of which the shadow still remains in the twelve Burgesses, the High Steward, and the High Bailiff of Westminsterthe last relic of the temporal power' of the ancient Abbots. His High Steward was no less a person than Lord Burleigh.' To the School he secured the Pest House' or 'Sanatorium' The Pest House at on the river-side at Chiswick,2 and planted with his own Chiswick. hands a row of elms, some of which are still standing in the adjacent field. It is on record that Busby resided there, with some of his scholars, in the year 1657. When, in our own time, this house was in the tenure of Mr. Berry and his two celebrated daughters, the names of Montague Earl of Halifax, John Dryden, and other pupils of Busby, were to be seen on its walls. Dr. Nicolls was the last Master who frequented it. Till quite recently a piece of ground was reserved for the games of the Scholars. Of late years its use has been superseded by the erection of a Sanatorium in the College Garden. Head Already Goodman might well be proud of the School, which had for its rulers Alexander Nowell and William Camden. Nowell, whose life belongs to St. Paul's, of which Nowell, he afterwards became the Dean, was remarkable at West- master, minster as the founder of the Terence Plays.3 The illus- 1543. trious Camden, after having been Second Master, was then, Camden, though a layman, by the Queen's request, appointed Head- Headmaster, and in order that he might be near to her call and 1593-99. 'commandment, and eased of the charge of living,' was to have his food and diet' in the College Hall. I know 'not,' he proudly writes, who may say I was ambitious, 'who contented myself in Westminster School when I writ master, Lancelot Andrewes, 1601-5. Lancelot Andrewes, the most devout and, at the same time, the most honest1 of the nascent High Church party of that period, lamented alike by Clarendon and by Milton, was Dean for five years. Under his care, probably in the Deanery, met the Westminster' Committee of the authorized version of James I., to which was confided the translation of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Kings, and of the Epistles in the New. In him the close connexion of the Abbey with the School reached its climax. Dean Williams, in the next generation, had heard much what pains Dr. Andrewes did 'take both day and night to train up the youth bred in the • Public School, chiefly the alumni of the College so called;' and in answer to his questions, Hacket, who had been one of these scholars told him how strict that excellent man was to charge our masters that they should give us lessons out of none but the most classical authors; that he did often supply the place both of the headschoolmaster and usher for the space of an whole week together, and gave us not an hour of loitering-time from morning to night: how he caused our exercises in prose and verse to be brought to him, to examine our style and proficiency; that he never walked to Chiswick for his recreation without a brace of this young fry; and in that wayfaring leisure had a singular dexterity to fill those narrow vessels with a funnel. And, which was the greatest burden of his toil, sometimes thrice in a week, sometimes oftener, he sent for the uppermost scholars to his lodgings at night, and kept them with him from eight till eleven, unfolding to them the best rudiments of the Greek tongue and the elements of the Hebrew Grammar; and all this he did to boys without any compulsion of correction-nay, I never heard him utter so much as a word of austerity among us.2 In these long rambles to Chiswick he in fact indulged3 his 1 See his conduct to Abbot in his misfortunes, and his rebuke to Neale. Andrewes was appointed Bishop of Chichester 1605, translated to Ely 1609, and to Winchester 1619; died September 25, 1626; buried in St. Saviour's, Southwark. 2 Hacket's Life of Williams; Russell's Life of Andrewes, pp. 90, 91.-Brian Duppa, who succeeded Andrewes in the See of Winchester, learned Hebrew from him at this time. (Duppa's Epitaph in the Abbey.) 3 Fuller's Abel Redivivus. favourite passion from his youth upwards of walking either by himself or with some chosen companions, with whom he might confer and argue and recount their studies: and he would often profess, that to observe the grass, herbs, corn, trees, cattle, earth, water, heavens, any of the creatures, and to contemplate their natures, orders, qualities, virtues, uses, was ever to him the greatest mirth, content and recreation that could be: and this he held to his dying day. 1605-10. 'The Monastery of the West' (tò éπišeþúpiov) was faithfully remembered in his well-known 'Prayers.' He was succeeded by Neale, who thence ascended the longest ladder of Richard ecclesiastical preferments recorded in our annals.' Years Neale, afterwards they met, on the well-known occasion when Waller the poet heard the witty rebuke which Andrewes gave to Neale as they stood behind the chair of James I. Neale was educated at Westminster, and pushed forward into life by Dean Goodman and the Cecils. He was installed as Dean on the memorable 5th of November 1605; and after his elevation to the See of Lichfield and Coventry, he was deputed by James I. to preside once more in the Abbey over the re-interment of Mary Queen of Scots. It was in his London residence, as Bishop of Durham, that he laid the foundation of the fortunes of his friend Laud. To him, as Dean, and Ireland,3 as master, was commended young George Herbert for Westminster School, where the beauties of his 'pretty behaviour and wit shined and became so eminent and 'lovely in this his innocent age, that he seemed marked out ⚫ for piety and to have the care of heaven, and of a particular ' good angel to guard and guide him.'4 1 Neale was appointed to the See of Rochester in 1608, and was thence translated to Lichfield and Coventry 1610, to Lincoln 1614, to Durham 1617, to Winchester 1627, and to York 1631. He was buried in All Saints' Chapel, in York Minster, 1640. 