ned hides, and upon all deer skins and furs that should be exported and carried out of the said colony," for the "better support and maintenance of the said college.' Queen Anne gave "the sum of one thousand pounds sterling (£1,000), out of the money arising from the quit-rents." And in 1697 an important bequest was received from the estate of the Honorable Robert Boyle, who had left his personal estate to" such charitable and pious uses as his executors should think fit." After some litigation, it was agreed that William and Mary and Harvard. Colleges in America should have this fund. Harvard was to have ninety pounds sterling per annum, and the Virginia college the remainder. The fund was invested in England, in landed property called the "Brafferton estate," and with the proceeds of this charity the "Brafferton House," one of the

purchase, for the purpose, of three hundred and thirty acres in the Parish of Bruton, near Williamsburg, for the sum of one hundred and seventy pounds sterling. The plan of the building was drawn by Sir Christopher Wren; and Beverley, the Virginia historian, says that it was intended "to be an entire square when completed." It was never finished. The first commencement exercises were held in 1700, and the ceremony seems to have excited wide-spread interest. The planters of the colony flocked to the capital in their coaches-the dusky figures of numerous Indians mingled with the crowdand it is said that curious spectators attended, from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and even New York, making the sea voyage in sloops for the purpose of being present. The sudden destruction of the building overthrew all the sanguine hopes of its friends. In

buildings on the College Green, was erected. The other building facing it, known as the "President's House," was erected in 1732, partially burned through accident by the French troops on their way to Yorktown in 1781, and rebuilt by Louis XVI., who presented five or six hundred valuable volumes to the library of the college.

To return to the first years of the institution, which, having now secured its charter and ample means, fairly entered on life. The site fixed upon by the charter was a certain spot called "Townsend's Land," on the southern bank of York River near Yorktown, supposed to have been Shields' Point. If the spot was found unwholesome, or any other valid objection presented itself, the Assembly was empowered to select some other site; and this they now did, directing the

1705 a fire broke out in the college about ten at night, and completely destroyed it with its library and philosophical apparatus. The event was regarded as a public calamity, and the crowd, it seems, stood looking at the burning building in melancholy silence. We are told that "the Governor and all the gentlemen that were in town came up to the lamentable spectacle, many getting out of their beds. But the fire had got such power before it was discovered, and was so fierce, that there were no hopes of putting a stop to it, and, therefore, no attempts were made to that end."

Steps were taken by the authorities to rebuild the college, and we are informed that the work was going on in "Governor Spotswood's time;" his term of office began in 1710. Owing to want of means and the

scarcity of workmen, it was not finished until the year 1723, but was so far completed in 1719, that the Convention of the Colonial Clergy held their session in the building. Of the original edifice no picture remains, but the tradition is, that it was rebuilt in precisely the same style; and of this second college we have a picture and a description which will thus serve for both: "The college front, which looks due east," says Hugh Jones in "The Present State of Virginia" (1729), "is double, and is one hundred and thirty-six feet long. At the north end runs back a large wing, which is a handsome hall, answerable to which the chapel is to be built. The building is

THE BOTETOURT STATUE.

beautiful and commodious, being first modeled by Sir Christopher Wren, adapted to the nature of the country by the gentlemen there; and since it was burned down it has been rebuilt, nicely contrived and adorned by the ingenious direction of Governor Spotswood, and is not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital."

The College of William and Mary entered upon its long career in the pious spirit which had moved the founders of the institution, and the blessing of the Almighty seemed to accompany its exertions, and go with it in its work. The first words of the first entry in the oldest record book of the Faculty are

the words of pious adjuration: In nomine Dei, Patris, Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen. This religious character of the college was indicated by the selection of officers to administer its affairs. We have noticed the fact that the first rector was the excellent James Blair, and its first chancellor Henry Compton, Bishop of London. The Bishops of London, with a single interregnum, continued to act as chancellors of the institution up to the American Revolution, and the presidents were the "commissaries" or representatives of the bishops in the colony. The college was thus, from the very first years of its existence, throughout all the varied scenes of its subsequent career, under pious influences; and when the colonies separated from the mother country the tradition was not lost. After the Revolution it was presided over by the eminent Bishop Madison and other distinguished divines, and by the present venerable Bishop Johns of Virginia. Every bishop in the State has, indeed, been in some manner connected with its administration, and the college, in spite of the infidel opinions which for a very brief space of time seemed to be invading it, about the period of the French Revolution, has been styled the nursery of the Church in Virginia." Bishop Meade, one of the best informed and most reliable of men, writes: "It is positively affirmed by those most competent to speak, that the best ministers in Virginia were those educated at the college and sent over to England for ordination. The foreigners were the great scandal of the Church."

