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SCHOOLS 



Oxford, who had been assistant master at Wellington, was appointed. During his time Canon 

 Woodard died, at the age of eighty, in 1891, and was buried beneath the Founder's Chapel, which 

 is at the east end of the south aisle of the chapel, and the Rev. Edward Clarke Lowe, canon of Ely, 

 formerly head master of Hurstpierpoint, became provost. Mr. Mackenzie left in 1895 to become 

 second master at Durham School, and the Rev. Ambrose John Wilson, D.D., fellow of Queen's 

 and tutor of St. John's College, Oxford, was chosen to fill his place. He had previously been head 

 master of Melbourne Grammar School. He left in 1901, and was' succeeded by the present head 

 master, Bernard Henry Tower, the first layman, who was an old boy, having entered in 1869 and 

 left 1878, with a scholarship at Pembroke College, Oxford. He obtained first classes in moderations 

 and the final schools, and was for nineteen years assistant master at Sedbergh School. He has a staff 

 of 1 1 assistant masters, all graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as music and drawing teachers. 

 The office of chaplain is now combined with that of second master, and is filled by a Lancing old 

 boy, the Rev. Thomas William Cook, who obtained an exhibition at Hertford College, Oxford, in 

 1889. There are now 163 boys in the school. 



HURSTPIERPOINT COLLEGE 



A year after the opening ot his first school Canon Woodard started his middle school, in 

 August, 1849, m a small cottage at Shoreham. It was moved in January, 1850, to the 'Mansion 

 House,' in the village of Hurstpierpoint, and took over other houses and cottages as they became 

 available. Meanwhile a site had been bought and buildings erected for the accommodation of 300 

 scholars with masters and servants, into which the school was moved in 1853. It was called the 

 College of St. John before the Latin Gate. The buildings were on a generous scale, a dining hall 

 78 ft. by 32 ft., upper and lower schoolrooms each more than 70 ft. long, classrooms, dormitories for 

 50 boys, all on a proportionate scale. The chapel was opened later, in October, 1865, the head 

 master's house in 1873, and later still the infirmary and gymnasium, the whole costing more than 

 70,000. They were all designed by Mr. R. C. Carpenter. The highest charge for boys with 

 all fees included amounted to less than 40 a year, and they received an ordinary classical education, 

 the first head master, the Rev. E. C. Lowe, D.D., greatly insisting on the utility of Latin as a 

 training for the mind, even for those who were to follow commercial pursuits. There was also a 

 special school for boys who had the means, but were not intended for the learned professions. They 

 had their own study, attended the classes of the school when they fitted in, but received private 

 tuition in other subjects, tor which they paid a higher fee than the other boys. There were never 

 more than 1 6 in this school. 



Another department was the training school for schoolmasters. Youths entered at sixteen on a 

 three years' course of study, at the end of which they could by examination obtain a certificate 

 which enabled them to get a post as assistant in any school of St. Nicholas College. In many cases 

 they went to the universities after their three years' training. 



A fourth division of the school was for servitors. These were 1 6 poor boys who did house- 

 hold work in the morning, and had three hours' teaching in English subjects in the afternoon and 

 evening. Eight of them paid 5 a year, and received part of their clothing from the college, and 

 the other 8 paid jiO, succeeding to vacancies at the cheaper rate as they occurred. There was a 

 scholarship from this school to the school at Ardingly, from which a boy might win a scholarship 

 to the grammar school at Hurstpierpoint, and from there to the university, but the boys seldom 

 went to the universities, though in May, 1867, there were 6 at Oxford and Cambridge. 1 



When Dr. Lowe left in 1873 to become provost of Denstone, there were 347 boys, which 

 meant a terrible state of overcrowding. The first novelty having worn off and many other cheap 

 schools having sprung up, the numbers began to decline in spite of all the efforts of the head masters 

 who succeeded him. They were the Rev. W. Awdry, now bishop of South Tokio, who came from 

 Winchester College, where he had been second master, and stayed till 1880 ; the Rev. C. E. Cooper, 

 who took his place and stayed till 1902, when he took the living of Portslade. The present head 

 master is the Rev. A. H. Coombes, of St. John's College, Oxford, late an assistant master at Clifton 

 College. He has a staff of 9 assistant masters, 5 of whom are university graduates, and the school 

 now aims at being a public school like the rest, of a strong Church of England cast. The training 

 college and servitors have been done away with, and all ideas of class swept away, the school being 

 simply for those who desire a public school education for their sons at a cost of from 40 to 60 a 

 year. The head and second masters receive boarders in their houses at a rather higher rate than is 

 paid for boys in the college, and there are now 122 boys. 



A school magazine was started in 1858, which has been continuous to the present day. The 

 college is surrounded by 24 acres of its own land, most of which is laid out in playing fields and a 

 swimming bath was built in 1900. 



1 Sri. Inj. Ref. xi, 241. 

 2 433 55 



