The word Tutor is used at Cambridge to describe an officer of a College who stands to his pupils in loco parentis; now-a-days he may, but does not necessarily, give direct instruction to them. The object of this chapter is to describe the development of the office in Trinity College.

Trinity College was founded in 1546 by HenryVIII. It is, however, essential in dealing with its early history to bear in mind that it was founded in a pre-existing¹⁷ University having well-established rules and customs. Nearly all the original members of Trinity had been educated at Cambridge, they were familiar with its traditions, and even the buildings they occupied were associated with the college life of earlier times. It was intended that the Society should promote the reformed religion and the new learning, but there is no reason to suppose that in establishing it, it was wished or proposed to alter the existing practice about the tuition, guidance, and care of the younger students.

In the system in force in the University shortly [27] before the foundation of Trinity, the students corresponding to our scholars and sizars lived in endowed colleges (of which eight were founded before 1353 and seven between 1440 and 1520), most of those corresponding to our pensioners in unendowed private hostels (of which in the sixteenth century there were twenty-seven and in earlier times possibly a few more), and most of those belonging to religious orders in monasteries or monastic hostels. A student on admission to the University was apprenticed to some master of arts or doctor who directed the lad’s studies until he took a master’s degree. This graduate was known as the student’s “master”: in the case of a member of a college we may assume that the master was chosen from among the senior members of the House, though it is doubtful if this was necessarily so in the case of the hostels. The head of a college or hostel was responsible for the conduct and control of the lad in non-scholastic matters, but in colleges in later times this work was assigned to a dean. Thus for practical purposes a tutorial system already existed in the medieval system of apprenticeship and control.

The royal scheme for Trinity College comprised a master, fifteen senior fellows, twenty-five middle fellows, twenty junior fellows (of whom, in 1546, thirteen were undergraduates), and forty grammarian school-boys. In addition to these, there were [28] servant-students (known as sizars or subsizars), each being attached as gyp to a particular fellow, and receiving education, board, and lodging in lieu of money wages. There is nothing to show whether or not the presence of pensioners was contemplated.

We have a list, apparently complete, of all the intended officers; tutors do not appear among them, though a schoolmaster and usher were provided for the grammarians. Hence it would seem that the relation between an apprenticed undergraduate and his master was regarded as personal, and that the latter was selected and paid by his pupil or pupil’s guardian, and not by or through the College—I conjecture that this was the usual medieval practice. The deans are mentioned as officers of the College, and the discipline of the younger members was part of their business, though no doubt a lad’s master or tutor assisted in enforcing it. The formal charter of foundation was given by Henry in December 1546, but the grammarians are not mentioned therein.

During the next six years, 1546–1552, three important developments took place. First, the grammar-school side of the College was abandoned, and all boys then in the school were entered as scholars of the House; next, and perhaps consequent on the abolition of the school, a distinction between fellows and scholars was drawn; and finally, following the [29] growing custom of other colleges, the admission of pensioners was definitely recognized as desirable, thus introducing a class of students below the standing of scholars. Before coming to the subject of tutors it will be well to add a word or two about the pensioners and scholars of these early days.

With the upset of the medieval scheme of education the number of pensioners and fellow-commoners seeking admission to the University greatly decreased, and the reception of a limited number of them in the colleges fairly met the needs of the University. The private hostels were then no longer wanted and being unendowed disappeared. Thus when again, as soon happened, the number of would-be pensioners increased, it was necessary (unless new non-collegiate arrangements were made for their reception in the University) to admit them in larger numbers to the colleges. At Trinity a limit was, in theory, placed on the number of pensioners admissible, but not on that of fellow-commoners. A pensioner at Trinity, and I suppose also at other colleges, had to be qualified by learning and morals for admission, and I conceive further that his entry was conditional on his finding a fellow who would receive him. A pensioner or fellow-commoner had no rights, and resided only on such terms and as long as the College or the fellow receiving him willed. I believe that students of this class did not [30] often stay here for more than three or four years unless in due course they became scholars.

