SCHOOLS 



that the prepostors were not themselves to keep 

 order or punish so much as to report delinquents 

 to the master. That the reports were not with- 

 out results we may gather from the character 

 given of Cox by Walter Haddon, already men- 

 tioned," in the conversation on flogging in 

 schools reported by Roger Ascham, which was 

 the occasion of his Scholemaster. The Secretary 

 of State, Sir William Cecil, having expressed 

 himself against flogging, Mr. Peters* 7 had argued 

 that it was both necessary and useful : ' the rod 

 was the sword of justice of the school.' ' Then,' 

 writes Ascham, ' Mr. Haddon was fullie of Mr. 

 Peters' opinion and said " That the best schole 

 master of our time was the greatest beater," and 

 named the person. " Though," quoth I, " it 

 was his good fortune to send from his schole 

 unto the university one of the best scholers in- 

 deede of our time, yet wise men do thincke that 

 that came so to pass, rather by the great toward- 

 nesse of the scholer than by the great beating of 

 the master ; and whether this be true or no, you 

 yourselfe arc best witness." ' This ' best schole- 

 master ' and ' greatest beater ' is commonly said 

 to be Udal. But it is quite clear that Ascham 

 was referring to Haddon himself, who was solely 

 Cox's pupil. If Haddon had meant Udal, who 

 was then dead, Ascham would not have hesitated 

 to give his name ; but Cox was still alive and a 

 bishop, and therefore for obvious reasons the 

 name was suppressed. The mistaken reference 

 to Udal was originally made by James Bennett, 

 * master of the Boarding-School at Hoddesdon in 

 Hertfordshire,' in his edition of Ascham's Works 

 in 1 761,** and has been blindly repeated ever 

 since. Udal, as will be seen, was no sparer of 

 the rod. But Cox must have the credit, or 

 otherwise, of being reputed by an old pupil the 

 best schoolmaster and greatest beater of his age. 



It is a grievous pity that Cox did not, as his 

 Elizabethan successor Malim did, give a time- 

 table of the year as well as the week, an account 

 of the feasts and holidays as well as the work. 

 In Malim's time many of the feasts, and the 

 customs connected with them, which in Cox's 

 time before the Reformation were still fresh, are 

 recorded as obsolete or obsolescent. The net 

 result was that hard as the whole-school-days 

 were, each a ten-hours' day, there were only five 

 or indeed four of them a week ; and there were 

 so many feasts that hardly a week could have 

 passed without at least one whole or half holiday. 

 For every greater feast day was a whole holiday, 

 and on every eve of the ' greater doubles,' feast 



* Haddon, scholar of Eton, fellow of King's, after 

 being master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and presi- 

 dent of Magdalen College, Oxford, was now a master 

 of the Court of Requests and Dean of Arches. 



" Peters or Pctre was a Secretary of State under 

 Edward and Elizabeth. 



" Thi Eng/. H'orki of Rogtr Aicham (Lond. R. and 

 J. Dodsley, 1761), 141 n. 



days on which double rations were enjoyed, there 

 was a partial holiday, no work being done after 

 dinner at 1 1 a.m. Most of the greater doubles were 

 the same everywhere, but certain of them varied 

 with the diocese, the local saints enjoying special 

 days. The greater doubles at Eton were I Janu- 

 ary, the Circumcision ; 6 January, the Epiphany ; 

 2 February, the Purification of the Virgin ; 25 

 March, the Annunciation ; then came Easter, 

 Whitsuntide, Corpus Christ! Day, i.e. Thursday 

 after Whitsuntide ; 24 June, Birth of St. John 

 Baptist; 29 June, St. Peter and St. Paul; I August, 

 St. Peter ad Vincula ; 1 5 August, the Assumption 

 of the Virgin ; 8 September, the Nativity of the 

 Virgin ; I November, All Saints' Day ; 30 No- 

 vember, St. Andrew's Day ; Christmas Day, and 

 the four following days, the last being the day of 

 St. Thomas the Martyr. In Lincoln diocese 

 there was also St. Hugh's Day, 17 November; 

 and at schools St. Nicholas's Day, the boy-bishop's 

 day. Again, Ash Wednesday was given up, not to 

 lessons, but to confession to the fellows or con- 

 ducts, each boy choosing his own confessor. On 

 the obit of William Wayneflete, 13 January, 

 every boy received id. ; on 7 February, the obit 

 of Provost Bost, there was a half holiday ; on 

 27 February, the obit of Roger Lupton, every boy 

 received id. and there was a holiday from dinner- 

 time (n a.m.) ; and on 26 May, the obit of 

 Henry VI, every boy had zd. In Malim's time 

 apparently only one memorial day of Henry VI 

 was observed, but previously, as at Winchester 

 for Wykeham, an obit was kept each quarter. 

 At Easter the school did not break up, though, 

 to judge from Winchester, there were extensive 

 exeats for those who could go home. For all 

 there was a ten-days' holiday (cessatum a put/ids 

 itudiis) from Wednesday in ' Holy Week,' which, 

 in Malim's account, means the week in which 

 Good Friday falls, to the Monday after Easter, 

 except that on ' work days ' they had writing 

 lessons beginning on Wednesday. Maundy 

 Thursday was a holiday. Those who commu- 

 nicated sat at table by themselves, had a better 

 dinner, and leave out afterwards to wander over 

 the fields, only they were not to go into taverns 

 or beer shops. On Good Friday, in Malim's 

 day, there was a writing lesson before 9 a.m. and 

 a sermon from the head master at I p.m. But 

 these were post-Reformation observances. On 

 Saturday before Easter Malim records that ' while 

 the custom flourished ' of the Easter Sepulchre, 

 three or four of the eldest boys chosen by the 

 master at the request of the sacrist watched 

 round the sepulchre with wax lights and torches, 

 ' lest the Jews should steal the Lord,' or, as he 

 adds with a sceptical Protestant touch, ' more 

 probably to prevent any damage from negligence 

 in looking after the lights.' On May Day, 

 St. Philip and St. James, those who wished got 

 up at 4 a.m. to gather boughs of may ; but with 

 a curiously grandmotherly care, which shows a 



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