A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



idea of the several manufactures and the metals from the rude material 

 and the mines to their last improvement, some skill in letter-writing, 

 some acquaintance with admired passages from our poets and other 

 authors,' can be gained from reading-lessons, and the practical delights of 

 the study of geography. 



The Rev. Thomas Henry Bullen, clerk, of Christ's College, Cam- 

 bridge, being confronted with this portentous piece of empirical pedagogy, 

 warily professed his most perfect approbation of it, and was elected 

 24 March, 1796. A year afterwards the local overseer reported that he 

 had found not a single boy in the school, but that then, May, 1797, there 

 were 45, ' the sons of gentlemen, clergymen, and the most respectable 

 and opulent tradesmen and farmers,' of whom twenty-one were boarders, 

 and the plan of education recommended by the company was carried out, 

 ' merchants' accounts, surveying, geography, and drawing being taught, 

 besides the classics, by Mr. Bullen and his very able assistant.' The word 

 ' gentleman ' was rather romantically used ; but a good many tradesmen's 

 sons from Peterborough, Grantham, Cambridge, and Ramsey deserted the 

 schools there for Oundle. Mr. Bullen was given jC^oo ' ^^7 ^^is Court as 

 a voluntary gift in token of their present approbation and as an encourage- 

 ment for him to exert himself in the good government and increase of the 

 school.' Next year he received a grant of ;r6o. In 1799 there were 

 97 boys in the school, of whom 40 were boarders. But the arrangements 

 were primitive, to say the least of it. The ' eating room ' for fifty 

 persons was only 14 feet by 15 feet 9 inches, while 'all the operations 

 of washing etc. the children were obliged to be performed in the kitchen,' 

 the consequence of which was too great familiarity with the domestics, 

 who would not stay. Moreover as the pupils had only the school ' to 

 sit or play in when the weather is unfavourable or in the winter evenings, 

 the repose and comfort ' of the almspeople who lived underneath them 

 was ' materially broken in upon.' The same outhouses too served for 

 almshouses and school. The house was therefore enlarged at a total cost 

 of ^(^641. In 1800 Mr. Bullen again received a ' benevolence' of >r6o, 

 while one of his assistant masters, Thomas Dix, was given ten guineas for 

 the dedication to the company of a book he had published on land 

 surveying. 



In 1803 Bullen asked for an increase of salary, stating that it was 

 hinted in strong terms when he was appointed that it should be made up 

 to j^ioo a year, which had been done sometimes but not always, that he 

 had to pay ^100 a year for a classical assistant master, besides the others, 

 and that though his boarding terms were as high as the public could bear, 

 and the house was full, he had gained nothing ' but a nervous and weakly 

 constitution, which in four years' might incapacitate him. He obtained 

 j(^ioo, but with an intimation that as the company had enlarged his house 

 and so enabled him to increase his emoluments, they did not expect such 

 an application. At Midsummer, 1809, Bullen resigned on account of ill- 

 health. He was succeeded by the Rev. John James of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, whose salary was definitely augmented in 1 8 1 2 by jir6o a 



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