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of Trinity College, Cambridge, to be chosen from the Westminster scholars is prejudicial to the interests of Trinity,” which seems to imply that further negotiations took [64] place. I have not seen the memorandum and know nothing more about this than here appears.

      During the sixteen years following this settlement, that is, from 1608 to 1623 inclusive, fifty-eight scholars were elected from Westminster to Trinity, of whom sixteen became fellows.

      In 1623–24 a fresh dispute occurred. It would appear that while Trinity carried out its undertaking relating to the election of scholars from Westminster, it again began to pre-elect fellows with the object, it was said, of preventing any claim being made on behalf of the Westminster scholars in residence. Whether this was done in self-protection against unjustifiable claims or was a deliberate breach of the agreement of 1608 we do not know. An appeal to the crown on behalf of the school ensued, and on 7 September 1623, the king sent letters patent to the College as follows:

      Trusty and well beloved we greet you well. Being much interested in the prosperity and well-fare of that our College which is both our immediate Foundation and the fairest in all our kingdoms, and furnished, for the most part with the extracions of our own free-school at Westminster, we cannot but be very sensible of any alteration in the government of the same.

Whereas therefore we are given to understand that younger students of that College have of late years been totally disheartened in their studies by a new and unwarrantable device of pre-electing more Fellows than there are places vacant at the time of that Election and the [65] Scholars of our own School (in whose loyalty and affection we are so much interested from their cradles) strangely discouraged and disgraced by being cast in their seniority behind all the Scholars and Fellows in their several Elections though never so exceeding in learning and education, we straightly will and require you that from this time forward ye do forbear all manner of pre-elections whatsoever as the pest and bane of all learning and succession; and that also you bear that regard and respect to the Scholars of that our own Royal School in giving them in all such elections respect and precedency which we are informed they fully deserve before all other of what country soever. Lastly, whereas we are given to understand that heretofore a corrupt custom hath crept into that our College of turning elections into particular nominations of the Master and the several Seniors which smells altogether of partialitie and corruption we do straightly will and require you the said Master of our College of whom we conceive a very good opinion, to see that hereafter all elections as well of Scholars as of Fellows be done according to the local statutes of your College and carried about with that pluralitie of voices therein required.

What reply (if any) the College made or could make I do not know, but presumably the answer was not satisfactory as these letters were followed by the appointment of royal commissioners to enquire into the Westminster elections. There is extant a letter from the master of Trinity (Richardson) dated 9 June 1624, to one of the commissioners, asking to be excused from attending the usual election of Westminster scholars, on account of [66] poor health. Probably this was regarded as an impertinence, and he must have been reprimanded since we have a letter dated 26 June signed by the master and six of the senior fellows, deprecating the royal displeasure, offering the most humble submission, promising to obey in anything that his majesty might command, but begging that present compliance might not be drawn into an example against the College. Richardson and James I died in March 1625, and the enquiry seems to have been then dropped.

The election in 1636 was interesting. It is said that among the candidates was Cowley who had already written various poems and a comedy showing distinct ability. The story runs that the boy failed badly in grammar, and the Trinity electors, insisting that this was conclusive, rejected him as a Westminster scholar, but offered him an ordinary scholarship at Trinity, which he accepted. Against this are the fact that he had been entered at Trinity as a pensioner in April, a few weeks before the election at Westminster, and the improbability that the electors would have drawn such a distinction between Westminster and other scholars of the House. Still old-time anecdotes are not to be lightly rejected: at any rate Cowley came into residence in due course and was made a scholar in the same term as the four boys taken from Westminster by the electors, these five [67] students being the only scholars elected by the College in 1637.

      During the seventy-seven years from 1624 to 1700 inclusive, three hundred and fifty-six scholars were elected from Westminster to Trinity, of whom one hundred and twenty-six became fellows. During the fifty years, 1701 to 1750, out of one hundred and eighty-seven Westminster scholars at Trinity sixty-two became fellows; during the fifty years, 1751 to 1800, out of one hundred and eighty, thirty became fellows; and during the fifty-six years, 1801 to 1856, out of one hundred and seventy, four became fellows. Throughout this long period the friendly relations between the College and the school suffered no change.

In 1727 there was a curious echo of the controversy of 1607. A strange suggestion had been made, apparently with the tacit approval of the authorities of Westminster, that new statutes should be given to Trinity constituting the dean and chapter of Westminster Visitors of the College, and it was decided by the advocates of the movement to open the campaign by asking the dean of Westminster to call the attention of the master of Trinity (Bentley), to the “Letters Anno Quinto Jacobi Primi.” Bentley replied on 5 March 1727, denied their validity and argued that even if originally valid, they could not be pressed after more [68] than a century during which time “they had never been acted upon”: he added that, if antiquated letters were still binding, there were various matters in which he had powers, whose exercise might prove singularly inconvenient to those who had raised the question. This was really conclusive, but further consideration had shown the inherent weakness or folly of the original idea, and the chapter was wise enough to proceed no further with the matter.

      Shortly afterwards, probably at the following election at Westminster, Bentley is said to have referred to the dean’s communication, and remarked that the authority of the letters of 1607 would doubtless have seemed stronger, at any rate to the dean’s predecessor (Atterbury), if not to the chapter, could they have been described as “Anno Primo Jacobi Tertii”—an irrelevant remark, but it carried a sting, for Atterbury’s devotion to the cause of the Pretender was deeply resented by the government.

From an unknown date until the early years of the nineteenth century, Westminster scholars at Trinity were allowed the privilege of wearing academic gowns of a cut different from those of other undergraduates and further distinguished by having on the sleeves a violet button with a silk loop. The gowns of all pensioners in the University were then [69] black and (except for those worn by Westminsters) cut to a common pattern. The Westminster distinction was discontinued when the present system of different gowns for different Colleges was introduced.

During the first half of the nineteenth century the numbers in the school fell seriously, and well-founded complaints were made about the standard of scholarship attained by the scholars elected to the universities. In 1856, as the result of negotiations, initiated by Whewell, the arrangements with Trinity were completely recast, and it was agreed on 5 December 1856 that the school should abandon the right of Westminster boys to election to scholarships at Trinity, and that in filling up open emoluments in Trinity, former Westminster boys should enjoy no preference. In consideration of this release, the Society undertook to establish at its own cost, exhibitions, not more than three to be awarded each year, for boys elected from the school who were otherwise qualified for admission to the College; every such exhibitioner, if so deserving, to be eligible for a college scholarship tenable with the exhibition. This was approved by the queen in council on 25 June 1857. It was further agreed that the Westminster exhibitioners were to be placed on the same footing as exhibitioners elected by open competition before commencing [70] residence.

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