The queen interested herself in the school she had established; its connection with particular colleges at the universities was suggested by the precedents of Winchester and Eton, and it was natural that she should desire to associate it closely with the Houses at Cambridge and Oxford which had been founded by her father. There is some reason to think that the details of the arrangement made were due to Bill, the first dean of Westminster, who was at the same time master of Trinity and provost of Eton; a fortunate pluralist! On 29 March 1560, Elizabeth gave new statutes to Trinity College, Cambridge, and in statute 13, dealing with the sixty-two scholars of the College, she directed as follows: Sumantur autem potissimum et eligantur ex eorum numero, si modo idonei et ceteris pares reperiantur qui Schola Regia Westmonasterii educati ... sint.... Ex aliis regni partibus ac locis indifferenter ad numerum supplendum qui maxime idonei videbuntur, semper sumantur. In June 1560, she gave statutes to the Collegiate Church at Westminster, and in statute 6, dealing with the forty scholars of the school, she directed that three scholars from the school should be elected annually to the foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, and three to that of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is said that the queen did not ratify these statutes. Be this as it may, in the following year, on 11 June 1561, she sent to Trinity College letters patent referring to the Westminster statutes as indicating her wishes in the matter, and expressing her desire that the Society should select as many scholars from Westminster as was possible. This then was the position in 1561, and it was recognised these letters were binding and conferred rights on duly qualified Westminster scholars. Throughout the three centuries of the existence of these rights, candidates usually preferred the Christ Church studentships, which, being tenable under certain conditions for life, were much more valuable than Trinity scholarships, since the latter ran out in less than seven years. Perhaps too the boys were attracted to Christ Church rather than to Trinity by the fact that there they formed a larger proportion of the whole Society than in Henry's foundation by the Cam. Further a boy elected to Christ Church entered sooner into the emoluments of his studentship than a boy elected to Trinity--the latter not being admitted to his scholarship until the next annual election of scholars which took place in the following spring, usually some six months after he had commenced residence.