A most important question for the new College was how the supply of scholars and fellows should be provided. In King’s Hall vacancies were filled by royal nomination, and boys came into residence as scholars-elect. We do not know what was proposed in 1546, but I think that, as far as entry to the grammar-school was concerned, nomination by the senior fellows was the most likely method to have been contemplated. The abandonment of the school and the enrolment of all its members as scholars of the House must however have raised the question in an acute form, and it was settled in or before 1552 by the establishment of an annual examination for the election of scholars. Probably from the first it was intended that the new fellows should be formally elected and admitted.

The charter of 1546 contains a reference to statutes to be given later by the king. There was considerable delay in preparing these, and the liberty of action thus left to the Society seems to have been used unwisely, for the commissioners of 1549 reported that its state was “much out of order, governed at large and pleasure for want of statutes ... the fellows for the most part too bad.”

In November 1552 the College received the long-expected [31] statutes by which it was to be governed: with their appearance we leave the field of conjecture and come to facts. The foundation as here described included a master, fifty fellows of the standing of master or doctor, and sixty bachelor and undergraduate scholars: provision was also made for student-servants or sizars. Vacancies in the roll of scholars were to be filled by an annual election held at Michaelmas on the result of a two days’ examination. Bachelors of arts and those insane or suffering from contagious disease (a curious conjunction) were ineligible: also there could not, at any one time, be more than three scholars from any one county. The regulation that a bachelor was not eligible for election to a scholarship suggests that a candidate might be in residence as an undergraduate, though it does not exclude the candidature of those who were not already members of the House, but the custom (if it ever existed) of electing non-residents had died out before 1560. The admission of pensioners, not exceeding fifty-four in number, was definitely recognized in 1552: of these the master might take as his pupils four, and each fellow one. The pensioner which every fellow might thus receive was in addition to such scholars as had been assigned to him as pupils, but though scholars had tutors, the fellow responsible for a pensioner is not explicitly described as his tutor. [32] It seems that an important part of the duty of a tutor was to see that all payments due to the college from his pupils were made punctually. Scholars, unlike pensioners, had definite rights.

The following are some of the regulations:

Nemo ex discipulis sine tutore in collegio sit, qui fuerit, expellatur. Pupilli tutoribus pareant, honorem paternum et reverentiam exhibeant, quorum cura consumitur in illis informandis et ad pietatem scientiamque instruendis. Tutores fideliter et diligenter quae docenda sunt suos doceant, quae agenda instruant et admoneant. Omnia pupillorum expensa tutores collegio praestent, et singulis mensibus aes debitum pro se et suis quaestoribus solvant. Quod ni fecerint, tantisper commeatu priventur dum pecunia dissolvatur. Pupillus neque a tutore rejiciatur, neque tutorem suum ubi velit mutet nisi legitima de causa a praeside et senatu probanda; qui fecerit collegio excludatur.... In discipulis eligendis praecipua ratio ingenii et inopiae sit, in quibus ut quisque valet maxime ita ceteris proferatur. Eo adjungatur doctrinae studium et mediocris jam profectus, et reliqui temporis spes illum fore ad communem reipublicae posthac idoneum. Horum studium sit ut vitae innocentiam cum doctrinae veritate conjungant, et in veritate rerum inquirendi et honestate persequenda laborent.... Sic sint grammaticis et studiis humanitatis instituti ut inquisitiones aulae sustinere et domesticas exercitationes suscipere possint.... Pensionarii et studiorum socii in collegium recipiantur ... provideatur ut neque praesidi plures quam quatuor neque singulis sociis plures uno pensionario sint.

Grave offences were punishable by expulsion, rustication, etc., and those who committed only [33] “minor offences” were liable to penalties of extreme severity. Thus we read:

Quicunque in aliqua parte officii sui negligentior fuerit, et aliquem e magistratibus bene admonentem non audiverit, aut insolentem se ostenderit, si ephoebus sit verberibus sin ex ephoebis excesserit decennali victu careat et uterque praeterea poenitentiam declamatione tostetur.

The text is corrupt, but the meaning is clear. A marginal note suggests the obvious correction that decemdiali should be read for decennali. The deans superintended, even if they did not inflict, corporal punishment when it was ordered.

