Elizabeth; Dr. Stewart, clerk of the closet to Charles the First; Sir Henry Saville, one of the most profound and elegant scholars of the time in which he lived; he was tutor in Greek and mathematics to Queen Elizabeth, who held his abilities in the highest estimation. Sir Henry founded two professorships, in astronomy and geometry, in the University of Oxford, where, for six-and-thirty years he held the wardenship of Merton College. He is known as an author by his "Commentaries on Roman Warfare," his "Rerum Anglicarum post Bedam Scriptores," but chiefly by his celebrated edition of the writings of St. Chrysostom. Sir Henry died at Eton, and lies buried in the College Chapel.

To the above may be added the amiable and accomplished Sir Henry Wotton, whose important public services make it necessary for us more particularly to record his name as one of the preeminently distinguished provosts of Eton.

Robert Boyle, the great natural-philosopher, was offered the provostship, but declining it, Waller the poet was appointed; but the Chancellor refused to set his seal to the appointment, it being contrary to the statute that a layman should hold the office, though there had been precedents for it.

The establishment, as now constituted, consists of a provost, vice-provost, six fellows, a master, under-master, assistants, seventy scholars, called of the foundation and distinguished by wearing black cloth gowns, seven lay clerks, and ten choristers, together with the usual inferior officers and servants.

The scholars on the foundation form a small proportion only of the Eton boys; the great majority being the sons of the nobility and gentry from all parts of the country; these varying in number, according as the abilities of the Head Master may be more or less highly estimated, but never less than four or more than six hundred, are domiciled in boarding-houses throughout the town, under their respective Dames and Dominies, and are hence denominated Oppidans, in contradistinction to the collegians, or boys on the foundation.

Among the latter, the most distinguished in after life are enumerated in Harwood's Alumni Etonienses: from these we may select the names of Bishop Fleetwood, Bishop Pearson, Earl Camden, Doctor Stanhope, Sir Robert Walpole, and the learned John Hales.

Through the influence of Sir Henry Saville, who was assisted by him in his edition of St. Chrysostom, Hales was elected a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and afterwards obtained a fellowship at Eton, which he held, to

gether with a canonry of Windsor, until he was deprived for refusing to subscribe to the Covenant, or take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth; in consequence of this harsh proceeding he was said to have been reduced to great distress. Hales' title to the appellation "learned" is not derived from any work of importance appearing during his life, but from papers published after his death, entitled "Golden remains of the evermemorable Mr. John Hales, of Eton College," which give sufficient evidence of his extensive learning.

Of scholars not upon the foundation, whose names are familiar to our political and literary history, we may enumerate Harley, Earl of Oxford, Lord Bolingbroke, the great Earl of Chatham, Lord Lyttelton, Gray, Horace Walpole, West, Waller, Fox, Canning, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess Wellesley, and Hallam the historian.

The buildings of the College, with the exception of the light and elegant Chapel, are of red brick, enclosing two large quadrangles, extending between the street and the river, the principal front facing the Thames, a neatly disposed garden extending from it to the river. The parapets are embattled, the windows ornamented with cut stone, and the tout ensemble of the buildings is well calculated to convey an excellent idea of a place consecrated to scholastic retirement. The outer quadrangle comprises on the east the clock-tower, and apartments of some of the masters; on the north the lower school, above which is the long chamber or dormitory for the scholars on the foundation; the west side is occupied by the upper school, supported upon an arcade, the work of Sir Christopher Wren; the south side of this quadrangle is bounded by the Chapel.

The statue of Henry the Sixth, in the centre, is of bronze, upon a marble pedestal; it is the work of Francis Bird, an artist of the time of George the First, but is not considered to possess any transcendant merit. The pedestal has an inscription in Latin, of which the following is a literal translation:

TO THE NEVER-FADING MEMORY

OF THE MOST PIOUS PRINCE HENRY THE SIXTH,

KING OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE,

AND LORD OF IRELAND,

HENRY GODOLPHIN,

PROVOST OF THIS COLLEGE,

HAS ERECTED THIS STATUE

OF ITS MOST MUNIFICENT FOUNDER,

A.D. 1719.

The Chapel attracts universal admiration, and is justly considered one of the most chastely elegant Gothic structures of the kind that England possesses; the lofty and well-proportioned windows, the massive buttresses, and airy pinnacles, unite in conveying an impression of perfect grace and beauty in ecclesiastical architecture. The Chapel is one hundred and seventy-five feet in length. The interior, plain and unadorned, has a cold and naked aspect, by no means calculated to sustain the feelings of reverential awe with which we regard the exterior of the sacred edifice. The sides of the interior are wainscotted to a considerable height; there are seats, rising tier above tier, for the scholars and masters.

