SCHOOLS 



Then the school fades from records. The appointment of the 

 master lay with the president, and was not noticed in the college books. 

 A ' Magister Perkins ' is mentioned in the bursar's accounts as master 

 in 1653, showing that here as elsewhere the school went on under the 

 Commonwealth as before. 



From 1700 to 17 15 the Rev. Thomas Yeomans, B.A., of Brasenose 

 College, Oxford, combined the offices of vicar of Evenley and master of 

 Brackley School. The same combination supported the Rev. John 

 Young from 1765 to 1777, and was necessary, for the salary as master 

 was precisely ^13 6s. 8^. a year, a third less than that paid in the days 

 of Edward VI. 



The school only emerges into view again in 1806, when^ Thomas 

 Banister voted in a contested election for Northamptonshire as a free- 

 holder in virtue of his stipend there as schoolmaster, which in 1812 

 the college increased to ^^18 a year, and was succeeded by Thomas 

 Hawkins. 



In i860 the Rev. A. B. Falkner, of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 was appointed master, and was succeeded in 1864 by Mr. Thomas 

 Russell, of St. John's College, Oxford. The college then paid an endow- 

 ment of >Cioo a year. In 1864^ the school was described as only semi- 

 classical. There were 8 boarders paying jCs^ a year for board, ^^3 for 

 tuition fees, and 25 day-boys, of whom 8 were 'on the foundation,' 

 paying no fees. The rest paid £^ for general school-work, ^^4 for extra 

 subjects, jTz 2j. a year for books, and 4J-. for use of library. Mr. T. H. 

 Green, visiting for the Endowed Schools Inquiry Commission, found 

 38 boys in the school, of whom 11 were boarders. 'Not much 

 Greek was known ; only the highest boys could repeat the declensions 

 and the simpler forms of conjugations. Seven boys could construe 

 prepared parts of Virgil's First iEneid.' The first two boys were sons 

 of a farmer and a blacksmith. 



The next two masters were the Rev. F. S. Taylor of Christ 

 Church, Oxford, 1869-79, and the Rev. J. W. Boyd, 1879-82. 

 Under the Rev. Isaac Wodhams the school underwent great improve- 

 ment. New wings were added to the old school buildings, one in 

 1886 and another in 1896, giving room for 50 boarders, and the old 

 chapel, a beautiful building 122 feet long, was restored for the use of 

 the school. 



The present head master, appointed in 1900, is the Rev. W, W. 

 Holdgate, an exhibitioner of Trinity College, who obtained a first class 

 in natural science at Cambridge. The endowment paid by the college is 

 >r25oa year, and the boarding fees charged range from 33 guineas under 

 ten to 39 guineas over thirteen years of age. There were in 1901 67 boys 

 in the school — 35 boarders and 32 day-boys — whose studies are directed by 

 the head master and three assistant masters. The school is a ' centre ' for 

 the Oxford Local Examinations, and the education given is that usual in a 

 small public school. 



' Carlisle, ii, 204. ' School Inquiry Rep. xii, 320. 



2 233 30 