Another code of statutes was drawn up in 1554, but was never sealed, and thus did not become effective. I need not quote the text which, on tutorial matters, does not differ materially from that of 1560. The draft contains a clause to the effect that the master of the College was not to take more than four pensioners as his pupils, a fellow who was a master of arts or of some superior degree was not to take more than two, and no one else was to take a pensioner as a pupil. The word “two” however has been crossed out and “one” substituted. From this it would seem that the question of how many pensioners it was desirable to admit was already a matter of debate.

In 1560 new statutes were granted to the College, and its constitution as then settled remained [34] practically unaltered till 1861. In this code the foundation is described as including a master, sixty fellows, four chaplains, sixty-two scholars, and thirteen sizars or gyps, namely, three for the master and one for each of the ten senior fellows. Henceforth scholars were elected annually in the spring, from undergraduates already in residence. By a gracious provision, whose disappearance in 1861 I regret, it was ordered that forty of the scholarships should be specifically associated with the name of HenryVIII, twenty with that of queen Mary, and two with that of Thomas Allen as pre-eminent benefactors. Pensioners and subsizars were also admissible to the Society on conditions. If fellow-commoners dined at the high table, as seems likely, they may have been reckoned extra numerum. Every student under the degree of master of arts was required to have a tutor, thus regularizing the position of fellow-commoners, pensioners, sizars, and subsizars as members of the College, and bringing them under the same rule as scholars.

The regulations in point are as follows:

Est ea quidem ineuntis aetatis imbecillitas ut provectiorum consilio et prudentia necessario moderanda sit, et propterea statuimus et volumus ut nemo ex baccalaureis, discipulis, pensionariis, sisatoribus, et subsisatoribus tutore careat: qui autem caruerit, nisi intra quindecim dies unum sibi paraverit, e collegio ejiciatur. Pupilli tutoribus pareant, [35] honoremque paternum ac reverentiam deferant, quorum studium, labor, et diligentia in illis ad pietatem et scientiam informandis ponitur. Tutores sedulo quae docenda sunt doceant, quaeque etiam agenda instruant admoneantque. Omnia pupillorum expensa tutores collegio praestent, et intra decem dies cujusque mensis finiti aes debitum pro se ac suis omnibus senescallo solvant. Quod ni fecerint, tantisper commeatu priventur dum pecunia a se collegio debita dissolvatur. Cautumque esto ne pupillus quispiam vel stipendium suum a thesaurariis recipiat vel rationem pro se cum eisdem aliquando ineat, sed utrumque per tutorem semper sub poena commeatus menstrui a dicto tutore collegio solvendi fieri volumus.... Pensionarios ut studiorum socios in collegium recipiendos statuimus; sitque in illis recipiendis ratio morum ac doctrinae diligenter habita; magistris artium aut superioris gradus unum, baccalaureis autem nullum omnino concedimus. Nemo illorum admittatur nisi a decano seniore et primario lectore examinatus.

In time, serious discrepancies between the statutes and the practice of the College grew up. Some, but not all, of these were removed in 1844, when the statutes were revised. The sentence above quoted “magistris artium aut superioris gradus unum, baccalaureis autem nullum omnino concedimus” was then struck out.

In 1861 new statutes were given to the College: these contain no mention of pensioners, but merely prescribe that no bachelor or undergraduate shall be without a tutor. The present statutes of 1882 similarly direct that no member of the College in statu pupillari shall be without a tutor.

[36]
Except by accident, we have no record before 1635 of the names of the tutors of the various students, but it is probable that at first the master regularly entered some undergraduates as his own pupils: certainly Whitgift did so, and so too did some of his successors. It seems most likely also that by 1560 it was already usual for the master to assign a student to that fellow who was to act as his tutor, though of course regard must always have been paid to the wishes of a parent or guardian in this matter. This remained the ordinary custom for perhaps two hundred years.

Some information on tutorial affairs in the sixteenth century may be gathered from an account-book kept by Whitgift, covering parts of the years 1570 to 1576, and containing statements of the charges he made as tutor: the names of thirty-nine men are given. In the history of Trinity College which I wrote for my pupils some years ago, I published a few of these bills. I give here a few details illustrative of the many matters with which a tutor was then concerned.

