There is an obvious confusion here which perhaps I can clear up.
I need not say, to those who know anything of Westminster, and of the old system of examination at our Universities, that a youth who entered college, as it is called, head of an election was qualified, at the time, not merely to have entered the University, but to have taken a degree, had age and circumstances permitted; and this opinion is confirmed in Churchill's case, by his standing for a fellowship at Merton when only in his "second election"—second year on the foundation—at Westminster. How to reconcile this with the stories current is the apparent difficulty, and yet a few words will, I think, make it all clear. There is what is called an "election" every year, from the senior boys on the foundation at Westminster, to scholarships at Christchurch, Oxford, and Trinity, Cambridge. As the scholarships at Oxford are understood to be worth three or four times as much as those at Cambridge, all are anxious to obtain an Oxford scholarship. The election is professedly made after examination; but while I knew anything of the school it was selection according to interest, and it must have been rare scholarship indeed that obtained the reward against private interest. Herein, I take it, was the repulse Churchill met with, not at Oxford, but as a candidate for Oxford. I have little doubt that with all his merit, proved by the prior election into college, he was put off with a Trinity scholarship; and it was not, probably, until he arrived at Cambridge that he clearly understood its exact no-value. He then saw that it was impossible to maintain himself there for three years—he had already imprudently married, and therefore resolved to struggle for himself, and rely on his father's interest to get ordained, and at the proper age he succeeded in getting ordained.
C. P.
ENGLISH MEDALS.—WILLIAM III. AND GRANDVAL.
In "N. & Q.", (Vol. iv., p. 497.), S. H. alludes to the case of Grandval, who was to attempt the life of King William, and likewise to the plot to assassinate him four years afterwards. In my collection of medals relating to English history, I have two silver medals struck to commemorate these events. I beg to send you a description of them for insertion, if you consider them of sufficient interest.
No. I.—Bust to the right; flowing hair and ample drapery: legend, "WILHELMINUS III., D. G. MAG. BRIT. FRANC. ET HIB. REX." Reverse, a monument, or pedestal, on the top of which is the naked body of Grandval, and a man about to dissect it; on each side is a fire-pot, to burn the entrails, and pikes, on which the head and four quarters are stuck; between two pikes, on the right, is a gibbet. An inscription in Latin is on the pedestal to this effect:
"Bartholomew de Grandval, a murderer, bribed by the money of Louis, convicted of parricide, and suffered the most severe punishment for having attempted to assassinate William III., King of Great Britain; his head and quarters exposed to be a frightful monument of his sacrilege, and of the perfidy of the French."
Exergue: "XIII. Augst 1692."
No. II.—Bust to the right; flowing hair: legend, "WILHELMUS III., D. G. MAG. BRIT. FRANC. ET HIB. REX;" the breast and shoulders covered by half of a shield, on which is written in Hebrew characters the name "Jehovah," and round it, in Latin, thus "He whom I shield is safe." Reverse: Six women, emblematical of Conspiracy, armed with daggers, snakes, and torches, in dancing attitudes, ready to attempt the king's life, and are withheld by cords issuing from a cloud, held by an invisible hand, which encircle their necks and faces. The legend is to this effect: "An invisible hand withholds them." Exergue: "1696, Boskam F."
W. D. HAGGARD.