The spirit and character of the interior is wholly lost by the bad taste of the decorations-desecrations we were almost tempted to call them but is it not something more than ridiculous that a wainscot-screen, supported by Corinthian columns, from a design by Sir Christopher Wren, should be suffered to conceal the original stone altar-piece enriched with canopied niches, in perfect correspondence with the general character of the structure?

Behind this Corinthian screen, which, we were happy to learn during our last visit to Eton, is about to be removed from its misplacement here, is concealed a curious monument of the Reverend Doctor Murray, thirteenth Provost of the College: this, now much dilapidated, consisted of a halflength figure of the Provost, coloured after life, in full ecclesiastical robes; a Latin inscription beneath, recording his learning and personal worth: on either side were figures of Time and Religion curiously sculptured in alabaster, with, on the basement, a horrible memento mori in the shape of a human skeleton minutely carved in lime-wood. The roof of the ante-chapel is well worthy attentive observation; being supported by exquisitely formed Gothic arches, the corbels sculptured with cherubims, displaying the royal arms richly emblazoned.

Below the west window of the ante-chapel is a marble statue of Henry the Sixth, in his robes of state, crowned with a diadem, executed by Bacon in 1768, at the expense of the Reverend Henry Bentham, fellow of the College, who bequeathed a considerable sum of money for this purpose.

Among the eminent persons buried here are, Lord Gray of Wilton, henchman to King Henry the Eighth; John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, con

to that monarch; Sir Henry Wotton, upon whose monument is the following remarkable inscription :

:

This singular inscription gives evidence of the rooted aversion with which Sir Henry regarded controversial disputations, which, during a long life, must often have disturbed the meditative content in which he so much delighted.

It would be unpardonable in connexion with this classic spot, where he passed, in his loved repose, the declining years of a well spent life, to omit his friend, Izaak Walton's mention of Sir Henry in the "Complete Angler," as one of his justificatory examples for that "contemplative recreation."

"My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eton College, (a man with whom I have often fished and conversed), a man whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed among the delights of mankind. This man, whose very approbation of angling were sufficient to convince any modest censurer of it; this man was also a most dear lover, and frequent practiser, of the art of angling; of which he would say, 'it was an employment for his idle time, which was not then idly spent; for angling was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentness,' and that 'it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it.' Sir, this was the saying of that learned man, and I do easily believe that peace and patience, and a calm content did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know that when he was beyond seventy years of age he made this description of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him, as he sat quietly in a summer's evening, on a bank, a fishing."

Sir Henry was not only a contemplative man, and an angler, but a person

of sound understanding, poignant wit, and great accomplishments, in whom the scholar and the man of the world were very happily blended.

The provostship of Eton was the reward of a long life, spent in several embassies, with great honour to himself and advantage to his country.

His acknowledged works are: "The State of Christendom," composed at Florence, after the fall of the Earl of Essex, to whom Wotton was secretary; the "Elements of Architecture," the first fruits of his leisure after his retirement to Eton. He planned a Life of Luther, and made a commencement of a History of England, at the suggestion of Charles the First.

A collection of Miscellanies, published after his death, entitled "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," consisting of lives, letters, characters, and poems, of which we have one or two exquisite specimens in Walton's Complete Angler, has been several times reprinted.

Sir Henry died at Eton in December 1639, in his seventy-second year.

The second, or inner quadrangle, not so spacious as the outer, has a cloistered walk round the sides, with an open court in the centre. In this quadrangle is the Hall or refectory, where the scholars on the foundation take their daily commons; it is a curious ancient apartment. At the west end is a dais, or platform, where sit the dignitaries of the College. In the centre of the Hall is a circular hearth, the smoke escaping through an open lanthorn in the roof. On the south side of this quadrangle is the library, consisting of three well-proportioned apartments, divided by Corinthian columns. The apartments contain a very large and valuable collection of books and manuscripts, having received large accessions from the munificent bequests of Dr. Waddington, Bishop of Chester, Mr. Mann, Master of the Charter-House, Richard Topham, Esq., Keeper of the Records in the Tower, and Anthony Storer, Esq. The apartments of the library are surrounded with galleries, at once serving the purposes of ornament and convenience.

To Mr. Pote, the laborious historian of Windsor, this library is indebted for a valuable and extensive collection of Oriental manuscripts, collected by himself while residing at Patna. Of this collection, comprising no fewer than five hundred and fifty volumes, half was presented to King's College, Cambridge, the other half to Eton College.

The other literary curiosities of this library are valuable editions of Horace, Terence, and Virgil, of the latter part of the fifteenth century, illustrated with wood engravings: Rymer's Fœdera, Tonson's edition; a Refutation of the