masters discretion, eyther the Thursday, after the vsuall custom; or according to the best opportunity of the place.... All recreations and sports of schollars, would be meet for Gentlemen. Clownish sports, or perilous, or yet playing for money, are no way to be admitted.’

On the age at which boys went to school, Brinsley says, p. 9,

“For the time of their entrance with vs, in our countrey schooles,
it is commonly about 7. or 8. yeares olde: six is very soone. If
any begin so early, they are rather sent to the schoole to keepe
them from troubling the house at home, and from danger, and shrewd
turnes, then for any great hope and desire their friends haue that
they should learne anything in effect.”

[Headnote: THE GOOD OLD TIMES OF SMOKE AND FILTH.]

To return from this digression on Education. Enough has been said to show that the progress of Education, in our sense of the word, was rather from below upwards, than from above downwards; and I conclude that the young people to whom the _Babees Boke_, &c., were addressed, were the children of our nobility, knights, and squires, and that the state of their manners, as left by their home training, was such as to need the inculcation on them of the precepts contained in the Poems. If so, dirty, ill-mannered, awkward young gawks, must most of these hopes-of-England have been, to modern notions. The directions for personal cleanliness must have been much needed when one considers the small stock of linen and clothes that men not rich must have had; and if we may judge from a passage in Edward the Fourth’s _Liber Niger_, even the King himself did not use his footpan every Saturday night, and would not have been the worse for an occasional tubbing:--

“This barbour shall have, every satyrday at nyght, _if_ it please
the Kinge to cleanse his head, legges, or feet, and for his
shaving, two loves, one picher wyne. And the ussher of chambre
ought to testyfye if this is necessaryly dispended or not.”

So far as appears from Edward the Fourth’s _Liber Niger Domus_, soap was used only for washing clothes. The yeoman lavender, or washerman, was to take from the Great Spicery ‘as muche whyte soape, greye, and blacke, as can be thought resonable by proufe of the Countrollers,’ and therewith ‘tenderly to waysshe ... the stuffe for the Kinges propyr persone’ (_H. Ord._ p. 85); but whether that cleansing material ever touched His Majesty’s sacred person (except doubtless when and if the barber shaved him), does not appear. The Ordinances are considerate as to sex, and provide for “weomen lavendryes” for a Queen, and further that “these officers oughte to bee sworne to keepe the chambre counsaylle.” But it is not for one of a nation that has not yet taken generally to tubbing and baths, or left off shaving, to reproach his forefathers with want of cleanliness, or adherence to customs that involve contradiction of the teachings of physiologists, and the evident intent of Nature or the Creator. Moreover, reflections on the good deeds done, and the high thoughts thought, by men of old dirtier than some now, may prevent us concluding that because other people now talk through their noses, and have manners different from our own, they and their institutions must be wholly abominable; that because others smell when heated, they ought to be slaves; or that eating peas with a knife renders men unworthy of the franchise. The temptation to value manners above morals, and pleasantness above honesty, is one that all of us have to guard against. And when we have held to a custom merely because it is old, have refused to consider fairly the reasons for its change, and are inclined to grumble when the change is carried out, we shall be none the worse for thinking of the people, young and old, who, in the time of Harrison and Shakspere, the “Forgotten Worthies”[82] and Raleigh, no doubt ‘hated those nasty new oak houses and chimnies,’ and sighed for the good old times:

“And yet see the change, for when our houses were builded of
willow, then had we oken men; but now that our houses are come to
be made of oke, our men are not onlie become willow, but a great
manie through Persian delicacie crept in among vs, altogither of
straw, which is a sore alteration.... Now haue we manie chimnies,
and yet our tenderlings complaine of rheumes, catarhs and poses.
Then had we none but reredosses, and our heads did neuer ake.[83]
For as the smoke in those daies was supposed to be a sufficient
hardning for the timber of the house; so it was reputed a far
better medicine to keepe the goodman and his familie from the
quack or pose, wherewith as then verie few were oft acquainted.”
_Harrison_, i. 212, col. 1, quoted by Ellis.