The payment made to him as tutor varied in different cases, but 6s. 8d. a quarter for a sizar, 10s. for a pensioner, and 13s. 4d. for a fellow-commoner were usual sums. In a few cases there are records of an admission-fee to the College or a fee for entering into commons: the normal payment [37] for this was 15s. for a pensioner, and 20s. for a fellow-commoner—there is no mention of any such charge in the case of a sizar. The cost of the silly ceremony by which the senior undergraduates initiated a freshman, known as his salting, was charged in the bills, and varied from 8d. for a sizar and 1s. 4d. for a pensioner to 4s. for a fellow-commoner. The charge for matriculation appears to have been 4d. for a sizar, 1s. for a pensioner, and 2s. for a fellow-commoner.

Of course the cost of the purchase of books comes in most of the accounts. Aristotle, Plato, Sophocles, and Demosthenes constantly appear among Greek writers, Homer and Xenophon only once; Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, and Lucian occur often among the Latin authors, Livy only once. Euripides and Horace are noticeable by their absence. I have not observed any mathematical books. Works by Seton and Erasmus are frequently mentioned. Among English books we have a prayer-book charged at 1s., a service-book at 1s. 8d., a bible at 9s., and a testament at 2s. The charge for a bible in Latin was 7s. and for a new testament in Greek 2s. A Greek grammar cost 1s., 1s. 2d., or 1s. 4d.; a Hebrew grammar 1s. which seems cheap. Paper was charged 4d. by the quire and 2s. 6d. by the half-ream: the cost of a bundle of pens and an inkhorn was usually 4d. or 6d.

[38]
Clothes appear to have been expensive, but naturally the cost varied widely according to the status of the student. Apparently at that time the wardrobes of men were fairly extensive: the prices of the various articles are set out in full. I hesitate to distinguish academic gowns from other robes, but the charge of 4s. to John Waring, a pensioner, for his gown and square cap, as also the charge of 2s. 6d. for making a gown and hood for Phillip Harrison, another pensioner, must, I think, be taken to refer to academic costumes. The cost of a surplice to Richard Therald, a sizar, was 4s., but to Henry Gates, a fellow-commoner, was as much as 11s. 7d.

As to amusements, the richer students seem to have kept or hired horses at considerable cost. Horse-hire to London varied from 4s. to 8s.; to Lincoln from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 8d. Bows and arrows constantly appear in the bills—the price of a bow ranging from 1s. 4d. to 3s. Tennis was another popular amusement of the day. The court stood on the site of the north end of the present library, and the keeper of the court was regarded as a college servant; there are no charges in connection with the bats, balls, or use of the court.

It may be interesting to notice that coals were used regularly as well as wood: they were sold at 1s. 3d. a sack. Candles were charged at either [39] 3d. or 4d. a pound. Among miscellaneous things 6d. was charged for an hour-glass; 4d. for a mouse-trap; 10d. for a scabbard for a rapier; and 10s. for a lute. A set of singing lessons cost 3s. and a set of dancing lessons 6s.

Sickness appears to have been common. In general we have no record of the duration of illnesses, and the charges for doctors and chemists varied widely. The charge for plucking out one tooth seems to have been 1s. 4d., but for two teeth the dentist reduced his charge to 1s. a tooth.

We get another aspect of student and tutorial affairs in the next century (in 1659) contained in a long letter from which I gave extracts in the history of the College to which I have already referred. Robert Creighton, pronounced Crickt-on, of Somersetshire, a Westminster boy and a scholar of the House, was then a candidate for a fellowship. At the time there were in residence a good many zealots, introduced into the Society under presbyterian or Cromwellian auspices, and one of these, a year senior to Creighton, was also a candidate for a fellowship. Just before the election some of the scholars were playing tennis in the college court when the ball by chance struck one of them in the eye. On this Creighton called out “Oh God, Oh God, the scholar’s eye is stroke out,” whereon his competitor accused him to the authorities as a profane person who took [40] God’s name in vain; and as confirmation added that he never came to the private prayer meetings of the students. By good luck the master was Wilkins, afterwards bishop of Chester, who owed his appointment more to the fact that he had married Cromwell’s sister than to his devotion to the doctrines of the Independents. It is clear that he disapproved of the complaint, but he considered it prudent to summon a meeting of the seniority to hear the case and examine witnesses. Creighton’s tutor, Duport (who gave us our large silver salt-cellar), spoke up for his pupil, and thereon the master said that the charge looked like malice, and it did not matter much if Creighton did neglect to go to the private prayer meetings of undergraduates since he never failed to go to chapel and to his tutor’s lectures. He then proposed, if we may trust our authority, that the seniority should at once reject the informer and his friends, and elect to the vacant fellowships the accused and his friends, and so it was done. Such were elections then!

