APPENDIX. (A), pp. 66 & 559. Lydgate's Verses on the Foundation of the University of Cambridge. (From the copy in Stokys' book f. 80 seq. in the registry, Cambridge.) Johannes Lidgatus. 1 By trew recorde of the Doctor Bede, That some tyme wrotte so mikle with his hande, In his cronicles made of England Amounge other thynges as ye shall vnderstand, Seith the translacion and buylding of Cambridge. 2 With hym accordinge Alfride the Croniclere, 3 He rehersing first for commendacion, 4 Like as I finde reporte I can none other. 5 Named Cantebro a large brode ryver, This famous Citie, this write the Cronicler, 6 Fower thowsand complete by accomptes clere Sett on this ryver which is called Cante. 7 And fro the great transmigracion Of kynges reconed in the byble of old Twoe hundreth wynter and thirtie yeares told. At Atheynes scholed in his yought, 8 Alle his wyttes greatlye did applie To have acquayntaunce by great affection From Atheines he brought with hym downe 9 With many other myne Aucthours dothe fare, With philosophers, & let for no cost spare Of whoes teachinge great profit that gan spreade And great increase rose of his doctrine; Thus of Cambridge the name gan first shyne 10 As chieffe schoole & vniuersitie Vnto this tyme fro the daye it began By cleare reporte in manye a far countre Vnto the reigne of Cassibellan, A woorthie prince and a full knyghtlie man, As sayne cronicles, who with his might[ie] hand Let Julius Cesar to arryve in this lande. 11 Five hundreth yere full thirtie yere & twentie Fro babilons transmigracion That Cassibelan reigned in britayne, Which by his notable royall discrecion 12 By the meane of his royall favor To that stooddie great plentie there cam downe, To gather fruites of wysdome and science 13 And as it is put eke in memorie, Howe Julius Cesar entring this region Tooke with him clarkes of famouse renowne 14 Five hundreth yere thirtie and eke nyne. In this matter ye gett no more of me, To be preferred of longe antiquitie; For which by recorde all clarkes seyne the same, Of heresie Cambridge bare never blame. (B), p. 136. Nearly all that is known about the university of Stamford, its fabled foundation as Bladud's university in A. c. 863, its probable first foundation under the patronage of Henry de Hanna, the second Provincial general of the Carmelites in England, and its final dispersion in 1335 (according to Wood 1334), is to be found in the Academia Tertia Anglicana, or Antiquarian Annals of Stanford, compiled by the laborious antiquary, Francis Peck, himself a native of Stamford. Whether the foundations there can be held to have constituted a university as Peck (Lib. VIII. p. 44) claims, may perhaps be questioned: Wood hesitates to decide; and the language of the letter of Edward III commanding the return of the Oxford students, 'we not being minded that schools or studies should in any sort be any where held within |