veral others. The site also of Sidney College, which formerly was occupied by the public schools, once belonged to this house; and Sidney College pays an annual rent for it to Trinity, to the present day.

Its founders and benefactors have been kings and queens; and whatever else is deemed great in this country; and among its eminent characters is seen a series of the first men in literature, the fathers of science, who have enlightened not only this University, but all Europe; and further, if it possesses many things only in common with other colleges, it can boast many excellencies peculiar to itself.

There are, perhaps, other considerations which might dispose a writer to t ink, on the present occasion, with modesty, and speak with caution. The variety, which this college necessarily embraces, seems to preclude any person from attempting its history, but one of its own members, possessing the ready use of the archives. By the late Dr. Mason, well known as an accurate inquirer into the antiquities of the University, such advantages were enjoyed; and he, I understand, left many writings relating to this college. To these others, have been added, by the late Mr. Hodson; and many similar papers being now deposited in the archives of the college, when still further enlarged, may, probably, at some future period furnish (as in proper hands they might) materials for a more regular history of Trinity College, chronologically regular, nor less biographically interesting and exact, somewhat worthy of the society. But to begin with the hostles.

Michael House, according to the charter of foundation, was founded by Hervey, sometimes called, inaccu

rately, Henry of Staunton, priest, one of the barons of the exchequer in Edward IId's reign; having obtained a licence, for the purpose, of the king, and a confirmation of it under the seal of Hotham, Bishop of Ely, and of the convent of Ely, A. 1324, in the 18th year of Edward II. according to Archbishop Parker: to its use, he assigned the rents and patronage of several rectories, and it obtained several privileges of Pope Boniface IX.

The other benefactors to this house may be seen in the several histories of Cambridge.

According to Baker, the statutes were given in 1324, confirmed in 1397, and the appropriation of St. Michael's church was given in 1824. It was a house of great account; and the statutes being the first given to any college in the University (even before those of Peter House, as already noticed), are, as Baker observes, on that account, a great rarity: they may be seen in Baker's MSS. in the University library of Cambridge, vol. 31. "But it was a great omission," he adds, " that no oath was required of the master."

King's Hall, Aula Regis, was so called from its founder, Edward III. who, in obedience to the request of his father, planned the foundation in 1334; though it was not properly a settled foundation till Oct. 7, 1337.Pope Eugenius the IVth gave it the rectory of Chesterton,

Archbishop Parker's Catalogus Cancellariorum, &c. who follows the Episc. Eliens:-but it must be the 17th Edw. II. as in the charter of foundation.

b The king gave a licence to found in quodam messuagio cum perti. nentibus in Cant. quod sibi in fœudo acquisiverat, quandam domum scholarium, capellanorum, et aliorum sub nomine domus scholarium in Cantab. &c. Baker's MSS. Vol. xxxi. p. 152.

near Cambridge, which rectory being then worth 671. sterling, had formerly, by the pope's right, been annexed to the monastery of Versailles, and of which the said pope had seen reason to deprive a bishop, by whom it had hitherto been possessed.

This hall was of the greatest repute in the University, and pre-eminent as a building; for when King Rich. II. who was a benefactor, held his court at Cambridge in 1381, it lodged all his court, and in the third year of his reign he gave the society a body of statutes.

Phiswicke's hostle was the third: this was situated on the southern side of the present college, and had been the dwelling-house of a private person, William Phiswick, Esq. beadle of the University, from whom it derived its name. But, though the donor was a private person, it obtained particular distinction: it was settled by charter, A. 1393, on Gonville Hall; and Pope Alexander the Vth permitted the scholars to make use of the common chapel; so that two masters being appointed, one for the old house, another for the new, the two houses were coalesced into a society, and became a most respectable college.

The other hostles were called Gregory's, Oving's, Margaret's, Catherine's, Gerard's, and Tyler's, either from the persons by whom these had been formerly occupied, or through whom they were appropriated to their particular purposes. On the dissolution of religious houses, these several hostles were formed into one grand establishment; and from the three principal ones, out of the funds of which it was endowed, it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, being called by the founder Trinity College. Whether the name had any relation to a coarse