It is satisfactory to add that public opinion in the College was against those who trumped up this ridiculous charge, and on the day after the election the following notice was found on the screens. “He that informed against DsCreighton deserves to have his breech kickt on.” An amusing glimpse of life under the Commonwealth. Note that the tutor [41] gave lectures to his pupils, and from the tutorial point of view observe the esteem gained by regular attendance thereat.

No obligation to take pupils seems ever to have been imposed on fellows, though a pupil once taken could not be transferred. This, and the fact that scholars were elected only from students already in residence, made it undesirable to retain any rule to the effect that a fellow should not have more than one pensioner as a pupil. Hence in time those who liked tutorial work and did it well were allowed to have more than one pensioner pupil, and gradually the bulk of the entries came to be made under a comparatively few tutors.

The average annual entry of students at Trinity during the years 1551 to 1600 was fifty-one, during the years 1601 to 1650 was fifty, and during the years 1651 to 1700 was thirty-nine. During the years 1701 to 1750, it sank to twenty-seven: this diminution being partly due to the Bentley scandals. During the years 1751 to 1800 the average annual entry was thirty-seven, during the years 1801 to 1850 was one hundred and sixteen, during the years 1851 to 1900 was one hundred and seventy-four, and during the years 1901 to 1913 was one hundred and ninety-nine.

Let us see how the men were divided among the tutors. From April to December 1635, twenty-eight [42] students were admitted who were distributed among seventeen tutors, of whom eleven had only one pupil and none had more than four pupils. Taking every tenth year thenceforward, we find that in 1645, there were (excluding ten fellows intruded by order of parliament) fifty-seven entries; of these fifty-one were divided among ten tutors. In 1655, there were fifty-three normal entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1665, forty-three entries divided among six tutors; in 1675, forty-nine entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1685, thirty-four entries divided among five tutors; and in 1695, twenty-eight entries divided among four tutors. In 1705, there were twenty-nine entries, of these twenty-eight students were divided among three tutors. In 1715, there were fourteen entries divided among six tutors; in 1725, thirty-four entries divided among twelve tutors; in 1735, twenty-eight entries divided among six tutors; and in 1745, twenty-one entries divided among eight tutors.

In 1755 there were only two fellows acting as tutors, namely S.Whisson and J.Backhouse. Thenceforth there were definite tutorial “sides,” each under one tutor or joint tutors, a tutor being appointed to a side when a vacancy occurred; and every admission to the College being made on a designated side. In effect the work of a tutor was now regarded as being of a character which should occupy [43] a man’s whole energies, and it was generally held that a tutor, while he held office, had not, and ought not to have, leisure during term-time for independent work. From 1755 to 1822 there were two sides. In 1822 a third side was created. In 1872 one of the sides (being the lineal successor of Backhouse’s side) was divided into two. These four sides are to-day designated in the college office by the letters A, B, C, D; side A being that created in 1822, sides B and D being the two made out of the successor of Backhouse’s side, and side C being the lineal successor of Whisson’s side. [In the pre-war days of 1914 side A was under Dr Barnes, side B under Mr Laurence, side C under Mr Whetham, and side D under DrFletcher.]

