This School was burnt down in the common Calamity by Fire, Anno 1666, but built up again much after the same Manner and Proportion it was before; together with the Library; and an House added on the South End thereof for the Second Master. Whose Dwelling before, and from the first Founding of the School, was in the Old Change, adjoining to the said School: This House hath a very handsome Front, answerable to the High Master's House at the North End of the School, on which is engraven, æDES PRæCEPTORIS GRAMMATICES.

In the next Place, I shall exhibit a Catalogue of such as have been chief Masters of this School from the first Foundation of it to this present Time; with some Remarks upon some of them.

William Lillie, High Master; placed by the Founder. Of whom Erasmus, in his Epistle before the Syntaxis, gave this Character, viz. Utriusq; literaturæ haud vulgariter peritus, & recte instituendæ pubis Artifex. i.e. That he was a Man singularly skilled in both kinds of Literature [Latin and Greek] and an Artist in the right bringing up of Youth. Being a good Poet, he made the Latin Rules in our Grammar for the Genders of Nouns, and the Preterperfect Tenses and Supines of Verbs, putting them into Hexameter Verse, for Youths easier learning and remembring them. He composed also those excellent Rules in Latin Verse, called Qui mihi, for the Instruction of the Children, his Scholars, in good Manners. He bred up many great Scholars, and such as afterward proved famous in their Times; as Lupset, Sir Anthony Denny, Sir Edward North, Sir William Paget, Leland the Antiquary, who acknowledges it in one of his Epigrams; Instructor Lillius ille fuit. After Ten Years, or more, he was succeeded by

John Rightwise, or Ritwis (in Latin, Justus,) who had been second Master before; and was Lillie's Son in Law, having married his Daughter Dionysia. He was born in Norfolk, bred at Eaton School and King's College in Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1508, reputed an excellent Poet, and wrote these Verses upon Lilie, his Father in Law and Predecessor;

Vivere perpetuis si possunt nomina Chartis,
Ac cineri quenquam est fas superesse suo;
Crede tuo hoc, LILI, doctrinæ munere claro,
Dignus es æterna posteritate frui.

Leland hath an Epigram to this Master, intitled, Ad Justum Paulinæ scholæ Moderatorem: Beginning

Qui linguas teneras nova refingis
Quadam dexteritate, nec ruinam
Musarum pateris nitentium ullam;
Tu nunc, Juste, meum manu benigna
Carmen suscipe -

This Rightwise made the Tragedy of Dido out of Virgil, and acted a Part in it with his Scholars before Cardinal Wolsey, with great Applause.

He revised and augmented Lilies Propria quæ maribus, & As in presenti. And published them with an Interpretation of the Words in them. After Ten Years Labour here, he also gave Place to

Richard Jones. Next him succeeded

Thomas Freeman: Who also spent Ten Years in the laborious Employment of the Education of Youth, and then came into his Province

John Cook, M.A. admitted into King's College Cambridge, Anno 1533. He seems to have been a Native of Lincolnshire, and School-Fellow to the Lord Treasurer Burghley; as may be conjectured from a Letter of the said Cook's to the said Lord, thankfully acknowledging the obliging Reception that great Minister of State once gave him, after a long Absence and Intermission of Acquaintaince. Cum Usus aliquis, (as the Letter ran) a primo pæne studiorum nostrorum curriculo, vix interesset; i.e. when there had scarce been any Conversation between them from the first Course of their Studies to that Time.

This Letter he began with a good Sentence and a good Principle; which, to leave some Remembrance of the Man, I shall here set down. Equidem in communi vita ac societate hominum inter ipsos, nihil prius neq; libero homine dignius esse reor, quam animo ut propenso simus ad eos juvandos, qui ope altera indigent. Eo etenim orti omne, editiq; in lucem sumus, bene ut mereamur alter de altero, præsertim in amicorum inopia ac necessitudine.

He went from the School to a good Living in Somersetshire, called North Cadbury. Which he obtained from the Patron, the Earl of Huntingdon, by the Intercession of his said Noble Friend, the Lord Treasurer.

There is a Copy of handsome Latin Verses of this Cook's composing, set before Dr. Tho. Wilson's Book of Usury. He that succeeded him, was

William Malim, of Kings College in Cambridge; and afterwards lived at the Court; Son perhaps to John Malim, Physician, buried in St. Peters Cornhill, London, and that gave 40l. to the Poor of that Parish: A neat Scholar, writ a fine Hand, and Master of a very good Latin Style; and had been a great Traveller; had seen Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and many other famous Cities in Asia. Upon his return he was presented to Secretary Cecyl, by Sir Ambrose Cave. The Secretary retained him at his Table. And he with the great Earl of Leicester recommended him to the Queen. Sir William Cecyl afterwards employed him to retrieve what he could of the Writings of Sir Thomas Chaloner; and he prepared and published his ingenious Work De Repub. Anglorum, wrote in Latin Verse. He had two great Patrons, viz. the foresaid Cecyl, after Lord Treasurer, and the great Earl of Leicester. After he had been near Seven Years Master of this School, he grew quite weary of his Work in rolling of Sisyphus his Stone, as he called it, and applyed himself to his great Patron the Lord Treasurer, acquainting him with his Resolution of resigning; and praying his Favour to provide him some other more agreeable, and more easy, and more profitable Employment. (For in those Times, the Salary was not so weighty and encouraging as since it hath been.) He complained to his aforesaid Patron, Me nimium Paupertate gravari, libertate privari, conculcari Doctrinam, spes meas exinaniri. He desired not, he said, a freedom from all Labours, but with Ovid:

Mitius Exilium, pauloque quietius opto.

he wish'd for a milder, and a little more quiet Banishment; concluding his Letter with these Verses:

Adsis tu Cynosura mihi, ter Nobilis Heros,
Nè tenui in mensa desit mediocre Salinum;
Ne nimium fractum me rodat tristis Egestas,
Neve ego perpetuò curis involvar acerbis.
Hæc mea vota precor supplex ne segnius hauri,
Candide Mæcenas, unus qui singula possis.
Sic tibi multiplices currant fæliciter anni,
Prospera magnanimi numeres & lustra Metelli.

He stayed about two Years after this Application to the Lord Treasurer, and then departed, and