SCHOOLS 



Form of nine boys, of whom five got open scholarships, two won cadetships in the Indian Civil 

 Service, and the other two, though they did not win open scholarships, won first-classes and fellow- 

 ships ; wiiile two of them were also 'blues,' one of them a doulile blue. Mathematics were 

 relegated to the afternoons, and were even then interrupted by the boys being called away to have 

 their classical compositions looked over by the headmaster. 



Dr. Holden found lOO boys, and on their quickly rising to 120, John Gent, afterwards Hertford 

 and Ireland scholar at Oxford, wrote to the dean and claimed the e.xtra week's holiday which had 

 been promised whenever that mystic number, the long hundred of our Saxon forefathers, had been 

 reached. 



In the year after Dr. Holden's arrival, the dean and chapter made a return to the cathedral 

 commission on the school as part of the cathedral foundation.! In this return they made the 

 extraordinary statement that ' the statutable stipend of the chief master of the Grammar School is 

 I02J. a year, and of the usher is 591., and the master of the choristers 1095., but they do pay the 

 headmaster (they appear to draw some subtle distinction between the title of chief and liead master) 

 ;^200 a year and the second master ;{^8o a year.' Why they understated the amounts of the 

 statutable stipends by nearly one-half, unless to cover the fact that they had increased the organist's 

 salary much more than the headmaster's, it is a little difficult to make out. Perhaps the person 

 who supplied the return had mistaken a half-year's for a whole year's payment, though whence the 

 odd shillings of the headmaster and choristers' master were derived wc cannot even guess. The 

 stipend of ;{^200 to the headmaster, while the canons, even on the truncated basis settled by the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners, had ;^i,000 a year each, is a striking commentary on the difference 

 between the treatment accorded to those who were members of the governing body of the 

 cathedral and those who were not. The original £2^ 6s. 8d. of the canons had grown so that 

 at onetime ' the golden prebend' was worth, it is said, ^^9,000 a year, while the original j^io of the head- 

 master had been raised twenty times only. The king's scholars received ;^30 a year each, which, the 

 chapter remark, with the remission of tuition fees of £() a year, made the total value of the 

 scholarship £29- They omitted to remark that the statutes made the king's scholars free from 

 tuition fees. The second master even had to pay the rent for his house recently built. The chapter, 

 having then no further personal interest in the common estates of the church, were generous in 

 their suggestions to the cathedral commission for augmentations to the school. They recommended 

 that the king's scholars' payments should be made obligatory, and that leaving exhibitions should 

 be provided. 'As there were only a few very small scholarships of ^10 to ^^15 a year tenable at 

 Oxford and Cambridge, and three of ^^15 to ;^40 a year at Durham University, a certain number 

 of moderate exhibitions, say, twelve of ^^40 each, should be provided out of the funds of this 

 cathedral to assist deserving boys at the Universities.' 



Under Dr. Holden the school increased its accommodation equally with its numbers. 

 In 1853 ^^^ ^""^^ ^^° class-rooms were added to the big school, with dormitories over 

 them, and in 1862 further additions were made to the headmaster's house. The school 

 was visited for the Endowed Schools Inquiry Commission in 1865 by Mr. J. G. Fitch. 

 He found 132 boys in the school, of whom 91 were boarders, viz., 52 in the head- 

 master's and 22 in the house of the second master, and 17 in a licensed house kept by a 

 private person. Those in the two masters' houses paid £^0 a year under twelve years of age 

 and £$0 above twelve. In the private house the fees were 35 guineas. The recommendation 

 of the chapter to this cathedral commission had borne no fruit. The salaries of headmaster and 

 usher with the value of the king's scholarships, of which he makes the amazing statement that 

 'these were instituted by the dean and chapter,' remained as in 1854 ; and no leaving exhibitions 

 had been founded. Dr. Holden was a schoolmaster of some originality. The hours, instead of 

 9-12, as then usual, were 8-1 1 a.m., and 2-5 in the afternoon ; so that the boys had two hours for 

 cricket or football before dinner instead of one. His arrangement of looking over exercises with the 

 boys singly is much praised by Mr. Fitch, but there was nothing uncommon about this. One 

 arrangement of the school was most peculiar. Instead of the general examination being held 

 twice a year before the vacation it was held after it, so that no holiday tasks were set ; but as the 

 examination was in the work of the previous term, 'each boy . . . had the strongest motive to 

 refresh his memory during the vacation . . . the boy who has worked well is permitted to enjoy a 

 real holiday, while the less careful scholars alone are forced to work.' 



Though himself ;><7r excellence a 'scholar,' Dr. Holden started in days, full early for such an 

 institution, 'a modern side,' in which ' a sound knowledge of the English language with com- 

 position in prose and verse is made an especial subject.' But it remained in an inchoate condition, 

 having only sixteen boys of very various ages and attainments all taught by one man, and was 

 rather ' a refuge for the destitute ' — ' chiefly overgrown, dull boys, or boys who have not had a fair 

 home education.' 



1 Cathedral Commission Report, 1854, p. 51. 

 I 385 49 



