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MANCHESTER, &c.
21
The College—Sir Humphrey Cheetham—The Library.
But now how chang'd; where iron armour rung,
And vaulting steeds o'er the wide court-yard sprung;
Where noble lords, and lusty squires held sport,
Whose spears reek'd blood at glorious Agincourt;
Bedew'd the fleur-de-lis with streams of gore,
And o'er pale France, old England's banner bore:
These halls long fall'n to hoary time a prey,
And milder scenes have open'd into day.
Here Cheetham's heart a nobler fame uprear'd;
Fair learning's friend, and drooping orphan's guard,
Not as the man, who erst, where Nilus pours
His fertile flood round Egypt's sultry shores,
And vaulting steeds o'er the wide court-yard sprung;
Where noble lords, and lusty squires held sport,
Whose spears reek'd blood at glorious Agincourt;
Bedew'd the fleur-de-lis with streams of gore,
And o'er pale France, old England's banner bore:
These halls long fall'n to hoary time a prey,
And milder scenes have open'd into day.
Here Cheetham's heart a nobler fame uprear'd;
Fair learning's friend, and drooping orphan's guard,
Not as the man, who erst, where Nilus pours
His fertile flood round Egypt's sultry shores,
was founded by Thomas Lord de la Warr, in the ninth year of Henry the fifth. It is an heavy stone building, strongly situated upon an eminence at the conflux of the Irk and the Irwell. When Humphrey Cheetham, Esq. founded and endowed an hospital and library at Manchester, the College was purchased for that purpose, in 1655. The object of the endowment was to maintain and educate 40 poor boys, and to bind them apprentice, or otherwise provide for them: since that time the property has so much increased in value, that the trustees are now enabled to provide for more than double the original number. The library consists of about 20,000 volumes.
