A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



' montem,' that the boys had no place for play 

 in college, but, like Winchester, marched out 

 two and two to the nearest hill, Salt Hill, to 

 play there. The fellows had always enjoyed a 

 garden, but the boys do not seem to have had 

 any open space. In 15067 we come across 

 for the first time a mention of Playing-fields by 

 the college, 4^. being paid 'for clearing the 

 drain in the boys' fields ' (in eampis puerorum) ; 

 while in 1510-11 a shilling was paid 'for a pad- 

 lock and key to the Playing-meadow close ' (pro 

 sera pensili et clave ad clausuram prati lusorii). 

 In 1514-15 they appear in English under the 

 name which they retained for three centuries, 

 ' Playing-leas,' a term which is of course much 

 more correct than the modern Playing-fields. 

 The ' clockeeper ' was paid ' for tiling theforica 

 at the playing-leys.' So in 1523-4 a shilling 

 was paid to John Grome (the groom) for work- 

 ing 'in le plaing lees' in carrying out soil for 

 three days. Frequent references occur after this 

 to the Playing-leas or Playing-leasowe, which 

 became an established institution. 



Another institution which is perhaps also due 

 to Lupton, at all events it makes its first appear- 

 ance in his time, but is now extinct, though it has 

 been preserved at Westminster, was that of a 

 yearly play at Christmas. 



Throughout the history of the college some- 

 thing in the nature of theatricals had always 

 taken place in the boy-bishop ceremony ; while 

 mummers and strolling players had often per- 

 formed in hall at Christmas under the name of 

 minstrels (ministrallii), mimes (mimis) y and actors 

 (kistrioniius). Thus in 1482-3 is. 8d. was 

 paid to certain mimes dancing (saltantibus) before 

 the provost and fellows on 2 January, and in 

 1505 ' the king's players received ' 2s. But in 

 1519 we find George the tailor receiving 

 6s. lod. for ornaments for the play (vestifici pro 

 ornamento Jusorio), and in 15267 the Informator 

 is paid 14.5. 'for the apparatus of the players at 

 Christmas,' and a regular stock of clothes appears 

 to have been kept by the head master for the 

 purpose, 8s. yd. being paid him ' for repairs of 

 the clothes of the players' in 1 531-2," and 

 next year 5*. zd. ' for the clothes for the use of 

 the players on Christmas day,' which in the 

 paper draft account, which has also been pre- 

 served for this year, appears as ' for clothes for 

 the use of the plays' (pro vestibus ad usum 

 ludicrorum). We shall see that Nicholas Udal 

 took a troupe of boys to London to perform a play 

 before Thomas Cromwell. Even in the Puritan 

 days of Edward VI we find in 1549 ' 8d. for 

 making 2 jerkins for players' ; and in 1551 '6 

 lyncks for the comedy in the haull ' cost 2*., the 

 comedy or Latin play being no doubt presented 

 by the head master ; while 6s. 8d. was paid 'to 

 Mr. Ussher for an Interlude that was played in 



" Audit Bk. 2 1 & 22 Hen. VIII. The head master 

 was Richard Cox. 



the haull.' For in the statutes of Westminster 

 School it was provided that the head master 

 should present a Latin and the usher an English 

 play. In Elizabeth's day the play flourished. 

 Then in 1566-7 we find the entry : ' Spent at 

 the play in candles 10 Ib. 15^., tenter hookes 

 for the playe [no doubt to hang the curtains on] 

 i8d.,' while 'Mr. Scholmasters charges about 

 the playe last Christmas ' were ' 20*.' A hun- 

 dred years later, 1663-4, we find : 'Given to 

 the scholars by consent for acting their comedies 

 last year, ji.' When these plays ceased to be 

 performed does not appear. In the 1 8th century 

 plays were performed in Long Chamber, and 

 also by oppidans, but were surreptitious and un- 

 authorized, if not illegal. 



Lupton held the provostry for some thirty years. 

 In 1527 he founded 77 * the free grammar school 

 of Sedbergh, his native place, connecting it with St. 

 John's College, Cambridge, by six scholarships, for 

 which j6oo was given to the college, and by vest- 

 ing in the college the appointment of the master, 

 adding in 1537 another ^400 for two fellowships 

 and two more scholarships. The school, re- 

 covered from the clutches of Edward VI through 

 the fiery eloquence of Dr. Thomas Lever, Presi- 

 dent of St. John's, and re-endowed with the 

 fragments of several chantries, attained great fame 

 in the I7th century, and is now again so pros- 

 perous that it is sometimes called the Eton of the 

 North. 



In 1531 Lupton, as provost, had to carry out 

 an exchange with Henry VIII, by which the 

 college gave the king St. James's Hospital in the 

 Field with 185^ acres belonging to it, 64 acres 

 south and 94 acres north of the high road from 

 Charing Cross to Eye (? Hay) Hill, and 1 2 acres 

 at Knightsbridge. The college reserved the 

 outlying lands of the hospital at Hampstead, the 

 White Bear (Bere) in West Cheap, and a house 

 in Westminster. The grant to the king was 

 made on 24 December 1531. Two days after 

 they received in exchange the manor of ' Bawd- 

 wyns ' at Dartford in Kent, and the rectory of 

 Newington, and lands at Chattisham, Suffolk, 

 which had been possessions of monasteries sup- 

 pressed by Wolsey and given to his college at 

 Ipswich. So that once again Eton was endowed 

 out of dissolved monasteries. The transaction 

 has been misrepresented as a sort of robbery, and 

 a rhyme, ' Henricus octavus took away more than 

 he gave us,' is quoted as if it proved the case. 

 The rhyme, however, is evidently modern, and 

 only one of the usual libels on Henry VIII 

 founded on ignorance and prejudice. The ex- 

 change was no robbery. The immediate result 

 of it was to increase the income of the college by 

 some jS5 a year, equivalent to at least 1,100 

 a year to-day, while their only increased expense 

 was for the rent of ^3 6s. 8d. for the provost's 

 house near Westminster. Apparently the college 



77a Leach, Early Torks. Schools, ii, 289-335. 



174 



