242
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. SEPT. 25, 1920.
known was " Allee de Marlborough," so
potent was the souvenir of the ' celebre
general anglais' ('Guide des Tourist es ').
George IV. visited St. Omer, but probably only passed through the town. The date of his visit is not given by the local historians, but was probably in September, 1821, when the King went to Hanover, via Calais and Brussels. Queen Caroline stayed at a house in the Rue Carnot (No. 95), June 1-4, 1820, on her way to England, after her husband's accession. The visits of King George V. to G.H.Q. during the war are still fresh in the memory of the townspeople.
Referring to George TV's inspection of the ruins of the Abbey of St. Bertin (then much more extensive than now), Abbe Dusautoir says :
" Les Anglais, qui avaient autrefois une pr6- dilection pour la ville de Saint-Omer, meme comme residence, venaient en foules visiter les restes de la vieille abbaye, et leurs architectes et leurs artistes emporterent, plus d'une fois, les plans et les croquis du merveilleux monument."
But apparently they carried away some- thing more than plans and sketches, for we read that some fifteenth century glass, formerly belonging to St. Bertin's, was purchased by the Rev. J. P. Boteler, vicar of Shiplake, Oxford, and that it may still be seen in the church there. It is also stated that at the dispersal of the furniture of the Abbey in 1793 much of it went to England, including a picture of the Scourging, by Arnould de Vuez, a St. Omer artist of the seventeenth century. Is the whereabouts of this picture known ? And in what year did Mr. Boteler place the glass from St. Bertin in Shiplake Church ?
The English College at St. Omer was founded by the Jesuits for the benefit of the children of English religious refugees, but it very soon became a place of education for the sons of Catholics still resident in England. Founded in 1592, it had its beginnings in the Rue du Brule (now Rue Gambetta), and for a short time was located in what is now the Rue de Dunkerque. The present site in the Rue St. Bertin was bought in 1594, and buildings were shortly afterwards erected. Abbe Dusautoir states that the English Jesuits are said to have chosen St. Omer as their residence " a cause du bon esprit de ses habitants, do sa foi religieuse, de la salu- brite de son climat et de sa proximite de 1'Angleterre." However that may be the College was soon renowned far beyond the bounds of Artois, and the elite of the English Catholic youth found there the education
denied them at home. Four years after the
foundation of the College, St. Omer is de-
scribed as " fort voisine et fronthiere tant de
la France que de Hollande et Angleterre,"
and a guard of two hundred men was asked,
for, as
" la dite ville de Saint-Omer est peu habite'e d& peuple seculier, estant la pluspart occup^e par gens ecclesiasticques, colleges, cloistres, et ordres de mendians et escoliers non subjects & guect ni garde, estant le reste du poeuple pauvre."
This was in 1596. Nevertheless, when in 1638 the town was attacked by the French, the English students helped in the necessary works of fortification.
In 1684 the college buildings (with the exception of the chapel, erected in 1610) were destroyed by fire. They were reconstructed during the following three years, but these new buildings were in ther turn burnt down in October, 1726. As reconstructed (1726- 28) the fabric still survives. In 1760 the title " College Royal " had been granted by Louis XV, but two years after, on the expulsion of the Order of Jesus from France, the English Jesuits took their way to Bruges,, and later (1773) to Liege. Driven from, Liege by the Revolution they came to Eng- land, and settled at Stonyhurst, Lancashire. The great English Public School thus had its beginnings at St. Omer, and the arms of the town, together with those of Bruges and Liege, still figure on the cover of the ' Stony- hurst Magazine.' On the expulsion of the Jesuits the college at St. Omer remained open under English secular priests, one oi its directors being Alban Butler, author of ' The Lives of the Saints. ' Butler died as President of the College, May 5, 1773. He was followed by Gregory Stapleton, during whose rule Daniel O'Connell was a student (January, 1791, to August, 1792). Hence,. Bulwer's lines :
Hate at St. Omers into caution drilled, In Dublin law courts subtilised and skilled.
In 1793 the English College was closed, Stapleton and his students, to the number of ninety-four, being imprisoned at Doullens. until March, 1795, when they were allowed to proceed to England. Their coming re- sulted in the re-establishment of the college at Ware, over which Stapleton presided till 1800. He returned to France and died at St. Omer in May, 1802. St. Edmund's College, Ware, as well as Stonyhurst, thus descends directly from the foundation in St. Omer. At Ware, we are told, "le souvenir de la maison de Saint-Omer' reste encore vivant au xx me siecle." Both Alban
