- ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics Cornell University rnel1 University Library • * »»-. -. £? LA 637.7.T58 1860 School-days of eminent men.Sketches of 3 1924 013 008 408 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013008408 SCHOOLrDAYS OF EMINENT MEN. i. SKETCHES OF THE PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN ENGLAND, FROM THE REIGN OF KING ALFRED TO THAT OF QUEEN VICTORIA. EARLY LIVES OF CELEBRATED BRITISH AUTHORS, PHILOSO- PHERS AND POE^S, INVENTORS AND DISCOVERERS, DIVINES, ^EROES, ; STATESMEN AND JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A., iOTHoa or "ooaio£iTiE3 or London," "things not oene&au.t known," mo. KKOM THE LONDON EDITION. COLUMBUS: FOLIiETT, FOSTER AND COMPANY. MDCCOLX. I«" LA FOLLETT, FOSTER & CO., Printers, Stereotypers, Binders and Publishers, COLUMBUS , OHIO. TO THE HEADER. To our admiration of true greatness naturally succeeds some curiosity as to the means by which such distinction has been attained. The subject of " the School-days of Eminent Persons," therefore, promises an abundance of striking incident, in the early buddings of genius, and formation of character, through which may be gained glimpses of many of the hidden thoughts and secret springs by which master-minds have moved the world. The design of the present volume may be considered an ambitious one to be attempted within so limited a compass ; but I felt the incontestible facility of producing a book brimful of noble examples of human action and well-directed energy, more especially as I proposed to gather my materials from among the records of a country whose cultivated people have advanced civilization far beyond the triumphs of any nation, an- cient or modern. In other words, I resolved to restrict my design to British Worthies. I had no sooner sketched the outline of my plan than the materials crowded upon me with an excess "whose very indices are not to be read over in an age." I then resolved to condense and select from the long line of Educated Worthies, rather than attempt to crowd the legion into a few hundred pages. Thus additional interest was gained ; for the smaller the charmed circle of light, the more intensely will it point upon the reader. The present volume is divided into two Sections. The first is historical as well as biographical : it sketches the Progress of Education, com- mencing with the dark age of our history, when knowledge was wrapt in the gloom and mysticism of the Druidical grove ; and thence the narrative travels onward and upward to the universal teachings of the present time. In this section are portrayed the Education of each Sovereign, his early habits and tastes, which often exercised powerful influence upon the people. In each reign I have described the foundation of the great Schools, and sketched the Educational customs of the period. The teaching of its illus- trious men is also incidentally recorded; and wherever such men have proved benefactors by the proposition or establishment of special Schools or Systems of Education, their lives and plans are narrated with fuller — iv To the Reader. detail. How fraught with pious memories and hallowed associations are those great institutions of this great country—her Public Schools 1 How consecrated are their localities—how illuminated by the bright lights of centuries—whether around an ancient college nestling at the hill-foot—fit picturesque home for the tender young—as at Winchester ; whether amid " " in the kindred spires and towers, as in the watery glade of Eton ; or regal munificence of Christ's Hospital and Westminster—in the olden clois- ter and cell peopled with busy sons of learning, and earnest expounders have kept of the Reformed Faith ; or where citizenship and philanthropy pace with kingly dispensation, raising within many a city, town, and hamlet, homes for the orphan and friendless—where the good seed might be sown, and the tiny child trained up in the way he should go. Each of these foundations has its hiBtory, relics of its celebrated sons, and fond memorials of their worth. For centuries after the victory of Agincourt, were shown the rooms in which was reared Henry V. at Ox- at Westmins- ford ; to this day, Dryden's autograph in wood is preserved beneath ter ; and with each returning summer is renewed the leafy shade which Addison loved to meditate at Magdalene. Among the incidental varieties of this Section are the descriptions of the changes in manners and customB, the old usages and quaint forms, cere- monies and observances, of a more picturesque age than the present. Nor, in journeying through these bye-ways of local history have I passed by those ancient seats of learning where the solemn church, the stately