Wells) refused to allow Nell Gwynne to enter the house, with the result
that she had to content herself with an inferior residence outside the
precincts.

Of Wykeham's "College of St. Marie", or New College, Oxford, this is not
the place to speak, especially as it has already been dealt with in the
"Oxford" volume of this "Beautiful England" series. His other
"College of St. Mary", or, as it is commonly known, Winchester College,
has a history extending far beyond that of most of our great public
schools; and Winchester was celebrated for its educational institutions
in Saxon days.

[Illustration: WINCHESTER COLLEGE: THE OUTER GATEWAY FROM "ARCADIA"]

Wykeham's idea in founding these two colleges was one for which he had
no precedent before him, so that his design was to a large extent in the
nature of an experiment. His idea, of course, was to enable those who
proceeded from the Winchester to the Oxford College to receive a
systematic and continuous education. Where Wykeham led, others were not
long in following. Two of his successors in the see of Winchester,
Waynflete and Fox, gave to Oxford the beautiful colleges of Magdalen and
Corpus Christi respectively. Archbishop Chichele, one of Wykeham's first
scholars, built St. Bernard's College, now St. John Baptist's, which he
gave to the Cistercians before its completion; and later in life he
founded the College of All Souls, while in his native village of Higham
Ferrers, Northants, he built and endowed a school, bede-house, and
church, which are among some of the loveliest pieces of building we
possess. Henry VI made himself intimately acquainted with the works of
Wykeham, and copied them for his two colleges of Eton, and King's
College, Cambridge. Until Wykeham's time, schools had been under or