If rich men and masters were dirty, poor men and servants must have been dirtier still. William Langlande’s description of Hawkyn’s one metaphorical dress in which he slept o’ nightes as well as worked by day, beslobbered (or by-_moled_, bemauled) by children, was true of the real smock; flesh-moths must have been plentiful, and the sketch of Coveitise, as regards many men, hardly an exaggeration:

... as a bonde-man of his bacon · his berd was bi-draveled,
With his hood on his heed · a lousy hat above,
And in a tawny tabard · of twelf wynter age
Al so torn and baudy · and ful of lys crepyng,
But if that a lous[84] couthe · han lopen the bettre,
She sholde noght han walked on that welthe · so was it thred-bare.
(_Vision_, Passus V. vol. 1, l. 2859-70, ed. Wright.)

In the _Kinge and Miller_, Percy Folio MS., p. 236 (in vol. ii. of the print), when the Miller proposes that the stranger should sleep with their son, Richard the son says to the King,

“Nay, first,” q{uo}th Richard, “good fellowe, tell me true,
hast thou noe creep{er}s in thy gay hose?
art thou not troabled w{i}th the Scabbado?”

The colour of washerwomen’s legs was due partly to dirt, I suppose. The princess or queen Clarionas, when escaping with the laundress as her assistant, is obliged to have her white legs reduced to the customary shade of grey:

Right as she should stoupe a-douñ,
The quene was tukked wel on high;
The lauender p{er}ceiued wel therbigh
Hir white legges, and seid “ma dame,
Youre shin boones might doo vs blame;
Abide,” she seid, “so mot I thee,
More slotered thei most be.”
Asshes with the water she menged,
And her white legges al be-sprenged.
ab. 1440 A.D., _Syr Generides_, p. 218, ll. 7060-8.

[Headnote: NAKED SCULLIONS AND DIRTY STREETS.]

If in Henry the Eighth’s kitchen, scullions lay about naked, or tattered and filthy, what would they do elsewhere? Here is the King’s Ordinance against them in 1526:

“And for the better avoydyng of corruption and all uncleannesse
out of the Kings house, which doth ingender danger of infection,
and is very noisome and displeasant unto all the noblemen and
others repaireing unto the same; it is ordeyned by the Kings
Highnesse, that the three master cookes of the kitchen shall have
everie of them by way of reward yearly twenty marks, to the intent
they shall prouide and sufficiently furnish the said kitchens of
such scolyons as shall not goe _naked or in garments of such
vilenesse as they now doe, and have been acustomed to doe, nor lie
in the nights and dayes in the kitchens or ground by the
fireside;_ but that they of the said money may be found with
honest and whole course garments, without such uncleannesse as may
be the annoyance of those by whom they shall passe”...

That our commonalty, at least, in Henry VIII.’s time did stink (as is the nature of man to do) may be concluded from Wolsey’s custom, when going to Westminster Hall, of

“holding in his hand a very fair orange, whereof the meat or
substance within was taken out, and filled up again with the part
of a sponge, wherein was vinegar, and other confections against
the pestilent airs; the which he most commonly smelt unto, passing
among the press, or else when he was pestered with many suitors.”
(_Cavendish_, p. 43.)

On the dirt in English houses and streets we may take the testimony of a witness who liked England, and lived in it, and who was not likely to misrepresent its condition,--Erasmus. In a letter to Francis, the physician of Cardinal Wolsey, says Jortin,

“Erasmus ascribes the plague (from which England was hardly ever
free) and the sweating-sickness, partly to the incommodious form
and bad exposition of the houses, to the filthiness of the
streets, and to the sluttishness within doors. The floors, says
he, are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies
unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease (?), fragments,
bones, spittle, excrements [t.i. urine] of dogs and cats [t.i.
men,] and every thing that is nasty, &c.” (_Life of Erasmus_, i.
69, ed. 1808, referred to in Ellis, i. 328, note.)

The great scholar’s own words are,

Tum sola fere sunt argilla, tum scirpis palustribus, qui subinde
sic renovantur, ut fundamentum maneat aliquoties annos viginti,
sub se fovens sputa, vomitus, mictum canum et hominum, projectam
cervisiam, et piscium reliquias, aliasque sordes non nominandas.
Hinc mutato cœlo vapor quidam exhalatur, mea sententia minime
salubris humano corpori.

