A HISTORY OF SURREY 



botany and natural history were cultivated 

 out of school. Long country walks were 

 encouraged. In those days the country came 

 up almost to the doors of the school, 

 and wood and down were open in some of 

 the most beautiful rural scenery in England. 

 The boarders had overflowed into the houses 

 on both sides of the school, and Allen House 

 opposite, which had large grounds, was also 

 in their possession. The school, in fact, was 

 a very good school preparatory for the public 

 schools, and was for those who stayed later 

 a public school itself, on a somewhat less 

 expensive scale than the great public schools. 



After Dr. Merriman retired to a college 

 living in 1876, Mr. C. H. Jeaffreson was 

 appointed headmaster, the first lay headmaster 

 for several centuries. As he had not a good 

 boarding connection the numbers rapidly 

 went down, and in January 1879 ^^ ^^' 

 moved to Battersea Grammar School, taking 

 the few remaining boarders with him, and 

 leaving in the school only twelve ' free 

 scholars ' and four other day-boys. When the 

 Charity Commissioners were invoked, and 

 Mr. D. R. Fearon visited the school in May 

 1879, he found one boy, beside the free boys, 

 under a temporary master. 



The Commissioners proceeded to try and 

 resuscitate the school by a new scheme, con- 

 solidating with the Grammar School the 

 Nettle Exhibition and the lower grade school, 

 started in 1855 under a scheme of the Court 

 of Chancery out of the surplus funds of 

 Abbot's Hospital. They also sought aid from 

 the rich Poyle Charity. 



The school, through the neglect of the day- 

 boys, had become thoroughly unpopular, 

 and so the people of Guildford would do 

 nothing to help it. After nearly ten years the 

 Commissioners at length made a scheme, 

 which was approved by Queen Victoria in 

 Council on 11 November 1885. By this 

 scheme the Nettle Exhibition endowment 

 was joined to that of the Grammar School, 

 under a fairly representative body, consisting 

 of the High Steward, Mayor and Chairman 

 of the School Board of Guildford, a repre- 

 sentative of the Bishop of Winchester, two 

 representatives of the Guildford Town 

 Council, and Uvo of the Municipal Charity 

 Trustees, with five co-optatives. To them 

 in 1900 were added two representatives of 

 the Surrey County Council. 



The Rev. Arthur Sutton Valpy, M.A., 

 Rector of Holy Trinity, was appointed chair- 

 man, and Mr. F. F. Smallpiece vice-chairman. 

 The tuition fees were fixed at £12 a year, for 

 boys over 13 years. 

 Under the scheme the accumulations of 



the exhibition endowment were utilized to 

 add the new class rooms and science rooms. 



Through the liberality of many residents 

 in the town and neighbourhood — notably 

 that of Mr. Thomas Wilde Powell, of 

 Piccards Rough — a considerable sum was 

 collected for the thorough repair of the 

 buildings, and for the conversion of the many 

 small, badly lighted and ill-ventilated rooms 

 into the excellent new schoolroom and class 

 rooms which are now a striking feature of the 

 school. These alterations were carried out 

 without affecting the external appearance of 

 the school buildings, and were completed in 

 1890. 



Meanwhile the Board of Governors had 

 appointed in 1889 the present headmaster, 

 Mr. J. C. Honeybourne, M.A., of Corpus 

 Christi College, Cambridge. The school, 

 after being closed for about twelve months, 

 was re-opened in September 1889, in a hall 

 hired for the purpose. A year afterwards the 

 scholars were again occupying the school 

 premises. The steady increase of scholars, 

 whose numbers recently exceeded 120, and 

 the requirements of the modern system of 

 education necessitated increased accommoda- 

 tion. The large laboratory built in the 

 school close, and the Valpy and Powell class 

 rooms (1897), named after the gentlemen who 

 gave the funds required for their erection, 

 were added to the original buildings. Assisted 

 by the County Council, and with help from 

 the endowment, other improvements have 

 been made, thus forming accommodation 

 adequate for the present number of pupils 

 and the varied work of the curriculum. 



Nettle's Exhibitions are awarded annually, 

 but are tenable, under the new scheme, at any 

 place of higher education approved by the 

 governors, and the old Free Scholars are now 

 represented by ten King's Scholars, who are 

 elected on the result of an open competitive 

 examination. 



The school is inspected every three years 

 by the Board of Education, and the latest 

 report (May 1904) states that ' the school 

 is in a high state of efficiency.' 



SOUTHWARK SCHOOLS. 



We pass now to Metropolitan Surrey ; that 

 part of the ancient county of Surrey now 

 formally included in the modem county of 

 London, and which was always suburban and 

 consisted of dependencies of London. The 

 earliest of these suburbs to assume an urban 

 form was, as its name implies, in the begin- 

 ning only an out-work of the great city across 

 the river, the borough of Southward. In it 



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