The meaning of this latter observation appears to have been, that the petitioners held it to be unfair that the twelve counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, York, Lancaster, Lincoln, Chester, Derby, Stafford, Warwick, and Leicester (notwithstanding their much greater area) should be entitled to as many fellowships as all the other English counties, together with those of Wales. In 1629, their petition received a favorable response and the following distribution of counties as 'northern' and 'southern' was assigned,-twenty-six in each : It was at the same time laid down that if, at any time, a Scotchman [see APPEND. (E)] or any other foreigner were admitted to a fellowship by royal dispensation, the first so admitted should be assigned a northern fellowship, the second a southern, and so on alternately. It was also enacted that there might be, at the same time, four fellows from each of the counties of Cambridge and Middlesex1, and as Peterhouse had at this time only fourteen fellowships, it was thus, of course, rendered practicable to make the southern element predominant. It will be observed, also, that in the above two lists, Huntingdon, Norfolk, Northampton, Rutland, and Worcester are all northern counties. In 1 The relaxation of the statute having reference to the number from each county seems to have been made in other instances in the reign of Charles I.: 'Denique divus Carolus relaxationem statuti sexti, de numero sociorum ex uno comitatu eligendorum, indulsit.' Shermanni Hist. Coll. Jesu, p. 29. the older divisions, whether that according to the dioceses, or with the Trent roughly taken as the line of separation, these counties were in the southern division. In the early statutes of St John's (1545), known as those of Henry VIII this latter division is thus defined: "Statuimus autem et ordinamus ut, universo sociorum numero in duas aequales partes diviso, tantum media pars et non plures e novem trans Trentam comitatibus, videlicet, Dunelmiae, Northumbriae, Westmeriae, Combriae, Eboraci, Richmondiae, Lancastriae, Derbiae, Notingamiae assumantur, ceteri socii e reliqua Anglia eligantur.' (Early Statutes of St John's College, ed. Mayor, p. 49). In the same statute, it was enacted that not more than two were to be elected from any one county. At one time, all Wales counted but as one county, a fact that affords additional explanation of the strong sympathy which appears to have existed between the different members of the little Welsh community in the university. Hacket tells us of archbishop Williams that he was 'much welcomed to Cambridge by the Old Britons of North Wales, who praised him mightily in all places of the university,' 'for they are good at that,' he adds, 'to them of their own lineage.' Scrinia Reserata, p. 7. Generally speaking, these restrictions continued in force down to a comparatively recent date at all the colleges excepting King's and Trinity. But King's laboured under a still more detrimental restriction; and the latter foundation alone represented catholicity in this respect. Dyer, writing in 1824, says 'What is it which gives Trinity College that superiority which it challenges over the other colleges at Cambridge?... It has neither propriety-fellowship, nor county-fellowship.' Supplement to the History of Cambridge, p. 23; see also supra, Appendix (A), p. 607. (E) pp. 362, 516. FOREIGNERS AT THE UNIVERSITIES. With the exception of the special proviso in the early statutes of Pembroke (vol. I 237, n. 1, 239), there does not appear to have been any prae-Reformation statute which threw open our Cambridge colleges to students without some restriction as to nationality. The following is the extract referred to on p. 362, n. 2, from the original statutes of Queen's College, Oxford: 'Sicut Universitas Oxoniae, juxta sui nominis designationem, universos suscipit undecunque ad ipsam causa studii confluentes, sic et aula praedicta nulli genti vel bene meritae nationi sinum claudat subsidii; ut quam universalis sit scholarium ipsius Universitatis recollectio, ipsorum assumendorum ad aulam praemissam sit tam generalis electio.' John Young, dean of Westminster, was a Scotchman, being a son of Sir Peter Young, the diplomatist and tutor to James I. See S. Clarke's Lives (1651), pp. 487, 490; (1677), pp. 87, 89; Heylyn, Cyprianus Anglicanus (1671), p. 60; Birch, Court and Times Charles the First, 1 155. James was not a little annoyed to find that he was unable to break through the obstacle presented by the restrictions of college statutes, in conferring upon his countrymen the benefits of royal nominations to vacant fellowships. On 9 Dec. 1609, Sir Thomas Lake addressed a letter to the chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge, informing them that his Majesty was 'much troubled' at the reluctance of the universities to admit 'Scotchmen', and desiring them to concert measures for a visitation for the purpose of revoking the 'hostile statutes.' At Cambridge, the authorities would seem to have gone to work somewhat reluctantly; but, after an interval of rather more than a year, we find Fogg Newton, the vice-chancellor, forwarding the following 'note' from King's College, in which the result of their deliberations and the reasons which led to it are plainly set forth : 'Concerning the admittance of Scottish students into the several colledges of Cambridge, the Heades of Houses have answered by their letters to their honorable Chancellor: 'First, that they cannot admit them into their foundations, eyther as fellowes or scollers, because it is contrary to their local statutes, as appeares by the speciall branches of the same statutes sent up in writing, which forbid that election be made of any borne out of the realme of England. 'Again, they cannot otherwise maintaine them out of any allowance of their colledges, both because their foundations are already full, which makes their expenses equall to their revenues, as also for that the distribution and ordering of every colledg receiptes and rentes is not in the disposition of the maisters alone, but is respectively referred by their statutes to the consent of the major part of the fellowes also, who (they feare) will be adverse and backward to any such good purpose as this, because whatsoever is this way to be allowed must of necessity be defalked from them.' See State Papers (Dom.) James the First, L no. 43; LXI no. 17. (F) p. 372. GILES FLETCHER'S VERSES. De Literis antiquae Britanniae, Regibus praesertim qui doctrina claruerunt, quique Collegia Cantabrigiae fundarunt. ex Academiae celeberrimae typographeo. 1633. Cantabrigiae: Haec igitur si forte tibi monumenta priorum Proxima foemineos jactant sacraria sumptus: Tertia quae gelidis Aquilonibus atria pandunt, Quarta vides nostris quae surgunt proxima ripis Haec sextus, cum regna senex infida teneret, Domus Petri. Aula Pembroch. Coll. S. Coll. Regin. Coll. Regal. Aula Cathar. Aula Claren. Aula Trinit. Coll. Caii. Coll. Trinit. Coll. S. Joan. Coll. Christ. Coll. Magd. Agmina, nil meritis inferret bella Camoenis, Ast tua, quae melius tranquilla per otia virtus, Vivet, et in nullo tua fama tacebitur aevo. En vero qui tecta colunt vicina penates; Proxima quae spatio, tectisque obscura, sed uno |