Modern historians have discounted this, as the list also includes benefactors, not just students; other evidence points to the fact that Walter had a poor grasp of Latin, and did not consider himself to be a learned man.[10] However, this did not mean that he was illiterate, merely that he was not "book-learned", or educated at a university.[11] His contemporary, the medieval writer Gerald of Wales said of Walter that the Exchequer was his school.[7]