Mr Whiston would raise Fenn’s estimate of £100 to £200. He says that the rent of land in Kent in 1540 was a shilling or eighteenpence an acre,—see Valor Ecclesiasticus,—and that the tithes and glebes of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, which were worth about £480 a-year in 1542, are now worth £19,000.

The remaining Oxford letter in the Paston volumes seems to allude to the students bearing part of the expenses of the degree, or the feast at it, of a person related to royal family.

“I supposed, when that I sent my letter to my brother John, that the Queen’s brother should have proceeded at Midsummer, and therefore I beseeched her to send me some money, for it will be some cost to me, but not much.”

The first school at [Cambridge] is said to have been founded by Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred, but on no good authority. In 1223 the term University was applied to the place. The dates of the foundations of its Colleges, as given in its Calendar, are:

St Peter’s1257St Catherine’s Hall1473
(date of charter, 1264)Jesus1496
Clare Hall1326Christ’s1505
Pembroke1347St John’s1511
Caius1349Magdalene1519
Trinity Hall1350Trinity1546
Corpus Christi1351Emmanuel1584
King’s1441Sidney1598
Queen’s1446Downing1800
(refounded 1465)

FEW NOBLEMEN AT CAMBRIDGE.

Lord Henry Brandon, son of the Duke of Suffolk, died of the

sweating sickness then prevalent in the University, on the 16th July, 1551, while a student of Cambridge. His brother, Lord Charles Brandon, died on the same day. Their removal to Buckden was too late to save them (Ath. Cant., i. 105, 541). Of them Ascham says, ‘two noble Primeroses of Nobilitie, the yong Duke of Suffolke and Lord H. Matrevers were soch two examples to the Courte for learnyng, as our tyme may rather wishe, than look for agayne.’—Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, p. 62. Besides these two young noblemen, the first 104 pages of Cooper’s Athenæ Cantabrigienses disclose only one other, Lord Derby’s son, and the following names of sons of knights:[44]

CAMBRIDGE MEN.
1443Thomas Rotherham, Fellow of King’s, son of Sir Thomas Rotherham, knight, and Alice his wife.
1494Reginald Bray, high-steward of the university of Oxford, son of Sir Richard Bray, knight, and the lady Joan his second wife.
1502Humphrey Fitzwilliam, of Pembroke Hall, Vice-Chancellor, appears to have been the son of Sir Richard Fitzwilliam of Ecclesfield, and Elizabeth his wife.
ab. 1468Richard Redman, son of Sir Richard Redman and Elizabeth [Aldburgh] his wife; made Bp. of St Asaph.
1492Thomas Savage, son of Sir John Savage, knight, Bp. of Rochester. Was LL.D. ? educated at Cambridge.
1485James Stanley, younger son of Thomas Earl of Derby, educated at both universities, graduated at Cambridge, and became prebendary of Holywell in 1485, Bp. of Ely in 1506.
1497William Coningsby, son of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, elected from Eton to King’s.
1507Thomas Elyot, son of Sir Richard Elyot, made M.A.
ab. 1520George Blagge, son of Sir Robert Blagge.