quent prosperity of the university (and so indirectly of the town) was largely due. The ill feeling which existed at every mediæval university between town and gown was intensified at Cambridge by the fact that the fishing in the river was unusually good, and belonged absolutely to the mayor and corporation, who refused to allow university men to fish in it under any circumstances. Such a right could not be enforced without considerable friction, and as the university claimed and exercised exclusive jurisdiction to try cases where their own members were concerned, the dispute was complicated by differences of opinion on the evidence requisite to prove a trespass or assault'.

Besides these amusements there was rarely a year in which some tournament or form of sport was not held in the immediate neighbourhood, and like the fair at Stourbridge gave opportunity for plenty of adventures, as well as the interesting spectacle of bear and bull baiting. The prohibitions in the statutes of New College, Oxford, of dice and chess as instruments of gaming imply that they were constantly used. Among the more wealthy members of the university tennis, cock-fighting, and riding seem to have been especially popular; but many of the college statutes enjoin that a daily walk with a companion, and conversation "on scholarship or some proper and pleasant topic" should if possible be enforced.

Lastly, it should be added that local ties and prejudices were very strongly maintained. Students born anywhere south of the Trent formed one "nation," while those born to the north of it formed another. These nations took opposite sides on every question; thus when Occam, who was a southerner, advocated nominalism, the northerners at once adopted the

1 Finally, in despair of obtaining their rights otherwise, the corporation farmed their powers piscatorial to certain poor men, who it was thought "needing all the money they could obtain would not fail in well guarding that which they had purchased." This ingenious scheme failed, for the poor men shortly petitioned the corporation to cancel the agreement, since "many times had they been driven out of their boats with stones and other like things, to the danger of their bodies.”

realistic views of Scotus. They were organized' almost like regiments, and the smouldering hostility between them was always ready to break into open riot, which not unfrequently ended in loss of life. So high did local feeling run that most of the college statutes expressly guarded against the favoritism that arose from it by a provision that not more than two or three scholars or fellows born in the same county could be on the foundation at the same time.

The students dressed much like other Englishmen of the same period. Efforts to enforce the tonsure and ecclesiastical robe were not unfrequently made, but seem to have been always evaded. Perhaps knee-breeches, a coat (the cut of which varied at different times) bound round the waist with a belt, stockings, and shoes (not boots) fairly represent the visible part of the dress of an average student at an average time. The dress of a blue-coat boy may be compared with this. To this most students seem to have added a cloak edged or lined with fur, which often found its way into the university chest as a pledge for loans advanced. Girdles, shoes, rings, &c. varied with the fashion of the day.

The earliest inventory of the possessions of a Cambridge student that I can quote is one of the belongings of Leonard Metcalfe, a scholar of St John's College, who was executed in 1541 for the murder of a townsman. All his goods were confiscated to the crown, and therefore scheduled by the vice-chancellor. His wardrobe consisted of a gown faced with satin, an old jacket of tawny chamblet (i.e. silk and hair woven crosswise), an old doublet of tawny silk, a jacket of black serge, a doublet of canvass, one pair of hose, an old sheet or shirt, a cloak, and an old hat. I suppose these were in addition to the clothes he wore when being executed, as the latter were the

1 See Statuta antiqua, 44.

2 See vol. 1. pp. 109, 110 of the Privileges of the university of Cambridge, by George Dyer, London, 1824. For corresponding inventories of Oxonians, see Munimenta academica, numerous references between pp. 500-663.

perquisite of the hangman. He had besides a coverlet, two blankets (one being very old), and a pair of sheets—but most of these are stated to have been pawned before he went to prison. His furniture consisted of a wardrobe-chest with a hanging lock and key, a piece of carpet, a chair, a knife, and a lute. The table and bedstead were fixtures, and belonged to the college. His books with their respective values were as follows. A Latin dictionary, 1s. 8d.; Vocabularius juris et Gesta Romanorum, 4d.; Introductiones Fabri, 3d.; Horatius sine commenti, 4d.; Tartaretus super Summulas, 2d. ; The shepheard's kalender, 2d.; Moria Erasmi, 6d. ; and Compendium quatuor librorum institutionum, 3d.; the total value being three shillings and eight-pence, equivalent to rather more than two pounds now-a-days. He had not taken his bachelor's degree, and it is therefore not surprising that he possessed no mathematical works. His total assets were valued at £4. 18. 8d., equivalent to £50 or £60 at the present time. The above list seems fairly to represent the belongings of a mediæval student, except that Metcalfe's library was unusually large.

