The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-13 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 18. 1850.

WINCHESTER COLLEGE,
All TT IS, AND AS IT 0170IIT TO IL

INTRODUCTION.
Windisatar Wier, may be said to boos misted in
state ken. and seder sons swat fie tbaspetaiar pardon of
two tbourad years. Awed*/ So swine akesidskey Its
site wee wongokiii at a tine what Wads hewed &poetise of
the Roma Inspire, bv • Pagan temple. Owlioatod to Apollo.
to whisk was 'Washed • school of the or P
priests, Oat whisk was subsequently applied to CazYhlaa
pespases.

-UpN the eceversisa of the West hate, sad the este-
hlishassot of s ateassile Methadon is the Oashatial of Hin-
shaw,. esshosi, easeesineysppssidisee to sash sa hietttatiee,
was Mead, sod was enieermently kaown as the gnat
er snare solid. It we la high repot* coder the direction
sad metro' of the prier sail iamb el the sathodral, in whose
patreaaao In remained he sawed sestsriss, sod is supposed
to ban Mood es apor ef the peered heleasing to the
prowat sellers. Here Leg itheiwolf sad hla son Alfred
the Greet were scluestod, as well es may ethses of the royal
lastly of the Anglo-Sawas dynasty.
Bishop de Blois, in the statutes of foundation of his Hos-
pital el St. Cross, near Winchester, 1136, directs that of this
hundred pose who were to he furnished with a dines? 'm7
day in the hall al, thirteea should b. of the poorer seholan
of the great grammar school at Wieolester. This school
seatianed to east till the time of William of Wykibam
who hen received his education, but it does not appear that
it possessed say endowment, or that the sabots:re received
scything further than inatrastioc.

The -present establishment was founded by the above-
meationed William of Wykehase, who Grad the me of
Winchester 38 years, namely from 1366 to 1404. The
parentage of Wykehern is still a matter of doubt, but it is
serials le was of humble origin, and was born at or err
Wielthum,a small town about 14 mike distance from Win-
chester. Bthe favour of Nicholas Uvalde, lord of the
manse of Waltham, and constable of Winchester Castle,
Wykeham was placed in the cathedral school, and was
arterwerds removed to Oxford. where he remained six years.
He thea become secretary to Vegetate' and was by him em-
ployed is repairing and altering Ike Castle of Winchester.
%Vykikata's knowledge of archieretare (the favourite study
of the age) recommeaded boa to the nodes of Edyngton
and King Ed card 111. By the latter he was appointed
purveyor of the royal castles, and is that rapacity superin-
tended the alterations and insproventsat elected in thces of
Windsor, Dam, and Queenboroagh. Nor did his suttees
end here, for the King finding he possessed the neemeary
knowledge and ability eppointed hiss successively escretary
of eat., keeper of the privy seal, and chancellor.
Upon the death of Kdyngton, upon the powerful recom-
mendation to the prior and monks of the cathedral, Wyke-
ham succeeded to as high and important station at Iliphop
of Winchester. He commenced his episcopacy by, repairing
the wit, le of the building', l.y and clerical belonging to his
see, the reformation of ieregulasities and abuses and above all
by the restoration of the Hospital of St. Cross to the design cf
its founder, the revenues of which had been sadly wasted and
misapplied. The supply of a well instructed yriestbood for
his diocese next engaged his attention, and to that end he
subsequently founded and endowed Sr. May's (or New)
College, Oxford, and Bt. Mary's College, Winchester, in-
tending the latter to be • bursary to the former. For this
pivots he took the Cathedral Grammar School into his
own hands and appointed • muter to manage
it. whilst the scholars were lodged and boarded
at his expense. In 1387, having oomph ted his college at
Oztord, he commenced that of Winchester, which was tom-
pleoid in lass Vass six years, and on the 34:h of March
1393, John Mors who had been appoiuted Warden made
his entrance into the college dilatation in solemn procassioa.
—• • - •

