e, schools had been under or
connected with monastic houses; now they were distinct foundations, with
priests still as masters, but priests secular and not religious. Wykeham
was, indeed, the pioneer of the public-school system, of which, with all
its shortcomings, England is so justly proud.

Each of the bishop's colleges took about six years in building, and that
at Oxford was the first to be finished. It must have been a proud day
for Winchester when, on March 28, 1393, the "seventy faithful boys",
headed by their master, came in procession from St. Giles's Hill, where
they had been temporarily housed, and, all chanting psalms, entered into
possession of their fair college.

The buildings have been but little altered since their founder's day,
and extend now, as then, on the south side of the Close, and along the
bank of the Itchen. They consist mainly of two quadrangles, in the first
of which, entered from College Street by a gateway, are the Warden's
house and other offices. Here is the brewhouse, quite unaltered; but the
Warden's house has absorbed the old bakehouse, slaughterhouse, and
butcher's room. Over the second archway are figures of the Virgin, with
Gabriel on her right, and Wykeham kneeling on her left. Here was a room
for the Warden, from which he could see all who entered or left the
college; and here also is the site of the old penthouse under which the
scholars used to perform their ablutions, and which they called "Moab".
The old Society comprised the Warden, ten Fellows, three Chaplains,
sixteen Queristers, and seventy scholars. The boys, the chaplains, and
the choristers lived within the inner quadrangle, the northern side of
which is formed by the chapel and the refectory. The original chapel,
with the exception of the beautiful fan-groining of its roof, was much
defaced in the seventeenth century, but was restored in the nineteenth,
when a new reredos was added. The refectory remains practically
untouched, and has a roof enriched with some beautiful carved woodwork,
the painted heads of kings and bishops, and some great mullioned
windows. Over the buttery is the audit-room, hung with ancient and rare
tapestries, and containing a large chest known as Wykeham's money box.
The original schoolroom was in the basement, and has long been put to
other uses. The chantry, the beautiful cloisters, and the chapel tower
were all built after the founder's death, but he provided a wooden bell
tower, which sto