·

compleat. It was no lefs,' continues he, than to provide for the perpetual maintenance and inftruction of two hundred Scholars, to afford them a liberal fupport, and to lead them through a perfect courfe of education; from the first elements of letters, through the whole circle of the fciences; from the lowest clafs of grammatical learning, to the highest degrees in the feveral facultics. It properly and naturally confifted of two parts, rightly forming two eftablishments, the one fubordinate to the other. The defign of the one was to lay the ⚫ foundations of fcience, that of the other, to raife and compleat the fuperftructure; the former was to fupply the latter with proper fubjects, and the latter was to improve the advantages received in the former. The plan was truly great, and an ori< ginal in its kind: as Wykeham had no example to follow in it, fo no perfon has yet been found, who has had the ability or generofity to follow his example, except one, and that a King of England, who has done him the honour to adopt and to copy his whole defign.

The work which demanded his attention at this time, was to erect his college at Oxford; the fociety of which he had already compleated and established, and that fome years before he began to raise the building. For' he proceeded here in the fame method which, as I have already fhewn, he took at Winchefter: as he began there with ferming a private Grammar School, provided with proper Mafters, and maintained. and fupported in it the full number of Scholars, which he afterwards cftablifhed in his college; fo at Oxford, in the first place, he formed his Society, appointed them a Governor, allowed them a liberal maintenance, provided them with lodg ings, and gave them rules and directions for their behaviour; not only that his beneficence might not feem to lie fruitless and ineffectual, while it was only employed in making his purchases of lands, and raifing his building, which would take up a confiderable time; but that he might beftow his earliest attention, and greatest care in forming and perfecting the principal part of his defign, and that the life and foul, as it were, might be ready to intorm and animate the body of his college as foon as it could be finished, and fo the whole fyftem be at once compleated in every part of it. This preparatory eftablishment, I imagine, took place about the fame time with that at Winchefter, that is, in the year 1373; which agrees ⚫ with the account that fome Authors give, that it was seven years before the foundation of the building was laid: but they are miflaken, in fuppofing that there were only fifty Scholars ⚫ maintained by him in this manner; for it appears by the Rolls of Accounts of New College, that in the year 1376, the So-.

ciety confifted of a Warden and feventy Fellows, called Pauperes Scholares Venerabilis Domini Domini Wilhelmi de Wykeham Wynton Epifcopi; and that it had been established, probably to the fame number, at leaft as early as September 1375. Richard Toneworth, Fellow of Merton College, was appointed by him. Governor of this Society, with the title of Warden, and a falary of 201. per annum. The Fellows were lodged in Blakehall, Herthall, Shulehall, Maydenhall, and Hamerhall: the expence of their lodging amounted to 10l. 135. 4d. per annum. They were allowed each of them Is. 6d. per week for their commons: and they had proper fervants to attend them, who had fuitable ftipends.

In the year 1379, the Bifhop compleated his purchases of lands for the fite of his College, and immediately took his 'measures for erecting his building. In the firft place, he obtained the King's patent, granting him licence to found his College: it is dated June 30th, 1379. He procured likewise the Pope's Bull to the fame effect. He publifhed his Charter of Foundation November 26th following; by which he entitled his College Seinte Marie College of Wyncheftre in Oxenford. It was then vulgarly called the New College, which became in time a fort of proper name for it, and in common ⚫ufe continues to be fo to this day. At the fame time, upon the refignation of Toneworth, he conftituted his kinfman. Nicholas Wykeham Warden, with a falary of 401. per annum. On the 5th of March following, at eight o'clock in the morning, the foundation ftone was laid: the building was finifhed in fix years, and the Society made their public enentrance into it with much folemnity and devotion, finging Litanies, and marching in proceffion, with the Crofs borne before them, at nine o'clock in the morning, on the 14th of April, 1386. The Society confifts of a Warden and feventy poor Scholars, Clerks, Students in Theology, Canon and Civil Law, and Philofophy: twenty are appointed to the ftudy of Laws, ten of them to that of the Canon, and ten C to that of the Civil Law; the remaining fifty are to apply themselves to Philofophy (or Arts) and Theology; two of them, however, are permitted to apply themselves to the ftudy of Medicine, and two likewife to that of Aftronomy; all of whom are obliged to be in Priests Orders within a certain time, except in cafe of lawful impediment. Befide thefe there are ten Priefts, three Clerks, and fixteen Boys or Chorifters, to minifter in the fervice of the chappel.

The body of ftatutes, which Wykeham gave to his College, was a work upon which he bestowed much time and constant ⚫ attention. It was the refult of great meditation and study,

affifted,

affifted, confirmed, and brought to maturity by long obfervation and experience. He began it with the first establishment of his Society, and he was continually improving and perfect⚫ing it almost as long as he lived. And accordingly, it has been always confidered as the moft judicious and the moft compleat performance in its kind, and as the beft model which the Founders of Colleges in fucceeding times had to follow, and which, indeed, most of them have either copied or clofely imitated.'