The college was uniformly regarded with high favor, and assisted to the utmost by the royal governors, who seem to have looked upon it as an important supporter of conservative ideas, and a nurse of loyal opinions in political affairs. There is no evidence that these characteristics were ever exhibited in a truckling manner; on the contrary, the great leaders of the Revolution in Virginia were nearly all of them graduates of the institution; but it is a noticeable fact that the English governors were its strong friends. Lord Botetourt presented it with a sum of money, the interest of which was to be appropriated annually to the purchase of two gold medals-one for the best classical scholar of the year, and the other for the one most proficient in philosophy. Governor Spotswood was also strongly interested. in William and Mary, and exerted himself to persuade the chiefs of the Indian tribes to send their sons to the college. Many

came, but the result was not encouraging. At Henrico, the attempt to civilize these people had been repaid by a bloody massacre of their benefactors, and now the whole scheme was seen to be illusory. The young Indians entered as students pined or fell into idle courses. A writer in 1724 says: "They have for the most part returned to their homes-some with and some without baptism -where they follow their own savage customs and heathenish rites, or loiter and idle away their time in laziness and mischief."

The famous "Old Chapel" was built in 1732, and became the place of sepulture of some of the most distinguished men of Virginia. It was in reference to the chapel and to old Bruton Church that Bishop Meade wrote: "Williamsburg was once the miniature copy of the Court of St. James, somewhat aping the manners of that royal place, while the old church grave-yard and the college chapel were-si licet cum magnis componere parva-the Westminster Abbey and the St. Paul's of London, where the great ones were interred." The first person who came to sleep beneath the pavement of this American Westminster Abbey was Sir John Randolph, who had espoused the English side during the Revolution and gone into exile; and he was followed by his two sons, John Randolph, formerly the King's Attorney-General, and Peyton Randolph, President of the first Congress, and by Bishop Madison, first Bishop of Virginia; Chancellor Nelson, and it is believed Lord Botetourt, the royal governor, whose statue was in 1797 placed upon the college green. Botetourt had been a warm friend of the Virginians and the Virginia college; and, as he had expressed a desire to be buried in the colony, his friend, the Duke of Beaufort, wrote, after his death, requesting that "the president, etc., of the college will permit me to erect a monument near the place where he was buried." This phrase is supposed to indicate that the old chapel of William and Mary contained the last remains of the most popular and beloved of the royal governors. After long delay, and a successful weathering of the chances of time and tide, the college was now, at last, in full operation. It

was a "beautiful and commodious" edifice of brick, one hundred and thirty-six feet long, surmounted by a cupola, with its rear wing described as a "handsome hall;" its piazza extending along the western front;

THE BRUTON PARISH CHURCH.

its apartments for the "Indian Master" and his scholars; its park and extensive grounds, containing one hundred and fifty acres; and here and there on the green rose great live oaks heavy with foliage, beneath which passed to and fro the sixty-five students of the institution. Only here and at Harvard, in the Western World, had the ingrained instincts of the great Anglo-Saxon race begun to fight ignorance and superstition, and train the new generation in polite learning, and "good morals and manners" for the coming years.

A recital like that just made, dealing with charters, legislative enactments and dates, is always more or less uninteresting to the general reader, but has the merit at least of conveying information. We come now to a few incidents and details connected with the career of the old college, which will present a somewhat more lively picture of its character and proceedings. The students, whose average number up to the time of the Revolution was about sixty, seem to have resembled young gentlemen of their class in all ages of the world, and the Faculty were much exercised to control their restless energies, which took the direction of horse-races, cock-fights, and devotion to

what the ancient record calls " ye billiard or other gaming tables." It was ordered by the authorities in 1752, that no student of any "age, rank or quality soever" (which

OLD CAPITOL, WILLIAMSBURG, VA.

