Early English Meals and Manners Part 2

Palsgrave in 1530 speaks of "maister Petrus Vallensys, scole maister to his [Charles, Duke of Suffolk's] excellent yong sonne the Erle of Lyncolne."

Roger Ascham, author of the _Scholemaster_, &c., born in 1515,

"was received at a very youthful age into the family of Sir Antony Wingfield, who furnished money for his education, and placed Roger, together with his own sons, under a tutor whose name was Bond. The boy had by nature a taste for books, and showed his good taste by reading English in preference to Latin, with wonderful eagerness. This was the more remarkable from the fact that Latin was still the language of literature, and it is not likely that the few English books written at that time were at all largely spread abroad in places far away from the Universities and Cathedral towns. In or about the year 1530, Mr Bond the domestic tutor resigned the charge of young Roger, who was now about fifteen years old, and by the advice and pecuniary aid of his kind patron Sir Antony, he was enabled to enter St John's College, Cambridge, at that time the most famous seminary of learning in all England ... he took his bachelor's degree in 1531, Feb. 18, in the 18th year of his age ["being a boy, new bachelor of art," he says himself,] a time of life at which it is now more common to enter the University than to take a degree, but which, according to the modes of education then in use, was not thought premature.

On the 23rd of March following, he was elected fellow of the College." Giles's Life of Ascham, Works, vol. i. p. xi-xiv.

Dr Clement and his wife were brought up in Sir T. More's house. Clement was taken from St Paul's school, London, appointed tutor to More's children, and afterwards to his daughter Margaret, p. 402, col. 1.

What a young n.o.bleman learnt in Henry the Eighth's time may be gathered from the following extracts (partly given by Mr Froude, Hist., v. i. p.

39-40) from the letters of young Gregory Cromwell's tutor, to his father, the Earl of Ess.e.x, the King's Chief Secretary.

"The order of his studie, as the houres lymyted for the Frenche tongue, writinge, plaienge att weapons, castinge of accomptes, pastimes of instruments, and suche others, hath bene devised and directed by the prudent wisdome of Mr Southwell; who with a ffatherly zeale and amitie muche desiringe to have hime a sonne worthy suche parents, cea.s.seth not aswell concerninge all other things for hime mete and necessary, as also in lerninge, t'expresse his tendre love and affection towardes hime, serchinge by all meanes possible howe he may moste proffitte, dailie heringe hime to rede sumwhatt in thenglishe tongue, and advertisenge hime of the naturell and true kynde of p.r.o.nuntiacn therof, expoundinge also and declaringe the etimologie and native signification of suche wordes as we have borowed of the Latines or Frenche menue, not evyn so comonly used in our quotidiene speche. Mr Cheney and Mr Charles in lyke wise endevoireth and emploieth themselves, accompanienge Mr Gregory in lerninge, amonge whome ther is a perpetuall contention, strife, and conflicte, and in maner of an honest envie who shall do beste, not oonlie in the ffrenche tongue (wherin Mr Vallence after a wonderesly compendious, facile, prompte, and redy waye, nott withoute painfull delegence and laborious industrie doth enstructe them) but also in writynge, playenge at weapons, and all other theire exercises, so that if continuance in this bihalf may take place, whereas the laste Diana, this shall (I truste) be consecrated to Apollo and the Muses, to theire no small profecte and your good contentation and pleasure. And thus I beseche the Lord to have you in his moste gratious tuition.

At Reisinge in Norff[olk] the last daie of Aprill.

Your faithfull and most bounden servaunte HENRY DOWES.

To his right honorable maister Mr Thomas Crumwell chief Secretary vnto the King's Maiestie."

Ellis, _Original Letters_. Series I. vol. i. p. 341-3.

The next Letter gives further details of Gregory's studies--

"But forcause somer was spente in the servyce of the wylde G.o.ddes, it is so moche to be regarded after what fas.h.i.+on yeouth is educate and browght upp, in whiche tyme that that is lerned (for the moste parte) will nott all holelie be forgotten in the older yeres, I thinke it my dutie to a.s.serteyne yo^r Maisters.h.i.+ppe how he spendith his tyme.... And firste, after he hath herde Ma.s.se he taketh a lecture of a Diologe of Erasmus Colloquium, called Pietas Puerilis, whereinne is described a veray picture of oone that sholde be vertuouselie brought upp; and forcause it is so necessary for hime, I do not onelie cause him to rede it over, but also to practise the preceptes of the same, and I have also translated it into Englishe, so that he may conferre theime both to-githers, whereof (as lerned men affirme) cometh no smalle profecte[32] ... after that, he exerciseth his hande in writing one or two houres, and redith uppon Fabian's Chronicle as longe; the residue of the day he doth spende uppon the lute and virginalls. When he rideth (as he doth very ofte) I tell hime by the way some historie of the Romanes or the Greekes, whiche I cause him to reherse agayn in a tale. For his recreation he useth to hawke and hunte, and shote in his long bowe, which frameth and succedeth so well with hime that he semeth to be therunto given by nature."

