authors read in the various forms deserve notice.

Besides some

elementary treatises, the lower school boys read Terence, some select epistles of Cicero, Lucian's Dialogues (these must have been Latin translations), and Æsop's Fables (no doubt also in Latin translations). The fourth form boys read Terence, the Tristia of Ovid, and the Apophthegms or Epigrams of Martial, Catullus, or Thomas More. The fifth form read Justin, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Valerius Maximus, Florus, Cicero's Letters, and Horace. Among the books read by the boys in the two highest forms are mentioned Cæsar's Commentaries, Cicero De Officiis and De Amicitiâ, Virgil, Lucan, and the Greek Grammar. The circumstance of only the very highest boys using the Greek Grammar shows that the Lucian and Æsop mentioned in the lower school books must have been translations. And the whole catalogue of the school books shows that the Latin authors were copiously studied, but that Greek was almost unknown. Indeed we can ascertain from other sources that a knowledge of Greek was at this period a rare accomplishment even at our universities. The study of this language had however now commenced, and was rapidly prosecuted in England during Elizabeth's reign: and in a book published in 1586 it is stated that at Eton, Winchester, and Westminster boys were then "well entered in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek tongues and rules of versifying.""

This old record is also valuable for showing the antiquity of one of the disciplinal principles of the school, which gives the upper boys authority over the lower, and makes them responsible for the maintenance of general good conduct. This principle is indeed coeval with the foundation of Eton; for, as has been already stated, according to the original scheme of lodging the seventy scholars, it was required that a certain number of the elder and more trustworthy boys should be placed in each dormitory, and made responsible for the conduct of the rest. The old "Consuetudinarium" continually refers to the functions of the "Præpositi," that is to say, of the boys set over the others. The Latin term is the original of our word "Provost," but, probably in order to avoid indecorous confusion between the designation of the head of the

7 Harrison's description of England prefixed to Holinshed. I take this quotation from Hallam, whose views as to the dissemination of Greek learning in England during the first half of Elizabeth's reign are strongly confirmed by this old Eton Consuetudinarium.

College and that of the youthful aiders of the executive, it has, when applied to the boys, been anglicised "Præpositor," or, as usually contracted, "Præpostor." Four præpositors in 1560 were appointed weekly from among the upper boys to keep order in school. One præpositor, as "Moderator Aulæ," officiated at mealtimes; two aided in preserving decorum in church; four had authority in the playing-fields, and four were the ruling powers of the dormitory. Probably many of these offices were filled by the same boys. All these seem to have been appointed out of the Collegers. But besides these there were two Oppidan præpositors, whose duties probably were more particularly connected with the students not on the foundation. And there was one more, a sort of youthful Master of the Ceremonies, whose particular function it was to keep a sharp look-out after dirty and slovenly lads.

This system of carrying on the government of the school through the upper boys is general among our public schools, and I believe it to be one of their most valuable features, though it is one the most frequently attacked by those who are unacquainted, either through experience or inquiry, with the true working and full objects of public school education. To accustom lads early to the exercise of responsible power, under due superintendence and safeguards against its abuse, and to diffuse through a community of young minds a respect for authorities that form part and parcel of that community itself, such respect being based on other feelings than mere dread of superior brute force, is, surely, to provide them with one of the very highest branches of education. For Education means far more than the mere imparting of knowledge; it means also the development of the moral as well as the intellectual faculties. I dislike in general arguments drawn from etymologies, as being frequently little more than verbal quibbles; but it would be well to remember in practice the true import of the word "Educo." It is not "to teach." "Educatio' and "Doctrina" are not synonymous. The word seems primarily applied to all that aids in rearing and maturing to full expansion and vigour the kindly fruits of the earth. When we apply it to the training of the Inner Man, we mean by it all that aids in expanding and maturing all holy and healthful faculties and powers. And that education is imperfect, which neglects the moral qualities and the faculty of discerning and managing the

tempers and natures of others, which all must possess who would rule wisely and obey well.

