The English Spy, page 409 by Bernard Blackmantle
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e king's scholarships to be much sought after, as it becomes the ground-work of reputation, and incites desire to excel. There are four boys who are called Bishop's boys, from their being established by Williams, Bishop of Lincoln; they have a gratuitous education, and a small allowance which is suffered to accumulate till the period of their admission into St. John's College, Cambridge; they are distinguished by wearing a purple gown, and are nominated by the dean and head- master.
What a cloud of recollections, studded with bright and variegated lights, passes before my inward vision! Stars of eminence in every branch of learning, science, and public duties, who received their education within those walls; old Westminsters, whose fame will last as long as old England's records, and who shall doubt ~85~~that will be to the end of time? Here grew into manhood and renown the Lord Burleigh, King, Bishop of London, the poet Cowley, the great Dryden, Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, Dr. South, Matthew Prior, the tragedian Rowe, Bishop Hooper, Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Friend, the physician, King, Archbishop of Dublin, the philosopher Locke, Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, Bourne, the Latin poet, Hawkins Browne, Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery, Carteret, Earl of Granville, Charles Churchill, the English satirist, Frank Nicholls, the anatomist, Gibbon, the historian, George Colman, Bonnel Thornton, the great Earl of Mansfield, Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, Richard Cumberland, the poet Cowper. These are only a few of the great names which occur to me at this moment; but here is enough to immortalize the memory of the old Westminsters."
ON FEASTERS AND FEASTING.
On the Attachment of the Moderns to Good Eating and Drinking--Its Consequences and Operation upon Society-- Different Description of Dinner Parties--Royal--Noble-- Parliamentary--Clerical--Methodistical--Charitable-- Theatrical--Legal--Parochial--Literary--Commercial and Civil Gourmands--Sketches at a