Winchester College Publication Winchester College Classic Talks | Page 6

substance, and this is the next
Wykehamist, the fourth professor,
John Harmar (Figure 7). A lot more
is known about him because of that
Winchester connection, for he
became Schoolmaster in 1588, and
Warden from 1596. He has been
the subject of a very good book by
Geoffrey Day, formerly archivist
here, and I have learned a lot
from that. For his first two years as
Schoolmaster he doubled as Regius
Professor, which suggests that he
was not taking his Oxford duties
too seriously: it was the best part of
a day’s ride to get from one city to
the other, and he would have been
Figure 7
teaching in Winchester every day. If
John Harmar; English School, 1622
so, he was not the only one: we are
told that his Oxford successor but one ‘did not pursue the responsibilities of
the post’ for a full ten years, in his case because he was working on the King
James Bible.
Figure 9 John Harmar’s Library, Winchester College
Harmar certainly took Winchester seriously, and his library is still a thing of
great beauty and impressiveness (Figures 8 – 9). This is what also allows us
to glimpse what his teaching was like, as a volume survives of his ‘dictations’
(Figure 10). These would presumably be read out to the class as fair copies
Figure 8 John Harmar’s Library, Winchester College Figure 10 John Harmar’s book of dictations, c. 1595
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