The society, according to the statutes of foundation, was to
consist of a warden, seventy poor scholars to be instructed
• ,rammatical learning; ten mauler priests, perpetual fel-
l. ws ; three priests, chaplains; three elides' and sixteen
is chorters : acrd, for the instruction of the scholars, a school-
Rueter end an under sehesohnester. Of the wholan,
it was [squired that they should be poor and indigo rat,
and that if any of them, besides the founder's kin
should come to spiritual or temporal paasessions of the value
of IWs., be should be expelled. The founder also enjoined
that the scholars, alive his own kin, should be chosen from
the places and parishes in which the spiritual and temporal
possessions of the college, and that of New College.ol:ord,
exst, to arise first from the dioce-e of Winchester, and
afterwards seriatim from the counties of Oxford, perks,
Witte, Somerset, Backe, Essex, Middlesex, Dorset, Kent,
&use:, and Cambridge, and after those at other pans of
the realm of England. What duties were required. of the
fellows dues nut appear, but it is highly. improbable thag so
energetic a reformer as Wykeham shown intend a fellowship
to be the sane sienna, it is at present. On the contrary,
we suppose he connected with the office some duties which
are not at prey: rat known. It is not probable that the
ie flows were eupp, sed to officiate in the chapel in which the
chaplains Wtrr_ assistants, for we must remember that the
lonia of worship of that day consisted not of the sisupge
ritual of the precut established church, hut rites were nu-
in roue, ceremonies imposing, and processioas frequent.
FA' such an eatablisiment in catholic times, the three chap-
lains only would probably have been found insufficient.
No information has yet been given by what nears
Wyaeham was enabled to found and 'endow this cul-
-1 h-ge, his college at Oxford, and to execute the
otner great works which distinguish his episcopacy.
It is too much to -sewn that he accomplished
these things by els personal means, or from his economy,
in the management of the revenues of his NO Of of his WE-
cis as a minister of state. It is far more probable that the
endowments of bath of Wykeham's colleges were taken
from other religious establishments, which view is strength.
ened by the tact, that their revenues arise in great part from
the rectorial tithes of parishes which Wykeham might have
transferred to these societies as the patron of the several
nege floes, leaving for the support of the incumbents the
vi. arias or small tithes. Ton view alio receives support
from the fact that Wykeham's predecessor, De Blois,
in the endowment of his llospital of Ocoee, re-
duced five rectories in his gift to vicarages, having
unharmed the rectorial tithes holm the nested benefices to
the supoort of his hospital. Indeed, this was a frequent
practice in the middle age, and the founders of religious
bous'e were not at all scrupulous in " robbing Peter to pay
Paul "

From the death of Viyerham, 1401, till the reign of
Henry VIII , this warden, fellows, and scholars were al•
lowed to pursue the even tenor of their way, unmolested or
di quieted by the state. During that period, they received
ctuters (rem different kings fur the security and aggrandiae-
ment of the establishment, and also bulls frem the reigning
types, exempting them from the usual restrictions of
the canes law, and granting them the privileges
of having all the sacraments administered in their
own chapel, and of their members being allowed to re-
ceive ordination from any bishop to whom they might pre.
sent themselves. In 15441 the dissolution of the college and
the seizure of its proporty formed part of an act of parlia-
ment which remained in force two years, although it was not
c Tried into effect. 1 he death of Henry VIII. in all probs.
bility saved it from suppression, for when another act was
pseud, for dissolving religions establishments, Winchester
C ,Ilege was specially exempted with that of Eton and the
two universities, but it is said that this favour was purchased
at the coat of the sacramental plats of great value. The col-
lege stab° ' • were sufficiently accommodating in the reli-
gious changes which .marked this period to escape all
iurther notice. It appears, however, that on the accession
of Queen Elizabeth, a few who were more stubborn or
conscientious than the rest were ejected. In the middle
of the 17th century the existence of the college was again in
jeopardy, and it is supposed would have fallen but for the
interference of these who had received their education with-
in its walls. From that time to this nothing has occurred
worthy of notice, and it has altogether been free from the in-
ter, oution of the state, save that the committee appointed by
the house of Commons, in the year 1817, to inquire into the
education of the lower orders, extended their erquiries into
the management of this establishment, on which OCCI3hIII
avveral of the college authorities rendered very reluctant an-
',wen to the questions pat to them by the committee.
The committee r, gulled the production of the eta
lutes and other documents, but this was attempted to to
resisted by the warden and fellows, on the plea that they
were forbidden by the statutes to exhibit or make known the
contents of the statutes, and that each of them had taken a
actlemn oath to observe the some. This was ilable.
The committee was inexorable ,• and the required documents,
s-altal up, were given in, and the chairman. Yr. (now Lard)
Brougham, I:insulted to busk the seed. From a report of
this committee, a p ,rtion of the present paper has been ex
trotted, as well as from various porticoes of the statutes,
which has hitherto been to the public but as a sealed book.

