SCHOOLS 



garden. Also the benefit of teaching of such 

 of the said schollers not exceeding the number 

 of [blank in MS.] persons as shalbe the 

 children of subsidye men and ought not to be 

 taught freelie.' All the scholars were to be 

 ' of the parishe, there born or dwelling, and 

 shall not at any time exceed the number of 

 [blank in MS.] schollers, whereof [blank in 

 MS.], which shall be freely taught, shalbe the 

 children of such of the inhabitants of the said 

 parish as shalbe poore or nott in the king's 

 subsidye booke,' but the son of the senior 

 churchwarden was during his last year of 

 office to be also taught free. ' The parents 

 of the residue of the said schollers shall paie 

 quarterlie to the master for their teaching 

 so much as by the Governors shall be thought 

 fitt and resonable. The Governors male 

 take in of other places and parishes the 

 nomber nott exceding [blank in MS.]. No 

 parishioner's son or youth to be refused.' 

 Oddly enough, none of the blanks left for 

 numbers were fiUed in. 



There were two provisions as to the boys 

 which appear to be peculiar to Camberwell. 

 First as to meals. ' No scholar to go to 

 dinner further than the village of Camber- 

 well, but to bring their dinners with them to 

 school ; and none to go out before ii neither 

 to breakfast nor otherwise, except to the 

 house of office.' 



Secondly, the most elaborate provisions, 

 perhaps founded on the practice of St. 

 Olave's, Southwark, were made as to writing. 



Every scholar shall once every week write 

 as well as he possibly can with all circumstances 

 of true and fair writing in one, two or more 

 hands, this sentence following : ' This is Life 

 eternall, that they know the a (sic) whome thou 

 hast sent Jesus Christ ' in this manner ; that 

 is, in the first line the yere of our Lord, the 

 daie of the moneth ; In three lines the sen- 

 tence itself, last of all every ownes (sic) name 

 subscribed in secretarie and Romane, which, 

 papers or paper bookes shalbe safelie reserved 

 first to be examyned quarterlie, how every 

 scholler profits in writing ; secondlie that all 

 posteritie maie see how much and wherein 

 they excell or come behinde their predecessors. 



Alas ! posterity has no chance of knowing 

 their excellence. Those, with all other school 

 records, have been made away with. At the 

 end of the term the forms were to name the 

 twelve boys in the school which ' write 

 fairest and have profited best in the quarter.' 

 Then the master was to write down * 8 who 

 have profited best.' Then — 



two others, whether ministers, gentlemen 

 or clarks of ofiice that have good stile in faier 



writing . . . resolve upon fower out of the 

 whole schoole. Unto him that hath profited 

 most shalbe given iid., unto the second 6d., 

 unto the third ^d., unto the fourth zd. yf any 

 one be pronounced to have profited best the 

 second time he shall receive i^d.' 



and so up to 2s., 



'and, not after, but another to succeed.' 



In one point, the Southwark Statutes and 

 practice, following that of St. Paul's and older 

 examples as Winchester and Eton, was noted 

 only to be avoided. There was to be no 

 ' election ' or ' apposition ' dinner. ' There 

 shall not be at any such examinacion either 

 breakfast or dynner.' As the examination 

 was to be quarterly, this is perhaps not sur- 

 prising. 



The education was not, however, to be 

 confined to writing. The school was to be 

 a grammar, not an elementary school. 



The Mr. is to see that his least precepts be 

 orderlie observed of the schollers ; all bookes 

 comanded by aucthoritie to be taughte. 

 These bookes shalbe read ; Tully and Terrence, 

 Cesar, Salust, Valerius maximus,' Justine, 

 Apotheg(mata) Eras(mi), Plutarch, Castalian, 

 Lattin and Greeke catechisme, new Testa- 

 ment, VirgiU, Horace, Juvenall, Ovid, Pru- 

 dencius, Juvencus, Pallingenius, etc. On 

 halfe holidaies the schollers exercise to learne 

 Calvin's Catechisme, or some other in Lattin 

 by hart. 



The master was ' to give leave to plaie but 

 once a weeke viz. uppon Thursdaie at one of 

 the clocke.' The ' play ' w^s defined in the 

 same words as at Southwark. 



The first master, ' Edward Wilson, master 

 of artes,' was named in the letters patent. It 

 has been asserted " that he was the same 

 person as the vicar and founder. But he 

 certainly was not. On the contrary, the 

 letters patent carefully distinguish the two, 

 referring to the founder always as ' Edward 

 Wilson, clerk,' and to the master as ' Edward 

 Wilson, master of artes.' It is probable that 

 the master was the son of the founder. 

 There is some reason to think that the school 

 was already being carried on some time before 



» Miswritten by the scribe of the statutes * mar.' 

 ' By Mr. D. R. Fearon, Schools Inquiry Com- 

 mission Report (1886), vii. 460. Wishing, seeming- 

 ly, to draw a lurid picture of the irrationality of the 

 Founder's statutes, he says ' the founder was him- 

 self to be the first master ' and ' the official gover- 

 nors were to include the founder in two capacities, 

 (i) as vicar of Camberwell, (2) as master of the 

 school.' Whence he derived the statement does 

 not appear. 

 211 



