s which we know prevailed in
his day, but do not see in ours. Thirteen lame, deaf, blind and maimed
beggars came each morning into the college hall to receive their
portion of food for the day. The porter of the college made his rounds
early every morning, to shave the beards and wash the heads of the
Fellows, but these and many other quaint customs have perished long ago
and still the picture of the Black Prince hangs on the college wall.
Tradition tells us that while the proud young prince was receiving such
education as befitted his rank in life, a poor boy in the shabbiest of
clothes and forgetful of everything except the books and study he
loved, was at Queens College too. The characters and lives of John
Wycliff, the great reformer, and Edward the Black Prince, were indeed
opposite, but it is interesting to feel that they were educated in the
same place, that possibly once in youth, their lives touched, although
in later days, one was great in the making of peace and one in the
making of war.

The young prince may have been studious, but he also doubtless took
advantage of all such diversions as Oxford life offered, and it is
natural to picture him in drill and hunt and sports such as were best
fitted to his manly vigour, and foreshadowed his enthusiasm in later
days for the strenuous game of war.

A mere lad at Queens, we see him first--then a youth, out in the great
world watching with keenest interest the doings of courtiers and king,
and then we find him a young knight, following the king, his father, in
his first great campaign, and a fine young warrior he was both in looks
and character, fearless and strong in his black armour which threw into
sharp contrast the fairness of his complexion. A brave, handsome young
knight was he, Edward Plantagenet, at the time when the English people
under King Edward became inspired with a passion for continental
dominion.

The Normans had conquered England and now the English were eager to go
out and themselves become conquerors, and to further that ambition King
Edward and his army set out and ravaged Normandy, pillaging and
plundering their way almost to the gates of Paris, and their march was
perfectly consistent with the feudal manner of waging war, which was to
desolate the country through which they passed, to burn any town that
resisted invasion, and to plunder its inhabitants even though they
peacefully submitted to the invaders. In this way, King Edward and his