Ellis, i. 343-4.

[Headnote: STUDIES OF YOUTHS, TEMP. HEN. VIII. AND ELIZABETH.]

Of the course of study of 'well-bred youths' in the early years of Elizabeth's reign we have an interesting account by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, father of the great Bacon, in a Paper by Mr J. Payne Collier in the _Archaeologia_, vol. 36, Part 2, p. 339, Article x.x.xi.[33]

"Before he became Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon had been Attorney of that Court" [the Court of Wards and Liveries] "a most lucrative appointment; and on the 27th May, 1561, he addressed a letter to Sir William Cecil, then recently (Jan., 1561) made Master of the Wards, followed by a paper thus ent.i.tled:--'Articles devised for the bringing up in vertue and learning of the Queenes Majesties Wardes, being heires males, and whose landes, descending in possession and coming to the Queenes Majestie, shall amount to the cleere yearly value of c. markes, or above.'" Sir Nicholas asks the new Master of Wards to reform what he justly calls most "preposterous" abuses in the department:--"That the proceeding hath bin preposterous, appeareth by this: the chiefe thinge, and most of price, in wardes.h.i.+p, is the wardes mynde; the next to that, his bodie; the last and meanest, his land. Nowe, hitherto the chiefe care of governaunce hath bin to the land, being the meaneste; and to the bodie, being the better, very small; but to the mynde, being the best, none at all, which methinkes is playnely to sett the carte before the horse" (p. 343). Mr Collier then summarises Bacon's Articles for the bringing up of the Wards thus: "The wards are to attend divine service at six in the morning: nothing is said about breakfast,[34] but they are to study Latin until eleven; to dine between 11 and 12; to study with the music-master from 12 till 2; from 2 to 3 they are to be with the French master; and from 3 to 5 with the Latin and Greek masters. At 5 they are to go to evening prayers; then they are to sup; to be allowed honest pastimes till 8; and, last of all, before they go to bed at 9, they are again to apply themselves to music under the instruction of the master. At and after the age of 16 they were to attend lectures upon temporal and civil law, as well as _de disciplina militari_. It is not necessary to insert farther details; but what I have stated will serve to show how well-bred youths of that period were usually brought up, and how disgracefully the duty of education as regards wards was neglected.... It may appear singular that in these articles drawn up by Sir Nicholas, so much stress is laid upon instruction in music[35]; but it only serves to confirm the notion that the science was then most industriously cultivated by nearly every cla.s.s of society." Pace in 1517 requires that every one should study it, but should join with it some other study, as Astrology or Astronomy. He says also that the greatest part of the art had perished by men's negligence; "For all that our musicians do now-a-days, is almost trivial if compared with what the old ones (_antiqui_) did, so that now hardly one or two (_unus aut alter_) can be found who know what harmony is, though the word is always on their tongue." (_De Fructu_, p. 54-5.) Ascham, while lamenting in 1545 (_Toxophilus_, p. 29) 'that the laudable custom of England to teach children their plain song and p.r.i.c.k-song' is 'so decayed throughout all the realm as it is,' denounces the great practise of instrumental music by older students: "the minstrelsy of lutes, pipes, harps, and all other that standeth by such nice, fine, minikin fingering, (such as the most part of scholars whom I know use, if they use any,) is far more fit, for the womanishness of it, to dwell in the Court among ladies, than for any great thing in it which should help good and sad study, to abide in the University among scholars."

[Headnote: NEGLECT OF EDUCATION BY MOTHERS.]

By 1577 our rich people, according to Harrison, attended properly to the education of their children. After speaking "of our women, whose beautie commonlie exceedeth the fairest of those of the maine," he says:

"This neuerthelesse I vtterlie mislike in the poorer sort of them, for the wealthier doo sildome offend herein: that being of themselues without competent wit, they are so carelesse in the education of their children (wherein their husbands also are to be blamed,) by means whereof verie manie of them neither fearing G.o.d, neither regarding either manners or obedience, do oftentimes come to confusion, which (if anie correction or discipline had beene vsed toward them in youth) might haue prooued good members of their common-wealth & countrie, by their good seruice and industrie." --_Descr. of Britaine_, Holinshed, i. 115, col. 2.

