Among the troubles which clouded over the latter years of Henry the Sixth, and the wars which overthrew his dynasty, his favourite foundation suffered grievous curtailments from the ample measure and proportion which his munificence had designed for it. Not only was the progress of the buildings checked, but Edward the Fourth, besides actually taking away from Eton large portions of its endowments, obtained in 1463 a bull from Pope Pius the Second for dissolving Eton College and merging it in the College of St George at Windsor. From this imminent destruction Eton was saved by the strenuous exertions of William Westbury, "clarum et venerabile nomen" to all Etonians, whom the Founder had made Provost, and who publicly and solemnly Creansor [Creditor] Mr. Thomas Stevenson; and he heartily recommended him to you; also ye sent me word in the Letter of 12 lb. of Figgs and 8 lb. of Raisins, I have them not delivered, but I doubt not I shall have, for Alweder told me of them, and he said, that they came after in another Barge. And as for the young Gentlewoman, I will certify you how I first fell in acquaintance with her; her father is dead, there be two Sisters of them, the elder is just wedded; at which wedding I was with mine hostess, and also desired [invited] by the Gentleman himself, called William Swan, whose dwelling is in Eton. So it fortuned that mine Hostess reported on me otherwise than I was worthy; so that her mother commanded her to make me good Cheer; and so in good faith she did; she is not abiding where she is now, her dwelling is in London; but her Mother and she came to a place of hers five miles from Eton, where the wedding was, for because it was nigh to the Gentleman, which wedded her Daughter; and on Monday next coming, that is to say, the first Monday of clean Lent, her Mother and she will go to the Pardon at Sheene, and so forth to London, and there to abide in a place of hers in Bow Church-Yard; and if it please you to enquire of her, her Mother's name is Mistress Alborow, the name of the Daughter is Margaret Alborow, the age of her is, by all likelyhood, 18 or 19 years at the farthest; and as for the money and plate it is ready whensoever she were wedded; but as for the Livelihood, I trow [I believe], not till after her Mother's decease, but I cannot tell you for very certain, but you may know by enquiring. And as for her Beauty, judge you that, when you see her, if so be that ye take the labour, and specially behold her hands, for and if it be as it is told me, she is disposed to be thick. And as for my coming from Eton, I lack nothing but versifying, which I trust to have with a little continuance. Quare, Quomodo. Non valet hora, valet mora. Unde di...... Arbore jam videas exemplum. Non die possunt And these two verses aforesaid be of mine own making. No more to you at this time, but God have you in his keeping. Written at Eton the even of St. Mathias the Apostle in haste, with the hand of your Brother Eton, Wednesday, 23d of February, 1467-8, 7 E. IV. WILLIAM PASTON, Junior. * Tamen. The words preceding the distich were most likely the theme set for verses. D protested against the designed incorporation, and exerted himself so effectually both with King Edward and the Pope, that the bull was revoked, and King Edward restored to Eton many of the possessions which he had originally taken from it. Still the College, though saved, suffered severely, nor was the full number of members of the various branches of the foundation ever completed. The actual number kept up has consisted of a provost, a vice-provost, six fellows, two chaplains, ten choristers, the upper and lower master, and the seventy scholars. With the accession of Henry the Seventh, Eton was restored to royal favour. There is a tradition, that this prince had in his boyhood been educated at Eton for some time, by the direction of King Henry the Sixth. This tradition prevails not only at Eton but in very high quarters. I have heard that the late King William the Fourth used to speak of Henry the Seventh as having been a student at Eton. It is far from being impossible or improbable that such may have been the fact, but I have searched in vain for any documentary historical evidence of it, and in the absence of such testimony, I have not felt justified in formally claiming the founder of the Tudor dynasty as an Etonian. The only printed authority that I could find, is Sandford. Sandford was Lancaster Herald of Arms in the reign of Charles the Second, and compiled a genealogical history of the Kings and Queens of England by the direction of that prince, who is stated in the preface to Stebbing's edition of the work, to have "very largely contributed towards the compleating thereof." Sandford, in the commencement of his account of Henry the Seventh, says that "While he was a child, and a scholar in Eton College, he was there by King Henry the Sixth, prophetically entitled the Decider of the then difference between that prince and King Edward the Fourth." In the margin, Sandford cites as his authority Edw. Hall, fol. 224. But on turning to "Hall's Chronicle," at the part referred to, we find a mere allusion to what he had stated before at folio 211, at which passage Hall's words are:-" Jasper, Erle of Pembroke, toke this childe, being his nephew, out of the custody of the lady Herbert; and at his returne he brought the child to London to Kyng Henry the Sixte, whom when the Kyng had a good space by himself secretly beholden and marked both his wit and likely towardness, he said to such princes as were then with him, 'Lo, surely this is he to whom both we and our adversaries leving the possession of all thynges shall hereafter give room and place."" When we remember that Hall was an Etonian, and zealous for the glory of Eton, as many passages in his works demonstrate, we can hardly believe that he would have omitted to chronicle a circumstance so honourable to Eton, as that it had ever ranked among its students the sagacious founder of the dynasty of the Tudors. The College buildings were continued during Henry the Seventh's reign, and also during the early years of the reign of Henry the Eighth. The accounts of this last period are also preserved. They show a small increase in the rate of wages over the sums paid sixty years before. CHAPTER II. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Croke the Scholar.-Bishop Aldrich.-Hall the Historian.-Bishop Foxe.-Bishop Cox.Sir Thomas Sutton.-Walter Haddon.-Sir Thomas Smith.-Sir Henry Savile.— Admiral Gilbert.-Oughtred.-Tusser.-Phineas and Giles Fletcher.-The Martyrs.Henry the Eighth's Survey.-Old Consuetudinarium.-State of School in 1660. RICHARD CROKE. RICHARD CROKE, once renowned through the Continent by his Latinised name "Crocus," was one of the earliest and most eminent revivers of classical studies in Western Europe. Croke received his education at Eton during the last years of the fourteenth and the five first years of the fifteenth century. He became a scholar at King's College, Cambridge, in 1506. Croke acquired not merely an English but an European celebrity as a Hellenist, and was indeed one of the first, if not the very first, who taught the Greek language publicly in any university north of the Alps. While still a scholar of King's, Croke visited Oxford, and there studied the Greek language under the famous Grocyn, the friend of Erasmus. Grocyn gave private lessons in Greek, and Croke, during the time that he was able to pass at Oxford, was one of his most diligent and successful pupils. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, who discerned Croke's abilities and love of learning, was a generous friend to the young student; and by Warham's liberality Croke was enabled to proceed to Paris and other universities of Europe, in all of which he zealously availed himself of every opportunity of further improvement. His reputation for scholarship spread far and wide on the Continent. He received the high distinction of being elected Greek professor by the University of Leipsic. This appointment was more complimentary than lucrative, as Croke's stipend was only a few guilders a year, but he was entitled to receive payment for extra tuition from private pupils. At Leipsic, Croke "had the high honour of first imbuing the students of North Germany with a knowledge of Greek."' After thus shining at Leipsic for three years, Croke became professor of Greek at Louvain. But the zeal for acquiring a knowledge of the Hellenic literature in the original began now to be generally felt in our own universities. England was no longer disposed to afford foreigners a teacher of Croke's ability. He was invited home by the University of Cambridge in 1519, and appointed Public Orator and Greek Professor. Here, as at Leipsic, he was the first public teacher of that language. Erasmus and other learned Greek scholars, who had resided at Cambridge before Croke's appointment, had indeed taught Greek, but they taught it only to private pupils, as Grocyn had formerly taught Croke himself at Oxford. Two speeches have been preserved, which Croke delivered at Cambridge in his capacity of Public Orator. Their subject is the praise of Hellenic literature, and they were evidently given with a view to encourage the Cambridge men to the study of Greek. Mr. Hallam, in his History of the Literature of Europe during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, has given copious extracts from these orations of Croke's, which well deserve perusal." 1 See Hallam's History of European Literature, vol. i. chap. iv. Mr. Hallam, in one of his notes, thus collects the testimony of Croke's renown on the Continent :-" Crocus regnat in Academia Lipsiensi, publicitus Græcas docens literas. Erasm. Epist. clvii. 5th June 1514. Eichhorn says, that Conrad Celtes and others had taught Latin only, iii. 272. Camerarius, who studied for three years under Croke, gives him a very high character; qui primus putabatur ita docuisse Græcam linguam in Germania, ut plane perdisci illam posse, et quid momenti ad omnem doctrinæ eruditionem atque cultum hujus cognitio allatura esse videretur, nostri homines sese intelligere arbitrarentur. Vita Melanchthonis, p. 27; and Vita Eobani Hesi, p. 4. He was received at Leipsic 'like a heavenly messenger:' every one was proud of knowing him, of paying whatever he demanded, of attending him at any hour of the day or night. Melanchthon apud Meiners, i. 163." "The subject of Croke's orations is the praise of Greece and of Greek literature, addressed to those who already knew and valued that of Rome, which he shows to be derived from the other. Quin ipsæ quoque voculationes Romanæ Græcis longe insuaviores, minusque concitatæ sunt, cum ultima semper syllaba rigeat in gravem, contraque apud Græcos et inflectatur nonnunquam et acuatur. Croke of course spoke Greek accentually. Greek words, in bad types, frequently occur through this oration. "Croke dwells on the barbarous state of the sciences, in consequence of the ignorance of Greek. Euclid's definition of a line was so ill translated, that it puzzled all the geometers till the Greek was consulted. Medicine was in an equally bad condition; had it not been for the labours of learned men, Linacre, Cop, Ruel, quorum opera felicissime loquantur Latinè Hippocrates, Galenus et Dioscorides, cum summa ipsorum invidia, qui, quod canis in præsepi, nec Græcam linguam discere ipsi voluerunt, nec |