the January dividend on this stock, and £600 cash paid to the fund. The sum required to complete the buildings, according to the plan approved by the Court of Chancery, would probably amount to £40,000.

There is a rectory and vicarage united, which forms the only ecclesiastical patronage of the College.

The total gross yearly income of the revenues of the College, on an average of the seven years ending 1850, was £7,239. 178., and the total net income £4517. 8s. In the year 1800, the gross income of the College was £4,467.

In the Statutes of Downing College is contained the singular but most judicious regulation :-"Whereas it is highly expedient that those who are to live according to the regulation of any code of laws, should have every facility which may enable them to become acquainted with those laws. And whereas the provision in the Charter of this College for the alteration of the Statutes, may always prevent them from becoming obsolete or impracticable through lapse of time, or change of manners; It is ordained, as a fundamental law of this College, that the Statutes for the time being shall be printed, together with the Charter, and that a copy of both shall be given to every member, officer, and pupil of this College on his first admission; and whenever there shall be any alteration or addition to the Statutes, the same shall be printed and disposed of in like manner.”

AN

ACCOUNT

OF THE

FELLOWSHIPS,

SCHOLARSHIPS,

AND

EXHIBITIONS,

ATTACHED TO

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

IN

ENGLAND AND WALES,

AND

TENABLE BY THEIR STUDENTS

AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

BEDFORD.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1552, a.d.

THE Free Grammar-school at Bedford was founded in the sixth year of the reign of Edward VI. by letters patent, on the petition of the mayor, bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty of the town of Bedford, for the education, institution, and instruction of children and youth in grammar and good manners, to endure for ever. The warden and fellows of New College, Oxford, were constituted visitors of the school, and in them was vested the appointment of the master and usher.

In 1556, the eighth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir William Harpur, Knight, alderman of the City of London, and Dame Alice his wife, granted lands for the endowment of the school and exhibitions to the universities, and for other charitable purposes. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1764, for the appointment of trustees and the carrying into execution the rules set forth for the management of this charity, of which the clear income was then about £3000 a year, but now exceeds £12,500.

The trustees were empowered to erect a statue in front of the schoolhouse, and a monument of marble in St Paul's church, Bedford, where the bodies of Sir W. Harpur and Dame Alice his wife were interred, with proper inscriptions, in testimony of the gratitude and reverence of the town of Bedford to the memory of the munificent founders of "the Bedford Charity."

Another Act of Parliament was passed in 1793, for the more convenient management of the Charity, and by Rule X. of the Schedule, it was provided that, after April 25, 1794, the trustees of the Bedford Charity shall, from time to time, for ever, grant exhibitions of £40 per annum, at either of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, for such scholars who have been at the school not less than four years, as may be deemed, after examination, most worthy of preference; but so that there be not more than three scholars receiving exhibitions at one time, and that no scholar hold his exhibition longer than six years. Each Scholar was to receive the payments yearly on producing a certificate from the college authorities that he had resided, had been attentive to his studies, and also moral and exemplary in his conduct.

The number of exhibitions has been increased to eight, and the value of each has been raised to £80 a year, for four years. By a late

arrangement, six of these exhibitions are appropriated to the sons of persons living in Bedford, but the other two are not so restricted.

1

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

ETON COLLEGE.

FOUNDED 1440, A.D.

ETON College was founded and amply endowed by King Henry VI. for the perpetual increase of virtue and learning, by the name of "The College of the Blessed Marie of Etone besyde Wyndesore;" and designed to be a seminary for King's College, Cambridge.

The founder gave two charters in 1441, by the second of which he constituted the College to consist of a Provost, two Fellows, one Master, twenty-five Scholars, four clerks, six choristers, and twentyfour almsmen. He also gave a third charter de donatione in 1442, by which perpetual endowments were made over to the College.

It may however be observed, that the first formal act of the King respecting his projected foundations, was his Procuratorium, bearing the date of the 12th September, 1440. By this public instrument, the King delegated his proctors to treat with the bishop and chapter of Lincoln, for the appropriation of the then parish-church of Eton to his intended College, so as to make the chapel of the said College, which he should erect on the demolition of the old church, to be as well parochial as collegiate. On the 29th September, in the same year, the bishop of Lincoln notified his consent in due form, for making the parish-church of Eton collegiate; and thereupon the founder gave his orders for erecting the College, the first stone whereof was laid in the foundation of the chapel, in July 1441. With what care the royal founder provided for the soundness of the buildings appears from the language of his letters patent respecting the materials to be used :—

"Laying aparte superfluity of too curious works of entayle and busie mouldings, I will that both mi sayde Colleges be edified of the most substantial and best abyding stuffe, of stone, ledd, glass, and iron, that may goodlie be had and provided thereto; and that the walls of the sayde College of Eton, of the outer courte, and of the walls of the gardens about the precincte, be made of hard stone of Kent."

The founder also granted a charter for assigning arms to Eton College, which have ever since formed its unaltered heraldic distinction.

In 1443, the King's Commissioners gave possession of the College to