SCHOOLS 



parish church between the Morning Prayer and 

 the Communion, as well for their own instruction 

 as for the instruction of other young children 

 in the said parish.' Instead of prayers for the 

 souls of founders and benefactors school was 

 begun by saying or singing a psalm, followed by a 

 prayer, the main part of which was : ' We . . . 

 beseech thee, O eternal father, so illuminate our 

 wits and understandings that we may have our 

 whole affection upon wisdom in these years of 

 our infancy ' a petition which it is to be feared 

 was doomed to perpetual ill-success. The even- 

 ing prayer, also to be preceded by a psalm, was 

 the collect ' Lighten our darkness,' a translation 

 from the Latin evensong. 



The chief interest of these statutes is that 

 they set out the curriculum. ' The said School- 

 master and Usher, or one of them, to every form 

 of scholars within the said grammar school shall 

 teach these books and authors in order hereafter 

 following,' that is to say : 



I. The said Schoolmaster or Usher shall diligently 

 teach and read unto their Scholars of the First Form 

 within the said Grammar School the figures and 

 characters of letters, to join, write, sound and pronounce 

 the same plainly and perfectly. And immediately to 

 learn the inflection of Nouns and Verbs, which if it 

 be done with diligence, a good and apt nature in one 

 year may attain a perfect reading, pronouncing, and 

 declining of Nouns and Verbs, and the more prone 

 natures may spare some part of the year to hear the 

 explication of Tullie's Epistles written ad Terrentiam 

 Uxorem, or Tyronem Libtrtum, for the familiar phrase 

 in the same, out of which the scholars must be com- 

 manded to write certain Latin words and repeat the 

 same in the morning next after past. 



II. Item, in the Second Form, after usual repetition 

 of the inflection of Nouns and Verbs, which is at- 

 tained in the first form, a more full explication of the 

 Eight Parts of reason, with the Syntaxis or Construc- 

 tion, must be shewed, and the other hours of reading 

 may be spent in the Colloquia Erasmi, and some harder 

 epistles of Tully, which must be dissolved and dis- 

 cussed verbatim, and the reason of every Construction 

 shewed. The exercise of the Form is to turn sen- 

 tences from English to Latin, and e diverso. Now is 

 attained your analogy of Nouns and Verbs with pre- 

 cepts, orations conjunct, and that no scholar over one 

 month do continue in the said School without books 

 requisite for his Form, unless he do daily write his 

 own Lessons. And further we ordain that in this 

 Form be taught the Scriptures both the Old and New 

 Testament, Salust, Salern, and Justinian's Institutes, 

 if the Schoolmaster and Usher be seen in the same. 



III. Item, the said Schoolmaster or Usher shall read 

 and teach unto the Third Form of Scholars within 

 the said Grammar School, the King's Majesty's Latin 

 Grammar, Virgil, Ovid, and Tully's Epistles, Copia 

 Erasmi verborum et rerun, or so many of the said 

 Authors as the said Schoolmaster shall think convenient 

 for the capacity and profit of his scholars, and every 

 day to give unto his said scholars one English to be 

 made into Latin. 



And also that the Scholars of this Form, and like- 

 wise of the Second and First Form, so many as shall be 

 conveniently able thereof, shall every Monday, Tues- 



day, Wednesday, and Thursday, being work days, 

 first in the morning say over one of the eight parts of 

 speech, like as the manner and fashion is of all Gram- 

 mar Schools, and upon Friday Sum, et, Jui with his 

 compounds, as shall seem to the schoolmaster con- 

 venient, and to repeat upon Saturday, or upon the 

 Friday, if Saturday chance to be a holiday, such 

 things as they have learned in the same week before. 



IV. Item, the said Schoolmaster or Usher shall teach 

 to the Fourth Form of Scholars within the said 

 Grammar School, to know the breves and longs and 

 make verses, and they of this Form shall write every 

 week some Epistle in Latin, and give it to the said 

 Master or Usher at the end of the Week. And also 

 the said Master shall teach the scholars of this Form 

 the Greek Grammar and also the Hebrew Grammar, 

 if he be expert in the same, and some Greek authors 

 so far as his learning and convenient time will serve 

 thereunto. 



The fact that no higher form than the fourth 

 is provided for, whereas all the great schools at 

 this time went up to the sixth, and at Winches- 

 ter, Eton, and Westminster to the seventh, while 

 Winchester in the i6th century and Eton two 

 centuries later shed all the forms below the 

 fourth, seems to show that the school was not 

 expected to be of what was called the first 

 grade, but of the second or third. It is, how- 

 ever, sufficiently startling to find not only the 

 Greek grammar but also the Hebrew grammar 

 in the fourth form, which was attained at the 

 age of twelve or thereabouts. It is noticeable 

 that the master himself is not to be expected 

 to know much Greek beyond the bare grammar. 

 The hours of the school were prescribed as 6 to 

 8 a.m. 'and then the scholars to go to breakfast, 

 and to come again before 9 of the clock ' ; at 

 1 1. 30 a.m. to go to dinner. Afternoon school 

 began at I and lasted till 3.30, 'and then to go 

 to their drinking,' or bevcrs, as it was called at 

 Winchester and Eton, a sort of afternoon tea, 

 only the liquid imbibed was not tea but beer. 

 The final session was from 4 ' strictly ' to ' 6 of 

 the clock at night.' In winter, however, 

 from Michaelmas to Lady Day, the hours were 

 7 to 1 1 .30 a.m., with no stop for breakfast, 

 which was presumably to be had before coming, 

 and from i to 5 p.m. The schoolmasters 

 were not to stay out of school, as was too 

 frequently the case : ' All which times we will 

 and ordain that the Schoolmaster shall be pre- 

 sent in the school, and also the Usher, and 

 shall not use of custom to absent or withdraw 

 themselves from their said scholars at times above- 

 said but only for honest, necessary and reasonable 

 causes.' Nor were they to be absent from Ret- 

 ford ' over the space of 3 days in any one quarter 

 of the year, except it be by special licence of the 

 bailiffs and burgesses.' There was the usual 

 attack on casual holidays or half-holidays : ' And 

 that they give not remedy to their scholars over 

 one day in the week.' The master or usher 

 might be expelled by the bailiffs and burgesses if 



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