the fact that the British society of this period—from the mid-
sixteenth to about the later part of the eighteenth century—had
few such interests. In matters like religion, philosophy, learning
and education, the British were introverted by nature. It is not
that Britain had no tradition of education, or scholarship, or
philosophy during the 16th, 17th, or early 18th centuries. This
period produced figures like Francis Bacon, Shakespeare,
Milton, Newton, etc. It had the Universities of Oxford,
Cambridge, and Edinburgh which had their beginnings in the
13th and 14th centuries A.D. By the later part of the 18th
century, Britain also had around 500 Grammar Schools.
However, this considerable learning and scholarship were limited
to a very select elite. This became especially marked after the
mid-sixteenth century, when the Protestant revolution led to the
closing of most of the monasteries; while the state sequestered
their incomes and properties.
Before the Protestant revolution, according to A.E. Dobbs,
‘the University of Oxford might be described as the “chief Charity
School of the poor and the chief Grammar School in England, as
well as the great place of education for students of theology, of
law and medicine”’^2 ; and ‘where instruction was not gratuitous
throughout the school, some arrangement was made, by means
of a graduated scale of admission fees and quarterages and a
system of maintenance to bring the benefits of the institution
within the reach of the poorest.’^3 Further, while a very early
statute of England specified: ‘No one shall put their child
apprentice within any city or borough, unless they have land or
rent of 20 shillings per annum: but they shall be put to such
labour as their fathers or mothers use, or as their estates
require;’ it nonetheless also stated that ‘any person may send
their children to school to learn literature.’^4
From about the mid-16th century, however, a contrary
trend set in. It even led to the enactment of a law ‘that the
English Bible should not be read in churches. The right of
private reading was granted to nobles, gentry and merchants
that were householders. It was expressly denied to artificers’
prentices, to journeymen and serving men “of the degree of
yeomen or under”, to husbandmen and labourers’ so as ‘to allay
certain symptoms