The increase in the numbers of the Oppidans during this century is proved by the occurrence in the "Alummi Etonenses" of the words "Assistant Masters at Eton," in the short notices of some of the Kingsmen. The pupils were evidently too numerous for the Head and Lower Master to instruct without aid, and as the numbers of the boys increased, the staff of assistants was gradually strengthened.

CHAPTER III.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Sir Henry Wotton-Lord Essex-Waller the Poet-Provost Allestree-Boyle-Henry More -Dr. Hammond-Bishop Pearson-Bishop Sherlock-Sir Robert Walpole-Lord Bolingbroke Sir William Wyndham-Lord Townshend-John Hales-Bishops Barrow, Fleetwood, Hare, and Monck-Rous-Bard-Mason-Ascham-Collins-Mr. Pepys at Eton.

SIR HENRY WOTTON.

ETON has never seen within her walls a more accomplished gentleman, in the best sense of the word, or a more judicious ruler, than she received in 1624, when Sir Henry Wotton became her Provost. He was born in 1568, at Bocton Hall in Kent, the family mansion of his father, Sir Robert Wotton. He was the youngest of four sons, and as such was destined to receive but a moderate income from his father; but he also received from him, what is far more valuable than all pecuniary endowments, an excellent education, worthy of the talents on which it was bestowed. His boyhood was passed at Winchester, and thence he removed, first, to New College and subsequently to Queen's College, Oxford. He was highly distinguished at Oxford for his proficiency in all academical studies; while he, at the same time, made himself a master of modern languages; and he also displayed, on several occasions, the elegance of his genius in the lighter departments of literature. On his father's death, in 1589, he left England, and made the tour of France, Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries; and on his return, in 1596, he was chosen as Secretary to Queen Elizabeth's favourite the Earl of Essex. On the fall of Essex, Wotton fearing to be implicated in the ruin of his patron, fled into France, whence he again went to Italy, and took up his abode at Florence. Soon after his arrival there, the Grand Duke of Tuscany having discovered, from some intercepted letters, a plot to poison James, King of Scotland, employed Wotton

to go to Scotland secretly, and apprise that prince of his danger. Wotton assumed the name and guise of an Italian; executed his commission with great skill, and returned to Florence after having left a strong impression on the Scottish King of his learning, zeal, and diplomatic ability. On James's accession to the English throne, he sent for Wotton to court, gave him the honour of knighthood, and after pronouncing a high eulogium on him, declared his intention thenceforth to employ him as an ambassador.

Accordingly, during the greater part of James's reign, Sir Henry represented his sovereign abroad. His first mission was to Venice, where he formed a close intimacy with the celebrated Paolo Sarpi, and had peculiar advantages of watching the refinements and devices of Italian policy during the contest that was then being carried on between the Roman See and the Venetians; in which the sagacious firmness of the most subtle of Aristocracies was pitted against the craft and intrigue of the Vatican.

Wotton returned from Venice in 1610, when he suddenly found his favour at court unexpectedly clouded. This arose from the discovery of a sentence which he had written at Augsburg, in his outward journey to Venice. As we possess a biography of Sir Henry, from the pen of his friend Izaak Walton, it is best in this and other parts of Sir Henry's career to adopt the quaint but expressive language of the old king of the anglers. Walton says:

"At his [Sir Henry's] first going Embassadour into Italy, as he passed through Germany, he stayed some days at Augusta, where having been in his former travels well known by many of the best note for learning and ingenuousnesse (those that are esteemed the vertuosi of that nation), with whom he passing an evening in merriment was requested by Christopher Flecamore to write some sentence in his Albo, (a book of white paper which for that purpose many of the German gentry usually carry about them), Sir Henry Wotton consenting to the motion, took an occasion, from some accidental discourse of the present company, to write a pleasant definition of an Embassadour, in these very words:

"Legatus est vir bonus peregrè missus ad mentiendum Reipublicæ causâ."

Walton tries to represent this as an unlucky Latin translation