After speaking also _De salsamentis_ (rendered ‘_salt meat_, beef, pork, &c.,’ by Jortin, but which _Liber Cure Cocorum_ authorises us in translating ‘Sauces’[85]), _quibus vulgus mirum in modum delectatur_, he says the English would be more healthy if their windows were made so as to shut out noxious winds, and then continues,

“Conferret huc, si vulgo parcior victus persuaderi posset, ac
salsamentorum moderatior usus. Tum si publica cura demandaretur
Ædilibus, ut viæ mundiores essent a cœno, mictuque: Curarentur et
ea quæ civitati vicina sint. _Jortin’s Life of Erasmus_, ed. 1808,
iii. 44 (Ep. 432, C. 1815), No. VIII. Erasmus Rot. Francisco.
Cardinalis Eboracencis Medico, S.

If it be objected that I have in the foregoing extracts shown the dark side of the picture, and not the bright one, my answer is that the bright one--of the riches and luxury in England--must be familiar to all our members, students (as I assume) of our early books, that the Treatises in this Volume sufficiently show this bright side, and that to me, as foolometer of the Society, this dark side seemed to need showing. But as _The Chronicle_ of May 11, 1867, in its review of Mr Fox Bourne’s _English Merchants_, seems to think otherwise, I quote its words, p. 155, col. 2.

“All the nations of the world, says Matthew of Westminster, were
kept warm by the wool of England, made into cloth by the men of
Flanders. And while we gave useful clothing to other countries, we
received festive garments from them in return. For most of our
information on these subjects we are indebted to Matthew Paris,
who tells us that when Alexander III. of Scotland was married to
Margaret, daughter of Henry III., one thousand English knights
appeared at the wedding in _cointises_ of silk, and the next day
each knight donned a new robe of another kind. This grand
entertainment was fatal to sixty oxen, and cost the then
Archbishop of York no less a sum than 4000 marks. Macpherson
remarks on this great display of silk as a proof of the wealth of
England under the Norman kings, a point which has not been
sufficiently elaborated. In 1242 the streets of London were
covered or shaded with silk, for the reception of Richard, the
King’s brother, on his return from the Holy Land. Few Englishmen
are aware of the existence of such magnificence at that early
period; while every story-book of history gives us the reverse of
the picture, telling us of straw-covered floors, scarcity of body
linen, and the like. Long after this, in 1367, it is recorded, as
a special instance of splendour of costume, that 1000 citizens of
Genoa were clothed in silk; and this tale has been repeated from
age to age, while the similar display, at an earlier date, in
England, has passed unnoticed.”

For a notice of the several pieces in the present volume, I refer the reader to the Preface to Russell’s _Boke of Nurture_, which follows here.

It only remains for me to say that the freshness of my first interest in the poems which I once hoped to re-produce in these Forewords, has become dulled by circumstances and the length of time that the volume has been in the press--it having been set aside (by my desire) for the _Ayenbite_, &c.;--and that the intervention of other work has prevented my making the collection as complete as I had desired it to be. It is, however, the fullest verse one that has yet appeared on its subject, and will serve as the beginning of the Society’s store of this kind of material.[86] If we can do all the English part of the work, and the Master of the Rolls will commission one of his Editors to do the Latin part, we shall then get a fairly complete picture of that Early English Home which, with all its shortcomings, should be dear to every Englishman now.

3, _St George’s Square, N.W._,

5th _June_, 1867.

[Footnote 1: The first sentence of Aristotle’s _Metaphysics_ is
‘All men by nature are actuated by the desire of knowledge.’ Mr
Skeat’s note on l. 78 of _Partenay_, p. 228.]

[Footnote 2: Lawrens Andrewe. _The noble lyfe & natures of man, of
bestes_, &c. Johñes Desborrowe. Andewarpe.]

[Footnote 3: The woodcuts are Messrs Virtue’s, and have been used
in Mr Thomas Wright’s _History of Domestic Manners and Customs_,
&c.]

[Footnote 4: If any one thinks it a bore to read these Prefaces,
I can assure him it was a much greater bore to have to hunt up the
material for them, and set aside other pressing business for it.
But the Boke of Curtasye binding on editors does not allow them to
present to their readers a text with no coat and trowsers on. If
any Members should take offence at any expressions in this or any
future Preface of mine, as a few did at some words in the last I
wrote, I ask such Members to consider the first maxim in their
Boke of Curtasye, _Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth_. Prefaces
are gift horses; and if mine buck or shy now and then, I ask their
riders to sit steady, and take it easy. On the present one at
least they’ll be carried across some fresh country worth seeing.]

