pointed and endowed two public lectures in divinity, one at Oxford and the other at Cambridge. At the laft univerfity fhe made provifion for a preacher, to deliver at least fix fermons, every year, in feveral churches, belonging to the diocefes of London, Ely, and Lincoln; and the founded a free grammar school at Winborne, in Dorfetfhire. Thefe were only the beginnings of lady Margaret's benefactions. In 1506, the completed the foundation of Chrift's college, Cambridge, and provided fo plentifully for it, out of her own lands and poffeffions, that her revenues alone afford a maintenance for a mafter, twelve fellows, and forty-feven fcholars. A judgment may be formed of the fucceeding usefulness and reputation of this inftitution, when it is obferved that, among the other learned ornaments of it, the names may be reckoned of John Leland, Hugh Broughton, William Ames, Jofeph Mede, Ralph Cudworth, Henry More, Thomas Burnet, William Outram, John Lightfoot, John Milton, John Howe, and Nicholas Sanderfon. The countefs of Richmond, having difplayed fo much bounty at Cambridge, was difpofed to extend her beneficence to diftant places, and to other objects. But, through the influence of John Fisher, bishop of Rochef ter, who had been her confeffor and chaplain, fhe was prevailed upon to carry ftill farther her patronage to her favourite univerfity. Accordingly, fhe became the foundrefs of St. John's College; but died before the defign was completed. Her executors, however, were zealous and fpeedy in fulfilling the purposes of her will. This college has fince had fuch various endowments, and risen to fuch extent, as, we believe, to exceed all others in the number of its refidents. Befides a mafter, it has fiftynine fellows, and a hundred fcholars; and the students upon their own foundation are uncommonly numerous. We omit many refpectable names and characters, when we take, notice that St. John's college can boaft of Roger Afchanr, Afcham, John Redman, Thomas Cartwright, John Cheke, Thomas Wyat, William Cecil, William Whitacre, John Boys, John Overall, Ben. Jonfon, Henry Briggs, Thomas Gatacre, Kenelm Digby, Lucius Cary, John Williams, William Cave, Edward Stilligfleet, John Smith, Thomas Otway, William Beveridge, Matthew Prior, Richard Bentley, Thomas Baker, Samuel Croxal, John Taylor, and John Powell. Thefe two colleges were not the only ones which were founded in Cambridge during this period. Jefus College was erected and endowed, fome years before the others, by John Alcock, bishop of Ely; and it can reckon, among its literary ornaments, Thomas Cranmer, John Bale, Richard Bancroft, John Duport, Chriftopher Hatton, Richard Fenfhaw, John North, John Worthington, John Pearfon, Elijah Fenton, and John Flamstead. Oxford will reaffume her glory, in refpect to collegiate inftitutions. when we fhall come to Wolfey's noble foundation, in the next reign. Among the encouragers of literature, archbishop Warham, though he did not form any large and permanent establishment, must not be forgotten. He enriched the library of New College, Oxford, with a number of curious Greek books, which were purchased by him of fuch perfons as had obtained the poffeffion of them after the taking of Conftantinople. But the principal circumftance which entitles him to be remembered in this place, is, that he was the zealous friend, and the generous patron, of the great Erafmus. At a time when the nobility in general were involved in grofs ignorance, Algernon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, diftinguished himself, by being the protector of fuch genius as the age produced. Skelton was was encouraged by him to write an elegy on the death of his father; but what particularly marked the earl's literary tafte, and in an efpecial manner his love for poetry, was a very fplendid manufcript, tranfcribed for his ufe, containing a large collection of English poems, finely engroffed in vellum, and fuperbly illuminated. That he cultivated the arts of external elegance, is manifeft from the ftately fepulchral monuments which were erected by him, in the collegiate church of Beverley in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father and mother. These monuments are executed in the richest ftyle of the florid Gothic architecture, and exhibit ftriking proofs of his lordship's tafte and magnificence. In the next reign he founded a ftipend for a grammatical and philofophical profeffor at Alnwick. From the earl's houfehold-book it appears, that both he and his lady had diftinct libraries; and in the fame book it is appointed, that one of his chaplains fhould be a maker of interludes. We fhall conclude the prefent article with the mention of a nobleman, who was of the Scottish nation. This was Henry, earl of Sinclair, the friend and patron of Gawin Douglas. It was at the earl's request that Douglas undertook his tranflation of Virgil's Eneid; and certainly that mind must have been cultivated far above the common fpirit of the age, which could form the conception, and urge the execution, of fo noble a defign. Great General Dictionary, Biographia Britannica, British Biography, Mofheim, Millar, Hume, Warton, Pinkerton, Walpole, Bentham, Ballard, &c. &c. |