TBTTItO GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 423 



by Jo. Spring's means, who is Jo. Michell's friend, know 

 whether he had any deeds with the purchase of the Marsh from 

 my grandfa 1 that express the boundary. 



Your most loving brother, 



Francis Polwhele. 

 To return to the School itself, there were two exhibitions 

 belonging to it, arising from the effects of the Rev. St. John Eliot, 

 Eector of St. Mary's, Truro (from 1745 to 1770) and of Ladock, 

 who, by will left the greater part of his property to Messrs. 

 Conon, Vivian, and Michell, to be disposed of in charitable 

 uses, at their discretion. This property was invested in the 

 public funds, and the remainder, after the exhibitions were paid, 

 supported six " reading-schools," — not only in Truro, but also at 

 St. Agnes, Ladock, Padstow, Lostwithiel, and Liskeard. The 

 trustees are said to have been the Eector and Schoolmaster of 

 Truro, and the Yicars of Kenwyn, St. Gluvias, and Veryan. 



The exhibitions were each worth thirty pounds a year ; the 

 qualifications, that the candidate should have spent the last three 

 years at Truro School ; that he entered at Exeter College, 

 Oxford ; and that he kept three terms there in every year. 

 They were held for 4 years ; and for 7 years if no candidate 

 presented himself at the end of the four. 



The school, for a long series of years, was of a high 

 character, and might have been classed amongst the first semin- 

 aries of England, excepting Westminster, Eton and Winchester; 

 indeed, its masters and scholars were frequently formidable 

 rivals to those of the royal foundations, in genius, taste, and 

 learning. The masters, often, as we have seen, Rectors of Truro, 

 and also members of the Corporation, were almost uniformly 

 men of ability and position. 



Amongst others Polwhele mentions, Henry Grenfield, school- 

 master in 1685, and one of the corporate body ; adding that he 

 was, of the house of Stow, and that the Grenvilles varied the 

 spelling of their names from Granville even to Grenfell and 

 Grenfield.* 



Of Simon Pagett (both Eector and Master) " the memorial 

 existed " among the natives of Truro. 



* For further variations see the writer's " Cornish Worthies," Vol. ii, p. 6. 



