active sports, have amusement blended with instruction provided for them in the libraries, which, as already stated, have been provided for their use. It should be mentioned also, that in addition to the English Library attached to the grammar school, there is also a classical library, to which the higher classes have access, under the superintendence of the head master. Many of the books in this latter collection are very valuable; but, at the time of Dr. Trollope's appointment to the mastership, they were so injured from ill usage and decay, that he deemed it expedient to represent to the committee the state in which he found them. After repeated and earnest solicitations, an order was at length obtained for their thorough and substantial repair; and their number has since been increased by several handsome donations. In the mathematical school there is also a library, considerably dilapidated indeed, but well worthy of preservation; and devoutly is it to be hoped, that it may not, for want of due attention, meet with the same fate as the valuable astronomical apparatus, with which the observatory over the old school was furnished. Under the inspection and care of Mr. Wales, not only the more common instruments were there fixed for the use of the boys; but he accustomed them to make the most nice and delicate observations; and they once assisted in observing a transit of Venus over the sun's disc. A most excellent clock, with sundry telescopes, a transit and other instruments, which were then in constant use, have been long removed, nor is it known by what means, or for what purpose; and the practical information which the King's Boys now receive is necessarily limited to the application of the sextant and quadrant to nautical purposes. Indeed there is now no observatory ; and a few models of ships, of most exquisite workmanship, but in a sadly neglected condition, are the solitary remnants of the various characteristic appendages of the mathematical school. Under the able management of the present master, what might not be expected, if he had the means of practical instruction afforded in former days?

Having thus set forth in detail the advantages derived by the children of Christ's Hospital, from the education received within its walls, it

merely remains to mention those to which they are afterwards entitled. Not only are there exhibitions for the Grecians, and fittings out for the king's boys; but every boy, on his discharge, is presented with a Bible and Prayer Book, and a premium of £ 5 is paid upon the production of the indenture of those who are bound apprentice. Various benefactions have been left for this purpose; as well as gifts to the amount of £5 and upwards, which are portioned out yearly to a certain number of applicants, at the expiration of their apprenticeship, for the purpose of setting them up in business. If the number of applicants, who must produce an authenticated copy of their freedom, is so large, that £5 cannot be given to each, they are taken alphabetically as far as the money will go; and the remainder take precedence of any new candidates in the following year. Not unfrequently, however, the donations fall little short of £20; and there are certain specific sums, of different amount, appropriated by will, both as apprentice-fees and otherwise, to individual applicants.

DD

CHAPTER IX.

Systems of Education estimated by their results-Living proofs of the efficacy of the Christ's Hospital plan-Difficulties of cotemporary biography-Eminent blues of former times-Doubts respecting Camden and Stillingfleet-Biographical Sketches:-I. Edmund Campion. II. David Baker. III. John Vicars. IV. Joshua Barnes. V. James Jurin. VI. Jeremiah Markland. VII. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton-List of Grecians from the Foundation.

A MERE outline of any particular system of education will not always lead to a correct estimate of its utility. The plan pursued in Christ's Hospital, where there is, in fact, but half a Classical School, would be ill adapted to other public seminaries, which are differently constituted, and have distinct objects in view. That it is admirably calculated, however, to the furtherance of its own specific purposes, is abundantly proved by the results which it has produced. It would be easy to enumerate a long list of individuals, who are at present moving in various spheres of life, with credit to themselves, and honour to the place of their early sojourn; nor are there wanting names of distinguished character, both in church and state, and of exalted eminence in the walks of literature and science, who reflect the lustre of their fame upon the cloistered abode of their childhood. But to write memoirs of the living is always a delicate, and frequently an invidious, task; feelings are apt to be wounded where no offence is meant; and in the attempt to steer between the extremes of flattery on the one hand, and censoriousness on the other, a dreary detail of every-day occurrences ensues, as insipid to the reader as it is unsatisfactory to the writer.

