A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Winchester scholar in 1437 an ^ fellow of New 

 College, having succeeded Chaunterie at or 

 before Michaelmas 1446. The provost's pay 

 was now increased to ^75 a year by the addition 

 of 25 a year instead of the rectory of Eton. 

 The total income was ,1,536, but as the 

 roll is imperfect we do not know how much 

 came from endowment or whether any of it 

 came from gifts by the king. It is to be noted 

 that on Maundy Thursday the ' Founder's 

 alms ' cost no less than 12 5*. 8d., some ^370 

 in our money ; among the items being 7 casks of 

 red herrings and 400 white herrings, a dozen 

 (? casks) of ale, while a penny each was given to 

 no less than 1,000 poor, and 13, probably the 

 almsmen, had 4^. apiece. No less than 5,600 

 wafers (panibus) were consumed in the church 

 during the year, a number which in 14478 in- 

 creased to 8,450. 8o ells of Flanders and 43 

 ells of Brabant, with 38 ells of unnamed linen, 

 were bought for table-cloths, and 28 ells of 

 diaper for napkins for the hall, so that the 15th- 

 century frequenters of halls lived in no less 

 gentlemanly a way than their successors. An 

 interesting item is ' 9 green boughs of " cero " for 

 the adornment of the hall on St. John Baptist's 

 (Midsummer) day ' ; on which day later rolls 

 show that it was customary to set up a great 

 candle in hall painted green and- red, ' turmyn- 

 tyne' and 'vermelon' being bought in 1449 for 

 the feast, and in later years ' verdegris ' and ' ver- 

 milion,' while ' talwode ' was provided for a 

 ' bonefyre ' on the eve of the day, as also on the 

 eves of St. Peter and St. Paul on 29 June and the 

 Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr (Becket) 

 on 7 July. For the boy bishop is. 6d. was ex- 

 pended on making his rochet (in factura unius 

 rochet ordinate pro episcopo Nicolaiensi). That re- 

 paired in 15078 at a cost of lid. (pro repara- 

 tlone le rochet pro episcopo puerorum) was a later gift 

 of Canon Denton, an old Etonian. The boy- 

 bishop is called by the Elizabethan master, 

 Malim, episcopus Nibilensis, which Sir Henry 

 Maxwell Lyte has translated ' a bishop of 

 nothingness ' instead of ' a bishop Nicholas,' i.e. 

 Santa Claus. The boy-bishop ceremonial, which 

 appears to be a Christian adaptation of a custom 

 at the Roman Saturnalia of the slave sitting in 

 the place of the master and the master doing the 

 duty of the servant, was expressly authorized at 

 Eton by statute, with a curious and not easily 

 explicable variation from the similar Winchester 

 statute. Wykeham, after directing the fellows 

 and chaplains to do duty on certain saints' days, 

 said, ' We allow, however, that on the feast of 

 Innocents the boys may say and celebrate vespers, 

 matins, and other divine offices read or chanted 

 after the use and custom of the church of 

 .Sarum.' The age seems to have grown more 

 scrupulous in the interval ; for Henry VI said, 

 *on which day (St. Nicholas, 6 December), and 

 jnot by any means on the teast of the Holy 



Innocents, we allow divine service, except the 

 sacred portions of the mass, to be performed and 

 said by a boy-bishop of the scholars, to be elected 

 among them yearly for the purpose.' It is easy 

 to see the objection of the pious king to the 

 mummery of the boy-bishop performing even the 

 most sacred portions of the mass, but it is not 

 easy to see why the performance was transferred 

 to St. Nicholas's Day. Perhaps it was not horror 

 at the indignity offered to the Holy Innocents, 

 but for the greater dignity of his own birthday and 

 patron saint that the change was made. It will 

 be seen that Eton being in the diocese of 

 Lincoln, whose chief saint was the boy Hugh, 

 one of the numerous alleged blood-offerings of 

 the Jews, the election was held on his day, 1 7 

 November, and the celebration on St. Nicholas's 

 Day. Even in the reign of Elizabeth the day was 

 kept with cakes and wine. 



It is strange that there is no mention in the 

 accounts of 1446-7 of the great event of the year, 

 the passing of Provost Wayneflete to the throne of 

 Winchester, though they do record a payment to 

 the ex-usher, Mr. Thomas Chauntrie, and another, 

 ' for their labours about the induction of the new 

 Provost.' Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Win- 

 chester, died 1 1 April 1447, and Henry VI having 

 written the same day to the conventual chapter 

 of Winchester to elect William Wayneflete as 

 his successor, he was duly elected on 13 April. 

 By 6 May he was with the king at Winchester. 

 In July he was consecrated in Eton Church, 

 when his old college of Winchester gave him a 

 horse at a cost of 6 13*. 4<, and the warden, 

 sub-warden, and others rode over to Eton to pre- 

 sent it, and gave ' the boys of the College royal of 

 Eton 135. 4</.,' or about i\d. each. Even if 

 multiplied by thirty times to get an approximate 

 equivalent of the value, it is to be feared Eton 

 boys would not be grateful for such a tip to- 

 day. 



The king seems now to have become excited 

 about Winchester to a degree bordering on the 

 insanity which afterwards overtook him. He 

 seems to have thought there was some mystic 

 quality in its very soil which produced its 

 eminent scholars ; as Winchester College records 

 a ' tip ' of 3*. ifd. to ' John Hayne, valet of the 

 king's chamber, sent by the king to learn the 

 character of the soil of the foundation of the 

 college,' 38 while what must have been a huge slice 



38 Winchester Coll. Bursars' Roll, 26 & 27 Hen. VI. 



' Joh. Hayne, valecto camere Domini Regis misso ad 

 collegium per Dominum Regem pro noticia terre 

 fundamenti collegii, cum 1 6d. solutis 5 laborantibus et 

 fodientibus pro terra eiusdem fundament! mittenda 

 Domino Regi, 4^. 8</.' This expenditure, as well as 

 that on 2 kids, 2 pheasants, 1 2 partridges (parteiychis), 

 17 chickens, and 3 trouts (truttis) given the king, 

 when he came in person, was amply repaid by the 

 king's gift of a gold chalice and ' fiols,' 10 in gold, 

 and 4J. \d. for a pittance. 



164 