A gown or some similar distinctive dress has always been worn at Cambridge'; but the cut and material varied at different times. Masters wore a square cap, and doctors a biretta, but it is not clear whether any cap was worn by undergraduates. From the original statutes of New College, Oxford, and Winchester School, it seems probable that at that time the students went bareheaded, as they still do at Christ's Hospital. The earliest reference to caps being worn by students as a part of their academical dress occurs in the sixteenth century. The cap then worn was circular in shape and flabby, lined with black silk, with a brim of black velvet for pensioners or black silk for sizars. The square cap for undergraduates was not generally introduced till 1769: the puritan party having objected to it in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a symbol of popery.

The cut of the B.A. hood has not varied from the thir

1 See Cooper's Annals, vol. 1. pp. 156, 157, 182, 215, 355.

teenth century, except that the two ends were formerly sewn together instead of being connected by a string as they are now. In the middle ages it was lined with wool and not rabbit-skin. The shape is different to that of all other universities, as it includes what is called a tippet. The M.A. hood for regents was the same as at present. The hoods of nonregents were of the same shape, but lined with black. The proctors invariably wore the hood squared, as they do now: and the scrutators and taxors had the same privilege'.

It must be remembered that the medieval university and colleges were very poor2. The members of the latter often found themselves unable to obtain money, even for their daily food, except by selling books or pledging their house. The former had a few scholarships, the earliest of which was founded in 1255, and possessed a few funds for the purpose of loans. Every separate bequest or gift was for simplicity of accounts kept in a separate chest, and some of these coffers are still preserved in the registry. The name has also been retained as a synonym for the university treasury.

The development of the university throughout the middle ages seems to have been one of steady, uniform progress. This was partly due to its own merits, but partly to the gradual deterioration of the monastic schools. There was no sudden outburst of prosperity, such as that which in the fourteenth century made Oxford the most celebrated seat of learning in Europe, but neither was there any collapse such as that which in the fifteenth century left Oxford almost deserted; though the numbers at Cambridge do not seem to have increased during that century.

1 The above account is summarized from pp. 454-543 of University life in the eighteenth century, by C. Wordsworth, Cambridge, 1874.

2 Even now the corporate revenue of the university proper (as distinguished from the colleges) is less than £2,500 a year. I suppose very few people realize how pressed for means is the university, and that it is only by contributions from the colleges (out of property which was really left for other purposes) that the university contrives to balance its accounts. The much greater wealth of the sister university has largely contributed to the idea that the university of Cambridge is also wealthy.

The university from 1525 to 1858.

The close of the fifteenth century was marked by the commencement of schools of science and divinity. A similar development was general throughout Europe, but it was some years before the English universities felt the full force of the movement. The intellectual life at Oxford during the middle ages had been far more vigorous and active than that at Cambridge, and in literature (though probably not in science and divinity) the renaissance in England had commenced about the year 1440 at Oxford. The logicians there bitterly opposed the new movement, and succeeded in temporarily stopping it. The consequence was that the revival of the study of literature in England was mainly effected at Cambridge. The effects of this preeminence in the sixteenth century lasted long after the immediate causes had ceased to act, and until the close of the eighteenth century the literary and scientific schools of Cambridge were superior to those of Oxford.

It was to Fisher, and subsequently to Erasmus, that Cambridge owed the creation of its literary schools, which originated about the year 1510. I think, however, that during the preceding century-in fact since the suppression of the Lollard movement by Archbishop Arundel on his visit in 1401-the drift of opinion in Cambridge had steadily set towards moderate puritanism and the study of science. I suspect that the divergence in the opinions prevalent at Oxford and Cambridge which here first shews itself was due to the fact that the residents at Cambridge were every year brought into contact at the Stourbridge fair with merchants and scholars from Germany, and apparently through them with the Italian universities (especially Padua), while Oxford was a much more self-contained society. It is noteworthy that almost all the Cambridge reformers came from Norfolk, which was in close commercial connection with the Netherlands, and that the literary party in the university were nicknamed Germans.