At length they went to dinner. After this, a fear having been expressed, that this "distraction" might become troublesome to their friends, "perhaps to His Majesty," and "not without some obloquy" to themselves, the Master of Trinity College proposed a private settlement, naming October for it. The suggestion was favourably received by the Electors other than the Dean of Westminster. The latter however affirmed, that with his consent less than three Scholars should never be taken by Trinity College and three by Christ Church if the School produced so many fit Scholars: and as to that part of the Letters Patent, which related to the election of Westminster Scholars at Trinity College to Fellowships, he required that they should be taken in preference to others, if their qualifications were equal; stating at the same time, that the clause declaring them eligible to Fellowships two years after their degree of A.M. had arisen solely from the practice of pre-electing so many Fellows, that for three or four years together no election took place; and the Westminster Scholars at Trinity College were driven out to seek a better fortune elsewhere. The Master of Trinity College allowed that the practice of pre-elections was wrong; and it was at length agreed that if this were discontinued, that part of the King's Letters concerning the eligibility of Westminster Scholars two years after their degree of A.M. should not be urged against the local statute of Trinity College, _De Gradibus Suscipiendis_. Thereupon the Master of Trinity College took for his College as Scholars three candidates, to wit, Hacket, Shirley, and Herbert. The three scholars so taken obtained fellowships in due course, Hacket became chaplain to James I, Charles I, and later to Charles II, suffered cruel persecution under the commonwealth, and at the restoration was made bishop of Lichfield: the Bishop's Hostel was erected at his cost. An incident in Shirley's career is chronicled below (see p. 223). Herbert was the well-known poet and divine. If the above account is reliable, and there is no reason to doubt its accuracy, the most important question in dispute, namely the preferential right of Westminsters to election to fellowships at Trinity, was left open. Nevile however had no intention to allow the matter to drop, and having made his protest at Westminster, he now secured the good services of his friend and Cambridge contemporary, Richard Bancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, who undertook to act as mediator in drawing up a "friendly and full" settlement of the question.