A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



them.' If found ' idle, negligent or unfit to teach,' they might be deprived 

 after three warnings. 



The grammar school, it will be observed, was entirely free and open to 

 all. The masters were to instruct any who came to learn grammar. The 

 choristers are not even mentioned in connexion with it. There is not a 

 vestige of foundation for the notion, sedulously inculcated by some writers 

 and carelessly accepted by the public, that the school was solely or primarily 

 or in any substantial degree intended for the choristers. The choristers were 

 separately provided for by chapter 24 : 



Of the choristers and their master. We decree that there be ... by the election of 

 the dean 8 choristers, youths who have good voices and are inclined to singing, who may 

 serve, minister and sing in our choir. For the instruction of these youths and training them 

 up as well in modest behaviour as in skilfulness of singing we will that . . . there shall be 

 chosen one who is of a good life and reputation, skilful both in singing and in playing upon 

 the organ, who shall diligently spend his time in instructing the boys in playing upon the 

 organs and at proper times in singing divine service. 



He also was removable after three warnings. At Gloucester there 

 was not even the clause inserted in other cathedral statutes that the choristers 

 should be eligible or have a preference for admission as scholars of the 

 grammar school when their voices broke. The reason was that there was 

 at Gloucester no provision for grammar scholars to be lodged, boarded, and 

 clothed and taught gratis, at the expense of the cathedral establishment, as 

 there was in most of the other cathedrals of the new foundation, ranging 

 from 50 at Canterbury and 40 at Westminster to 20 at Peterborough; 

 consequently there would have been no adequate benefit to ex-choir boys in 

 providing for their admission to the grammar school, to which they could, 

 like everybody else, be admitted without special provision. 



In other particulars, the statutes relating to the school were in identical 

 terms with those in the other cathedrals of the new foundation, reference 

 being made in the foundation deed here, by way of model, to the statutes 

 of Westminster Cathedral, afterwards unfortunately dissolved by Queen Mary 

 to reinstate the monastery. 



The relative place which the grammar school bore in regard to the rest 

 of the establishment may be gauged by the amount of the masters' salaries 

 and allowances for liveries, or clothing, and commons, or board, compared 

 with those of the other members of the establishment. 



The dean had a salary of 27 a year, with an allowance of 4J. a day for 

 every day at which he was present in his habit at mattins, mass, and vespers, 

 including days on which he was absent for certain specified reasons, being 

 a maximum of 73 ; or 100 a year in all. Each canon had a salary of 

 7 ijs. 8</. and a similar allowance of 8</. a day, making a maximum of 

 12 3-r. 4</., or 20 is. in all. At Gloucester, differing in this respect 

 from some other cathedrals, the canons were allowed or directed to have 

 separate houses for themselves and their families, which did not at first mean 

 wives and children, as they were still celibate priests, but servants and de- 

 pendants ; but for the other members of the establishment a common hall 

 was provided, where they were to be boarded together, and to wear a livery 

 of one or two suits, which would have been called the gentlemen's and the 

 servants' liveries. The living of these other members of the cathedral 



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