[Footnote 5: scholars?]

[Footnote 6: Sir H. Nicolas, in his Glossary to his _Privy Purse
Expenses of Henry VIII._, p. 327, col. 2, says, “No word has been
more commented upon than ‘Henchmen’ or Henxmen. Without entering
into the controversy, it may be sufficient to state, that in the
reign of Henry the Eighth it meant the pages of honour. They were
the sons of gentlemen, and in public processions always walked
near the monarch’s horse: a correct idea may be formed of their
appearance from the representation of them in one of the pictures
in the meeting room of the Society of Antiquarians. It seems from
these entries (p. 79,[*] 125, 182, 209, 230, 265) that they lodged
in the house of Johnson, the master of the king’s barge, and that
the rent of it was 40_s_. per annum. Observations on the word will
be found in Spelman’s _Etymol._, Pegge’s _Curialia_, from the
Liber Niger, Edw. IV., Lodge’s _Illustrations_, vol. i. p. 359,
the _Northumberland Household Book_, Blount’s _Glossary_.”

The _Promptorium_ has “Heyncemann (henchemanne) _Gerolocista,
duorum generum, (gerolocista)_,” and Mr Way in his note says, “The
pages of distinguished personages were called henxmen, as Spelman
supposes, from Ger. _hengst_, a war-horse, or according to Bp.
Percy, from their place being at the side or _haunch_ of their
lord.” See the rest of Mr Way’s note. He is a most provokingly
careful editor. If ever you hit on a plum in your wanderings
through other books you are sure to find it afterwards in one of
Mr Way’s notes when you bethink yourself of turning to the
Promptorium.

In Lord Percy’s Household (_North. H. Book_, p. 362) the Henchemen
are mentioned next to the Earl’s own sons and their tutor (?) in
the list of “Persones that shall attende upon my Lorde at his
Borde Daily, ande have no more but his Revercion Except Brede and
Drynk.”

My Lordes Secounde Son to serve as Kerver.

My Lordes Thurde Son as Sewer.

A Gentillman that shall attende upon my Lord’s Eldest Son in the
rewarde, and appoynted Bicause he shall allwayes be with my Lord’s
Sonnes for seynge the Orderynge of them.

My Lordes first _Hauneshman_ to serve as Cupberer to my Lorde.

My Lords ij^de _Hanshman_ to serve as Cupberer to my Lady.

See also p. 300, p. 254, The _Hansmen_ to be at the fyndynge of my
Lord, p. 47]

[Footnote 6*: p. 79, It{e}m the same daye paied to Johnson the
mayster of the king{is} barge for the Rent of the house where
the henxe men lye xl s.]

[[Footnote 6a: ‘Your Bele Babees are very like the _Meninos_ of
the Court of Spain, & _Menins_ of that of France, young nobles
brought up with the young Princes.’ H. Reeve.]]

[Footnote 7: When writing this I had forgotten Warton’s section on
the Revival of Learning in England before and at the Reformation,
_Hist. English Poetry_, v. iii. ed. 1840. It should be read by all
who take an interest in the subject. Mr Bruce also refers to
Kynaston’s _Museum Minervæ_. P.S.--Mr Bullein and Mr Watts have
since referred me to Henry, who has in each volume of his _History
of England_ a regular account of learning in England, the Colleges
and Schools founded, and the learned men who flourished, in the
period of which each volume treats. Had I seen these earlier I
should not have got the following extracts together; but as they
are for the most part not in Henry, they will serve as a
supplement to him.]

[Footnote 8: First of these is Mr Charles H. Pearson, then the
Rev. Prof. Brewer, and Mr William Chappell.]

[Footnote 9: Mr Wm. Chappell gave me the reference.]

[Footnote 10: In the Romance of Blonde of Oxford, Jean of
Dammartin is taken into the service of the Earl of Oxford as
_escuier_, esquire. He waits at table on knights, squires, valets,
boys and messengers. After table, the ladies keep him to talk
French with them.]