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South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. [Sept.^ 



THE SOUTH-EASTERN 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, WYE, 



M. J. E. Dunstan, Princi'pal. 



Wye College has a history long previous to its period of use 

 as an Agricultural College, which only dates from 1894. 

 Founded in 1447 by Cardinal Kempe, Archbishop of London and 

 Canterbury, it served as an institution for the training of twelve 

 priests, and its records as to the ordering of the lives and studies 

 of these men have great interest. When we consider the rela- 

 tions monastic institutions of that age had with agriculture, the 

 translation of a monastic educational college into an agricultural 

 education college is not a great diversion of character. 



After the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VI] I, the 

 College passed through several educational vicissitudes, becom- 

 ing finally partly an elementary school and partly a grammar 

 school. The funds available for keeping the buildings in ade- 

 quate repair for the carrying on of the elementary school, after 

 the grammar school had given up, proved insufficient for the re- 

 quirements of our modern state department of education. The 

 Charity Commissioners agreed with Lord Winchelsea (who. in 

 conjunction with the County Councils of Kent and Surrey, was 

 then engaged in establishing an agricultural college^ to transfer 

 the College buildings and garden to a body of Governors of the 

 proposed agricultural college for the sum of £1,000, which would 

 be expended in building a new school for elementary education 

 The South-Eastern Agricultural College was then established 

 under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, and the first 

 Chairman of the Governors was Mr. E. J. Halsey, Chairman of 

 the Surrey County Council. The first Principal was Mr. (now 

 Sir) A. D. Hall, and the staff included Professor Percival (now of 

 University College, Beading), Mr. Theobald (still at the College), 

 and Mr. F. B. Smith (now at Cambridge). To these gentlemen, 

 but especially to Mr. Halsev and Sir A. D. Hall, is due the credit 

 of estabhshing a college for the teaching of agriculture on sound 

 and progressive lines, and despite keen opposition from a section 

 of the farming community which was opposed to so-called 

 theoretical teaching of farming, the College continued to pro- 

 gress. Starting with 13 students in 1894, the College now has 

 on its books the names of 205 students in residence. Old students 

 of the College are to be found in responsible and successful posi- 

 tions not only in England but all over the world, and the demand 

 for men trained at Wye is an evidence of the careful and far- 



