4,14 L O N 
Upon the whole, St. Paul’s School is certainly a good 
building, and would be an excellent contraft to the ca- 
th.edral, if the llreet between them had been a hundred 
feet wide indead of thirty or forty. The north wing, 
confining of large and elegant apartments, are occupied 
by Dr. Roberts, who has been head-mader near fifty years ; 
the fouth, equally commodious, are thofe of Mr. Wood, 
the fur-matter or principal uiher. Mr. Edwards, whofe 
office fuperfedes that of the ancient chaplain, refides in 
the Old Change, eait of the fchool-room, which contains 
at the fouth end an elevated chair carved with fome talle, 
with dean Colet’s aims, and the mercers’ company’s creft 
inclofed in a wreath of flowers. An old butt of the wor¬ 
thy dean has been recently copied by the late Mr. Bacon 
in ftatuary-marble, and the attitude improved, which is 
placed above the high-matter’s feat. This admirable artilt 
has given the features all that animation and expreflion 
which belonged to his chifel beyond any of his contem¬ 
poraries. Dr. Roberts has inferibed over his throne, 
Intendas animvm Jhidiis et rebus honejlis. On the left tide of 
the chair is a white marble butt of the late high matter, 
Mr. Thicknefle, quite in the ltyle of an ancient Roman, 
which was placed there by a voluntary contribution of 
liis grateful fcholars. The motto at the entrance-door is, 
Doce, difee, cut difeede ; “Teach, learn, or depart.” A mild 
imitation of what we read in the fchool-room at Win. 
chetter: Aut difee nut difeede-, manetfors alter a, cadi-, “Learn 
or depart; or elfe your lot is to be flogged.” 
It is mod probably in allufion to this important truft 
which Colet had placed in the worfhipful company of 
piercers, that the front of their hall in Cheapfide is fo 
elegantly ornamented with the ftatue of Charity and feve- 
ral other figures, emblematical of education, with children 
holding wreaths of flowers, &c. See. 
We are now to fpeak of that moll ancient fchool which 
was founded, probably not lefs than feven hundred years 
Ago, for the young fingers, or choir-boys, belonging to St. Paul's. 
It is an almoft-univerfal error to fuppofe that thefe boys 
receive their education in St. Paul’s fchool, or, more pro¬ 
perly fpeaking, in dean Colet’s fchool; and this natural 
fuppefition, arifing from the dean’s foundation being fo 
near the eaftern end of the metropolitan church, has hi¬ 
therto tended, in a great degree, to prevent any enquiry 
into this interefting fubjeft.—We are able to allure our 
readers, that the finging-boys, or chorilters, are fo far 
from enjoying the privilege of an education in the prefent 
gram mar-fchool, or even of having any right to it, that, 
by the regulations of Colet’s fchool, they cannot be ad¬ 
mitted, we are told, eyen as a favour; and for this reafon, 
that liberal provilion has been made for the clafBcal edu¬ 
cation of the cathedral-boys. Upon this hangs fuch a 
cloud of doubts fince the reign of Elizabeth, that who¬ 
ever will not make a laborious and fpecial fearch into 
ancient grants and deeds, nor choofe to wade through the 
thick dull of mouldering MSS. in the muniment-houfe of 
the church, (if indeed admidion can be obtained,) mud be 
content with a very inadequate knowledge of the matter. 
Our intention is to trace out the didinft features of each 
of thofe fchools, and to (how that, although Colet feems 
to have leant towards the profpeft of connecting both, by 
enjoining to the boys of his foundation (as we have no¬ 
ticed above) to make an annual offering to the Epifcopus 
‘jiuerorum, or boy’s-biftiop, at St. Paul’s, who, by a well- 
known old and odd practice, ufed for a limited time to 
aft as a monitor to the choriders ; yet both fchools are dil- 
tinfl from each other. The alleged faff was, we fuppofe, 
a mere condefcenflcn, in order that Colet’s boys and thofe 
of the cathedral might meet in their amufements on the 
appointed day of frolic and rejoicing,.—If the reader will 
refer to the fete des fous in France, and to other drange 
nonfenfe anciently praftifed in this as well as other coun¬ 
tries, he will find that our fuggeltion is mod probably 
right. (See Strutt’s Sports and Padimes, p. 258.)—We 
Audi now date what hiftorians impart to us about the 
D O N. 
fchool founded fpecially for the choir-boys belownn.® 1 © 
the cathedral of St. Paul. 
