Reade and the Division of the School 1876-1883 Toundle-heritage.daisy.websds.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=... · CHAPTER XV Reade and the Division of the School 1876-1883 T HE

CHAPTER XV

Reade and the Division of the School1876-1883

THE Oundle Committee appointed on 7 July 1875 felt it necessarybefore advertising for a new headmaster to define the Company'sintentions with regard to the School at Oundle. The secretary of

the Endowed Schools branch of the Charity Commission was called intodiscussion, and the matter was gone into exhaustively. The report set thealternatives fairly before the Court, for the committee was not agreed anddid not make any recommendation: the Court itself was evenly divided,Mr. Joseph Warner leading one party and Mr. Richard Hilhouse the other.Mr. Warner, at the Court of 17 November, moved that Oundle should bea Classical School of the First Grade (i.e. one at which boys stayed beyondsixteen with some chance of going on to a University), with special provi-sion for educating such as the headmaster thought fit in AgriculturalChemistry, Geometrical Drawing, Book-keeping and the like subjects,which for those boys would take the place of Latin or Greek. Mr. Hilhousemoved as an amendment that the School should be a Modern School ofthe First Grade: this would necessarily be larger and more expensive thana Classical School. There was more in the discussion, however, than anyquestion of cost: the needs of the local boys had to be balanced against thedesire to make a proper use of the two boarding-houses soon to be acquiredfrom Dr. Stansbury: the Northamptonshire Education Committee'srecommendation to make Oundle the Classical boarding-school of thecounty seemed to give some assurance of numbers of boarders. The schemeadvocated by Dr. Stansbury, namely a First-grade Classical BoardingSchool alongside a local Second-grade Modern School, was not before theCourt. The subsequent history of Oundle School depends on the decisiontaken on 17 November 1875, and not reversed until 1892: for the supporters

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Pliotograph by Perkins Ltd., Peterborough

OLD DRYDEN HOUSE, circa 1866

This is the bill-head in use when the building was the Dolphin.

By courtesy of Mr. G. T. Roberts.

Plate 25

Photograph by G. Priestman

THE NORTH TRANSEPT OF OUNDLE PARISH CHURCH

This photograph was taken at Christmas 1940: it shows the Grocers' Window, the facsimile of the Grocers'Chair and, on the extreme right, the almsmen's pews below the pulpit.

Plate 26

H. ST. JOHN READE: 1876-1883

of Mr. Warner's Classical School numbered eleven, and the supporters ofMr. Hilhouse's Modern School only ten. There were consequences of thedecision: the headmaster's salary was raised to /J5OO—there would be noneed for a Classical assistant but Mr. Brereton would be kept for anotheryear—and it was decided to pay capitation fees on all boys in the School upto two hundred. Information for applicants was ready by i December:and there were thirty-four applications—the Peterborough Advertiser of4 March, in reporting the appointment, stated that there were two hundredand thirty candidates—reduced to fifteen, to six and then to three, beforethe Court of 23 February 1876 made its choice: in making it the Court hadin mind the following recommendation of the Oundle Committee:"We are of opinion that the Head Master of the School should be a gentle-man who has taken high University honours and had good experience inteaching boys in large Schools. He should also possess energy and a goodpresence and address, and be between 3 5 and 45 years of age. We do notconsider it absolutely essential that he should be either married or in HolyOrders: but in the case of candidates of equal merit, we recommendpreference being given to a married clergyman." The Rev. Henry St. JohnReade was elected. Under the terms of his appointment, he signed, on3 April, a declaration of his readiness to leave if dismissed: he was given anadvance of ̂ 200 to cover moving expenses and ̂ 50 to spend on advertis-ing. He had already visited Oundle and, though he found no first-rateboarding accommodation, he was agreeably surprised to find that Mr.Weightman and Mr. Brereton were doing first-rate work. He took a threeyears' lease of Cobthorne, and received leave from the Court to live thererather than in the School House, but the Court regarded his living out andmanaging the School House by deputy as "quite exceptional".