This is borne out by Ascham, who says that young men up to 17 were well looked after, but after that age were turned loose to get into all the mischief they liked:

"In deede, from seven to seventene, yong jentlemen commonlie be carefullie enough brought up: But from seventene to seven and twentie (the most dangerous tyme of all a mans life, and most slipperie to stay well in) they have commonlie the rein of all licens in their owne hand, and speciallie soch as do live in the Court. And that which is most to be merveled at, commonlie the wisest and also best men be found the fondest fathers in this behalfe. And if som good father wold seek some remedie herein, yet the mother (if the household of our Lady) had rather, yea, and will to, have her sonne cunnyng and bold, in making him to lyve trimlie when he is yong, than by learning and travell to be able to serve his Prince & his countrie, both wiselie in peace, and stoutlie in warre, whan he is old.

"The fault is in your selves, ye n.o.ble mens sonnes, and therfore ye deserve the greater blame, that commonlie the meaner mens children c.u.m to be the wisest councellours, and greatest doers, in the weightie affaires of this realme." --_Scholemaster_, ed. Mayor, p. 39-40.

Note lastly, on this subject of private tuition, that Mulcaster in his _Elementarie_, 1582, complains greatly of rich people aping the custom of princes in having private tutors for their boys, and withdrawing them from public schools where the spirit of emulation against other boys would make them work. The course he recommends is, that rich people should send their sons, with their tutors, to the public schools, and so get the advantage of both kinds of tuition.

_Girls' Home Education._ The earliest notice of an English Governess that any friend has found for me is in "the 34th Letter of Osbert de Clare in Stephen's reign, A.D. 1135-54. He mentions what seems to be a Governess of his children, '_quaedam matrona quae liberos ejus_ (sc.

_militis, Herberti de Furcis_) _educare consueverat_.' She appears to be treated as one of the family: e.g. they wait for her when she goes into a chapel to pray. I think a nurse would have been 'ancilla quae liberos ejus nutriendos susceperat.'" Walter de Biblesworth was the tutor of the "lady Dionysia de Monchensi, a Kentish heiress, the daughter of William de Monchensi, baron of Swanes...o...b.., and related, apparently,[[35a]] to the Valences, earls of Pembroke, and wrote his French Grammar, or rather Vocabulary[36], for her. She married Hugh de Vere, the second son of Robert, fifth earl of Oxford. (Wright.) Lady Jane Grey was taught by a tutor at home, as we have seen. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII.'s "most dere and most entirely beloved suster, quene Mary, douagier of France," and no doubt wrote his _Lesclairciss.e.m.e.nt de la Langue Francoise_ mainly for her, though also "desirous to do some humble service unto the n.o.bilitie of this victorious realme, and universally unto all other estates of this my natyfe country." Giles Du Guez, or as Palsgrave says to Henry VIII., "the synguler clerke, maister Gyles Dewes, somtyme instructor to your n.o.ble grace in this selfe tong, at the especiall instaunce and request of dyvers of your highe estates and n.o.ble men, hath also for his partye written in this matter." His book is ent.i.tled "An Introductorie for to lerne to rede, to p.r.o.nounce & to speke French trewly: compyled for the Right high, excellent, and most vertuous lady The Lady Mary of Englande, doughter to our most gracious soverayn Lorde Kyng Henry the Eight."

[Headnote: UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN EARLY ENGLAND.]

3. _English University Education._ In early days Cambridge and Oxford must be looked on, I suppose, as mainly the great schools for boys, and the generality of scholars as poor men's children,[37] like Chaucer's 'poore scolares tuo that dwelten in the soler-halle of Cantebregge,' his Clerk of Oxenford, and those students, gifts to whom are considered as one of the regular burdens on the husbandman, in "G.o.d speed the Plough."

Mr Froude says, Hist. of England, I. 37:

"The universities were well filled, by the sons of yeomen chiefly.

The cost of supporting them at the colleges was little, and wealthy men took a pride in helping forward any boys of promise[38] (_Latimer's Sermons_, p. 64). It seems clear also, as the Reformation drew nearer, while the clergy were sinking lower and lower, a marked change for the better became perceptible in a portion at least of the laity."

But Grosseteste mentions a "n.o.ble" scholar at Oxford (_Epist._ 129), and Edward the Black Prince and Henry V. are said to have been students of Queen's College, Oxford. Wolsey himself was a College tutor at Oxford, and had among his pupils the sons of the Marquess of Dorset, who afterwards gave him his first preferment, the living of Lymington.

(Chappell.) [[38a]]

The legend runs that the first school at Oxford was founded by King Alfred[39], and that Oxford was a place of study in the time of Edward the Confessor (1041-66). If one may quote a book now considered to be 'a monkish forgery and an exploded authority,' Ingulfus, who was Abbot of Croyland, in the Isle of Ely, under William the Conqueror, says of himself that he was educated first at Westminster, and then pa.s.sed to Oxford, where he made proficiency in such books of Aristotle as were then accessible to students,[40] and in the first two books of Tully's Rhetoric.--_Malden_, On the Origin of Universities, 1835, p. 71.

