SCHOOLS 



By this process of absorption disappeared the 

 only proved pre-Reformation endowment in 

 Buckinghamshire ; a striking result of the dealings 

 of Edward VI with schools. For by robbing this 

 school of its lands and substituting a fixed pay- 

 ment, he prevented the income growing with 

 the growth of the riches of England ; and in 

 time, by the fall in the value of money, the 

 endowment was reduced from a fair living to a 

 miserable pittance. Buckingham, founded or 

 rcfounded about 1540, Stony Stratford in 1609, 

 Amersham in 1620, Marlow in 1628, Ayles- 

 bury about 1687, all suffered from the same 

 misfortune of a fixed income or an endowment 

 so limited as not to produce sufficient increment. 

 Wycombe, founded in 1 5 5 1 , suffered from its 

 endowment being mixed with that of the cor- 

 poration. All were starved. 



ETON COLLEGE 



It is impossible to give, in the space allotted, 

 a history of the greatest of the schools of the 

 world. Eton is fortunate in possessing one of 

 the earliest and one of the best of school his- 

 torians in Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte, K.C.B., the 

 virtual head of the Record Office under the 

 humble title of Deputy Keeper of the Records. 

 His history, the largest of school histories as be- 

 fits the largest of schools, originally published in 

 1875, was characterized by such profound 

 original research, and so skilful a use of the 

 results of research, as to make it a model for all 

 subsequent school historians to follow. New 

 editions in 1889 and 1904 have brought it up to 

 date and incorporated the results of later re- 

 searchers, particularly those of Mr. John Willis 

 Clark, Registrar of the University of Cam- 

 bridge, in his monumental work on the Architec- 

 tural History of the University of Cambridge. 

 With true historical propriety, this includes Eton 

 College, which owes its continued existence to 

 having been regarded as an integral part of the 

 University of Cambridge equally with its local 

 sister, King's College, Cambridge. His re- 

 searches into the history of the Eton buildings 

 necessarily threw much light on the general his- 

 tory of the school. The smaller and more recent 

 histories Mr. W. Wasey Sterry's Annals f 

 Eton, 1898, and Mr. Lionel Gust's History of 

 Eton College, 1 899 are, as regards all but the 

 latest period, based almost entirely on Sir Henry 

 Maxwell Lyte's great work, and do not profess 

 to add anything about the earlier times from 

 original research, though giving many interesting 

 side-lights on the many-sided story of Eton's 

 later history. There is not place, therefore, 

 even if there were space here, for a new attempt 

 at a complete history of Eton. But in so large 

 a subject, which practically has only been handled 

 by one pen, there is plenty of scope for new dis- 



coveries and treatment, especially as regards the 

 relations of Eton to the general lines of school 

 development and the true history of education in 

 England, which has been revolutionized since the 

 History of Eton was written. 



For this purpose the original authorities have 

 been re-examined. As the result of examination 

 naturally some mistakes have been found and arc 

 here corrected. It has not been thought neces- 

 sary to draw attention in detail either to the 

 mistakes or the fact of a correction being made. 

 But wherever a date, name or fact differs from 

 that given by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte in what 

 may be called the authorized version of Eton 

 history, it may be taken for granted that, unless 

 otherwise stated, the ' revised version ' here 

 given is founded on the original audit rolls, or 

 the audit books which superseded the rolls temp. 

 Henry VIII. Some new documents have also 

 been discovered even at Eton, and new facts 

 brought to light. In particular, a considerable 

 quantity of new material has been brought to- 

 gether about the personality and careers of the 

 earlier masters and ushers, of which hitherto next 

 to nothing was known, or attempted to be 

 known. The result is that a mere dry catalogue 

 of ' names and nothing more ' with uncertain 

 circa dates, has been converted into a supplement 

 for a small Dictionary of National Biography. 

 Further, the current idea that the pre-Reforma- 

 tion schools were staffed by obscure and un- 

 learned clergy or monks (which last had nothing 

 to do with teaching school) and that their his- 

 tory merits no attention, receives a new reversal. 

 A large amount of new light has been thrown 

 on the learning^nd curriculum of pre-Reforma- 

 tion Eton from Eton documents discovered em- 

 bedded in the archives of other schools. Another 

 result of the re-examination of the documents in 

 the light of modern knowledge has been to show 

 how much greater and more prolonged than was 

 supposed has been the guidance and assistance 

 which Eton received from Winchester. While 

 the actual migration of half the college, fellows 

 and boys, from Winchester to Eton, accepted by 

 Maxwell Lyte from a Wykehamical source, 1 has 

 already been shown from latdr Wykehamical 

 authorities u to have been a gross exaggeration, 

 the real transfusion of spirit and method is 

 shown to be far greater and more continuous 

 than was ever dreamed of. When we find that 

 not only the first three provosts and the first two 

 head masters, but also the first two ushers, and 

 out of the first twenty-five head masters no less 

 than twelve, and out of the ushers of the same 

 period, so far as they can be traced, at least eight 

 hailed from Winchester, we see that the influ- 

 ence of Winchester on the development of Eton 



1 Mackenzie Walcott, miTiam of tfjktbam **d hii 

 Collegei, 135. 



' See below, p. 155. 



'47 



