102 Plympton in the Olden Time, by James Hine, F.R I.B.A. 
Speaking of cards reminds me that in the same street with the 
Guildhall are some curious old slated fronts, in which the slates 
have been cut in the shapes of clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. 
Under these fronts we have also the covered way. 
We now come to a building a little to the south-east of the 
church, around which so many treasured associations cluster, that 
we hardly know whether we have yet said adieu to the sacred 
edifices of Plympton. The old Grammar School is the most 
venerable and interesting school of art in all England. Here the 
greatest English painter — a man for " all time " — learnt the first 
principles of drawing. The house in which he was born over- 
looks his school-room and his play-ground. Here too Northcote, 
his clever and eccentric pupil, acquired his, perhaps not -very 
classic education. This also was the first school of the late 
distinguished President of the Royal Academy, Sir Charles 
Eastlake, and the Alma Mater of poor Benjamin Haydon. A 
mournful interest indeed attaches to the building as connected 
with the last-mentioned name. The year before he died Haydon 
visited the old Grammar School, and wrote his name in pencil on 
the wall where you may still see it. 
"B.E. Haydon, 
Historical Painter, London, 
Educated here 1801. 
Kev. W. Haines. (Master) 
Head boy then." 
Bells of this Parish for the future, and that they shall ring only on such public days as 
the Parishioners shall from time to time agree to and approve of, and that the said five 
persons that shall undertake to Eing shall be obliged likewise to chime the Bells on 
every Sunday in the forenoon and the afternoon, at the proper Season for Divine Service, 
and that they shall be obliged to give their due and regular attendance, both in the fore 
and afternoon of every Sunday upon the Service of the church, and that they be at 
Liberty to ring for George Treby, Esq., and the other Gentlemen belonging to the 
Corporation, as often as the said Gentlemen shall signify it to be their pleasure to have 
the Bells rung, and that the said Eingers are never to ring after Eight of the clock in the 
Evening, or before Seven in the morning." 
" The Ringers are never to ring after Eight." Thus are old customs and traditions 
handed down from age to age. 
" The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day." 
