themselves on all who visited it. Stowe thus sums up a lengthy enumeration of the advantages of London to the kingdom, above those which a great town usually brings:—

"By advantage of the scituation it disperseth forraine Wares to all the members most commodiously.

"By the benefite of the river of Thames, and great trade of Marchandize, it is the chief maker of Marriners, and Nurse of our Navie.

"It releeveth plentifully not onely her owne poore people, but also the poore that from each quarter of the realme do flocke unto it; and it imparteth liberally to the necessite of the Universities besides. It is an ornament to the realm by the beautie thereof, and a terror to other countries by reason of the great wealth and frequencie. It spreadeth the honour of our Countrey far abroad by her long navigations, and maketh our power feared, even of barbarous Princes. It onely is stored with rich Marchantes; which sort onely is tollerable for beggardly Marchantes do byte too neere, and will do more harme than good to the realme."

For the truth of the last statement we would not like to vouch, but his concluding words apply to the London of all time: "Almightie God,

grant that her Majesty evermore rightly esteeme and rule this Citie; and he give grace, that the Citizens may answere duly, as well towards God and her Majestie, as towardes this whole realme and countrie. Amen."

CHAPTER IV

SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

HENRY VIII. had done much for the foundation and endowment of schools in England, and his scholarly and short-lived son carried on the work. Many are the King's Scholars on different foundations who owe their scholarships to the royal revenues of that time, such as in King's School, Canterbury, founded by Henry VIII. in 1541, "for fifty poor boys, to be maintained at the cost of the Church, and instructed, as well as all others who flock to the school."

Bath, Bedford, Bromsgrove, and Giggleswick are among the grammar schools founded and endowed by Edward VI., and nearly the last act of his life was that of signing the charter for Christ Hospital, the famous Blue Coat School. "Lord," said the dying boy, as he performed this last kingly duty, "I yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast given me life thus long, to finish this work to the glory of thy name."

Secular education was not of great interest to his

austere sister Mary, but several fine schools were founded, and old ones endowed during her reign by private benevolence, such as Repton, Felsted, and St. Peter's School, York; and many are the grammar schools which date their foundation or endowment from the prosperous days of Queen Elizabeth, amongst others those of Ashbourne, Appleby, Faversham, and Wakefield. Stratford, where Shakspere was educated, had been founded in 1482, Derby even earlier. Coventry in 1546 was founded "as a free school, with a learned master to teach to teach grammar, a learned usher, and a man skilful in music to teach singing "unto the children of all the free inhabitants within the citie and the inner liberties thereof gratis."

We know little of the education of girls at the time of Elizabeth, except that those of high degree had begun to be trained in learning as well as accomplishments, and that, by the statutes of some of the early grammar schools, a limited number of girls were allowed to attend with the boys; some statutes, those of Harrow, for instance, expressly prohibit girls from attending the school.

Nor do we know much about the earliest stage of education, for most of the school statutes

require that boys entering shall be able to read, and it is an exception to find provision made, as at Alford Grammar School, founded in 1565, "to teach young children the A B C, and also to read both English and Latin." And at Skipton, York, founded 1548, where the master is to be a chaplain or priest "who shall teach the boys the alphabet, according to the proper pronunciation of syllables, and shall afterwards proceed in order in the grammar art and the rudiments thereof, with the frequent use in the Latin tongue, according to their capacities."

During the reigns of Henry VIII. and his three children there was a very great advance in the founding of schools throughout the country. Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, St. Paul's, Shrewsbury, and Merchant Taylors' existed as they do now, and Harrow's "times were one" with those of Elizabeth, but the life and education has changed indeed since those days, when school life must have been an ordeal before which even a sturdy boy of our day might flinch. The work consisted chiefly of Latin and Greek, with grammar, and in many foundations singing and music.

The discipline was maintained by severe methods. "If they offend," writes a pedagogue of the time,