A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



end as it now stands, after the Wykehamical 

 model as seen at New College, All Souls, and 

 Magdalen Colleges. The church was finally 

 finished (on this truncated scale) in 1487-8, with 

 a series of elaborate paintings, still in part re- 

 maining behind the panelling, and discovered 

 when the church was ' restored ' in 1847. The 

 Prince Consort, who superintended the work, 

 would not allow the pictures to remain on view, 

 as being ' papistical.' From the drawings given 

 in Sir H. Maxwell Lyte's History they were 

 very beautiful. They have been variously attri- 

 buted to Italian and Flemish artists. But seeing 

 that the only painter mentioned by name is 

 William Baker, and that all the colours paid for 

 are in the Bursars' Rolls expressly given in 

 English as well as Latin (e.g. colon viridi, ang/ice, 

 vertagrece ; colore fulvo, sc. oker ; colors blodio, 

 anglice, blew), it is difficult to see why the 'anti- 

 patriotic bias ' which prevails in art has been 

 allowed to deprive English workmen of the 

 credit of the work. As Mr. J. W. Clark has 

 pointed out that the subjects and treatment are 

 very much the same as some paintings in the 

 Lady chapel of Winchester Cathedral, and the 

 subjects are taken from a book then newly pub- 

 lished in England, Vincent de Beauvais' Speculum 

 Historiale, the ascription of the work to foreign- 

 ers seems wholly unwarranted. 



In 1469 the Audit Roll records only three 

 quarters of a year from New Year's Day to 

 Michaelmas, in order that the regular series from 

 Michaelmas to Michaelmas might be resumed. 

 During this time ' Sir ' William Darker was paid 

 y. j.d. for his expenses from Oxford for the 

 office of usher, and at Michaelmas he suc- 

 ceeded Hakyer. Clement Smythe retired in 

 February 1469-70 on a canonry at Windsor, 

 which he afterwards exchanged for one at War- 

 wick, where he died some twenty years later. 



Though Eton recovered some of its possessions 

 in 1467, it was some years before the annexation 

 to Windsor was formally revoked. This was 

 done by a decree of Cardinal Archbishop Bour- 

 chier, 30 August 1476, in virtue of a bull of 

 Pope Paul II of 1470, which, on a petition from 

 Edward IV, stating that he had been misinformed 

 as to the unfinished state of the college, commis- 

 sioned the archbishop to inquire into the matter, 

 and, if satisfied, to revoke the former bull of 

 union. Proceedings were begun on this bull in 

 November and December 1470, during the 

 restoration of Henry VI, which lasted from 

 October to April 14701. A large sum, over 22, 

 was spent on ' rewards to doctors in law, nota- 

 ries, proctors, and clerks for expediting the Bull 

 for the separation of our college of Eton from 

 that of St. George's, Windsor.' The advantage 

 taken of the restoration thus to hurry on the 

 proceedings had no doubt an adverse effect on 

 the mind of Edward IV, and was the cause of 

 their being stopped, and of the commission re- 



maining in abeyance for another six years. It 

 is not perhaps guessing too much if we credit 

 the final separation to the good offices of Thomas 

 Rotherham, who, though only a nominal Etonian, 

 admitted on one day to qualify him colourably 

 for admission to King's the next, was a Kingsman 

 of many years' standing, and in 1475 not only 

 diocesan of Buckinghamshire as Bishop of Lin- 

 coln, but also Lord Chancellor. 



Many payments are recorded in that year for 

 gifts to divers of the council * 8 for expediting the 

 bull directed to the cardinal archbishop. The 

 final item ' in part of the expenses of the 

 counsel of the college riding into Kent to the Lord 

 Cardinal to give sentence under the delegating 

 bull ' amounted to 4, while John Harper, valet of 

 the Crown, was given 30*. for bringing the 

 letters of privy seal for the restitution of the 

 college goods, the Dean of Windsor being ap- 

 peased with a trout, a pike, and wine at a cost 

 of 5*. 



The first head master after the restitution was 

 Walter Barbour, coming in February 1470. Of 

 him nothing has hitherto been known, except 

 that he is entered in the Eton register as ' father 

 of Walter the hermit,' a person who may have 

 been well known then, but is unknown now. 

 Barbour was perhaps a relation of William of 

 Wayneflete, whose father is described in a deed " 

 of his great-niece, Juliana Chirchestyle, as 

 ' Richard Patyn alias dicti Barbour.' He was an 

 Etonian, and on the roll for King's in I458. 60 



Barbour is recorded " in 1473-4 as the medium 

 of payment of lod. ' for the binding of a school- 

 book, viz. Ovid ' ; the first school-book mentioned 

 in the Audit Rolls. 



In 1471 the number of the scholars, &c., rose to 

 71. We are able to recover the names of a few 

 of the scholars of this epoch, from the custom 

 springing up of boarding the scholars out when 

 they were ill, and entering the payments made 

 for them on the Audit Roll. Among them was 

 one John Gyott, who had necessaries bought for 

 him in 1469, and is described in 1475-6 as 'the 

 King's scholar,' having been presumably nomi- 

 nated by the king, the first recorded instance 

 of what grew to be a regular practice. Thus 

 William Kidylton, who got off to King's in 



68 ' Diversis de consilio pro expedicione cuiusdam 

 bulle.' This may mean ' to divers counsel.' 



69 15 Dec. 1497; in Magd. Coll. Oxon. Reg. 

 Admiss. (or C.), fol. 84^. Printed in Macray's Reg. 

 (new ser.), ii, p. ix. 



60 Alumni Eton, gives it as 1457. But the dates of 

 the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV in that work 

 are wrong, through not observing that the roll being 

 made up in July or the first half of August, the year 

 of the king is for this purpose a year later in years of 

 the Lord than that in which the year of the king 

 began. 



61 Aud. R. 14 & 15 Edw. IV, 'pro ligatura libri 

 scole, viz. Ovidii.' 



170 



