A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



singing plain song, pricknote, faburdon, discant, square note and counterpoint, to the utmost of his 

 power ; teaching them four times on every week day, twice in the morning, and twice in the after- 

 noon, concealing from them nothing of his knowledge,' and himself take part in the services. 



He was to be given ;^io a year paid quarterly, with three yards of cloth of the suit of 

 'gentlemen clerks.' When incapacitated he was to receive a pension of five marks. His successor,' 

 on 17 February, 1537, was John Brymley, whose pay was, however, 0i a year only, but he was 

 to have his meals ' with the prior's own brethren,' and, when the prior was away, ' in the hall of the 

 Inn of the Monastry called le Gheste Hall ' (in aula hospicii prioris monasterii vocata le Gheste 

 Hall). 'John Brymeley, layman,' appears in 1535,- as ' instructor of the four boys, having for his 

 fee issuing from lands in Hebbarne and Simondside, by foundation of Thomas Castell, £i) 131. 4c/.' 

 It would seem, therefore, that the appointment of Hashewall as Song-master was the first, the 

 foundation being then new in 1513. But there must have been some earlier provision of the sort 

 as far as the young monks were concerned, but perhaps for singing only, not organ playing as well, 

 since the Sacrist in 1416— 7 paid 51. to 'a singer to teach the youths' (cantori informanti juvenes). 

 John Brimley after the dissolution became organist and master of the choristers on the new 

 foundation, and though in trouble for taking part in the mass in Durham Cathedral during 

 the rising in the north, retained office till his death, 13 October, 1576, being then seventy-four 

 years old.* 



It will have been observed that the writer of the Rites speaks as if there were always six 

 novices exactly under the master or tutor. But the number was not in fact constant. We are 

 enabled from 1380 onwards to get some idea of the numbers, by the same means as at Winchester,* 

 the presents of knives made to the novices. At Durham these presents appear to have been made 

 only by the Feretrar or shrine-keeper, who yearly gave knives and purses (called loculis or bursis 

 indifferently). Thus in 1380— i he paid 2j. \\d. 'for the knives and purses of the novices,' with- 

 out specifying how many, but in 1383 the number is given ' in eight knives and four purses given to 

 four novices and their masters, i;. \od^ The knives were in pairs, so that whenever the number of 

 knives is given, by halving them we find the number in 'school.' In 1387 there were apparently 

 five novices and two m.asters. In 1 409 a list of the monks gives twenty-seven monks and 

 seven novices. In 1423 four novices at once went off to Oxford. In 1445 seven pairs of 

 knives for the novices cost I/, id. ; in 1450 six pairs at \d. a pair, cost 2i., and in 1460 there 

 were five pairs at 3^/. each. In 1488 there were five novices. But five, six or even seven boys do 

 not make a school in any ordinary sense, and the monastic or priory school must therefore be regarded 

 as more like a small private collection of parlour boarders than the public school which these schools 

 are commonly reported to have been. Even if it can be called a school, the novices' school 

 did nothing for general education. 



THE ALMONRY SCHOOL 



The school in the almonry or infirmary was a much more substantial affair. Let us hear on 

 this again the writer of the Rites.^ 



There were certain poor children, railed children of the Almery, who onely were maintained with 

 learning, and relieved with the Almes and benevolence of the whole house, having their meat and 

 drink in a loft, on the north side of the abbey gates. And the said poor children went dayly to 

 school to the Farm.iry school, without the abbey gates ; which school was founded by the priors of 

 the said abbey, and at the charges of the same house, the last school-master's name was called Sir 

 Robert Hartburne, who continued master to the suppression of the house or abbey, and also the said 

 master was bound to say masse twice in the week at Magdalen Chappel nigh Keapyeare, and once in 

 the week at a chappie at Kirablcsworth. And also the meat and drink, that the aforesaid poor chil- 

 dren had, was the meat that the master of the novices and the novices left and reserved, and was 

 carried in at a door adjoyning to the great kitchin window into a little vault in the west end of the 

 Fratcr house like unto a pantry called the Covic, which had a man that kept it, called the clarke of the 

 Covic, and had a window within it, where one or two of the children did receive tlicir meat and 

 drink of the said clarke, out of the covie or pantry window so called, and the said children did carry 

 it to the Almery or loft, which clarke did wait upon them every mail, and to see that they kept good 

 order. 



(When a monk died) :• At nyght ys he removed from the dead manes chamber into St. Andrew's 

 chappcll, adjoyning to the said chamber and fcrmcry,^ there to rcniainc till cij^lit of the clock in the 

 mornyngc . . . Two mounckcs cither in kinrcd or kyndness the ncrcst unto him, were appoynted 

 by the prifir to be special! murncrs, syttingc all nyghte on their kneys at the dead corsses feet. Then 

 were the chyldrcn of the thaumcrcy sitting on there knees in stalls of eyther syd the corpcs, appoynted to 

 read Davis's spaltcr all nyght over inccssanly till the said our of eight a clock in the mornyng. 



' Roger Prior's Reg. v. 261b. ' Valor Eccl. (Rcc. Com.), v. 300. 



« Ritei o/Dur. 231. ♦ A. F. Leach, History oj WinchcsUr College. 



' Rttei ofDur. 91, from MS. L. I, 656. « Roll. C. 1600. 7 Ibid. 51 from Roll of 1600. 



368 



