DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52059#0057
[ 55 ]
mercenary lawyer, I can by no means commend in a
sober and well-governed gentleman.”1
Though formerly boys were generally sent to the
University earlier than nowadays the sons of the
aristocracy frequently went to college before they had
even entered their teens.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury (born 1581. was twelve
years old when he entered University College, Oxford.
H. Peacham, in his Compleat Gentleman (1634), p. 33,
says : “ Many parents take their children from schoole,
as birds out of the nest, ere they bee flidge, and send
them so young to the Universitie, that scarce one
among twenty prooveth ought.” Clement Ellis, The
Gentile Sinner (1661), p. 25, blames parents for the
same mistake: “ But the hopefull youth must be a
gentleman, and in all hast he must be sent to see the
University or Innes of Court; and that before he well
knowes what it is to go to school.” 2 Thus it often
became necessary to send a special governor or tutor
with boys to the University. This is recommended
by Lord Herbert, in his Autobiography, p. 47 : “ When
the young gentleman shall be ready to go to the
University, it will be fit also his governor for manners
to go along with him.” Swift is very hard on those
(French) tutors who, he says, “attend their pupils to
their college to prevent all possibility of their improve-
ment” {Essay on Education, p. 292.) “ And thus,” he
1 In his Autobiography, ed. Lee, p. 48-
1 The proper age for leaving the University in Goldsmith’s time
was twenty-one years, when the first degree was generally taken,
four years after matriculation ; cf. chap. xiii. of his Inquiry into
the Present State of Learning.
mercenary lawyer, I can by no means commend in a
sober and well-governed gentleman.”1
Though formerly boys were generally sent to the
University earlier than nowadays the sons of the
aristocracy frequently went to college before they had
even entered their teens.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury (born 1581. was twelve
years old when he entered University College, Oxford.
H. Peacham, in his Compleat Gentleman (1634), p. 33,
says : “ Many parents take their children from schoole,
as birds out of the nest, ere they bee flidge, and send
them so young to the Universitie, that scarce one
among twenty prooveth ought.” Clement Ellis, The
Gentile Sinner (1661), p. 25, blames parents for the
same mistake: “ But the hopefull youth must be a
gentleman, and in all hast he must be sent to see the
University or Innes of Court; and that before he well
knowes what it is to go to school.” 2 Thus it often
became necessary to send a special governor or tutor
with boys to the University. This is recommended
by Lord Herbert, in his Autobiography, p. 47 : “ When
the young gentleman shall be ready to go to the
University, it will be fit also his governor for manners
to go along with him.” Swift is very hard on those
(French) tutors who, he says, “attend their pupils to
their college to prevent all possibility of their improve-
ment” {Essay on Education, p. 292.) “ And thus,” he
1 In his Autobiography, ed. Lee, p. 48-
1 The proper age for leaving the University in Goldsmith’s time
was twenty-one years, when the first degree was generally taken,
four years after matriculation ; cf. chap. xiii. of his Inquiry into
the Present State of Learning.