THE EXTERNAL GROWTH OF SHERBORNE SCHOOL. Ill 



records of the " Companie." Now and tlien the proximity of the 

 School to the aristocratic domain of Sherborne Castle brings the 

 name of Sir W. Raleigh upon their minutes. Once, in 1601, they 

 address a letter to Sir R. Cecil, acquainting him with the removal of 

 one Master, and the appointment of another in his place, whose 

 election they hope will prove satisfactory to the powers that be. 

 The star of Catholic Spain pales as that of Protestant England rises, 

 but there is no mention of an extra week's holiday for the defeat of 

 the Armada. Raleigh is attainted and executed, and Sherborne 

 Castle passes into the possession of the Digbys, but the School minds 

 its own business, and betrays no consciousness of the change of 

 patron. It is the golden age of English letters, but no culture is con- 

 ceived of outside the dead languages. Science is new-born in the 

 Instauratio and the ISTovum Organum, but not yet has it entered into 

 the heart of schoolmasters that Laboratories and Museums, such as 

 that in which we are now met, shall ere long contend with Homer 

 and Maro for precedence in stimulating the young idea to shoot. 



But with the close of the Elizabethan era a change comes over 

 the scene. The reign of the pedant-king has prepared the way for 

 a new attempt at despotism on the part of the Crown, and we are in 

 the vortex of a new revolution. Even the honest and discreet 

 " companie," who regulate the affairs of King Edward's School in 

 Sherborne, in spite of their unquestionable loyalty, are forced to 

 recognise the political exigencies of the time. Singularly enough 

 it is the year 1650, the centenary year of the School's founding. 

 Sherborne Old Castle is in the hands of the Parliamentary Forces, 

 to which, after a gallant struggle of fourteen days, it had yielded five 

 years before. It is a sore time for loyal Sherborne : but Hugh 

 Hodges, Warden of the School, is true to King Charles and to his oath, 

 and undergoes arrest rather than remove the bauble of the Royal 

 Scutcheon over the School door, which had provoked the ire of the 

 Parliament men. After this show of resistance a compromise is 

 effected, audit is agreed on the 10th of August that the "Companie 

 doe consent to get the Warden to take down the King's Arms over 

 the School door, and at the south end of the School-house, it being 



