CATFORD. 143 
a scheme settled by the Court of Chancery in 1867, and amended 
by another scheme in 1883, a large part of the income was allocated 
for educational purposes, and the College buildings were erected at 
a cost of £45,000, on land which had been part of the Charities’ 
estates. The school was opened in 1888, accommodation being 
provided for 400 day boys and 4o boarders, with a headmaster’s 
residence and several acres for playing fields. The boarding 
element was afterwards dropped and the College is now a day 
school only. The school is built on a field which was bequeathed 
to St. Dunstan’s Parish in 1632 by Mirabelle Bennett. 
Standing back from the road at some distance, and near the 
junction of Catford Hill and Perry Hill, stood the large house 
known as Place House, which was accounted the Manor House of 
PLATE 66.—PLACE House, CATFORD, ABOUT 1810. 
Sydenham. A view of the remains of this house as they then 
existed, was published in 1791, a reproduction of which forms 
. Plate 67. From the description which accompanied this print, it 
would appear that there was a local tradition that the house was 
built by Queen Elizabeth about the year 1580, and was presented 
by her to her favourite, the Earl of Essex, and that she frequently 
honoured him here with visits, on which occasions his wife, the 
Countess of Rutland, was concealed in a secret chamber, the only 
entrance to which was by a false door from the wainscot of the 
Earl’s study, covered by a full length portrait of the Queen. The 
apartment was still in 1791 known as the Countess’s Room. 
