116 



JOURNAL OP HOETIOULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Angnst B, 1875. 



where I fonnd Mr. Flower. The house is in the prinoipal 

 street, one of the last on right-hand side. It is a red-brick 

 unpretentions building, and was formerly an inn, down the 

 yard of which, in what was once the coach-house, the school is 

 now held, and a fair schoolroom it makes. 



" In the churchyard there is a stone to the memory of William 

 Cox, who died in 1819. He was the schoolmaster of Rose's 

 school for fifty years — a man, as I was informed, to whom the 

 youth of Amesbury owed much : indeed, he was a famous 

 schoolmaster, whose memory is revered in the place. 



" Having spoken of the school let me next speak of the man 

 Rose. Mr. Flower introduced me to two local antiquaries — 

 Mr. Edwards and Mr. Kemm, and all I could learn was that 

 there has been a long-standing constant tradition at Amesbury 

 that John Rose when a boy passed through the place on his 

 way to London in a destitute condition, and that he was kindly 

 treated by the inhabitants, and out of gratitude to them en- 

 dowed the school. Amesbury is rich in residents who revere 

 its history, and the two antiquaries I have named were enthu- 

 siastic with respect to John Rose, and were delighted to learn. 



what before they did not know, that an oil painting of him 

 presenting the first English-grown Pine Apple to Charles II. 

 was in existence, and that an engraving has appeared in this 

 Journal. 



" Unfortunately there is no record at Amesbury of Rose's 

 birth or death ; the former is not to be found at Ditoheat, near 

 Evercreech, in Somersetshire, where Rose possessed property. 

 Mr. Kemm had understood from his ancestors that Rose when 

 a poor lad, on his leaving Amesbury, worked in the parish of 

 St. Martins-in-the-Fields, London. I must add that the school 

 is at Amesbury designated ' Rose's Grammar School,' and that 

 a second school was established out of the proceeds of the 

 charity, but on the death of the mistress some years ago it 

 has been discontinued, and the salary formerly paid to the 

 mistress now augments that of the master. 



" Mr. Flower next takes me to the church, dedicated to the 

 Virgin Mary, a lofty cruciform building, restored in 1853, 

 chiefly, I believe, by the munificence of Sir Edmund Antrobus, 

 Bart., of Amesbury Abbey, owned formerly by the Duke of 

 Qaeensberry, the friend of Gay the poet, who spent much of his 

 time here. It is a solidly and handsomely restored. At the west 

 end is a table of endowments ; that relative to Rose reads thus : 

 — ' John Rose by deed of gift dated 7th of Angnst, 1677, vested 

 an estate at Ditchet in the county of Somerset, consisting of a 

 homestead and fifty-two acres, two roods, and thirty poles of 

 land, in the hands of trustees for the perpetual endowment of 

 a free grammar school in this parish for the instruction of 

 twenty boys in grammar, writing, cyphering, and casting ac- 

 counts. The master to be paid £7 10s. quarterly, and the 



produce of the said estate over £30 per annum to be applied in 

 maintaining a second school for teaching twenty children to 

 read and repeat the Church catechism, the person keeping the 

 latter school to be paid £21 per annum ; and by order of the 

 High Court of Chancery, whatever surplus money may remain 

 is directed to be appUed by the trustees in the payment of 

 premiums for the apprenticeship of boys educated in the same 

 school.' 



" I have noticed that the church was restored in 1853, at 

 which time some alteration was made in regard to the com- 

 munion plate, all which or part had been purchased with the 

 £20 left by John Rose for that purpose. What the exact 

 amount of the alteration is I do not quite know, but Mr. 

 Kemm informed me that round the rim at the bottom of the 

 foot of the present flagon is the following inscription : — ' The 

 silver alms plate was given to Amesbury church by John Rose, 

 Esq., who died in 1677.' ' The silver remodelled 1853.' " 



The trust deed, in which the donor is described as " John 

 Rose of St. Marttns-in-the-Fields, gent.," is dated August the 

 7th, 1677, and from it the following is extracted: — "Foras- 

 much as God Almighty hath been pleased out of His infinite 

 bounty to give so great a blessing to my honest labours and 

 endeavours, as to lend me not only wherewithal to support me 

 with the ordinary necessaries of life but with an overplus of 

 the goods of this life, I have held it my duty whilst I am alive, 

 and before the said goods leave me, to seperate a part of the 

 same towards the education of poor children in the first rudi- 

 ments of religion and learning." The deed directs that with 

 the bishop's leave the school should be on the south side of the 

 church, wherein was formerly a school kept. The scholars 

 were to be " the poorest men's children of the parish of Ames- 

 bury," and the trustees he nominated were all his " beloved 

 and trusty friends," eleven in number, all residing in the 

 neighbourhood of Amesbury, and two of them occupiers of his 

 two copyholds called Bandys and Battrees, and his two farms, 

 all in the parish of Amesbury. He stringently provides that 

 the schoolmaBter shall be orthodox and of " honest life and 

 good conversation," and able " to teach the grammar, fair 

 writing, cyphering, and casting of accounts." The salary of 

 the schoolmaster, £7 10s. quarterly, was to be paid out of the 

 rents and profits of Rose's lands in Ditchet in the county of 

 Somerset. Then follow directions for the removal of the 

 schoolmaster in case of his evil conduct, and ts provide for 

 him if he becomes incapable after lengthened service. None 

 of the twenty scholars were to be admitted unless they could 

 read EngUsh and repeat from memory the catechism, nor re- 

 main scholars after the age of fifteen. Whilst they were 

 scholars " the schoolmaster to have a care their faces and hands 

 be washed, their heads polled, and their garments kept clean." 

 If the lands yielded more than £30 a-year, the surplus was to 

 be employed in providing a school to teach the poorest children 

 reading and the catechism, and thus render them eligible for 

 his grammar school. 



I hoped that some record of Rome's birth might have been 

 found in the Amesbury church register, but that hope is vain, 

 for " WiLTSHiEE Rector " informs me that the earliest register 

 is dated 1651, at which time Rose must have been in the prime 

 of manhood. However, he was a resident if not a native of 

 the place, for Mr. Flower, the excellent master of Rose's 

 school, has searched a record of the annual meetings of the 

 trustees, and thus communicates the result : — " I met with 

 the following entry, which, to my mind, proves most conclu- 

 sively that he was an inhabitant if not a native of Amesbury : 

 ' At a meeting (held September 29th, 1788) of the trustees of 

 the Grammar School founded by John Rose, late of the parish 

 of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the county of Middlesex, gentle- 

 man, deceased, formerly of Amesbury, aforesaid,' &c. I should 

 mention also further that I met with the baptism of a child 

 of the name of Rose, date about one hundred years ago, 

 thereby showing that persons of that name (since the decease 

 of John Rose) have been residents in Amesbury." — G. 



HAOKNESS HALL, 



TKE EESIDENOE OF SIB HAEOOUET JOHNSTONE, BABT., M.P. 

 The village of Hackness is in a valley distinguished for its 

 beautiful combination of woodland, hill, and water, for the 

 Derwent flows along the valley. Hither retired Hilda, the 

 foundress of Whitby Abbey, twelve hundred years since ; and 

 here probably William Rnfus hawked, for the district was his. 

 He granted a large portion to some of the Whitby monks, and 

 their monastery in the time of Henry VIII. passed to the Hoby 



