CURRENT LITERATURE.
SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in other forms.]
College Histories: Clare College. By J. R. Wardale, M.A. (P. E. Robinson and Co. 6e. net.)—Clare College (the name was changed not long ago, without any absolute necessity, from the ancient '‘ Clare Hall ") has not had a remarkable history. But this history goes back to a remote period,—the foundation dates from 1346, if not from an earlier year ; such an antiquity is sure to suggest much that is interesting, and the rule holds good in this case. For instance, one of the early masters (John Donewich, 1371-1392) was a champion of the University in its struggle against episcopal jurisdiction, a matter of supreme importance. It is hardly too much to say that if it had been settled in favour of the Bishops the University would have been dwarfed, if not destroyed. Another interesting detail is the contrast between the poverty of the early days and the comparative affluence of the present. In the matter of distinguished alumni Clare has not been very famous. Its flourishing period may perhaps be fixed for the sixteenth century, when it was one of the radiat- ing points of the Reformation influences. Hugh Latimer was of Clare, and is, perhaps, the most famous name on its rolls. Next to him may come Tillotson, who entered the College in 1647, and did it good service in various ways. Some curious social details are supplied by Mr. Wardale, who has used his materials to good purpose. One of the strangest is a decree that any scholar who "should go into any river, pool, or water in the county of Cambridge, by day or night, to swim or wash," should, if an undergraduate, for the first offence be twice " sharply and severely whipped in the common hall of the College in which he dwelt," and for the second " expelled his College and the University for ever"; if a " B.A.," should be put in the stocks for a whole day in the common hall of his College and pay 103., for the first offence, and for the second should be expelled.
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