SCHOOLS 



reception ' of the most serene and illustrious prince ' are preserved in 

 the Bodleian Library in a beautiful little quarto 1 MS. bound in white 

 vellum with gold ornaments, with the dedication illuminated in red and 

 flowers, and the names of the boys in green. It is to be remarked that 

 no less than forty-three of the boys contributed their salutations, all in 

 Latin elegiacs, except those of William Phillips, which were in Sapphics, 

 and those of William Tooker or Tucker (afterwards Dean of Lichfield), 

 Andrew Mortimer, 2 and Henry Lloyd or Phloid, as he spells himself in 

 Greek characters, which were in Greek elegiacs. Only three of the 

 forty-three were commoners, Richard Dudley, William Warrin and 

 Robert Bosvile (? Boswell). The large number shows a high standard of 

 classical attainment at Winchester. Among the Winchester scholars who 

 congratulated the princess was John Pittes, otherwise Pits, who left New 

 College in 1 578 to become a Roman Catholic priest, wrote the famous 

 De Illustribus Anglice Scriptoribus^ and died Dean of Liverdun, and 

 William Wigge or Wygge, who was executed at Kingston in 1588 for 

 denying the royal supremacy. 



In 1592 the scholars were sent for by the queen on her visit to 

 Hampshire ; but if they fired off the customary salvo of Salves they 

 have not been preserved. Ten years later, presumably on the occasion 

 when the queen visited the Marquis of Winchester at Basing House and 

 Bishop Bilson at Farnham Castle, the most elaborate series of all was 

 concocted, 3 though it is not clear where or when they were actually 

 delivered. They were a veritable tour de force. No less than seventy- 

 two boys contributed effusions. John Reynolds, the head of the school, 

 appeared ten times in every variety of metre, Latin and Greek, sometimes 

 elaborately arranged in the shape of different objects, a cup, a garland, 

 and what not. Hugh Robinson, a future headmaster, and Roger Pinke, 

 afterwards warden of New College, also broke out into all sorts of metres 

 in both languages. Robinson contributed a harp in elegiacs and a heart 

 in irregular metre, while some of Pinke's verses made a candlestick, 

 Fawne's a star, and Thomas Chandler punned on his own name with a 

 candle. Most elaborate of all was an imperial crown done in elegiacs 

 by Richard Colenett. The boys' facility in verse was certainly 

 marvellous. 



The queen took only too much notice of Winchester College, and 

 was always asking for leases for her friends or places for her petitioners. 

 Not that these attentions were confined to Winchester ; on the contrary, 

 nearly every college in either university was the recipient of similar 

 favours. The college wisely fortified themselves in 1566 by making 

 Mr. Secretary Cecil, as their predecessors had made Mr. Thomas 

 Cromwell, the college steward. In their Latin letter 4 the college 

 expressly say they are following the example of Cambridge University 

 who had made him chancellor, and of New College ' to which this 



1 Bodleian, Rawl. MS. poet. 187. 



* He appears by mistake as Martyne in Scholars. 3 Bodl. MS. 



4 Walcott, p. 161 (who prints 1568 for 1566), from Lansd. MS. 10 No. 51. 



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