When the monastery was dissolved in 1559 the Abbot and some of the monks were sent to the Tower, and Feckenham lived on for twenty-five years in a kind of captivity, though he did not remain at the Tower. He was a very good man: kind to the poor and suffering, and steadfast to what he believed to be right. Since his day the Abbey has been governed by a Dean and Chapter, and the monastic life has ended.
CHAPTER XIII
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
“Enflamed with the study of learning, and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.”
Milton (Tract on Education).
Before we say farewell to the Abbey and its story altogether we must speak of one very important part of it, and one that ought to be specially interesting to all English children, namely, the ancient and famous Westminster School.
The history of the School takes us back really to Saxon times, as we know that there was a school belonging to the monastery in the Confessor’s days, and it may have been there even earlier than that. There is a charming little story of that old convent school in the eleventh century. The Abbot of Croyland used to tell of the kindness he received from the Lady Editha, wife of the Confessor, when he was a boy at the monk’s school in the cloisters. When she met him coming from school, Editha would question him about his studies, and then, he says: “She would always present me with three or four pieces of money, which were counted out to me by her handmaiden, and then send me to the royal larder to refresh myself.”
The School seems to have been what was called a “Grammar School,” which really meant that Latin was taught there, for in those old days they used to speak of Latin as “grammar.” The school was probably a place of general education, and not intended only for boys who were going to become monks. But, of course, when speaking of Westminster School it must be remembered that it owes its present form, and its wide influence and prosperity, to its foundation by two of the Tudor sovereigns, King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth.
In 1540, Henry VIII established the School with two masters and forty scholars. There were probably other boys as well. The School went on and flourished during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary, and then, when the monastery was finally dissolved, it was re-established by Queen Elizabeth in 1560. Queen Elizabeth kept very much to her father’s plan, and arranged for a Headmaster, an undermaster, and forty scholars, who are called “King’s scholars” or “Queen’s scholars,” according to whether the sovereign is a King or a Queen. It was settled that the School was to be part of the Collegiate Foundation of St. Peter in Westminster, and the Dean was to be head of the school, just as he was of the rest of the College.
As we already know, the boys dined, as now, in Abbot Litlington’s Refectory, the present College Hall. The old granary of the monastery, which stood in the middle of what is now Dean’s Yard, was fitted up as their dormitory, and there also they used to do what a modern boy would call his “home-work.” This arrangement was made for them by the first Dean of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Dr. William Bill.
In those old days there must have been a good deal of what we should call hardship, for nearly every one now lives a much more comfortable life than people did in the Elizabethan times.