A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



' which sums are left arbitrable to be by the said Patrons and Governors for 

 the time being increased or diminished as to their grace wisdom and dis- 

 cretion shall be thought best and most convenient.' By the deed, the 

 president or vice-president or one of the seven seniors of the college was 

 to visit the school once a year, ' at such time as the lands of the college lying 

 in Gloucestershire are to be visited or surveyed by the statutes of the college.' 

 By the ordinances four days' notice was to be given and the visitors were to 



spend the time from 8 or 9 of the clock until 1 1 in the forenoon and 3 to 6 p.m. in 

 apposing trying and examining the scholars of the said school and after such apposition ended 

 shall determine and judge which 4 scholars of the said school have showed themselves best 

 scholars of the whole number in the said disputations ; and also which 3 of the 3 next forms 

 to the highest forms have proved themselves the best scholars severally of the said 3 forms ; 

 and . . . shall with some convenient oration in Latin give conclusion to that day's exercise 

 and dispose to the scholars such gifts and rewards as the said Richard Pate the founder 

 (knowing that honour and reward yielded to virtue and learning doth greatly augment the 

 same especially in youth) hath appointed. 



The prizes were, 



to the best ... a pen of silver wholly gilt of the price of 2s. 6d. To the second 

 best ... a pen of silver parcel gilt of the price of is. 8d. To the third a pen of silver of 

 the price of is. $d. To the fourth a penner and inkhorn of the price of 6d. which four 

 shall be termed the four victors of the said school for that year. . . . The three best 

 scholars of the next 3 several forms to the highest, have every of them a quire of paper price 

 ifd. the quire for their reward. 



Then they were to go two-and-two to the parish church, 



the 4 victors coming last next before the said schoolmaster and usher, each of them having 

 a laurel garland on his head provided for that purpose and the 3 other rewarded scholars 

 shall go together in one rank next before the said victors, each of them holding his quire of 

 paper rolled up in his right hand. 



Annexed was a budget showing a rental of 73 igs. 4^. gross and 

 53 19-r. 7\d. net. The master and usher were to take 14. 



Such were the elaborate and on the whole wise provisions made by 

 Richard Pate for the foundation and permanence of this already ancient 

 school. How long the provisions were properly carried out by Corpus 

 Christi College and how long the school effectively purveyed the highest 

 grade of secondary education to Cheltenham cannot be ascertained. 



When light does fall on the school it is not one which reflects credit on 

 the college. Carlisle 1 in 1818 received no answer to his letter asking for 

 information. But it was ' stated that the parishioners are much dissatisfied 

 with the management of the school and there is a dispute between them and 

 the present master.' 



Apparently the college thought they had fulfilled their obligations to the 

 school by continuing to pay the master and usher 20 a year, the sums 

 specified in Pate's time, instead of giving three-fourths of the value of Pate's 

 lands. In 1828, however, judgement in a suit in Chancery, Attorney-General 

 at the relation of James Matthews and others v. The President and Scholars of 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, dispossessed the college of this erroneous con- 

 ception of their obligations, and in 1832 a scheme was settled by which the 

 master was to receive 35 a year instead of 16 from the day of his appointment 

 at Michaelmas 1816, to Michaelmas 1832 ; while in future he was to receive 



1 Endowed Grammar Schools, i, 446. 

 426 



