A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Bedfordshire. The master was then the curate 

 of Amersham, and lived in the house belonging to 

 the school, but there were no scholars. In 1823 

 the Rev. Henry S. Ingster was appointed head 

 master, and held office for three years. On the 

 appointment of a new master, the Rev. Matthew 

 Stalker, in 1826, the trustees made rules for the 

 government of the school. 6 The attendance of 

 the master was strictly enjoined ; he was for- 

 bidden to discharge his duties by deputy. He 

 was allowed to take private pupils in the school- 

 room, but on the significant condition that no 

 distinction was made between them and ' the 

 children of our own establishment.' He was to 

 live at the house in the High Street appropriated 

 for the purpose, and to keep it in repair at his 

 own expense. Nothing was to be charged for 

 the education of any scholar, but the parents 

 were to pay for fuel and for keeping the room 

 clean. No details are given of the curriculum, 

 only Latin and Greek being mentioned. In 

 April 1832 there were only six boys. When 

 Stalker first came, his son taught mathematics 

 besides the other branches of an ordinary educa- 

 tion, and was very successful, as 1 4 boys came ; 

 but after his son died, in 1830, the numbers fell. 

 Only Latin and Greek were taught free, other 

 subjects being paid for by the parents. The 

 Rev. W. H. Williams, B.A., Oxford, was head 

 master when the school was visited by Mr. 

 T. H. Green, afterwards White's Professor of 

 Moral Philosophy at Oxford, for the Schools 

 Inquiry Commission in 1 864.' There were 

 then 22 boys, five of whom were boarders, pay- 

 ing from 37 to 42 a year, according to age. 

 They were all learning Latin, only four Greek ; 

 but the boys were very young, only two being 

 above thirteen. 



A new scheme under the Endowed Schools 

 Acts was approved by Queen Victoria in Council 

 on 15 May 1900. The endowment then con- 

 sisted of land in Wavendon producing 75 a 

 year, and of about 200 stock. The scheme con- 

 stituted a representative governing body of eleven 

 members, appointed by the Parish and Rural 

 District Councils of Amersham, the Urban Dis- 

 trict Council of Chesham, and the Buckingham- 

 shire County Council, and one by the rector, and 

 three co-optatives, all Tyrwhitt Drakes, the 

 Drakes of Shardeloes having been connected with 

 the charity from the conveyance in 1676. The 

 head master was, and still is, Mr. Ernest Henry 

 Wainwright, M.A., of St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge, where he took his B. A. degree in 1 897, the 

 year in which he was appointed master of this 

 school. The scheme threw the school open togirls 

 as well as boys, but want of space prevented its 

 proper development. New school buildings were 

 opened in September 1905, and it was made a 



pupil-teacher centre. There were then 80 

 pupils, in 1907, 94. They pay fees of 9 guineas 

 a year. The Cambridge Local Examinations 

 set the standard of instruction. There are two 

 assistant masters, three assistant mistresses, and a 

 visiting art master. 



SIR WILLIAM BORLASE'S SCHOOL, 

 MARLOW 



Sir William Borlase, of Medmenham, kt., in 

 1624 built a schoolhouse in Great Marlow, and 

 started a school there, which, by will 28 October 

 1628, he endowed with lands in Buckinghamshire 

 and Oxfordshire, from the profits of which 12 

 was to be paid annually to a schoolmaster to 

 teach 24 poor boys to ' write, reade and cast the 

 account in writeinge.' l When they can do this, 

 'which I conceave in 2 years they will bee ready 

 to doe,' 401. was to be allowed to each for ap- 

 prenticing. The boys were given a blue gown 

 and cap when appointed. The school was an 

 elementary charity school, and so continued until 

 it was reorganized as a secondary school by a 

 scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts ap- 

 proved by Queen Victoria in Council 20 Novem- 

 ber 1880. This scheme created a governing 

 body of twelve, of whom eight were co-optative, 

 and one representative of the county justices, 

 two of the vestry, with the lord of the manor of 

 Davers ex officio. The tuition fees were fixed 

 at from 3 to 6 a year, and the boarding fees 

 at 35 a year, with twelve foundation scholar- 

 ships, open to boys in elementary schools in 

 Great Marlow, Little Marlow, and Medmenham. 

 New buildings were erected, and the school re- 

 opened as a grammar school in 1881, under the 

 Rev. Michael Graves, B.D., Durham. After 

 being an assistant master at Louth Grammar 

 School, and head master of Barrow Grammar 

 School, Leicestershire, he was, when appointed 

 to Marlow, vice-principal of the Lincoln Diocesan 

 School, and curate of St. Mary Magdalen, Lin- 

 coln. In his hands the school met with instant 

 success, the numbers rising rapidly to about 150, 

 of whom nearly i oo were boarders. From this 

 point it somewhat declined, but when Mr. Graves 

 retired to the vicarage of Turville in 1896 he 

 left about 100 boys behind him. The second 

 master, Mr. Clark, succeeded to the head-mas- 

 tership. At the end of six years there were 

 only some 20 boys. Mr. Edward Henry 

 Blakeney, a Westminster boy and exhibitioner of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, who had been for 

 five years successfully resuscitating Sandwich 

 Grammar School, came in 1901. He raised the 

 school to 67 boys by 1903. Some 1,700 was 

 spent on science laboratories, an art room, and 

 workshop, and the modern as well as the classical 



6 Lipscomb, County of Bucks. (1831), lii. 



7 Sc6. Inj. Rep. xii, 176. 



Petty Bag, Inq. no. zi, Great Marlow, 1631. 



214 



