When he solicited the bishopric, it is said that
Edward told him he was neither a priest nor a scholar; to which he
replied that he would soon be the one, and in regard to the other, he
would make more scholars than all the bishops of England ever did. He
made good his word by founding the collegiate school at Winchester,
and erecting New College at Oxford. When the Winchester Tower was
finished, he caused the words, HOC FECIT WYKEHAM, to be carved
upon it; and the king, offended at his presumption, Wykeham turned
away his displeasure by declaring that the inscription meant that the
castle had made him, and not that he had made the castle. It is a
curious coincidence that this tower, after a lapse of four centuries and
a half, should become the residence of an architect possessing the
genius of Wykeham, and who, like him, had rebuilt the kingly edifice--
SIR JEFFRY WYATVILLE.
William of Wykeham retired from office, loaded with honours, in 1362,
and was succeeded by William de Mulso. He was interred in the
cathedral at Winchester. His arms were argent, two chevrons, sable,
between three roses, gules, with the motto--" Manners maketh man."
In 1359 Holinshed relates that the king "set workmen in hand to take
down much old buildings belonging to the castle, and caused divers
other fine and sumptuous works to be set up in and about the same
castle, so that almost all the masons and carpenters that were of any
account in the land were sent for and employed about the same
works.
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