if he ever took a
degree; and in 1571 he went to London and devoted himself to antiquarian
studies, for which he had already acquired a taste.

Camden spent some time in travelling in various parts of England
collecting materials for his _Britannia_, a work which was first
published in 1586. Owing to his friendship with Dr Gabriel Goodman, dean
of Westminster, Camden was made second master of Westminster school in
1575; and when Dr Edward Grant resigned the headmastership in 1593 he
was appointed as his successor. The vacations which he enjoyed as a
schoolmaster left him time for study and travel, and during these years
he supervised the publication of three further editions of the
_Britannia_. Although a layman he was granted the prebend of Ilfracombe
in 1589, and in 1597 he resigned his position at Westminster on being
made Clarencieux king-at-arms, an appointment which caused some
ill-feeling, and the York herald, Ralph Brooke, led an attack on the
genealogical accuracy of the _Britannia_, and accused its author of
plagiarism. Camden replied to Brooke in an appendix to the fifth edition
of the _Britannia_, published in 1600, and his reputation came through
the ordeal untarnished. Having brought out an enlarged and improved
edition of the _Britannia_ in 1607, he began to work on a history of the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, to which he had been urged by Lord Burghley in
1597. The first part of this history dealing with the reign down to 1588
was published in 1615 under the title _Annales rerum Anglicarum et
Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha_. With regard to this work some
controversy at once arose over the author's treatment of Mary, queen of
Scots. It was asserted that Camden altered his original narrative in
order to please James I., and, moreover, that the account which he is
said to have given to his friend, the French historian, Jacques de Thou,
differed substantially from his own. It seems doubtful if there is any
truth in either of these charges. The second part of this work, finished
in 1617, was published, after the author's death, at Leiden in 1625 and
in London in 1627. In 1622 Camden carried out a plan to found a history
lectureship at Oxford. He provided an endowment from some lands at
Bexley, and appointed as the first lecturer, his friend, Degory Wheare.
The present occupant of the position is known as the Camden professor of
ancient history. His concluding years were mainly spent at Chislehurst,
where he