It mud be previoufly obferved, that, anterior to the re¬ 
formation under Henry VIII. no chapel or chantry was 
inllituted to have mafies and obits performed, in it, with¬ 
out the annexing of one or two boys, in order to make 
the refponfes at the altar, and ling the- verficles after the 
anthems. _ This conftant and laudable cuficm has been, 
in catholic countries, the origin of lev end foundations 
which are fiill exifting. The boys were placed under a. 
mailer, whofe duty was to teach them finging and gram¬ 
mar-learning, and to take great care that their conduct 
Ihould be irreproachable. Indeed, in thofe (now com¬ 
monly called fuperditious) times, it would have fnocked 
the feelings of devout perfons, to find miniliering at the. 
altar, boys of bad morals, and who might occafionnlly be. 
called out to ling unbecoming fong.s at playhoufes and 
concerts. They were placed next to the prieit at the per¬ 
formance of the awful myfteries of the Eucharill, and were 
occafionally allowed to handle the holy veflels tiled in the 
facrament of the Lord’s fupper. Conlidering this in the 
point of view in which it was.feen at that time, we mull 
think it very natural that endowments Ihould have been 
provided for the lalary, care, and indrudlion, of thofe 
boys, who were generally felefled out of poor families, 
hut who were thus expected ultimately to become worthy 
of being admitted into holy orders. Thefe were the very 
feeds that Hocked the feminaries ; and from thefe humble 
beginnings arofe, in time, the whole glory of the univer- 
fal Chriftian church. 
If we concentrate our ideas on this point, we lhall 
find, that the once-celebrated grammar-fehool attached to 
St. Paul’s cathedral, was defigned “ efpecially” for the 
education of “ the boys belonging to that church ;” and 
that it has been co-eval with, if not previous to, the final 
eftablilhnient of the choir. A pried could not fay niafs 
without fomebody to give the refponfes and to nuniftei* 
near him ; and boys were generally felefled for that pur- 
pofe.—In fa ft, and independently of all arguments of 
congruity and probability, the antiquity of the fchool 
erected for the boys of St. Paul’s has been acknowledged 
by the earlielt writers.—Fitzftephen, who calls himfelf 
Stephanides, in his Latin defeription of London, partly 
given in fome of the editions of Stow’s Survey, mentions 
three fchools of this defeription; that of St. Paul’s, of 
Trinity-church, and of St. Martin. A mailer, of courfe, 
was appointed to fuperinter.d the education of the boys ; 
and the firfl, whole name appears on record, held the im¬ 
portant trud in the reign of Henry I. about the year 3120, 
(nearly four hundred years before the foundation of dean 
Colet’s fchool.) At this time the fchool feems to have 
been fupported by the bifliop and the dean, from the ge¬ 
neral funds of the church, without any fpecial endow¬ 
ment. Richard de Belmeis, then bifliop of London, 
who, though very adliveand liberal himfelf, feems to have 
done nothing (nihil facere vfus) when compared with his 
predecefibr and fucceflor, confcious of the necefiity of the 
ellablilhment, granted to Hugh the fchooi-mader, and 
to his fucceflors in that employment, a refidence adjoin¬ 
ing the cathedral; and at the fame time the cuflody of 
the library was given in perpetuity to the maflers of the 
fchool; an additional proof of the fedulous care which 
was taken to place good, trudy, and learned, men at the 
head-of the choir-boys. The fucceeding mader was Henry, 
alfo a canon of the cathedral, to whom the fame generous 
patron made over the tithes of Ealing and Madeley, and 
added an ellate at Fulham to the maderlhip of the Ichool. 
We find alfo that in the reign of Richard I. Richard Nigel, 
bifliop of London, gave unto this fchool all the tithes 
arifing in his demefnes at Fulham and Griett; and in the 
two following reigns the maderlhip was enriched with 
new donations. Such was the refpeClability of the Ma- 
gifter Scholarum, that about this period the title was 
merged in that of Chancellor 3 under this new appel¬ 
lation 
