TWO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.*
KR. LEACH gives to the first chapter of his history of Win- chester the title of "The First Public SohooL" He thus suggests a question which has been often asked and never answered— what is a "public school" ? The phrase defies definition, though we know pretty well what it means. It is, indeed, a curious example of the multitude of English things which are very real and practical, though logically they have no right to exist. The subject cannot be better studied than in the history of the two schools which form the subject of this article.
Winchester differs, to begin with, from Shrewsbury in having what the latter wants, a pious founder. William of Wykeham, viewed in what may be called the dry light of Mr. Leach's researches, differs not a little from the familiar
• (1.) .9. History of Winchester College. By Arthur F. Leach, NIA. London : Duckworth and Co.--,(2.) 4.nnals of Shrewsbury School. By George William Fisher, M.A. Revhei by J. Spencer Hill, B.A. LonJou : Methuen and Co.
conception of his personality. He was a very clever Civil servant, who was paid for his work by an accumulation of ecclesiastical preferments. He held not less than a dozen canonries and prebends before he had received even the lowest rank of orders. He was close upon forty when he was ordained priest. Four years afterwards he became Bishop of Winchester, and again, a twelvemonth later, he received the Great Seal. This he had to give up four years later (1371), and in 1376 his estates were seques- trated. This reverse, which lasted for a few months only, was the only check in a prosperous career. His wealth must have been vast. His pre-Episcopal preferments must have brought him in a great income with but few outgoings. The revenue of his bishopric, which he held for thirty-eight years, was estimated in 1395 at £2,977, a sum not less than £60,000 of our money. It is true that his foundations were of a pro- portionate magnificence. The endowment of New College exceeded the aggregate of what had been given to the five Colleges of earlier date, and that of Winchester was not less splendid; "£450," writes Mr. Leach, after giving some in- teresting details, " was the income from endowments, as it was left by the Founder." Multiplying by twenty, we get £9,000. It must be remembered, however, that the founda- tion to be supported was large, and a strict economy had to be practised. A benefactor in the sixteenth century gave a sum of money for the improvement of the commons, which in his time had been "right slender and small." The Head. Master, according to the deed of foundation, had £10 by the year, a shilling a week for commons and eight yards of cloth for livery. He was bound to take nothing from the scholars (seventy in number), but he received from other boys more than his stipend, with sundry entrance fees and gifts. Perhaps we may estimate his income, in present-day money, at £500.
The foundation of Shrewsbury was on a less magnificent scale. It was one of the many schools founded in the half- century that followed the Reformation. Edward and Eliza- beth gave little or nothing but their Royal names to the schools which they may be said to have called into being. Shrewsbury, which was not one of the schools originally con- templated, received £20 from the tithes belonging to two suppressed religious houses. As much more was added by the exertions of Thomas Ashton, Head-Master from 1561 to 1578. But Ashton did much more than this for the school. He seems to have been a man of unusual personal influence. Appointed in June, 1561, he was able on December 28th, 1562, to show a school-list of 266 boys. This extraordinary success lifted Shrewsbury at once to an eminence among schools founded under precisely the same circumstances which it has always retained. Indeed, the numbers which it could boast during the first half-century of its existence were such as it has seldom equalled since. From time to time it has fallen low—when Samuel Butler took up the Head-Mastership in 1798 there were but 20 boys, of whom all but two belonged to the town —but it has never wholly lost the magnificent prestige which Ashton gave it.
Liberal as was the endowment of Winchester, its real success depended on the development of an element which the founder desired to keep within narrow bounds. He had provided for the statutable number of ten extranei. Eight years after his death there were 100, to the great displeasure of the Bishop (Beaufort). But this was a number which was not reached again for a long time. In 1668 there were 36 (of whom Otway, Winchester's solitary poet, ac- cording to Mr. Leach, was one); in 1680, 73 ; in 1737, 93; and then, by a strange fluctuation, only fourteen years afterwards, 8. These fluctuations have indeed been remark- able. Under Joseph Warton, perhaps the most distinguished of the Head-Masters, it sank from 116 to 38. Goddard, who succeeded Wartun in 1793, had a prosperous reign of sixteen years. Thomas Arnold was one of his pupils, and carried to Rugby not only Wykehamist traditions, but the great example of his master, a man of most sensitive honour," who loved his boys and trusted them. Another depression occurred in 1816, when Charles Wordsworth was second master. The Wordsworths were unlucky in this respect, for it was under Christopher that Harrow saw its nadir. For many years the numbers have only been limited by space.
The interest which attaches to the history of Winchester
is naturally far greater, or perhaps we should say far more varied, than any that belongs to Shrewsbury. The old a/u nod of the Shropshire school will of course follow its annals with interest, and it must always occupy an important place in the story of English education. And for a time, the eight-and-thirty years of the mastership of Samuel Butler, we have, thanks to the genius of Butler's grandson, a remarkably brilliant picture of school life. But the fortunes of Winchester have been more a matter of national concern. The College was, as Mr. Leach shows conclusively, an ecclesiastical corporation. Hence its revenues were inquired into by the Ecclesiastical Valuation of 1535, of which Gardiner was head Commissioner. They had increased by about a half. It was an evil time for wealthy corporations, and the greedy magnates of the time were just as ready to swallow educational endowments as any other. Gardiner himself did not see "any necessity in children to send them to school." Happily Winchester and Eton were coupled with Oxford and Cambridge by the Act of 1536, in the exemption from the payment of first-fruits. Thus, put into a different category from the purely ecclesiastical foundations, they escaped the general confiscation which followed the dissolution of the monasteries. Few readers of English history realise the magnitude of the peril from which the higher education of England escaped at this time. A few years later the danger was still greater ; Winchester was actually scheduled in a list of foundations passed in 1536
for the "Dissolution of Colleges, Chantries, and Free Chapels at the King's pleasure." Happily it was thought necessary to have another valuation. We find the College now credited
with an income of close upon £1,000 per annum, of which the Warden received more than a tenth. The time occupied by
this inquiry saved the foundation, for in January, 1547, Henry died, and the powers of the Act, which was only for his life, lapsed. The new Chantries Act, passed by Edward VI.'s first Parliament, saved the Universities, St.
George's, Windsor, Eton, and Winchester. These last owed their safety to their intimate connection with the Univer- sities, for the same Act robbed of nearly all their property more than two hundred grammar schools throughout the country. It is, indeed, a discreditable story, but if there is to be a proportioning of demerit the greater share must be given to the counsellors of Henry than to those of his son.
To the industry and acumen with which Mr. Leach has studied his subject the highest praise is due. He is, indeed, an expert of the first order in these matters. But he is not a model historian. He digresses, for instance, to attack Father Gasquet and Canon Dixon re the dissolution of the monas- teries. We are inclined to think that he is in the right, but he goes out of his way. Even more gratuitous is his remark a propos of John Phillips, author of "Cider," about the mis- fortune of being "compelled to read the Georgics,"—a "terrible effort of Virgil's," he is pleased to say. Why should he proclaim to the world this lamentable want of taste F Even Midas only whispered his unhappy peculiarity to the reeds.
The author of the history of Shrewsbury died while his work was passing through the press. It had been a labour of love, how great a labour and how carefully performed can only be estimated after a thorough study of the volume.
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