SCHOOLS 



shall be of Terence or of Erasmus's Similitudes or of his familiar communication called Colloquia 

 Erasmi.' Form IV had for rules 



the Regiments of Whittington which he calleth Concinnitates 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 

 16 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 make every week verses and epistles. 



It is remarkable that the latest thing in classical schools to-day is to return to this practice of remit- 

 ting verse-making and original Latin prose to Form V. Form VI ' have for their rules Copiam Erasmi,' 

 i.e. Erasmus's book on copiousness of diction, ' wherein it is taught to make l; ; 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 Latins 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, 13 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 Read- 

 ings, 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 teaching from the much decried scholars of pre-Reformation times. 



Lastly comes the usual fulmination against holidays : 



The Scholars shall have no Remedy but once in the 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 19 the assent of one of the Controllers. 



The Vicar's Book gives ' Mr. Mollineux ' as the first master. He is probably Edmund 

 Molyneux, who matriculated at Oxford in 1510, one of the great Lancashire family already settled 

 at Sefton, from whom the present earls of Sefton are descended. 



In 1 545 we find among those assessed for a Lay Subsidy ~ () ' The Scolemaster of Cookfeld takyng 

 stypend of temporall londs by the yere jiO.' In 1548 the Chantry Commissioners report : 21 



The Grammer Scole in Cuckfeilde 



The Grammer scole in Cuckfeilde Robert Hedon, preiste, of the age of 32, is Scholemaister there 

 to teache the children and to pray and say masse for the founders and so is appointed by the founda- 

 cion. There is landes tenementes and hereditaments appoynted therefor of the clere yerelie value of 

 11 Si. whereof to the Scholemaister 10, usher zo/. and the rest for reparacions and other charges 

 and is enfeoffed to certain persons named in the said foundacion, the Founders name Edmund Flower 

 and William Spyser, 1 1 8*. 



Continuatur schola quousque. 



Robert Hedon can hardly fail to be Dominus Hedon who determined in arts, i.e. went 

 through an examination for the B.A. degree, at Cambridge in 1537-8." He appears as Eden in the 

 Vicar's Book. 



How or why this school escaped confiscation under the Chantries Act is not clear, seeing 

 that the schoolmaster, though assessed to lay subsidies in virtue of his temporal endowment, was to 

 be a priest and say masses for the founders' and others' souls. But it did. It was reserved for its 

 own trustees to strike a blow at it which eventually resulted in its ruin and degradation. 



Thomas Mitchell, in virtue of the covenant contained in Spicer's endowment deed, conveyed 

 to the trustees lands in West Hoathly and Hurstpierpoint and got back his manor of Redstone. 

 These lands had been given for a chantry in Cuckfield church before they were bought by Mitchell, 

 and as such should have come to the crown. Being 'concealed' from the crown, no doubt 



"This blank is another proof that the copyist of 1626 could not read the older writing properly. 



17 Again the copyist could not read the old writing. 



18 Sic. Not as in Carlisle, ' forestowed.' But it is possible that the seventeenth-century copyist has mis- 

 read the word, as ' forslowed ' does not seem to have much more meaning than ' forestowed.' 



19 Not as in Carlisle, 'with.' "> P.R.O. Lay Subs. }f. 

 41 A. F. Leach, Bug/. ScL at the Reformation, 225, from Chan. Cert. 50, No. 33. 



" Camb. Grace Bk. B. ii, 214. 



419 