2 Le Neve's Lives, ii. 143. See Chapter III. p. 189. A statement of Walton's Life, ii. 24. George Monteigne, 1610-17. Richard Tounson, 1617-20. John Williams, 1620-50. A constellation of learned Prebendaries adorned the cloisters at this time: Richard Hakluyt, the geographer, Adrian Saravia, the friend of Hooker, and Isaac Casaubon, who exemplified the elasticity of the English ecclesiastical constitution of those days-one of them being a presbyterian and the other a layman. 2 The two Deans who succeeded Monteigne1 (or Montain) and Tounson, leave but slight materials. It would seem that a suspicion of Monteigne's ceremonial practices was the first beginning of the transfer of the worship of the House of Commons from the Abbey to St. Margaret's. It is recorded that they declined to receive the Communion at Westminster Abbey, for fear of copes and wafer cakes.'3 The Dean and Canons strongly resented this, but gave way on the question of the bread. Tounson, as we have seen, was with Raleigh in the neighbouring Gatehouse twice on the night before his execution, and on the scaffold remained with him to the last, and asked him in what faith he died.* On his appointment to the See of Salisbury, he was succeeded by the man who has left more traces of himself in the office than any of his predecessors, and than most of his successors. The last churchman who held the Great Seal-the last who occupied at once an Archbishopric and a Deanery-one of the few eminent Welshmen who have figured in history,John WILLIAMS-carried all his energy into the precincts of Westminster. His own interest in the Abbey was intense. 1 Monteigne was appointed Bishop of Lincoln 1617, translated to London 1621, Durham 1627, York 1628. Died and buried at Cawood, 1628. 2 Tounson was appointed Bishop of Salisbury 1620. Buried at the entrance of St. Edmund's Chapel, 1621. He was uncle to Fuller. 3 State Papers, 1614, 1621. 4 See Chapter V. p. 400. 5 He had the usual troubles of im perious rulers. Ladies with yellow ruffs he forbade to be admitted into his church. (State Papers, vol. cxiii. No. 18, March 11, 1620-21.) He also carried on the war with the House of Commons which his predecessors had begun. They claimed to appoint their own precentor at St. Margaret's, 'Dr. Usher, an Irishman,' doubtless the future Primate. Williams claimed the right of nomination on the ground Abbot Islip and Bishop Andrewes were his two models amongst his predecessors-the one from his benefactions to the Abbey, the other from his services to the School : His bene factions to the Abbey. The piety and liberality of Abbot Islip to this domo came into Dr. Williams by transmigration; who, in his entrance into that place, found the Church in such decay, that all that passed by, and loved the honour of God's house, shook their heads at the stones that dropped down from the pinnacles. Therefore, that the ruins of it might be no more a reproach, this godly Jehoiada took care for the Temple of the Lord, to repair it, set it in its 'state, and to strengthen it.' He began at the south-east part, which looked the more deformed with decay, because it was coupled with a later building, the Chapel of King Henry VII., which was tight and fresh. The north-west part also, which looks to the Great Sanctuary, was far gone in dilapidations: the great buttresses, which were almost crumbled to dust with the injuries of the weather, he re-edified with durable materials, and beautified with elegant statues (among whom Abbot Islip had a place), so that 4,500l. were expended in a trice upon the workmanship. All this was his cost neither would he impatronise his name to the credit of that work which should be raised up by other men's collatitious liberality.' For their further satisfaction, who will judge of good works by visions and not by dreams, I will cast up, in a true audit, other deeds of no small reckoning, conducing greatly to the welfare of that college, church, and liberty, wherein piety and beneficence were relucent in despite of jealousies. First, that God might be praised To the with a cheerful noise in His sanctuary, he procured the sweetest Choir. music, both for the organ and for the voices of all parts, that ever was heard in an English choir. In those days that Abbey, and Jerusalem Chamber, where he gave entertainment to his friends, were the volaries of the choicest singers that the land had bred. The greatest masters of that delightful faculty frequented him above all others, and were never nice to serve him; and some of the that St. Margaret's was under his cure. The Commons, after threatening migration to St. Paul's, Christ Church, and the Temple, by the King's order at last returned to St. Margaret's. (State Papers, Feb. 22, 1821-22.) A Chapter account, signed by the Dean and eight of the Canons, repudiates the calumny that the Dean had made the repairs 'out of the diet ' and bellies of the Prebendaries.' (Chapter Book, December 8, 1628.) |