In 1201 Oxford is called a _University_, and said to have contained 3000 scholars; in 1253 its first College (University) is founded. In 1244, Hen. III. grants it its first privileges as a corporate body, and confirms and extends them in 1245. In his reign, Wood says the number of scholars amounted to 30,000, a number no doubt greatly exaggerated.

[Headnote: POVERTY OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS.]

In the reign of Stephen, we know that Vacarius, a Lombard by birth, who had studied the civil law at Bologna, came into England, and formed a school of law at Oxford[41] ... he remained in England in the reign of Henry II. On account of the difficulty and expense of obtaining copies of the original books of the Roman law, and _the poverty of his English scholars_, Vacarius [ab. 1149, A.D.] compiled an abridgment of the Digests and Codex, in which their most essential parts were preserved, with some difference of arrangement, and ill.u.s.trated from other law-books.... It bore on its t.i.tle that it was "_pauperibus presertim destinatus_;" and hence the Oxford students of law obtained the name of _Pauperists._--_Malden_, p. 72-3.

Roger Bacon (who died 1248)[[41a]] speaks of a young fellow who came to him, aged 15, not having wherewithal to live, or finding proper masters: "because he was obliged to serve those who gave him necessaries, during two years found no one to teach him a word in the things he learned."

--_Opus Tertium_, cap. xx. In 1214 the Commonalty of Oxford agreed to pay 52s. yearly for the use of poor scholars, and to give 100 of them a meal of bread, ale, and pottage, with one large dish of flesh or fish, every St Nicholas day.--_Wood's An._ i. 185. _Wood's Annals_ (ed. Gutch, v. i. p. 619-20) also notes that in 1461 A.D. divers Scholars were forced to get a license under the Chancellor's hand and seal (according to the Stat. 12 Ric. II., A.D. 1388, _Ib._, p. 519) to beg: and Sir Thos. More says "then may wee yet, like poor Scholars of Oxford, go a begging with our baggs & wallets, & sing salve Regina at rich mens dores." On this point we may also compare the Statutes of Walter de Merton for his College at Oxford, A.D. 1274, ed. Halliwell, 1843, p. 19:

Cap. 13. De admissione scholarium.

Hoc etiam in eadem domo specialiter observari volo et decerno, ut circa eos, qui ad hujusmodi eleemosinae partic.i.p.ationem admittendi fuerint, diligenti solicitudine caveatur, ne qui praeter castos, honestos, pacificos, humiles, _indigentes_, ad studium habiles ac proficere volentes, admittantur. Ad quorum agnitionem singulis, c.u.m in dicta societate fuerint admittendi sustentationis gratia in eadem, ad annum unum utpote probationis causa primitus concedatur, ut sic demum si in dictis conditionibus laudabiliter se habuerint, in dictam congregationem admittantur.

See also cap. 31, against horses of scholars being kept.

Lodgings were let according to the joint valuation of 2 Magistri (scholars) and two townsmen (probi et legales homines de Villa). _Wood_, i. 255. An. 15 Hen. III. A.D. 1230-1.

In the beginning of the 15th century it had become the established rule that every scholar must be a member of some college or hall. The scholars who attended the public lectures of the university, without entering themselves at any college or hall, were called _chamber dekyns_, as in Paris they were called martinets; and frequent enactments were made against them.--_Malden_, p. 85, ref. to _Woods Annals_, 1408, -13, -22, and 1512, &c.

The following are the dates of the foundations of the different Colleges at Oxford as given in the University Calendar:--

University College, 1253-80[42]

Balliol Coll., betw. 1263 & 1268 Merton College, founded at Maldon, in Surrey, in 1264, removed to Oxford in 1274 Exeter College 1314 Oriel 1326 The Queen's College 1340 New 1386 Lincoln 1427 All Souls 1437 Magdalen 1458 The King's Hall and } College of Brasenose } 1509 Corpus Christi College 1516 Christ Church 1526 Trinity College 1554 St John's 1555 Jesus 1571 Wadham 1613 Pembroke 1624 Worcester 1714

HALLS

St Edmund Hall 1317 St Mary's 1333 New Inn 1438 Magdalen 1487 St Alban after 1547

[Headnote: UNDERGRADUATE'S EXPENSES AT OXFORD, 1478.]

'The Paston Letters' do not give us much information about studies or life at Oxford, but they do give us material for estimating the cost of a student there (ii. 124[43]); they show us the tutor reporting to a mother her son's progress in learning (ii. 130), and note the custom of a man, when made bachelor, giving a feast: "I was made bachelor ... on Friday was se'nnight (18 June, 1479), and I made my feast on the Monday after (21 June). I was promised venison against my feast, of my Lady Harcourt, and of another person too, but I was deceived of both; but my guests held them pleased with such meat as they had, blessed be G.o.d."

The letter as to the costs is dated May 19, 1478.