A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



concerning the boys was ' that the fellows' and scholars' commons be 

 augmented according to the statute of provisions ; and fire allowed in 

 hall in winter-time on such days as your statute doth require.' 



THE CIVIL WAR 



The Civil War affected the school very little, if at all. There is 

 indeed a legend that it was once in imminent danger of destruction by a 

 Parliamentary army, but escaped through the interposition of a Deus ex 

 machina in the shape of an old Wykehamist, a ' rebel ' officer, variously 

 reputed as a captain of foot and a colonel of dragoons, who, drawn sword 

 in hand, at the hazard of his life, stood guard over it. But it is a 

 legend merely, and seemingly a quite modern legend, dating from no 

 farther back than the latter half of the eighteenth century. It how- 

 ever betrays a total misconception of the whole history of the times in 

 relation to schools in general and Winchester in particular. 1 



As to the college, there is not the smallest foundation for the sup- 

 position that it was ever in the smallest danger. So long as there was 

 no active opposition to the ruling powers, neither Royalists nor Presby- 

 terians showed any desire to meddle with schoolmasters, much less with 

 schools. Parliament did not make war on schools or learning. On the 

 contrary, learning was on the Parliamentary side, and fared far better at 

 its hands than at the hands of the king's party. On 29 October, 1642, 

 Parliament considered the sequestration of the revenues of deans and 

 chapters, and was careful on the matter being brought before its notice 

 to order * ' That it be referred to the committee for the king's revenue 

 to consider of the college of Westminster, the colleges of Eaton, of 

 Christ Church in Oxford, and Winchester, to provide "for those col- 

 leges that none of the revenues assigned for the scholars and almsmen 

 of those colleges may be stopped, or the payment thereof intercepted, 

 notwithstanding the ordinance of sequestering the rents and profits of 

 archbishops, bishops, deans, and deans and chapters.' 



A few months later, 17 February, 1642-3, on a petition from 

 Cambridge University, it was declared that ' the statute which imposeth 

 the wearing of surplices upon all graduates and students . . . reinforced 

 by the canons, made 1603, ought not to be pressed or imposed upon 

 any ... it being against law and the liberty of the subject.' Three 

 days afterwards 3 it was resolved that the colleges of Westminster, Eton 

 and Winchester be added and comprehended within the order of 17 

 February ' concerning the imposing upon young scholars of the wearing 

 of surplices.' 



After the complete triumph of the Commonwealth, on 29 May, 



1 The legend first appeared in The History and Antiquities of Winchester, 1773, attributed to Rev. 

 Mr. Wavel. The officer's name is given as Cuff, but no one of that name appears in the register of 

 scholars. At first he is only accredited with having protected Wykeham's monument, but Dr. Milner, 

 in his History and Antiquities of Winchester, assigns to him the credit of having preserved the college also. 

 Nathaniel Fiennes and Nicholas Love have likewise been mentioned as those who saved the college on 

 this occasion. 



* Commons' Journals, ii. 827. s Ibid. ii. 972. 



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