has
been long and intimately associated with the Abbey; there was probably a
scholastic establishment carried on by the monks from the very earliest
days, and recent discoveries by Mr. Edward Scott in the Abbey muniments
prove that there was a grammar school--and not only a choir school--in
existence before the Reformation. On the dissolution of the Abbey in
Henry VIII.'s reign, it was formed into a college of Secular Canons, and
the school was in existence then in dependence on the Canons. Queen
Elizabeth remodelled her father's scheme and refounded the school,
calling it St. Peter's College, Westminster, which is still its correct
designation; so that, though the present establishment owes its origin
to Queen Elizabeth, it may be said to have inherited the antiquity of
its predecessor, and to hold its own in that matter with Winchester and
Eton.

If we pass under the archway into Dean's Yard, we find a backwater
indeed, where the roar of traffic scarcely penetrates, where sleek
pigeons coo in the elm-trees round a grass plot, as if they were in the
close of one of the sleepiest of provincial towns instead of in the
midst of one of the greatest cities in the world. On the east side there
is a long building of smoke-blackened, old stone. The door at the north
end leads into the cloisters, from whence we can pass into the school
courtyard, otherwise the school entry is by a pointed doorway a little
further down, beneath the Headmaster's house. Entering this, we have on
the left Ashburnham House, on the right the houses of masters who take
boarders, and opposite, a fine gateway with the arms of Queen Elizabeth
over it; this is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones. The greater
part of the buildings was designed by Wren, who died before the project
was carried out, but there seems to be little doubt that the Earl of
Burlington, who followed him in the appointment, used Wren's plans. The
great square building, the scholars' dormitory (now cubicles), which
faces us, standing a little way to the right of the ornamental gateway,
is of this period; also much of the main building into which we enter by
the gateway above mentioned, and a flight of steps. The seventh form
room on the right has a fine ceiling of Italian plaster and bookcases
with carved panels. This is known as Dr. Busby's Library, because built
by him. It looks out over the college garden.

The great schoolroom beyond, known as Up-School, is a splendid room,