strongly suggests the presence of aristocratic distinction) should "keep any race-horse at ye college, in ye town, or anywhere in ye neighbourhood;" an offense which had been evidently committed by some of the young "bloods," as the order proceeds to direct that all such race-horses should be "immediately dispatched and sent off and never again brought back;" and the students were to be in no manner "concerned in making races, or in backing or abetting those made by others." They were also forbidden, on pain of severe animadversions and punishments, to "presume to appear playing or betting at ye billiard or other gaming tables," as noticed above, or to be in "any way concerned in keeping or fighting cocks." This order was probably a severe blow to the mercurial young Virginians, who had been trained at home to take delight in thoroughbred horses and game-cocks, the passion for which is noticed by the Marquis de Chastellux as late as toward the end of the century, when he made his horseback journey through the Commonwealth. Other rules and regulations for the better ordering of affairs at the college have been preserved in the old records. Tea and wine whey were luxuries which the housekeeper was only to furnish to such students as were sick. Whenever the "young gentlemen" of the college appeared in public they were to wear the "academical dress." Mrs. Foster was to be "the stocking mender in the college," with a salary of twelve pounds, provided she furnished her own "lodging, diet, fire, and candles." On the subject of the consumption of intoxicating liquors within the bounds of the college, the views of the

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authorities will probably be regarded as somewhat lax, or, at least, as not amounting to prohibition. "Spirituous liquors were to be used only in that moderation which becomes the prudent and industrious student;" but, for fear that this regulation might be regarded as somewhat vague, the authorities proceed to define the species of drinks which the prudent and industrious student was at liberty to use at his meals. From the list were excluded all liquids whatever, except "beer, cider, toddy, and spirits-andwater," wine appearing to be prohibited in consequence of its dangerous properties. This singular legislation seems to have worked badly, and there was much more tippling at table in the college than ought to have been permitted. In 1798, when the Bishop of Virginia was President of the College and had apartments in the buildings," the English traveler Weld noticed that half a dozen or more of the students— the eldest about twelve years of age-dined at his table one day when he was there; some were without shoes and stockings, others without coats. During the dinner they constantly rose to help themselves at the sideboard"-to beer, cider, toddy, or spirits-and-water, it is fairly to be supposed. The writer adds, that the dinner consisted of "a couple of dishes of salted meat and some oyster soup," and mentions, he says, the queer proceeding of the students, as "it may convey some idea of American colleges and American dignitaries." And it is difficult to dissent from his strictures. The habits of the epoch must have been singularly lax to permit boys of twelve to sit at table in their shirt sleeves and bare feet with

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The first round was fired at Mr. Camm and Mr. Johnson in September-in December they discharged a broadside in the shape of a comprehensive resolve "that all Professors and Masters, hereafter to be appointed, be constantly resident of ye college, and upon the marriage of such Professor or Master, that his Professorship be immediately vacated!"

governors had been excited, it seems, by the strange and unwarrantable proceedings of the Rev. Mr. John Camm, Professor of Divinity, and the Rev. Mr. Josiah Johnson, Master of the Grammar School, who, with premeditation, no doubt, and without the fear of the Worshipful Governors before their eyes, had "lately married, and taken up their residence in the city of Williamsburg, by which great inconvenience has arisen to the college, and the necessary attention which those Professors ought to pay to the conduct and behavior of the students and scholars has been almost totally interrupted." This grave dereliction of duty, resulting in such inconvenience" to everybody, evidently presented itself to the governors in the light of a crime calling for instant and severe "animadversions and punishment," and fulmination ensued. They solemnly declared their opinion that the said Professors, by engaging in marriage and the concerns of a private family, and shifting their residences to any place without the college," had acted in a manner "contrary to the principles on which the college was founded, and their duty as Professors." As a Bishop was generally the presiding officer, and the Bible itself gave him the right to be the husband of one wife, this prohibition thundered against the Professors seems strange. But the "governors" had evidently made up their minds deliberately.

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In such brief terms, stripped of all useless or misty verbiage, was the imperious anti-matrimonial will of the gentlemen governors fulminated. The poor Professors and Masters were not even to marry if they continued to be "constantly resident" within the college bounds. The words of the clergyman, "I pronounce you to be man and wife," were to operate instanter as a termination of their official connection with the institution!

It must be said, however, to the honor of the visitorswhose stern decrees on the above subject have now for a long time been completely disregarded-that they conducted the affairs of the college in the most judicious and intelligent manner, regulating every detail, and administering its finances so well, that its annual income reached four thousand pounds sterling, which made it "the richest college in North America." Their excellent judgment was shown in the appointment of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Zachary Taylor, grandfather of General Taylor, as surveyors, and in many other ways. The college and grounds