SCHOOLS 



*ome Latin words from Stanbridge's Collection, or 

 small and light matter in Latin to be rendered by the 

 Babies by and by after one of the clock ; which done, 

 after a convenient pause, the said babies shall render 

 their Latins by heart, construe them and answer to 

 the part of them. 



This applied to the first four days of the 

 week. On Friday they were to say Sum, a,fui, 

 or some other verb out of the rules. Then they 

 were to be examined in the understanding of the 

 rules learnt in the week and say them by heart 

 in the afternoon. 



If the Master" have time sufficient before the time 

 of breakfast the Master, or some Scholar of an higher 

 form in the presence of the Master, shall declare to 

 them one little piece of the Pater Noster, or the Ave 

 M.iri.i, the Credo or the Treatise of the Manners 

 called a Quos decet in mensa, or the Ten Command- 

 ments, the Seven Deadly Sins, or the Five Witts,* 4 or 

 some other proper saying in Latin meet for the 

 Babies, and especially such as is meet for Christian 

 People to learn, as the Articles of Our Belief or any- 

 thing like. 



On Saturday before breakfast Form I 'ren- 

 dered ' their ' one little piece ' of religious in- 

 struction, ' construed it and answered to parts of 

 it.' After breakfast they rendered their Latins 

 learnt in the week. ' At afternoon they shall 

 learn to write or read Legends, or the Psalter, 

 to become more prompt in reading.' Not, be 

 it observed, for the sake of 'religious instruction, 

 but for the enunciation. 



In the second form the scholars shall read the 

 genders'* of Whittington and after them done the 

 Heteroclites of Whittington. These rules shall be 

 said in the morning and by and by one lesson shall 

 be read unto them for next day and they shall learn 

 Latins with the Pint Form. After their breakfast a 

 lecture of Cato after the new interpretation shall be 

 read unto them, which they shall construe again at 

 afternoon and answer to the parts of it, which done 

 they shall say their Latins by heart, construe them 

 and parse them. Upon Friday after breakfast they 

 shall render their rules ; and at afternoon . . . their 

 constructions. On Saturday they shall say and render 

 all things with the first form. 



In the third form the rules shall be the Preter- 

 tenses* and Supines of Whittington, and after these 

 done the Defectives of the said Whittington. They 

 shall have Latins. Their constructions shall be of 

 Terence or of Erasmus's Similitudes or of his familiar 

 communication called Colloquia Erasmi. 



In the Fourth form they shall have for their Rules 

 the Regiments of Whittington which he calleth Con- 



"' Not as in Carlisle, ' If they may have sufficient 

 time before breakfast.' 



* Not as in Carlisle, ' verses for the Mariners, 

 called Quos dicet in mensa.' 



** i.e. the five senses. 



" Not as in Carlisle, ' gradus.' 



M Sic. It was no doubt Preterites in the original, 

 but the copyist of 1626 could not read the writing 

 of i oo yean before. 



cinnitates Grammatices. They shall have Latin 

 constructions and other things except rules with the 

 third form to the intent that the better learned may 

 instruct the less learned. 



In the Fifth Form they shall read the Versifying 

 Rules. They shall have w or Ovid's Epistles. 



In the stead of Latins they shall construe Virgil, 

 Sallust or Horace or any other meet for them ; and 

 for their better exercise they shall male every week 

 verses and epistles. 



It is remarkable that the latest thing in classical 

 schools to-day is to return to this practice of 

 remitting verse-making and original Latin prose 

 to Form V. Form VI 'have for their rules 

 Copiam Erasmi,' i.e. Erasmus's book on copious- 

 ness of diction, ' wherein it is taught to make 

 88 ; all other things they shall read with the 

 Fifth Form.' 



In every Form 



the Rules shall be said in the morning, and by and by 

 more rules given unto them ; after 9 of the clock 

 the constructions shall be given them ; after I of the 

 clock the constructions shall be heard ; about 3 of 

 the clock the Latin shall be rendered. 



The master may begin to hear the First Form if it 

 pleaseth him, so that the tender babes and young 

 scholars be not forslowed,** but ever taught plainly 

 and substantially, soberly and discreetly entreated, 

 and handled without rigour or hastiness in deed word 

 and countenance. The Master also must attend 

 that his scholars keep a due and whole pronunciation 

 of their words without precipitation, and that they 

 speak Latin in every place. 



Considering the way that pronunciation and 

 enunciation are now almost wholly neglected in 

 schools, which to make up for the neglect have 

 to start Debating Societies and Shakespeare 

 Readings, and these only attended by a select 

 few, it is by no means clear that we have not 

 something to learn in the way of school teach- 

 ing from the much decried scholars of pro- 

 Reformation times. 



Next comes the usual fulmination against 

 holidays : 



The Scholars shall have no Remedy but once a week, 

 and that shall never be on the Friday ; and also after 

 2 of the clock, because they may render most of their 

 learning, or they depart the school, without* the 

 assent of one of the Controlers. 



The word ' remedy,' rtmtdium laboris, for holi- 

 day is now confined to Winchester. 



Lastly, to show that the imitation of Eton 



" This blank is a proof that the copyist of 1626 

 could not read the older writing properly. 



* Again the copyist could not read the old writing. 



* Si(. Not as in Carlisle, ' forestowed.' But it is 

 possible that the 17th-century copyist has misread 

 the word, as ' forslowed ' does not seem to have much 

 more meaning than ' forestowed.' 



* Not as in Carlisle, ' with.' 



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