hall, and the embellished depositories of the wisdom of past ages, have been reared with pious feeling, and endowed by the gratitude ofthose who became, walking in the paths of duty and honor, rich in this world's wealth. How much of England's greatness has been nurtured in these magnificent seats of academic glory, and matured amidst the congenial repose of their groves and gardens I The Second Section of the work is devoted to Anecdote Biographies, or sketches of the early lives—the School and College Days—of Eminent Men who, by their genius, learning, and character, have shed luster upon their name and country. In these brief memoirs I have recorded the inci- dents of their birth, boyhood, and education, until they have entered upon the world-wide field of action. That by narrating the circumstances under which these Eminent Men have severally reached their excellence—that the number and variety of suggestive points in this volume may exercise a beneficial influence, and not only interest the reader, but induce him to emulate their examples, is the sincere wish of THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. PASS Education of the Early Britons 1 Schools of the Druids 2 The Roman-British Schools 3 Introduction of Writing 3 Education of the Clergy. ... 4 Canterbury and other Monastic Schools in the Seventh Century. 5 Rise of Anglo-Saxon Schools .6 The Schools of Alfred 3 St. Dunstan, the Scholar of Glastonbury It) King Canute a Poet ... 11 The Earliest Books : 11 The Saxon Language.—Formation of the English Language 12 Education of William the Conqueror. , 15 Lanfranc.—Ingulphus and the Schools of Croyland 15 William II.—Henry I.—Stephen 18 Henry II.—His love of Letters.—Sports of the London Scholars 19 Rise of Anglo-Norman Schools 21 Richard L, the Poet King 22 Church Schools.—Benefit of Clergy 22 Rise of Universities '. 23 Troubled Reign of King John 25 Henry III.—Settlement of the English Language 26 Roger Bacon an Educational Reformer 26 Edward II.—Schools in his Reign 27 Edward III.—His Accomplishments 28 Schools in the Age of Chaucer 29 Scholarship of Edward the Black Prince 30 Winchester College founded by William of Wykeham 31 Wickliffe Translates the Bible 33 Education of Richard II.—His Patronage of Gower 35 Henry IV.—His Accomplishments 36 Henry V. at Queen's College, Oxford 36 Early Parochial Schools.—Schools in Churches 38 Education at Home.—Music 39 Childhood and Youth of Henry VI . 41 Henry VI. founds Eton College, and King's College, Cambridge -. 42 John Carpenter and the City of London School 47 Mercer's School.—The First Grammar School 48 Saint Paul's School founded 48 Edward IV. and his Tutors 50 Costliness of Manuscript Books 51 vi Contents. PAG» Edward T. in Ludlow Castle 52 Introduction of Printing 53 Early Printed Books 53 Childhood and Education of Richard III 54 Troubled Boyhood of Henry VII 56 An Eminent Grammarian and Poet Laureate 59 Early Life and Character of Henry VIII 60 Ill-educated Nobility 61 The School of Sir Thomas More 62 Wolsey, Latimer, and Cranmer.' 64 Boyhood and Learning of Edward VI 65 Edward VI. founds Christ's Hospital 68 King Edward's Schools at Birmingham, Lichfield, Tunbridge and Bedford 72 Education and Reign of Queen Mary 75 Education of Queen Elizabeth 7fi Roger Ascham—His " Schoolmaster " 77 Lady Jane Grey and her Schoolmaster 78 Sir Anthony Cook and his four Learned Daughters 79 A Truant punished in the 16th Century 80 Flogging in Schools 81 Westminster College School founded 81 A Poor Westminster Scholar 85 Merchant Taylors' School founded 86 Gresham College founded 88 Statesmen, Poets, and Dramatists of Elizabeth's Reign 88 Rugby School founded 90 Harrow School founded 93 Education of James 1 95 Education of Prince Henry 97 Literature of the Reign of James 1 99 Burton and Selden 100 Thomas Fuller's "Schoolmaster" 101 Charter-house School founded 102 Education of Charles 1 104 Literature and Learning at the Accession of Charles 1 106 A Good Education in the Seventeenth Century 108 Sir Matthew Hale's Plan of Instruction 109 Newspapers introduced 110 Milton's System of Instruction Ill Locke's System of Education 113 Grammar-Scbools in the Seventeenth Century 115 Influence of the Writings of Lord Bacon 115 The First Scientific Treatises in English 117 Invention of Logarithms.—Napier's Bones—Gunter's Scale 117 The Sciences at Oxford and Cambridge 118 Boyhood and Education of Oliver Cromwell 120 Charles II.—His Patronage of Letters 121 Nonconformist Schools at Islington and Newington Green 123 Boyhood of James H 124 Literature of the Seventeenth Century 125 Rise of Free Schools or Charity-Schools 126 Education of William III 130 The Reign of Queen Anne—The Augustan Age of Literature 132 Reigns of George I.