alfo feveral ballads against the feven deadly fins. Imperfect as the writings of Tiptoft and Widville may now be deemed, great praife is due to them for their zealous endeavours to promote the cause of learning, and to spread among their countrymen a regard to mental accomplishments. The examples of men fo illuftrious could not fail of producing fome good effects. It must ever be lamented that thele two eminent noblemen met with fo untimely and unhappy an end; both of them having been beheaded when they were little more than forty years of age. If their existence had been prolonged to the natural term of human life, it is highly probable that they would have rendered very effential fervices to the interests of fcience and literature. Though knowledge in general was in a low ftate during this period, various measures were purfued which contributed to its future advancement. Some of thefe have already been noticed, and we fhall conclude this article with an account of the erection of public feminaries of education. At Oxford, Richard Fleming, bishop of Lincoln, founded Lincoln college. The particular defign of it was to provide for a rector and seven scholars, who were to make controverfial divinity their study, and to be capable of defending the church against the herefies of the difciples of Wic-' liffe. Thomas Scot, of Rotheram, one of Fleming's fucceffors in the bishoprick of Lincoln, completed the building, and thus was esteemed its fecond founder. To Henry Chicheley, archbishop of Canterbury, Oxford is indebted for All-Souls college. He inftituted it for a warden and forty fellows, who were to pray for the fouls of those who had fallen in the French wars, and for the fouls of all the faithful who had departed this life. Hence the college derived its name. It hath fince been applied to better purposes; and it is well known to be a very noble foundation. Another illuftrious feminary at Oxford derives its origin from this period. We refer to Magdalen college, which was founded by William Patten, bishop of Winchester, for a prefident, forty fellows, thirty fcholars, and a variety of officers and fervants answerable to the splendour of the inftitution. This college foon became one of the richest in Europe. Three fimilar establishments were formed, in the fame age, at the univerfity of Cambridge. King's college was founded by Henry the Sixth, for one provoft, feventy fellows and scholars, three chaplains, fix clerks, and a number of other attendants. The original plan was very magnificent, but the execution of it was prevented by the calamities in which that prince was involved. Eton fchool, the parent of fo many eminent fcholars, was inftituted by Henry as a nursery for King's college. Margaret, the high-fpirited confort of this monarch, did not, in the midst of her political engagements, forget the cause of literature. She was the foundrefs of Queen's college, which, however, from the misfortunes that foon came upon her, would have been in danger of perishing in its infancy, had it not been preferved by the attention and zeal of Andrew Ducket, its firft prefident. This worthy man, who continued in his office forty years, obtained fo many benefactions for the college, that he is juftly confidered as having refcued it from deftruction. Katharine hall owes its inftitution to Robert Woodlark, third provost of King's college. It was finall in its beginning, but in a courfe of time grew up to confiderable eminence, both with regard to its revenues and the number of its members. During this period the new schools, as they were then called, were erected at Oxford, by Thomas Hokenorton, abbot of Ofney. About the fame time, the foundation was laid, in that univerfity, of the magnificent divinity school and library; and the building was at length completed by the fucceffive benefactions of Humphrey, duke of Gloucefter, cardinal John Kemp, archbishop of York, and his nephew, Thomas Kemp, bishop of London. The erection of the Quadrangle, at Cambridge, containing the public fchools, is to be referred to the fame age. Though the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had fo long fubfifted in England, nothing of the like kind had hitherto taken place in Scotland. The natives of that country, who devoted themselves to the pursuit of learning, were obliged to feek for inftruction in foreign parts. But in the beginning of the fifteenth century, a few men of letters letters at St. Andrew's voluntarily and generously engaged to teach the sciences ufually taught, to fuch as chose to receive their inftructions. The names of the perfons who first fet on foot fo laudable a defign deserve to be recorded.. They are Laurence Lindores, Richard Cornel, John Litfter, John Chevez, William Stephen, John Gyll, William Fowles, and William Croifer. Peter Lombard's fentences, the civil and canon laws, logic, and philofophy, were the fubjects of the lectures. Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrew's, who had probably been an original favourer of the scheme, was fo highly pleafed with the profpect of its fuccefs, that he granted a charter, declaring the city to be an univerfity, for the ftudy of divinity, law, medicine, and the liberal arts. This charter, agreeably to the ideas of the time, was confirmed by the pope. That admirable prince, James the First, of Scotland, when he obtained the poffeffion of his crown, foon took notice of the new inititution. He gave the members of it many marks of his favour, and fometimes attended their public acts and difputations. Ecclefiaftical dignities and benefices were beftowed by him on the moft eminent profeffors; and fuch of the scholars as diftinguifhed themfelves by their literary progrefs, he noted down for future preferment. To all this he added a fresh charter, containing a grant of several important privileges and immunities. Notwithstanding fuch pleafing encouragement, the univerfity was very deficient in accommodations and endowments. The students lived wholly at their own expence, and the teachers had no fixed falaries. In this fituation the inftitution continued nearly forty years, when another public fpirited prelate, James Kennedy, the fucceffor of Wardlaw, built St. Salvator's college, and endowed it with competent revenues for a principal, fix fellows, and fix poor fcholars. St. Andrew's, though the mother univerfity of Scotland, is inferior to the others in the number of its pupils; the young perfons who are sent thither being ufually, we apprehend, intended for divinity. In the characters and abilities of its profeffors, it hath always fuftained an honourable reputation; and fome of them have been of no small note ein the learned world. The The establishment of an univerfity at St. Andrew's excited the zeal of William Turnbull, bishop of Glasgow, to have an univerfity in the latter city. Accordingly he obtained an ample bull from the pope for this purpose, which was no fooner brought over than the defign was carried into execution. Dr. David Cadrow, who was appointed rector, was the first lecturer in divinity, Dr. John Lennox in civil law, and Dr. Andrew de Garlies, as there is good reason to believe, in medicine. Nearly at the fame time was formed the college or faculty of arts, of which Dr. William Elphington was chofen the first dean, and Dr. Duncan Bunch the first principal. King James the Second of Scotland, by letters-patent under the great feal of this kingdom, took the univerfity of Glasgow under his fpecial protection, and bishop Turnbull granted it, by charter, a variety of powers and privileges. Still, however, its endowments and revenues were very finall. The first valuable benefaction to the college of Glasgow, and which gave it a folid foundation and establishment, was derived from the noble family of Hamilton. James, lord Hamilton, and Euphemia, countess of Douglas, his lady, gave a tenement for the accommodation of the regents and students, with four acres of ground adjacent. The motive appears to have been fuperftitious, but the gift was useful. We need not inform our readers how well the univerfity has preferved its reputation, and that, within the laft forty or fifty years in particular, fome of the principal writers of the age have been profeffors at Glafgow. Hutchefon, Leechman, Simpson, More, Adam Smith, Reid, Millar, and Richardson, are names which will readily occur to those who are not strangers to the history of modern literature *. * Henry, Warton, Gilpin, Walpole, Pinkerton, Tytler, Biographia Britannica, &c. &c. BRITISH |