However ample the materials, therefore, for a running panegyric upon the living ornaments of society, who were nurtured and educated in Christ's Hospital, it will be more desirable to exhibit the fruits of the instruction there afforded in the lives of the great and good among her sons, who have finished their course on earth. At the head of these departed worthies we might possibly be justified in placing WIL

LIAM CAMDEN, the celebrated antiquary, and EDMUND STILLINGFLEET, Bishop of Worcester. Dr. Smith, in his life of Camden,* mentions his early admission into Christ's Hospital as a fact not well authenticated, but very generally believed; and the imperfect state of the records does not admit of its verification. At all events, an attack of the plague caused his removal in 1563; and, after his recovery, he was sent to St. Paul's School, and from thence to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1566. With respect to Bishop Stillingfleet, Mr. Pepys states him to have been a Blue-Coat-Boy in a letter to Sir Thomas Beckford, Alderman of London. At the date of this letter, which was written on February 17, 1681-2, the venerable prelate was still alive, so that the truth might have been easily ascertained; but his biographers have assigned the honour of his education to a school at Cranbourn in Dorsetshire, and there is now no means of disputing their accuracy.

Waiving all claim, then, to an honour, to which the title is confessedly doubtful, it remains to annex biographical sketches of a few of those eminent Blues, of whose characters and attainments the Hospital is justly proud, and to whom somewhat of more than ordinary interest attaches. The History of a great Public School would be scarcely perfect without some account of its more distinguished sons; while the

* "Illum adhuc dum puerum et impuberem Patre orbatum fuisse conjecturam facere licet, eò quòd inter alumnos Ptocotrophii Ædis Christi Londini, quod Rex Edwardus VI. felicis memoriæ, in subsidium et levamen pauperum orphanorum Londinensium, sexto Regni anno condidit, a quibusdam consentiente famâ recensitus fuerit: quibus refragari nollem, licet id certò non constet, vel constare possit, an omnino admissus fuerit, an quoto ætatis anno, cum illorum temporum Matricula in istâ horrendâ strage, quâ tota domus eversa corruit, flammis perierit. Gul. Camden. Vit. p. ii. Wood, in his Athena Oxonienses, states positively that "when this most eminent person was a child, he received the first knowledge of letters in Christ Church Hospital, in London, then newly founded for blue-coated children, where, being fitted for grammar learning, he was sent to the free school, founded by Dr. Colet, near to St. Paul's cathedral." (Ed. Bliss. vol. ii. c. 339.) Dr. Townley, who, as public orator, delivered a funeral oration in memory of Camden, mentions one of his works, ubi Author Edis Christi, nutricis suæ, memor est. Here, however, the allusion is more probably to Christ Church, Oxford, of which he was a canon; and it will also be remembered, that the Hospital was not totally destroyed by the Fire of London; nor were the records, though very imperfect in regard to the registry of names, materially injured by that calamitous event. See his "Diary and Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 5.

mere every-day occurrences of commercial, professional, and literary life would afford such scanty materials in the career of many noble examples of integrity, talent, and learning, that a selection of one or two from each century since the foundation of the school, will be deemed sufficient for the purpose. Within the first fifty years CAMPION, Baker, and VICARS; in the two succeeding centuries BARNES, JURIN, and MARKLAND; and recently the great and good bishop MIDDLETON, will demand more especial attention; and to their memoirs will be added a list of all those individuals who have been sent on exhibitions to the universities, with references to the writings or actions, by which the more eminent have been distinguished.

I. EDMUND CAMPION.

Scarcely had the charter of Christ's Hospital been signed by the trembling hand of the dying Edward, and his prayer for the preservation of his realm from papacy escaped from his feeble lips, when the object for which he had designed the one, and the hope which he had breathed in the other, were destined for a time at least to be mournfully frustrated. Under the reign of the bigotted Mary, the Protestant character of the infant establishment was fearfully obscured; and many of her earlier sons, as might reasonably be expected, enlisted on the side of papistry. Among those who were first admitted within its walls was the memorable Jesuit, EDMUND CAMPION, who was born in London, on the 25th of January, 1540, just twelve years before the foundation of the school. A person of the same name, to whom he was probably related, was vicar of Althorne, in Essex, a short time previous to his birth. On the accession of the queen, he was selected to address her in a congratulatory speech; and this oration may be regarded as the origin of those which have since been delivered by the senior scholar upon similar occasions. His great natural talents, combined with a consi