While the Bishop was engaged in building his College at Oxford, he established in proper form his Society at Winchefter. His charter of foundation bears date October the 20th, 1382, by which he nominates Thomas de Cranle Warden, admits the Scholars, and gives his College the fame name. of Seinte Marie College of Wyncheftre. The next year after he had finished his building at Oxford, he began that at Winchefter, for which he had obtained both the Pope's and the King's licence long before. A natural affection and prejudice for the very place which he had frequented in his early days, feems to have had its weight in determining the fituation of it: the school which Wykeham went to when he was a boy, was where his College now ftands. The fift ftone was laid on March the 26th, 1387, at nine o'clock in the morning: it took up fix years likewife in building; and the Warden and Society made their folemn entrance into it, chanting in procesion, at nine o'clock in the morning, on March the 28th, 1393. The School had now fubfifted near twenty years, having been opened at Michaelmafs 1373. It was compleatly established from the first to its full number of feventy Scholars, and to all other intents and purposes; and continued all along to furnish the Society at Oxford with proper fubjects by election. It was at first committed to the care of a Mafter and Undermafter only in the year 1382, it was placed under the fuperior government of a Warden. This was the whole Society that made their formal entrance into it, C as above-mentioned. 'Till the College was erected, they were provided with ledgings in the parish of St. John upon the Hill. The firft nomination of Fellows was made by the Founder on the 20th of December, 1394. He nominated five only, tho' he had at that time determined the number to But the chappel was not yet quite finished; nor was it dedicated and confecrated till the middle of the next year : • foon after which, we may fuppofe, that the full number of Fellows, and of all other Members defigned to bear a more particular relation to the fervice of it, was compleated by him. The whole Society confifts of a Warden, feventy poor Scho

ten.

lars,

lars, to be inftructed in grammatical learning, ten fecular Priefts, perpetual Fellows, three Priefts Chaplains, three • Clerks, and fixteen Chorifters: and for the instruction of the Scholars, a Schoolmafter, and an Undermafter or Ufher.

The Statutes which he gave to his College at Winchester, and which are referred to in the Charter of Foundation, are as it were the counterpart of thofe of his College at Oxford; he amended, improved, and enlarged the former by the fame fteps as he had done the latter; and he gave the laft edition, and received the oaths of the feveral Members of the Society to the obfervance of them, by his Commiffaries appointed for that purpose, September the 9th, 1400. In this cafe he had no occafion to make a particular provifion in conftituting a Vifitor of his College; the fituation of it coincided with his defign, and he left it under the ordinary jurifdiction of the Diocefan, the Bishop of Winchester.

Wykeham enjoyed for many years the pleafure, a pleasure the greatest to a good and generous heart that can be enjoyed, of feeing the good effects of his own beneficence, and receiv ing in them the proper reward of his pious labours; of obferving his Colleges growing up under his eye, and continually bringing forth thofe fruits of virtue, piety, and learning, which he had reafon to expect from them. They continued ftill to rife in reputation, and furnished the Church and State with many eminent and able men in all profeffions. Not long after his death, one of his own Scholars, whom he had him• felf feen educated in both his Societies, and raised under his infpection, and probably with his favour and affiflance in conjunction with his own great merits, to a confiderable degree of eminence, became an illuftrious follower of his great example. This was Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury; who, befides a Chantry and Hofpital, which he built at Higham-Ferrers, the place of his birth, founded likewife All Souls College in Oxford, for the maintenance of forty Fellows, (befide Chaplains, Clerks, and Chorifters) who, according to Wykeham's plan, are appointed, twenty-four of them to the ftudy of Theology and Philofophy, and the remaining fixteen to that of the Canon and Civil Laws. He gave a handfome teftimony of his affeclion, efteem, and gra ⚫titude towards the College in which he had received his academical education, by a confiderable prefent, (1231. 6s. 8d. to be a fund for loans to the Fellows on proper occafions,) and by appointing Dr. Richard Andrews, one of that Society, and with whom he had contracted a perfonal acquaintance there, to be the firft Governor of his own College,

• Shortly

• Shortly after this Henry the fixth founded his two Colleges of Eton and Cambridge, entirely upon Wykeham's plan, whofe ftatutes he has transcribed without any material alteration. While the King was employed in this pious work, he frequently honoured Winchester College with his prefence; not only to testify the favour and regard which be bore to that Society, but that he might alfo more nearly infpect, and perfonally examine the laws, the fpirit, the fuccefs, and good effects of an inftitution which he propofed to himself for a model. From hence it appears, that his imitation of Wykeham's plan was not owing to a casual thought of his own, or a partial recommendation from another, or an approbation founded only on common report or popular opinion, but was the refult of deliberate enquiry, of knowlege and experience. He came to Winchester College five feveral times with this defign, and was afterward frequently there, during his refi⚫dence for above a month at Winchefter, when the Parliament was held there in the year 1449.'

The feventh fection contains a short but diftinct view of civil affairs during the latter part of the reign of Richard the second. And here we fee Wykeham maintaining the fame prudent and fteady conduct which he had obferved in the former part of this troublesome reign, and recommending himself, by his difcretion and integrity, to the esteem of both parties.

In the eighth fection we have an account of Wykeham's death, which happened on the 27th of September, in the year 1404; after which our Author enumerates the feveral legacies, benefactions, and charities bequeathed by him in his Will, together with a great variety of inftances of that extenfive and almoft boundless generofity, which peculiarly diftinguished the whole life of this illuftrious Prelate.

The ninth fection contains an examination and confutation of feveral things that have been published to his difcredit. In the beginning of it, our Author acknowleges with much regret, that very few particulars relating to the private and domeftic part of Wykeham's character, are tranfmitted down to us.

However,' fays he, not to omit whatever may be advanced upon reafonable evidence, we may find him in his early youth diftinguifhed for his piety and his diligence; raifing himfelf from a low condition by his abilities, his industry, and his fidelity; meriting the regard and encouragement of feveral worthy and eminent Patrons; and at length raifed to the higheft ftations, by the favour of two of the greateft men that this nation has to boaft of, Edward the Third, and his

<fon