SCHOOLS 



thing, the head of ' the greater light ' thus descending to rule * the lesser 

 light.' But the precedent thus set by Nicholas was followed by his suc- 

 cessors in the wardenship of New College for nearly a hundred years, and 

 was founded on solid and substantial reasons. In the course of time the 

 wardenship of Winchester, which was intended by Wykeham to be only 

 half as valuable as that of New College, had become the richer manger, 

 and the strongest horse got it. 



Under Warden Nicholas and Headmaster William Harris'the number 

 of commoners went on increasing. The rising numbers caused the first 

 great change in the outward appearance and arrangement of college since 

 Wykeham's time by the building of a new, now old and disused, school. 

 Its erection caused the addition of a new quadrangle called School Court. 

 There had been a court area it is called in the old accounts there 

 before, but it was not of public resort. The cutting of Seventh Chamber 

 Passage through the old school added this new area to the general pile. 

 The quarters of the ' children ' were proportionately enlarged by the addi- 

 tion of a seventh chamber to the original six. This however did not 

 take place till 1 70 1 , when under the new headmaster, Cheyney, the number 

 first appears in Long Rolls as the number of a chamber. It may be sus- 

 pected that Seventh Chamber was until then used to find additional 

 accommodation for commoners, and thus Warden Nicholas was able to get 

 repaid some of the 1,400 he contributed to this new building. 



The new development was very successful for a time. The numbers 

 went on rising. In 1688, owing probably to the uneasy state of politics, 

 there was a decline to sixty-seven, among whom Baron Guilford appears 

 in a heading all to himself as a Nobilis commensalis, while Dominus Fiennes, 

 Dominus Ashley, Tho. Putt and Tho. Wroth. Baro. (for Baronetti) appear 

 in a separate class. 



June 30, 1688, was a proud day for Winchester College, when 

 of the ' Seven Bishops ' tried for seditious libel in signing a petition to 

 James II. against the Declaration of Indulgence three, Thomas Ken, 

 Bishop of Bath and Wells, Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely, and William 

 Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph ; and of the four judges of the King's Bench 

 who tried them two, and those the two who at the risk of place and 

 fortune preferred the law to the king and summed up for an acquittal, 

 Richard Holloway and Powell, were Wykehamists. 3 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



With the eighteenth century the modern era of schools begins. 

 Records are more abundant and the historical interest becomes less for a 

 work like the present. We must therefore pass over the ground more 

 rapidly and lightly. 



The first quarter of the century was not one of the great periods of 

 Winchester College. Domestic dissensions and national dissensions in 



1 A Hampshire man. 



2 The first two named bishops and the first named judge in college, the other two commoners. 

 Lloyd was a commoner at New College, and therefore almost certainly at Winchester. 



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