A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



which appear to be modelled on the Tabula 

 Legum Pedagogkarum, which may still be seen 

 painted on a board on the walls of ' School ' at 

 Winchester College, are believed to have been 

 copied from the original school of William of 

 Wykeham's day, and are couched in the language 

 of the laws of the Twelve Tables of Rome. But 

 the Bury edition is very much enlarged and 

 altered. They are for the most part the most 

 useless of vague generalities, e.g. — 



I. In the first place let the masters be good 

 men, diligently teach their flock, instil good morals 

 at the same time as letters.' 2. Let them abstain 

 from dice, play and ' drink.' ... 4. Let them 

 neither rage with too great harshness, nor be easily 

 bent to lenity. ... 6. Let them have equal 

 regard to poor and rich, and show the same zeal in 

 teaching each. 



The usher was to come at 6 and teach till 

 1 1 a.m., and the master at 7 and teach to 

 IO.30 a.m. Both were to return at 1 p.m., and 

 the head master might go at 4.30, the usher at 

 5 p.m. On Saturdays and half-holidays they 

 were to go on till 3 p.m. The boys were not 

 to exceed 1 00 (eorum numerus centenarius esto), and 

 the poor were to be given a preference for ad- 

 mission, but those who could not read nor write 

 were not to be admitted — an effective exclusion 

 of the gutter poor. There follows a sentence 

 which expressed the law of grammar schools in 

 a nutshell : — 



Let * them seek elsewhere the ability to read and 

 write. Let ours (? masters) give nothing but the 

 rules of grammar and the learning of the Latin and 

 Greek tongue. 



The 23rd rule is — 



Let none come to school with hair uncombed, 

 hands or face unwashed, dirty boots or stockings, torn 

 or unbuttoned clothes. 



The boys were to be divided into 5 classes, the 

 first 3 under the master, the rest under the 

 usher. This does not look as if a school of the first 

 grade was contemplated, as at this time the great 

 schools were divided into 8, 7, or 6 forms. Nor 

 do the books prescribed. The first or highest form 

 was to be taught [audiunto, listen to, i.e. be lectured 

 to on), Cicero, De Offciis ; Caesar's Commentaries ; 

 Virgil's /Eneid ; Quintilian's Institutes of Rhetoric ; 

 or Herennius' Precepts of Rhetoric. Form II. 

 were to read Sallust, Virgil's Bucolics or Georgics, 

 Horace, and Erasmus On Copiousness of Diction and 

 Letter-writing. Form III. Erasmus On Deportment 

 (de civilitate morum), the King's Grammar, Ovid's 



1 ' Ped.igogi in primis viri boni sunto, diligenter 

 gregem docento, bonos mores simul cum litteris 

 inserunto.' 



' ' Alea, lusu, potatione abstinento.' 



' 18. Legendi vel scribendi alibi quasrant facultatem. 

 Nostri praeter grammatica: institutiones et linguae 

 latina: et Graeca informationem nihil aliud tradunt. 



Tristia, and the chaster plays of Plautus and 

 Terence. Form IV. were to be instructed by 

 the usher in Mimus, Public paraemias, Erasmus' 

 Dialogues, iEsop's Fables, Cato's Couplets, Man- 

 cinus' Poems on the Four Virtues. The rest were 

 to learn the elements of grammar. 



30. Barbarous writers, obscene poets, because the last 

 corrupt their morals and the first their Latin, are 

 not to be obtruded on the boys. 32. They are to talk 

 Latin continually. 



The Winchester ' Let the arms of scholars be 

 always ready,' appears in the more prosaic form : 



34. Ink, parchment, knife, pens, note books, let all 

 have ready. 



A curiously old-world arrangement was 



35. When they have to write let them use their 

 knees for a table. 



At the end of the week the work of the week 

 was rehearsed. 



40. On Fridays and Saturdays let the masters read 

 nothing, but let the boys give an account of what 

 they have learnt in the preceding days. Let them 

 bring short speeches (dechmatiunculas) which they have 

 commented on in their leisure hours (horis subsecitis). 



43. The schoolmaster every evening is to dictate 

 three Latin sayings and explain them in English, 

 the scholars are to write them down next day. 46. 

 Half an hour before dinner or supper let them dispute 

 on the inflections and cases of nouns, the conjugations, 

 tenses, and moods of verbs, or dictate in turns pro- 

 verbs, adages, sentences, verses, silently and without 

 noise. 47. These speeches are to end at the first 

 stroke of the clock, and the boy who has beaten his 

 fellows, shall have the first place by way of prize. He 

 shall hold it until he has been overcome by another's 

 industry. 



After 5 years (48) everyone must leave either 

 for Cambridge or to go to other arts. 



50. When they want relaxation, they are to 

 indulge in some gentlemanly (honesto) sport such 

 as running, throwing darts, or archery. Dice, 

 knuckle-bones, quoits, and all games unworthy 

 of a free man are to be avoided. 



No leave to play is to be granted except on 

 Thursday, and then only if it is fine, and the 

 boys have been industrious. They are all to go 

 to church on saints' days, and are to learn the 

 ' Lord's Prayer,' the ' Ten Commandments,' and 

 other institutes of the Christian faith. There 

 are to be two pupils named by the masters to act 

 as censors. A mean and unique addition is 

 made of a third secretly added by the masters to 

 report on the censors, and of all crimes unre- 

 ported by them. Friday was the day when 

 inquiry was to be held into all crimes, and 

 punishment inflicted. 



The usher was to teach under the order of the 

 master. He was to open the school doors in the 

 morning and shut them at night — whence, of 

 course, his name of the doorkeeper (ostiarius) — and 



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