52 C.C. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 



to the rules of construction, and the residue children of good aptness 

 to learn . . . the pay of the Schoolmaster sthould be reduced 

 to 20 marks the year and the Usher to 40 shillings." 



The Schoolmaster was to be given 4 days' notice of the Exam- 

 ination, and the reward for distinctions was of a curious character. 

 The four most successful in the first form received as prizes : 



1. A pen of silver wholly gilt ... ... 2/6. 



2. A pen of silver partly gilt ... ... 1/8. 



3. A pen of silver ... ... ... 1/4. 



4. A pen and inkhorn ... ... ... /6d. 



The three most creditable in the next three forms received a quire 

 of paper value 4d. With these quires of paper in their right hands 

 while the four others wore laurel garlands, they proceeded in proces- 

 sion of the whole School to the Parish Church, where a suitable 

 ceremony was performed. 



It was this same Richard Pate's important connections that gave 

 Cheltenham her next advantage. This was the first place in which 

 the tobacco plant was cultivated, and here it throve greatly, covering 

 the sides of Bays Hill till its growth was made illegal by Parliament 

 in the time of the Commonwealth, from the fear that its home pro- 

 duction would injure the monopoly of those who inported the weed 

 from Virginia. It was necessary to send for soldiers from Gloucester 

 to put the act into force ; but Cornet Wakefield and his men who 

 came to destroy the plantations found that the country rose against 

 them and they had to retreat. In Ogilby's Britannia, 1675, we find it 

 said that the men of Cheltenham still planted tobacco largely, though 

 it was illegal. 



Cheltenham was not unaffected by the Civil Wars between the 

 King and the Parliam.ent. In September, 1643, when Gloucester was 

 holding out against the King, the Parliamentary army under Essex 

 was expected to come to its relief On the 5th, Essex reaching the 

 top of Hewletts Hill above Prestbury, signified his arrival to the in- 

 habitants of Gloucester. Cheltenham then held out for the KingJ 

 (perhaps as being a Royal Manor) and Essex seems to have been! 

 compelled to skirmish with the Royalist troops : there are numerous! 

 traces of a battle in Imperial Square and the neighbourhood of the 

 G.W.R. Station. In laying the foundations of the Infant School 

 bodies hastily buried were found with bullets and coins of the period 

 about them. Essex's army seem to have found that the Royalists 

 had eaten every thing available, and the town providing insufficient 



