A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



in the army class, lo in the navy class, and 39 boys in the junior school. 

 In 1895 five boys left the school with open scholarships at Cambridge, 

 and they all appeared in 1898 in the First Class of the Classical Tripos. 



The usher or second master with a quasi-independent position dis- 

 appeared with the retirement of Mr. R. P. Brereton on a pension in 

 1897. While in the old days of pure classics two masters were thought 

 sufficient for eighty or even 100 boys, now there are no less than 12 

 masters for 168 boys, or at the rate of one for every 14 boys. 



The Laxton School is not indeed an independent school, but is 

 separate alike in work and play. The master in charge of it, Mr. T. H. 

 Ross, B.A., Mus. Bac, has the status of an assistant master in the 

 Oundle School, with a staff of two masters under him. The curricu- 

 lum excludes Greek. There are now 55 scholars, all but 15 of whom 

 are day boys. The boarders are made up, partly of boys holding scholar- 

 ships awarded to children of freemen of the Grocers' Company, partly of 

 boys holding scholarships awarded by the Northampton County Council 

 to boys in public elementary schools in the county, a modicum of four 

 or five only being paying scholars, sons of farmers. 



The finances of the schools depend on the yearly budget of the 

 Grocers' Company. About j(^2,ooo a year has been spent in the last few 

 years on the Oundle School, including grants for equipment of class- 

 rooms, laboratories, and the like. In its present flourishing condition 

 as to numbers it is nearly, or soon should be, self-supporting. The Lax- 

 ton School has been receiving about >C6oo ^ J^^^ ^^ addition to what is 

 regarded as its ' endowment' of ^(^300 a year. The lowness of the fees 

 must always prevent this school being self-supporting. About jC^So a 

 year is spent on pensions for past schoolmasters. 



It will be interesting to see the result of the company's educational 

 experiments — that of a first-grade technical school, part and parcel 

 of and side by side with a first-grade classical school; and a second-grade 

 modern school in the near neighbourhood of a first-grade school. 



WELLINGBOROUGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



The origin of Wellingborough Grammar School has been attributed 

 officially^ to the year 1595; though both Bridges^ the historian of the 

 county and Carlisle the historian of grammar schools' have suggested, 

 without showing, an earlier origin, which is in fact certain. 



There is no doubt that the school owes its endowment ultimately to 

 the Gild of the Blessed Mary in the church of All Saints of Wendlyng- 

 burgh, the chapel of which seems to have existed in 1329* and the gild 

 itself to have been formally incorporated 24 July, 1392,^ and by the time 

 of Henry VIII had become united with the Gild* of Corpus Christi 



' Ciar. Com. Rep. xxiii, 304. ' Bridges, Hist. ofNorthants. 



' Endowed Grammar Schools, ii, 226. * Pat. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 3. 



* Pat. 16 Rich. II, pt. ii, m. 29, 30. 



•^ Copy of Court Roll 18 Oct. 1522, among the gild muniments preserved in the vestry of the 

 parish church. 



262 



