Welsh Journals

to their sons; Sir John Wynn of Gwedir knew Richard Davies's sons at Oxford. Though Wales was relatively sparsely populated, the growth of agriculture and the increase of trade created a new source of patronage. One result was the establishment of the new grammar schools Brecon, Abergavenny, Bangor, Beaumaris, Carmarthen, Cowbridge, Ruthin, for example, and these schools provided the kind of preparation necessary for prospective students. Laymen assumed greater prominence in the university; two new colleges were established in 1555 St. John's by Sir Thomas White and Trinity by Sir Thomas Pope. The new emergent middle class wished their sons to have a university education an education regarded as a prerequisite for a civil, political or ecclesiastical career. There were those who went to follow the fashion and maybe to acquire some of the gentlemanly graces, the virtues of it cortegiano; possibly an example was Sir Roger Williams (c. 1540-1595), a member of the Penrhos family of Monmouthshire. Anthony Wood says of him: 'from his childhood more given to military than scholastical matters, yet for form's sake he was sent to the university'. Others may have gone for the pursuit of pleasure hunting, cock- fighting, bear-baiting, drinking and to see the performances of the wandering actors. Occasionally a father would need to remind his son of his obligations; William Wynn wrote to his son: 'Therefore praise God that thou hast careful parents to place thee in Oxenford a famous University the fountain and well-head of all learning. Keep company with honest students who aphore evil courses as drinking and taking tobacco to their own loss and dis- credit of their friends and parents who sent them to the University for better purposes For students at Brasenose College (where Sir Roger Williams was a student) there was the chastisement of a beating if their work was unsatisfactory or if they laughed or talked in lectures or spoke English instead of Latin or missed a chapel service. The tools of learning had improved since the Middle Ages. Paper was available in England from around the beginning of the fourteenth century and the first paper mill in the country was at Hertford c. 1490. The printing press came to Oxford before the end of the fifteenth century; in 1478 a commentary on the Credo was printed there. The art of printing was to make the dissemination of texts so much easier. Though London was the centre of printing, Joseph Barnes had