Of course the cost of the purchase of books comes in most of the accounts. Aristotle, Plato, Sophocles, and Demosthenes constantly appear among Greek writers, Homer and Xenophon only once; Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, and Lucian occur often among the Latin authors, Livy only once. Euripides and Horace are noticeable by their absence. I have not observed any mathematical books. Works by Seton and Erasmus are frequently mentioned. Among English books we have a prayer-book charged at 1s., a service-book at 1s. 8d., a bible at 9s., and a testament at 2s. The charge for a bible in Latin was 7s. and for a new testament in Greek 2s. A Greek grammar cost 1s., 1s. 2d., or 1s. 4d.; a Hebrew grammar 1s. which seems cheap. Paper was charged 4d. by the quire and 2s. 6d. by the half-ream: the cost of a bundle of pens and an inkhorn was usually 4d. or 6d.
[38]
]Clothes appear to have been expensive, but naturally the cost varied widely according to the status of the student. Apparently at that time the wardrobes of men were fairly extensive: the prices of the various articles are set out in full. I hesitate to distinguish academic gowns from other robes, but the charge of 4s. to John Waring, a pensioner, for his gown and square cap, as also the charge of 2s. 6d. for making a gown and hood for Phillip Harrison, another pensioner, must, I think, be taken to refer to academic costumes. The cost of a surplice to Richard Therald, a sizar, was 4s., but to Henry Gates, a fellow-commoner, was as much as 11s. 7d.
As to amusements, the richer students seem to have kept or hired horses at considerable cost. Horse-hire to London varied from 4s. to 8s.; to Lincoln from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 8d. Bows and arrows constantly appear in the bills—the price of a bow ranging from 1s. 4d. to 3s. Tennis was another popular amusement of the day. The court stood on the site of the north end of the present library, and the keeper of the court was regarded as a college servant; there are no charges in connection with the bats, balls, or use of the court.
It may be interesting to notice that coals were used regularly as well as wood: they were sold at 1s. 3d. a sack. Candles were charged at either [39] ]3d. or 4d. a pound. Among miscellaneous things 6d. was charged for an hour-glass; 4d. for a mouse-trap; 10d. for a scabbard for a rapier; and 10s. for a lute. A set of singing lessons cost 3s. and a set of dancing lessons 6s.
Sickness appears to have been common. In general we have no record of the duration of illnesses, and the charges for doctors and chemists varied widely. The charge for plucking out one tooth seems to have been 1s. 4d., but for two teeth the dentist reduced his charge to 1s. a tooth.
We get another aspect of student and tutorial affairs in the next century (in 1659) contained in a long letter from which I gave extracts in the history of the College to which I have already referred. Robert Creighton, pronounced Crickt-on, of Somersetshire, a Westminster boy and a scholar of the House, was then a candidate for a fellowship. At the time there were in residence a good many zealots, introduced into the Society under presbyterian or Cromwellian auspices, and one of these, a year senior to Creighton, was also a candidate for a fellowship. Just before the election some of the scholars were playing tennis in the college court when the ball by chance struck one of them in the eye. On this Creighton called out “Oh God, Oh God, the scholar’s eye is stroke out,” whereon his competitor accused him to the authorities as a profane person who took [40] ]God’s name in vain; and as confirmation added that he never came to the private prayer meetings of the students. By good luck the master was Wilkins, afterwards bishop of Chester, who owed his appointment more to the fact that he had married Cromwell’s sister than to his devotion to the doctrines of the Independents. It is clear that he disapproved of the complaint, but he considered it prudent to summon a meeting of the seniority to hear the case and examine witnesses. Creighton’s tutor, Duport (who gave us our large silver salt-cellar), spoke up for his pupil, and thereon the master said that the charge looked like malice, and it did not matter much if Creighton did neglect to go to the private prayer meetings of undergraduates since he never failed to go to chapel and to his tutor’s lectures. He then proposed, if we may trust our authority, that the seniority should at once reject the informer and his friends, and elect to the vacant fellowships the accused and his friends, and so it was done. Such were elections then!
It is satisfactory to add that public opinion in the College was against those who trumped up this ridiculous charge, and on the day after the election the following notice was found on the screens. “He that informed against Ds Creighton deserves to have his breech kickt on.” An amusing glimpse of life under the Commonwealth. Note that the tutor [41] ]gave lectures to his pupils, and from the tutorial point of view observe the esteem gained by regular attendance thereat.
No obligation to take pupils seems ever to have been imposed on fellows, though a pupil once taken could not be transferred. This, and the fact that scholars were elected only from students already in residence, made it undesirable to retain any rule to the effect that a fellow should not have more than one pensioner as a pupil. Hence in time those who liked tutorial work and did it well were allowed to have more than one pensioner pupil, and gradually the bulk of the entries came to be made under a comparatively few tutors.
The average annual entry of students at Trinity during the years 1551 to 1600 was fifty-one, during the years 1601 to 1650 was fifty, and during the years 1651 to 1700 was thirty-nine. During the years 1701 to 1750, it sank to twenty-seven: this diminution being partly due to the Bentley scandals. During the years 1751 to 1800 the average annual entry was thirty-seven, during the years 1801 to 1850 was one hundred and sixteen, during the years 1851 to 1900 was one hundred and seventy-four, and during the years 1901 to 1913 was one hundred and ninety-nine.
Let us see how the men were divided among the tutors. From April to December 1635, twenty-eight [42] ]students were admitted who were distributed among seventeen tutors, of whom eleven had only one pupil and none had more than four pupils. Taking every tenth year thenceforward, we find that in 1645, there were (excluding ten fellows intruded by order of parliament) fifty-seven entries; of these fifty-one were divided among ten tutors. In 1655, there were fifty-three normal entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1665, forty-three entries divided among six tutors; in 1675, forty-nine entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1685, thirty-four entries divided among five tutors; and in 1695, twenty-eight entries divided among four tutors. In 1705, there were twenty-nine entries, of these twenty-eight students were divided among three tutors. In 1715, there were fourteen entries divided among six tutors; in 1725, thirty-four entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1735, twenty-eight entries divided among six tutors; and in 1745, twenty-one entries divided among eight tutors.