about the same
time plans of the estates were obtained, some of these, made before the
enclosures, showing the land scattered in many minute pieces, are very
curious and interesting.

The actual life within the College walls is not so easy to describe with
any certainty. At first, as we have seen, the undergraduates actually
lived with Fellows of the College, and overcrowding must have been a
constant feature of College life. On 15th December 1565 a return was
made to Lord Burghley of all students, "whether tutors or pupils,"
residing in the College, with notes as to whether they had come into
Chapel in their surplices or not. The return concludes with this
summary: "The whole number is 287, whereof there came into the Chappell
with surplesses upon the last Saturdaie and Sondaie 147; and abrode in
the country 33. And of thother 107 whiche cumme not in as yet, there be
many cumme to the Colledge of late and be not yet provided of
surplesses." At this time we have to remember that the buildings of the
College consisted only of the First Court, the Infirmary or Labyrinth,
and a small block of buildings in a corner of the ground now occupied by
the Second Court, swept away when that was built. The arrangement seems
to have been as follows. The ground-floor rooms were occupied by junior
Fellows, each with a few pupils. The rooms on the first floor, known in
the College books as the "middle chambers," were in greater request;
with these went the rooms on the second floor, with sometimes _excelses_
or garrets over them--these could accommodate a senior Fellow with
several pupils. In the older parts of the College the rooms occupied the
whole depth of the building, and so were lighted from both sides; in the
corners, when light could be obtained, cubicles or studies were
partitioned off. From a sanitary point of view, life under such
conditions must have left much to be desired, and the burial registers
of All Saints' parish (in which the older part of the College is
situated) leave the impression of frequent and almost epidemic illness
in the College during the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth
century.

The undergraduates in early times were much younger than the men of the
present day. The statutes prescribed that the oath should not be
required from scholars who were under sixteen years of age; the frequent
occurrence of _non juratus_ in the admission entry of a scholar shows
that many came to the College befor