a knowledge of mechanics*. Profligate as was this monarch, he was a lover of the sea, and skilful in navigation; and he added a mathematical school and ward to Christ's Hospital, for the instruction of forty boys in mathematics and navigation, and liberally endowed it with one. thousand pounds paid out of the exchequer for seven years. The establishment, as at first founded, consisted only of a grammar-school for boys, and a separate school for girls, where they were taught to read, sew, and mark. A book containing the earliest records of the Hospital is preserved; in it is an anthem sung by the first children.

In this reign, in 1661, was born Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, the most amusing book ever written: he was educated at a dissenting academy, on Newington Green, where the father of the celebrated John Wesley was brought up with him. Defoe, however, never finished his education here. Jonathan (or Dean) Swift was born six years after Defoe: he was placed at a school in Kilkenny when six years old, and in his fifteenth year was removed to Trinity College, Dublin, where applying himself to history and poetry, to the neglect of other studies, he was at the end of four years refused the degree of bachelor of arts for incompetency,

*After the Restoration, Charles founded the Royal Society, and at the apartments in Somerset House the book is preserved in which all the members have signed' their names upon entrance.

and even at the end of seven years was only admitted by favour. Swift, however, subsequently rose to be one of the most original of English writers, his style affording the most perfect example of easy familiarity that the language presents; and in estimating his services to education we should not forget that he wrote a Proposal for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue, the object of which was to establish a school for securing the purity of the language. Addison received the rudiments of education at his father's rectory in Wiltshire, at Salisbury, and at Lichfield, whence he was removed to the Charterhouse, where he became intimate with Steele, with whom he afterwards wrote the Tatler, Spectator, &c.

A curious record of female talent deserves mention at this period. The first duke of Newcastle, (created by Charles II. at the Restoration,) was distinguished as a poet. His second wife, Margaret, possessed excellent abilities, and wrote plays, poems, letters, discourses, &c. of which she left enough to fill thirteen volumes (each as large as a church Bible,) ten of which have actually been printed. They were flattered by the writers of the day; but it is gratifying to learn that the duchess derives infinitely more honour from her exemplary character as a wife and mistress of a family, than from either her literary productions, or these praises.

John Aubrey, an antiquarian writer, has left us a few interesting particulars of this period, which are preserved in the Ashmolean Museum,

at Oxford. He says, "Before the Reformation, youth were generally taught Latin in the monasteries, and young women had their education not at Hackney*, as now, 1678, but at nunneries, where they learnt needlework, confectionary, surgery, physic, (apothecaries and surgeons being at that time very rare,) writing, drawing, &c. Old Jacquar, now living, has often seen from his house the nuns of St. Mary, Kingston, in Wilts, coming forth into the Nymph Hay with their rocks and wheels to spin, sometimes to the number of threescore and ten, all whom were not nuns, but young girls sent there for education." Again, "The gentry and citizens had little learning of any kind, and their way of breeding up children was suitable to the rest.

They were as severe to their children as their schoolmasters, and their schoolmasters as the masters of the house of correction: the child perfectly loathed the sight of his parents as the slave his torture. Gentlemen of thirty and forty years old were made to stand like mutes and fools bareheaded before their parents; and the daughters (grown women,) were to stand at the cupboard-side during the whole time of her proud mother's visit, unless, (as the fashion was,) leave was desired forsooth that a cushion should be given them to kneel upon, brought them by the serving man, after they had done sufficient penance by standing. The boys had

*It would appear from this note that Hackney has been known for the great number of its schools from the earliest records of such establishments in England.

their foreheads turned up and stiffened with spittle."

James II. displayed no shining qualities either in his youth or manhood. He was brought up with his brother and predecessor Charles II. by their mother, and so early as the age of twenty, he served in the French army, under the famed Turenne. Historians represent him as a man of narrow understanding; and his short reign was too unsettled by civil war and religious dispute, to allow him to encourage learning, had he been inclined to do so.

At this period, or the Revolution of 1688, Charity Schools, precisely speaking, were founded, with the view of opposing the seminaries set up by the Catholics. The sovereign, William III. claims little notice, either for his own abilities, or his encouragement of learning in others. The poet, Gay, born in this reign, was educated at the free-school at Barnstaple.

The education of the celebrated poet, Pope, was perhaps one of the most extraordinary in the history of men of letters. He was born of Catholic parents, in 1688, and was taught to read and write at home; and at a very early age was placed under the care of a Catholic priest, from whom he learned the rudiments of Greek and Latin. He was then placed successively at two schools; the first at Twyford, the second at Hyde Park Corner. About his twelfth year he was taken home, and privately instructed by another priest: he appears subsequently to

H

have been the director of his own studies, in which the cultivation of poetry occupied his chief attention.

The reign of Queen Anne was as distinguished for literature as for arms; but, although her administrations contained eminent scholars and patrons, her own taste and opinions had little share in calling forth the literary genius and talent which has obtained for the age the title of Augustan. Thomson, the poet of the Seasons, among the distinguished characters of the time, was educated at Jedburgh, and the university of Edinburgh. The celebrated Lord Chesterfield was educated at home till his eighteenth year his Letters to his Son may be mentioned with the education and manners of the period: indeed, it has been said of them, that “ no work in the English language contains more valuable lessons for the early cultivation of the understanding in the way of acquirement, and for the formation of the temper and manners." Harley, earl of Oxford, the favourite minister of Queen Anne, was not only a great encourager of learning, but the greatest book-collector in his time and his curious books and manuscripts form the basis of the Harleian library, now one of the richest treasures in the British Museum. Viscount Bolingbroke, also one of Anne's ministry, was so distinguished a scholar, that even his most familiar conversations would bear printing without correction.

It does not argue much for the intelligence of