SCHOOLS 



as the only entries relating to it in the accounts 

 are 'for cleaning the new chamber' in 1504-5, 

 ' for a lamp for the new chamber of the college 

 boys' in 1 506-7,** and 'for a pair of hinges 

 for the chamber of the Master Informator ' in 

 151112. But the accounts for 1503-4 are 

 missing and the expense of the building was prob- 

 ably entered in the rolls for that year. Payment 

 was made of 2os. for ' old earnest-money " at the 

 time of building the new school," and for ' work on 

 the roof of the Almshouse for 1 5 days and of the 

 school (gymnasia) for 2 days ' in 1514-15. Mr. 

 J. W. Clark thinks this was not a new building, 

 but a rebuilding. But the chief reasons assigned 

 are that in 1469-70 there was a payment for 

 twelve beds ' pro nova camera puerorum collegii.' 

 This is no proof that the boys all slept in one 

 chamber, but, on the contrary, suggests that they 

 were divided into six separate chambers, with 

 no more than 12 boys in each, and that a new 

 chamber had for some reason been added ; per- 

 haps one of the extinct fellows' chambers. In 

 14701 tilers were paid for three weeks' work 

 ' about the repairs of the hall, the scholars' 

 chamber, and the new house by the pantry,' 

 while another man was paid ' for clearing the 

 underground vault and the boys' latrine.' This 

 shows, Mr. Clark says, that ' the boys' latrine 

 was by the sewer which still passes under the 

 east of Long Chamber.' But he himself gives 

 quotations which bring the sewer into connexion 

 with the kitchen. The fact is, the open sewer 

 probably then, as at St. Cross Hospital still, passed 

 all round the buildings. The first entry quoted 

 brings the boys' chamber in question into con- 

 nexion with the hall and pantry, that is, with the 

 west side of the inner quadrangle, and probably re- 

 fers to the new chamber only. In the Audit Roll 

 of 14756 is positive proof, which has been over- 

 looked, that they were not all in one chamber. 

 This is an entry of payment of 3^. to ' Mr. 

 Walter Barbour (the schoolmaster) for a lock and 

 key for the second chamber of the scholars ' ; 

 while in another roll for the latter part of the 

 same year 8</. was paid for a lock and key 

 camtre puerorum, which must be a different 

 chamber and should be translated, not ' the,' but 

 *a* boys' chamber. So in 14989 a payment 

 is made 'for repairs of the boys' chambers' 

 (cubicuhrum). In 15067 lOi. was paid to 'one 

 cleaning the children's chambers ' (uni mundanti 



" Willii and Clark, op. cit. 417, 430. What Mr. 

 Clark describes at ' the room or enclosure called the 

 Gymnasium ' is of course the school. Maxwell Lyte, 

 op. cit. 98, has by mistake transferred the entry about 

 the new school to the earlier year I $067. From a 

 reference to the ' great west gate by the kings high- 

 way next the Almshouse ' in 1499-1 5> a d to the 

 'great west gate by the almshouse' in 1516-17, it is 

 clear that the almshouse stood where Upper School 

 now stands. 



71 Pro antijuis ami ; but perhaps it means ' the 

 old arras.' 



cameras puerorum). In the same year mention is 

 made of ' the chambers of commoners ' (cubiculii 

 commensalium). Provost Lupton, with the wealth 

 of accumulated livings and canonries and lucra- 

 tive legal and civil offices, such as the clerkship of 

 the Hanapcr, which he held in 1509, and the 

 mastership in Chancery, bestowed on him in 1 529, 

 was not content with the four chambers formerly 

 assigned to the provost. Wishing to extend and 

 rebuild the provost's lodging on a magnificent 

 scale, he had first to move the school and the 

 masters' and scholars' chambers. So he rebuilt 

 them anew on the ampler spaces of the outer court, 

 now the schoolyard. That it was considered an 

 improvement at the time is shown by Long Cham- 

 ber, and not the smaller separate chambers of Win- 

 chester, having been adopted as the model at the 

 re-foundation of Westminster by Queen Eliza- 

 beth, though a Winchester man was made the 

 first head master. But in the long run it proved 

 a mistake. The life in Long Chamber became 

 that of a barracks and a bear-garden, with the 

 consequence that college at Eton was never full 

 and the scholarships went begging. Not till 

 after the middle of the 1 9th century was civiliza- 

 tion introduced by annexing the master's cham- 

 bers at the east end and the usher's at the west 

 end, and cutting Long Chamber up into separate 

 cubicles. 



As soon as the new school and chambers were 

 finished in 1515-16 the 'old buildings' on the 

 west side of the quadrangle were pulled down, 

 and on 2 March 1517 ' the first stone was layd 

 yn the foundacyon off the west parte of the 

 college, whereon ys buylded Mr. Provost's logyn 

 the gate and the lyberary.' The Library is now 

 Election Chamber (Clark), or Election Hall 

 (Maxwell Lyte), and the whole range is now the 

 Provost's lodging, though his front door is to be 

 found in Weston's Yard. The Lupton Chantry 

 was completed by 1515 and its chaplain endowed 

 next year. Lupton's obit was kept from that 

 time onwards, though he was still alive, on 

 1 1 January, 76 but was changed after his death to 

 the day on which he died, 27 February. For 

 presence at it the provost received 2s. 8d. t the 

 master if. 4^., the usher 8d., and the scholars 

 and choristers \d. each. 



Besides extending the boys' quarters, and, we 

 may suppose, enlarging the school, Lupton seems 

 to be entitled to the credit of another most im- 

 portant innovation, the creation of Playing-fields, 

 probably the first and certainly the best and 

 most extensive enjoyed by any school. Thanks 

 to the latest addition of the magnificent ' Agar's 

 Plough,' this they still remain. It is certain 

 that these Playing-fields have had no little share in 

 making Eton what it is. Before this time it is 

 probable, as will be shown later a propos of 



" Maxwell Lyte, op. cit. 105, probably through a 

 misprint, says 21 Jan. 



'73 



