SCHOOLS 



endowed it with an annuity of 12 a year, or not much less, allowing 

 for his having to find himself, than the pay of the headmasters of Win- 

 chester and Eton. By an order of 15 May, 1525, she appointed 

 William Dawson, who had already taught children grammar there for 

 four years and ' approved himself a profound grammarian,' the first 

 chaplain-master for life, and directed that the treasurer and chamber- 

 lains of the gild should appoint his successor, who was always to be a 

 'sufficient and able chaplain, not being beneficed nor advanced to any 

 spiritual or temporal promotion, being a sufficient grammarian to teach 

 children grammar after the order and use of teaching grammar in the 

 schools of Winchester or Eton,' and he was to teach ' after the form and 

 use of one of the said schools that should be there taught,' not only 

 'literature but good manners ' (bonos mores, i.e. morals and manners). The 

 gild and school were confiscated by Edward VI., but the town bought 

 them back, and the municipal corporation which took the gild's place 

 took also the duty of maintaining the school, which still flourishes and 

 does good work after its kind. In 1852 the noted antiquary, Thomas 

 Wright, published l from the town records what he called ' Rules of the 

 Free School at Saffron Walden in the reign of Henry VIII.' In his 

 edition one of the two papers so dubbed purports to be signed ' By me 

 Johan Twithener, schoolmaster. By me Thomas Brownyng, Ussher.' 

 Mr. Wright conjectured that Twithener was 'evidently the same who in 

 the list given by Lord Braybrooke in his History of Saffron Walden is 

 called Worthend, and who was Master of the school from 1545 to 1547.' 

 The assumption was somewhat violent, though not perhaps without justi- 

 fication, since Lord Braybrooke had misread an injunction in favour of 

 the grammar school in 1423, allowing the curates of the church to teach 

 'the alphabet and graces but not higher books' into an injunction that 

 they might 'teach the Greek alphabet," and Saffron Walden has conse- 

 quently been quoted as the first school in England to teach Greek at a 

 quite impossible date. The graces were simply the graces before and 

 after meat. In fact, the name of the schoolmaster who signs the docu- 

 ment in question is neither Worthend nor Twithener. It is that of our 

 good friend John Twychener * when he was headmaster of Winches- 

 ter, as is conclusively proved by Thomas Brownyng signing with him as 

 usher, while the other document is signed 'By me Richard Cox, School- 

 master.' Now Richard Cox was the contemporary headmaster of 

 Eton. It is clear that the profound grammarian, William Dawson, 

 or the foundress, Lady Bradbury, since the school was to be conducted 

 after the 'use' of Winchester and Eton, had taken the wise course 



xxxiv. 37. 



8 The original document is at Audley End now. It is perfectly plainly in alphabettcts et graciti not 

 alphabets grtfds. Oddly enough this same passage was converted by Mrs. Green in Town Life in England 

 in the Fifteenth Century into an inference that there were fifteenth century 'schools of deportment,' the 

 graces being supposed to be connected with the Three Graces. Lord Braybrooke also dubbed school- 

 master Dawson a knight because he found him called, like William of Wykeham in Froissart and Hugh 

 Evans in Shakespeare, 'Sir' William Dawson. 



3 The ' c ' has, as so often happens, been misread ' t'. It is perfectly plain in the original book at 

 Saffron Walden. 



II 297 38 



