SCHOOLS 



ment,' and all those who ' shall be desirous of 

 learning Latin on the terms prescribed by the 

 Founder.' On 17 April 1725 Mr. Hume 

 expressed himself much surprised at a message 

 from the archbishop ' that twelve children, 

 not only of Dulwich, but strangers or inmates 

 or who live in the adjacent parts, should be 

 immediately admitted.' He was willing to 

 admit those of Dulwich 



who were very few qualified now, at first but 

 7 or 8, being a sufficient number to be taught 

 for the additional salary since less than 10;. 

 per quarter is not paid in any Foundation 

 school for boys not upon the Foundation, 

 whereas if they are to be paid in proportion to 

 the actual number received it would be 2d. 

 or 3<f. for each boy per week, a reward too 

 little for a Dame, besides the meanness of 

 being always obliged to reckon with the 

 College for pence and farthings. 



The result, as usual, does not appear. But 

 the injunction and the letter equally show to 

 what depths of inutility had sunk the school 

 in creating which, the statutes of Winchester 

 and Eton were consulted. In 1752 ^ William 

 Swanne, ' a poor scholar ' who had been sent 

 to Christ Church, Oxford, with an exhibition, 

 became schoolmaster. In 1760 Archbishop 

 Seckford instituted an inquiry into the lack 

 of exhibitioners sent to the University. The 

 master admitted that from 17 18 to 1747 none 

 had been sent, and from 1748 to 1760 none. 

 The reason was 



from the opinion and sentiments of your 

 Grace's predecessors' chaplains who in this 

 case are always our judges . . . not . . . any 

 inattention or want of care in their teachers, 

 but solely from the incapacities of the youths 

 themselves whose understandings have been 

 found incapable of even making any profi- 

 ciency either in Greek or Latin. . . . 



so ' agreeable to injunction of Dr. Wake, 

 have been taught arithmetic and apprenticed.' 

 The schoolmaster added that there was then 

 one fit to go ' as soon as of age.' In 1764 

 William Cotton was sent to Christ Church 

 and allowed £2$ a year for eight years. In 

 1770 George Long was sent to New College, 

 Oxford. No more exhibitions were given for 

 nearly icx) years. 



1 Young, i. 291. One of the masters, James 

 Allen, by deed of 31 August 1741, founded a school 

 for a Dame to teach poor boys to read and poor 

 girls to sew. The income was only £15 a year. 

 But it probably served to relieve the College school 

 of most of the poor children of Dulwich. In 1807 

 the school was enlarged and the boys and girls 

 separated, and the school provided all the elemen- 

 tary education then required in Dulwich. 



In 1834 ^^^ Commissioners of Inquiry con- 

 cerning charities found tonly the twelve scholars 

 in the school, but said that since the appoint- 

 ment of the then Master ' there had been 

 ' always some and occasionally as many as 

 three boys, inhabitants of Dulwich, receiving 

 instruction in the school gratis.' Two of the 

 boys were learning ' the Eton Latin Grammar,' 

 but the master ^ does not think he is called 

 upon to give the boys a good Latin education, 

 an opinion with which the Commissioners 

 expressed their disagreement. All boys learnt 

 singing, plain hymn tunes, the three Rs and 

 ' the elements of history and mathematics.' 

 The rental in 1833 was £j,S8i. The school- 

 master received ;^I77 and the usher £ii[y los. 

 salary, while the cost of the diet of master and 

 scholars is not shown separately, but about 

 ^£430 was spent on clothing and apprenticing 

 the boys. The poor brethren received ;£i34 

 each, besides board, lodging and clothing. 

 A suit in Chancery ensued on the Commis- 

 sioners' Report, judgment being delivered 

 29 July 1 84 1. Lord Langdale's views as to 

 the unsatisfactory character of the school pro- 

 duced a resolution 24 September for building 

 a Grammar School on a design by Mr. Barry, 

 the builder of the Houses of Parliament, for 

 ;^900. This was opened i September 1842, 

 with a headmaster, Mr. Edward Baker, of 

 University College, Durham, at £iSO a year, 

 and J^So for an assistant. On 29 February 

 1844, the Headmaster was dismissed for ex- 

 cessive punishment of the son of a doctor. 

 Mr. Baker Monk succeeded, giving place to 

 Mr. Robertson next year, who held only till 

 Easter 1848. In 1852 Dr. Thomas Cox be- 

 came headmaster of the grammar school. 

 He afterwards died a ' poor brother ' in the 

 college almshouse. 



An appeal by the churchwardens of St. 

 Saviour's in 1847 to the visitor as to the 

 education of the boys produced an injunction 

 from Archbishop Sumner in 1851, directing 

 that four of the boys should be selected at 

 fourteen to be given a superior education. 



But a more stringent visitor was at hand. 

 In 1854 the Charity Commission, which had 



« Meaning the Master of the College, John Allen, 

 of Holland House celebrity, appointed Warden 

 181 1, master 1820. 



3 John Vane, schoolmaster-fellow 1818-1848. 

 He is said (Young, i. 432) to have been an illegi- 

 timate son of the Marquis of Londonderry, and 

 was of Trinity College, fellow of Magdalene College, 

 Cambridge. He combined the mastership with 

 the rectory of Wrington, Somerset, worth ^^^660 a 

 year, the preachership at the Rolls Chapel and a 

 clerkship in the closet to the queen. He died 

 rector in 1 871. 



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