Proceeding by decades in the same way as before, the entries on each of the two sides (denoted by C and BD) which existed from 1755 to 1822 were in 1755, nineteen and ten; in 1765, four and six; in 1775, twenty-one and twenty-four; in 1785, eighteen and twenty-nine; in 1795, twenty-nine and seventeen; in 1805, forty-two and twenty-six; and in 1815, fifty-one and thirty-six. From 1822 to 1872 there were three sides (denoted by C, BD, A): the normal entries on these were in 1825, forty-two, fifty-five, forty-one; in 1835, forty, forty-five, fifty-three; in 1845, fifty, sixty-eight, forty-nine; in 1855, fifty-three, forty-eight, fifty; and in 1865, fifty-eight, [44] nineteen, sixty. Since 1872 there have been four sides (denoted by C, B, D, A) which were made approximately equal: the normal entries on these were in 1875, forty-one, forty, forty-four, forty; in 1885, forty-nine, forty-four, forty-five, forty-eight; in 1895, forty-eight, thirty-eight, fifty, fifty-one; and in 1905, fifty, fifty-three, fifty, fifty-seven.

Until 1755 the number of pupils in residence in any one term assigned to an individual tutor was not large, and a tutor interested in any particular aspect of a subject likely to be studied was generally available: hence it was usually possible for a tutor to give personally the teaching and guidance required by his pupils. There were then no lecture-rooms in College, so probably all instruction was given in the tutor’s rooms and was informal in character. With the establishment in 1755 of sides, this system of teaching required modification, and in the course of the latter half of the eighteenth century it became the custom for a tutor to supplement his teaching by the services of another fellow or other fellows. These officers, known as Assistant-Tutors, were appointed and paid by individual tutors; they lectured regularly, took an important part in the life of the Society, and occupied a recognized position.

A marked development of the system of formal lectures is indicated by the erection in 1835 of a [45] block of four large and four medium-sized lecture-rooms. No other important changes were made for another thirty years, and until 1868 instruction remained normally organized by sides; indeed it was only by arrangement that lectures on one side were open to men on the other sides, though in fairness it must be added that an arrangement for throwing them open was made as a matter of course whenever it seemed desirable. The retention to so late a date of appointments by sides was due to the fact that the finances of the four sides were then kept as separate accounts.

This scheme, clumsy and illogical though it was, might have worked fairly well as long as the great majority of honour men read nothing but mathematics, classics, and perhaps theology, but it was condemned by the fact that the authorities allowed it to be superseded in practice by an elaborate system of private tuition paid for by the individual students. With the introduction of new subjects (like law, history, and various branches of science) and the development of the corresponding triposes, it became necessary to recast the scheme of teaching if adequate college instruction on such subjects was to be provided. The earliest appointment of a college lecturer (as contrasted with an assistant-tutor nominally attached to a particular side) was made in 1868, his lectures being open to all [46] students of the Society, and his stipend not charged on the funds of a particular side. This was soon followed by the placing of all educational appointments and finance in the hands of the College without regard to sides; and shortly afterwards the lecture-room accommodation was considerably extended.

About this time a further step was taken by throwing most of the advanced lectures open to members of other colleges. Thus in a few years instruction by tutorial sides was replaced by college lectures and class-work, and then this, to a large extent, by teaching organized on a university basis, supplemented by individual and catechetical instruction in college: with this, the custom of using private tuition has largely disappeared. Ultimately the title of assistant-tutor was dropped; the last appointment under that title was made in 1885, but from about 1870 we may say that practically the duties of an assistant-tutor were those of a lecturer. Thenceforth tutors also took their share of lecturing on subjects connected with their own lines of study, and did not confine their instruction to their own pupils, though for a year or two lectures on elementary mathematics and classics to freshmen on each particular side survived as a historic curiosity. These changes led to the existing scheme under which tutorial and tuition duties are separated, and thus the giving of direct instruction to [47] his pupils is not now necessarily part of the duties of a tutor.

The sequence of tutors on each side has been published, and I am sorely tempted to add various anecdotes on the way in which some of these officers fulfilled their duties, but such additions lie outside the object of this essay.

Of course during this long period there have been bad as well as good tutors, but I think everyone will admit that on the whole the system has worked well. Its special characteristic is a personal relation between the tutor and the pupil, materially strengthened by constant intercourse and by the fact that practically all the correspondence with the parents of the pupil passes through the hands of the tutor: experience shows that the tutorial influence has not been weakened by the fact that in most cases direct instruction is now given by other lecturers.