Henry St. John Reade came of an Oxfordshire family with a seat atIpsden House: he was the second son of William Barrington Reade ofStreatley, Berkshire, who was the fourth son of John Reade, the seventhson being Charles Reade, the novelist and playwright. He was sent toTonbridge, where, in addition to winning medals and prizes for Classics,he captained the XI, and left in 1858 as head of the school to go to Univer-

H.O.S.—13 385

A HISTORY OF THE OUNDLE SCHOOLS

sity College, Oxford, with a Classical scholarship and a Leaving Exhibitionof ;£ioo a year from the Skinners' Company. It is on record at Tonbridgethat "in 1858 for the first time the cricket eleven was a recognised bodywith special 'colours'; its captain was H. St. J. Reade". After taking a firstclass in Honour Moderations, he took a second in Greats: he played in theUniversity Cricket XI of 1861, and captained that of 1862. He was also afine player of squash rackets. When he left Oxford in 1862 he was chosenby Mr. A. G. Butler to be one of his assistant masters in the creation ofHaileybury College, Cormell Price, afterwards Kipling's headmaster atWestward Ho, being one of his colleagues. In 1863 he became the firstmaster of the Blues, afterwards known as Lawrence House; he was or-dained deacon 1865 and priest 1866 by the bishop of Rochester. On18 December 1868 he married Frances Anne, only daughter of the Rev. W.Vincent, vicar of Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, and granddaughter of DeanVincent, the headmaster of Westminster who expelled Southey. Havingresigned his house on marriage, he is remembered at Haileybury for"presenting the Ball" (evidently connected with house matches at cricket),founding the Literary Society and instituting the concerts, originally called"Pastimes" and held in the dormitory of his house. Naturally he playedcricket for the Haileybury Wanderers. After eight years he left to becomeheadmaster of Beccles in 1870, but was soon after called to succeed Dr.Twells as headmaster of the Godolphin School, Hammersmith. On theannouncement of Dr. Stansbury's retirement he became a candidate, andwas appointed headmaster of Oundle from the beginning of the SummerTerm 1876. His record and the Grocers' memorandum agree.1

But to a man with such a background Oundle School must haveappeared rather old-fashioned. There were no compulsory games, no housematches, no sixth form, no prefects, no tradition of Speech Days, nosocieties, no School magazine: and the college cap for all boys must haveseemed somewhat ridiculous. Even if Reade was not anxious to makechanges for the sake of change, he must have felt that he had plenty to doto modernise the School beyond giving its curriculum a new flexibility.

1 A portrait of H. St. J. Reade appears as Plate 27.

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There is no record, apparently, of discussions between him and the OundleCommittee or the Court that appointed him: but these must have takenplace, even if Reade did not have a free hand in all the internal arrange-ments of the School. In his first prospectus he printed the following: "Thepatrons have provided for the creation, if necessary, of a separate Second-grade department." This seems to mean, if it means anything so definite,that Reade felt himself at liberty to attempt the task Dr. Stansbury hadindicated, namely the division of the School. Indeed, the fact that he broughtwith him from Godolphin a master capable of handling the non-Classicalpart suggests that, like Dr. Stansbury, who had brought Mr. Hutton totake commercial subjects, he had already formed a plan of campaign.

And in Reade's seven years Oundle did become more like a modernpublic school: the monitors became prefects, who read Latin preces inSchool Prayers, and the Fifth became the Sixth, retaining their mortar-boards, at any rate for a time. Compulsory games came in, and to organisethem more satisfactorily, early school before breakfast and the three half-holiday week were introduced in Reade's first summer term: Rugby foot-ball followed in the Michaelmas term. The boarding-house accommodationavailable was firstly School House, more than half empty, into which tem-porarily the Laxton House boys were moved while Laxton House wasaltered to suit the requirements of the newly appointed housemaster. Thiswas Mr. E. A. Hansell, of Pembroke College, Oxford, a Modern Languagesmaster, whose appointment surprised the boys, used to a series of long-suffering foreigners, when they found a master teaching them French whocould keep them in order and also fence and produce plays. In SchoolHouse, Mr. Brereton took charge temporarily of the boys of the two houseslodged there, with the help of Miss Green—for he was, and remained,unmarried. Dryden House continued in Mr. Stansbury's care: he wasregarded as not very successful in the Form-room, but an excellent house-master with the very valuable assistance of that capable caterer, his wife:even so he had put up his fees from forty to forty-five guineas a year, whichinvolved the Grocers in increasing similarly the value of the scholarshipsfor sons of Freemen.

