A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



In a contemporary MS. the 'sum total of all the chardges of Christ's Hospital sythen the tyme of 

 the ereccion thereof unto the last day of June 1554 as well as in buyldinge, beddes and other 

 furnyture' was 4,610 os. k\d. This last sum, equivalent to about 100,000, was provided by 

 gifts of the mayor and aldermen, 143 ; governors, 140 ; collections from the city wards, 847 ; 

 collections from parishes, 240 ; gifts of individuals, 90 ; collecting boxes, 153 ; council 

 receipts, including two fines of 100 each for refusing to serve as sheriffs, 254 ; legacies, 259 ; 

 and monthly collections ranging from 111 on 27 November, 1552, to 205 on 13 May, 1554. 

 All these sums must be multiplied by 25 to give any idea of their relative value nowadays. 

 St. Thomas's Hospital endowment brought in 346 in two years. The first endowment of 

 Christ's Hospital was a house opposite the hospital bought from Laurence Warren, goldsmith, 

 on 7 December, 1553, for 157 by a loan from some of the governors. As it brought in 

 32 a year it was a good bargain. 



In 1558-9 the same system was maintained. Out of a total receipt of 2,532, monthly col- 

 lections brought in 1,059 an( ^ legacies 221. 



To show the class of children admitted it may be noted that the contemporary historian, John 

 Howes, first clerk of the hospital, records how ' a number of children, being taken from the dunghill, 

 when they came to swete and cleane keping and to a pure dyett dyed downe righte.' In 1564 a 

 general account showed that ' since the first ereccion ' there had been admitted in all 1,916, of whom 

 no less than 733 had died, 866 had been discharged, and there were then 'in the house 317.' 



Yet a school was set up at once, 'a Grammer Schoolemayster ' at 15 a year, a very good 

 salary for those days, a Cramer usher at 10, a ' teacher to wrighte ' at 3 6s. Sd., < schoolmaisters for 

 the Petties ABC ' at 2 13*. ^d., and ' a Teacher of pricksonge ' or ' scoolemaister of muisicke ' at 

 2 ly. i^d. a year, which was the same salary as the tailor of the establishment received. Whether 

 co-education of the sexes was practised we do not know. 



By what steps this foundling hospital and ragged school of 317, part of a vast scheme of poor 

 relief, supported by voluntary contributions, grew into three different schools, of which the boys' 

 school in the city contained 800, all of the upper and lower middle class, wholly separated in government 

 from the other hospitals, and almost wholly supported by vast endowments bringing in some 85,000 a 

 year, is a most interesting story, which cannot be told here. 



By a scheme made, after some twenty years' struggle, by the Charity Commissioners acting 

 under the Endowed Schools Acts and approved by Queen Victoria in Council 15 August, 1890, it 

 was provided that there should be three ' Hospital schools,' one for boys, one for girls, and a pre- 

 paratory school for boys ; a ' Day ' science school for boys, and a day school for girls, within 3 miles 

 of the Royal Exchange. The governors, called 'the Council of Almoners,' were directed to provide 

 proper site and buildings ' within a convenient distance of the city of London ' for 700 boarders, and 

 a preparatory school for 1 20 boarders, and to use the old buildings ' until other suitable buildings are 

 provided and no longer.' After a prolonged 'battle of the sites' the new buildings were begun on plans 

 of Mr., now Sir, Aston Webb, R.A., and Mr. Ingress Bell in 1893, in red brick with white stone 

 quoins and facings. They cost upwards of 423,460, exclusive of water and electric supply, fittings, 

 and furniture. 



There is a fine chapel, 158 ft. long, and a hall 152 ft., where the whole 700 boys of the 

 upper school have all their meals together. But they sleep and live in seven blocks, each con- 

 taining 2 houses of 50 boys, called after the names of distinguished alumni, Peele, Thornton, 

 Middleton, Coleridge, Lamb, Barnes, and Maine. East of them stands the preparatory block, 

 where 120 boys from ten to thirteen live apart from the upper school. There are 34 class rooms, 

 4 science rooms, and an art school. The boys still wait at table, clean their own boots, and make 

 their own beds. The main difference is that the controlling matrons have been superseded by 

 house masters, and the discipline is no longer in the hands of a warden, but rests with the head master. 

 The old dress, long blue coat to the heels, with brown leather girdle and yellow hose, unsuited 

 perhaps to the country and the century, is retained. 



Though now established in Sussex, the school has no local connexion with the county, but is 

 recruited from England at large, and, as is historically right, predominantly from London. Owing to the 

 circumstance that by the Endowed Schools Acts a large number of the later endowments were 

 excluded from the scheme of 1890, the nominations by so-called donation governors, which the 

 reformers aimed at abolishing, and had reduced to a minimum of 300 boys, were by an unfortunate 

 decision and scheme of Mr. Justice Chitty increased to 450, or considerably more than a third 

 of the whole foundation. For a payment of 500 down, each donation governor is allowed 

 always to have in the school a nominee, who receives education and maintenance worth 80 a 

 year at least. These donation governors are, however, now expressly forbidden to sell the 

 right of nomination. Donation governors have also the right of nominating competitors for 

 1 50 places in the three schools together. Besides these the Council of Almoners, who are nearly 

 half donation governors, nominate competitors for another 150 places. About a seventh of the 



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