SCHOOLS 



capital and pay over the residue, jTyo, to the chapter funds, and they 

 then directed £io a. year to be paid to the master out of the chapter 

 funds, ' being the annual salary of our place or office of Auditor, which 

 is now vacant, and the same which is a useless office shall be kept vacant 

 for that purpose.' This was a most ingenious way of compounding for 

 a breach of trust without loss to the pockets of the individual canons. 

 But if j^2oo had been invested in land in the neighbourhood of Peter- 

 borough in 1736, the school would not now be pining for adequate 

 playing fields adjoining the school-house. 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century the two masters were 

 reduced to one, and he invariably held a minor canonry and a living as 

 well. In 1 8 14, pressed by the growing demand for the education of the 

 poor, the dean and chapter conceived the ingenious, if not creditable, 

 idea of carrying out their duty in that respect, by a petition to be 

 presented to His Majesty humbly requesting 'that His Majesty will be 

 graciously pleased to order that our present Grammar School be erected 

 into a school for the teaching of the English language, writing, and 

 accounts.' This petition was fortunately never presented. 



In 1818^ the stipend of the master, the Rev. Mr, Loftus, was 

 £^^ 1 3J. ^d. a year, of which the dean and chapter only paid the 

 ancient sums mentioned in the statutes, viz. jri6 13^. 4^'. for the master 

 and £S for the usher, the residue being made up of jTio paid by them in 

 respect of Mrs. Dawson's bequest and ;(^io paid by Magdalene College, 

 Cambridge, in respect of Duport's gift. The chapter, however, had 

 recently added a master to teach English, writing, and arithmetic. ' Ever 

 since this alteration,' says Carlisle, with an evident note of admiration, 

 ' the number of scholars has exceeded twenty, and it is at present thirty- 

 three.' 



In 1829 the dean and chapter for the first time advertised in the 

 newspapers for a new master, limiting candidates to ' one of the two 

 Universities.' 



William Cape of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was elected. 

 Like his predecessor he was a minor canon and was also vicar of Bring- 

 hurst and Great Easton, Leicestershire, which however he never troubled 

 with residence. He was a man of considerable power. A senior 

 wrangler hailed from Peterborough School under him in 1 847, whose 

 brother was a senior optime. 



For the first time the holidays were officially recognized, being 

 fixed at six weeks in the summer and five weeks in the winter. 



In 1 841 the chapter provided the head master with a residence for- 

 merly belonging to a prebend (then suppressed), and in 1849 increased 

 his salary by £iS'> at the same time adding £10 6s. Sd. to that of the 

 under-master. When Cape resigned, in 1850, the house he inhabited was 

 kept for a minor canon's residence, ' the house adjoining the Grammar 

 School ' being purchased from Earl FitzWilliam for the head master's 

 residence in the future. 



' Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, ii, 220. 

 215 



