Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, Lord Essex, was at Trinity College, Cambridge. See his letter of May 13, from there, in Ellis, series II. v. iii. p. 73; the furniture of his room, and his expenses, in the note p. 73-4; and his Tutor’s letter asking for new clothes for ‘my Lord,’ or else ‘he shall not onely be thrid bare, but ragged.’

Archbp. Whitgift[45], when B.D. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, A.D. 1563, “bestowed some of his time and abilities in the instruction of ingenious youth, sent to the college for education, in good learning and Christian manners. And among such his pupils, were two noblemen’s sons, viz. the Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Earl of Pembroke; and John, son and heir to the Lord North.” (Life, by Strype, ed. 1822, vol. i. p. 14.)

While Whitgift was Master of Trinity, Strype says he had bred up under him not only several Bishops, but also “the Earls of Worcester and Cumberland, the Lord Zouch, the Lord Dunboy of Ireland, Sir Nicolas and Sir Francis Bacon. To which I may add one more, namely, the son of Sir Nicolas White, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, who married a Devereux.” (Life, i. 157, ed. 1822.)

NOBLES AND GENTLEMEN AT OXFORD.

A search through the whole of the first volume of Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses, comprising a period of nearly 100 years, has resulted in the following meagre list of men of noble or knightly birth who distinguished themselves. There are besides many men of “genteel

parents,” some of trader-ones, many friars, some Winchester men, but no Eton ones, educated at Oxford.

1478Edmund Dudley, son of John Dudley, Esq., 2nd son of John Lord Dudley, of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.
ab. 1483John Colet, the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, twice lord mayor of London ... was educated in grammaticals, partly in London or Westminster.
„Nicholas Vaux, son of Sir Will. Vaux of Harwedon in Northamptonshire (not the Poet, Lord Vaux).
end of Edw. IV.John Bourchier, Lord Berners, eldest son of Sir John Bourchier, knight, Lord Berners of Hertfordshire ... was instructed in several sorts of learning in the university in the latter end of K. Edw. IV.; in whose reign, and before, were the sons of divers of the English nobility educated in academical literature in Baliol Coll.,[46] wherein, as ’tis probable, this our author was instructed also.
1497Thomas More, son of Sir John More, knight. (The Sir Thomas More.)
? ab. 1510George Bulleyn, son and heir of Sir Tho. Bullen, and brother of Anne Bulleyn.
? „Henry Parker, son of Sir William Parker, knight.
1515Christopher Seintgerman, son of Sir Henry Seintgerman, knight.
? ab. 1520Thomas Wyatt, son of Henry Wyatt of Alington Castle in Kent, knight and baronet, migrated from St John’s, Cambridge.[47]
1538[48]John Heron, a Kentish man born, near of kin to Sir John Heron, knight.
? ab. 1520Edward Seymoure, son of Sir John Seymoure, or St Maure of Wolf-hall in Wilts, knight, was educated in trivials, and partly in quadrivials for some time in this university. He was Jane Seymour’s brother, and afterwards Duke of Somerset, and was beheaded on Jan. 22, 1552-3.
1534John Philpot, son of Sir Pet. Philpot, knight of the Bath. Fellow of New Coll.
ab. 15—Henry Lord Stafford (author of the Mirror for Magistrates), the only son of Edward, Duke of Bucks, ‘received his education in both the universities, especially in that of Cambridge, to which his father had been a benefactor.’
1515Reynold Pole (the Cardinal), a younger son of Sir Rich. Pole.
? ab. 1530Anthony Browne, son of Sir Weston Browne, of Abbesroding and of Langenhoo in Essex, knight.
ab. 1574Patrick Plunket, baron of Dunsary in Ireland, son of Rob. Plunket, baron of the same place.
ab. 1570Philip Sidney (the poet), son of Sir Henry Sidney.
?John Smythe, son of Sir Clem. Smythe.
(Peter Levens or Levins, our Manipulus or Rhyming-Dictionary man, became a student in the university, an. 1552, was elected probationer-fellow of Mag. Coll. into a Yorkshire place, 18 Jan. 1557, being then bach. of arts, and on the 19th Jan. 1559 was admitted true and perpetual fellow. In 1560 he left his fellowship. Ath. Ox. p. 547, col. 2.)
? ab. 1570Reynolde Scot, a younger son of Sir John Scot of Scotshall, near to Smeeth in Kent.
1590Hayward Townshend, eldest son of Sir Henry Townshend, knight.
ab. 1587Francis Tresham (of Gunpowder Plot notoriety), son of Sir Thomas Tresham, knight.

The number of friars and monks at the Universities before the Reformation, and especially at Oxford, must have been large. Tanner says,

In our universities ... were taught divinity and canon law (then, t. Hen. III., much in vogue), and the friers resorting thither in great numbers and applying themselves closely to their studies, outdid the monks in all fashionable knowledge. But the monks quickly perceived it, and went also to the universities and studied hard, that they might not be run down by the friers.[49] And as the

friers got houses in the universities, the monks also got colleges founded and endowed there[50] for the education of their novices, where they were for some years instructed in grammar, philosophy, and school divinity, and then returning home, improved their knowledge by their private studies, to the service of God and the credit of their respective societies. So that a little before the Reformation, the greatest part of the proceeders in divinity at Oxford were monks and Regular canons.