—, bat all nesin a bleak or seller gown annually, la
which they oval
The fen 11111111.1.41.118TH=theshl and better.' diner
at one, of bed. eiatw had Mud, and a sapper at six of
suttee, cheese. did WM* with base at every meal. Till
lately, wood's Inelaßeleilinte sled, and to haloes and forks
found by the sseabildintoot ; but Hubei the present wardea
ship, Hostel Mums have boss made soodosin to the com-
fort of the widen. Their &aping apartment consist of
sena Ambers, and seek Ishelat has kM separate bed, and
dale, or arab, too study. The expeasse of the seholars,
engirding to the *Abaft of the present wards& of Now
Colley before the ~smitten abomemeatiosed, amount on
as avenge to 331. half-yearly.
The choristers, as the name implies, wen intended for
chanting the vi In the chapel. er are now lodged
and boarded ia a hot., bs to the Witte, leader the
care of a tauter appolateiterect them, and from whom
they nuns a mad Begliah oduatiob. Till a few years
Man the 'amber of shorlstas was virtually twelve, but the
precut warden Hammed them to their origiaal number,
sixteen, as mentioned in the statutes of the founder. Ths
treatmeat of the cherieters has gnatly varied eines the foes
datlea piths oeUege. Eighty years ego they received as
Aunties anal to the scholars ; subsequently they were
mutilated from the college to the free school of the town,
and for mazy years wen ao better than the mere lacqueys
of the scholars; but the preen, warden bas restored them, at
least in part, to their ancient station, and at the age of 15
they are apprenticed at the *sperm of the °obese,
Of the chaplains sad clerks Ruh need not be said. The
numbers are the mine as required by the statutes. The
chaplains perform nearly the whole of the service of the
chapel, and the elute, In addition to chanting toe service
sad singing anthems, perform certain menial offices, as wait,
ing at table, 6tc.
In addition to the head and second tauten provided by the
&antes of W_ykeham, there are now several titan or sub-
preceptors. The necereil of these has arisen from the fact,
that the simple requirements of the fourtuath century have
Hen extended, and now embrace various departments of
science. The salary of the head muter, including allowances,
amounts to 1501. a year; in addition to which he is
allowed to take gentlemen eommuen, who are in-
oriented in the school-room of the call's, with the
scholan of the establisbinsat. It is customary for each
scholar on the foundation to pay the enaa,l sum of ICL, 61.
of which I. received by the hsad-master, and 41. by the
second master.

The 1 (aeon of the college, including fines on
renewals, reserved rents, die., amounts to about 15,0001, and
the expenditure to nearly 11,0001., leaving the remainder to
be divided between the warden and fellow,.
The following is an amount of the college income and ex-
penditure for on year—namely, Ice Dieember. 1818 to
Dumber, 1817, which was produced ,before the above.
mentioned 0010111ittell