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Reade started his first term with ninety-two boys, fifty-nine boarders(twenty-seven in School House and thirty-two in Dryden) and thirty-three dayboys, an improvement of fifteen, but then, H. D. Leigh and a fewothers had come with him from Godolphin. Oundle was visited from 2 to5 June by Mr. W. J. Thompson and Mr. Joseph Warner, who found thatReade—declaring it impossible to mix without injury the two elements inthe School, the sons of professional or middle-class parents, who were tostudy Classics and Mathematics until they were eighteen or nineteen andthen go to a University, and the sons of farmers and tradesmen, who cameat twelve and left at sixteen and required elementary instruction—hadalready begun the separation between the Classical and Modern Schools,or rather between the First-grade and the Second-grade Schools, by creatinga "Modern Side". Reade sought the visitors' support for his scheme of takingAlbion House for three years for the purposes of the Second-grade School,part to be fitted out as form rooms and part to be used for boarding, shouldthe demand arise, and they agreed to recommend this to the Court. It isimportant to note, in this connexion, that the visitors inspected the houseaccommodation, agreed to enlargements and knew (and recorded) exactlyhow many boys could be housed in each building. To improve the Grocers'property, they planned to build a wing on to the north of the building of1799 for School House, to add to Dryden considerably (but not by buyingChurch House) and to remodel the Plough to enlarge Laxton. Reade alsowas asking for a fives court to his own design in each house, a shed at thebathing-place and another for the cricket field, where there was no shelterat all. From the report they made on their return, it is clear that Readespoke frankly about his plans, and that the visitors listened attentively. Inthe matter of fees Reade spoke of retaining the two guinea tuition fee forboth Schools to attract boys to them, but of later on raising the fees in theFirst-grade School: their recommendation was that in any future arrange-ment the increase in the tuition fees should be credited to the Court and notto the headmaster. "This will become a very important matter hereafter,if the School is successful." Similarly in the rents of the boarding-houses,Reade was anxious that, to begin with, the housemasters should pay a

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nominal rent and that their remuneration should come from the profits oftheir houses; but they, agreeing in principle, insisted that a reasonable rentshould be paid to the Court by the housemasters of Dry den and Laxton, as"it was not desirable that the School should be a speculation of the Head-master alone". This report of 14 June 1876 should be kept in mind.

At a meeting held in the Talbot on 13 July, Reade explained his pro-posals for a Second-grade Modern School to accept boys at nine years ofage and prepare them for the Cambridge Local Examinations, at a fee oftwo guineas a year and i8s. for books, to open at Albion House in Septem-ber: this would be a separate School, and, when new ones had been erectedfor the Classical School, it would move into the older Grammar Schoolbuildings: he would make a point of taking forms himself, and wouldarrange for boys of ability to be transferred to the First-grade School: buthe also indicated that there would inevitably be a social distinction betweenthe boys of the two Schools. The meeting was unanimous in consideringthis scheme calculated to meet a long-felt need in the town and neighbour-hood, namely a middle-class school.

In the upper part of the Classical School a non-Greek department metthe needs of gentlemen's sons who, although not going to a University,would find Mathematics and Modern Languages valuable: this Readecalled the Public Services Department, and found no shortage of boys tofill it. He organised it, as convenient, in one, two or three divisions: thenumber of boys was usually twenty-five, but in his last year it was overforty. Yet it must be remembered that there were some twenty boys in theSchool, when he took charge of it, intending to go to a University.

Reade's first term was favoured by brilliant weather, which enabledmuch cricket and swimming to be enjoyed. For the first time prizes wereawarded for swimming and diving, and by the end of the term very fewhad failed to "cross the pit" at the bathing-place near Basset Ford, clearly thesame sort of test as gaining their "blues" to-day. Twelve cricket matcheswere played, Reade strengthening the side except against another school:E. H. Puttock was captain, a good all-round performer. The examinationswere again conducted by the Oxford and Cambridge Board. The exhibi-

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tion was awarded to E. H. Puttock, who had in March won an OpenClassical Exhibition at Jesus College, Cambridge; the Taylor went toH. Biddell; the ̂ 20 was not awarded until it was seen which candidate leftimmediately after the examination: but Reade had persuaded the Court togive one internal Junior Scholarship of forty-five guineas for three years —believing this to mean one every year—the first was given to E. A. Evors.The sum of ^25 allotted to prizes was generous in regard to the size of theSchool; it need not be increased until the numbers reached two hundred,and, though twenty-three prizes were given, five were held over for theChristmas term. (The bound volume cost about us. then.) On the last dayof term, 26 July, came the introduction of speeches into the prize-giving.The Headmaster, after regretting the absence of the bishop of Peterborough,who it was hoped would preside, dealt in his speech with the probablefuture of the School in the light of its past high character and the establish-ment of the Modern branch of the School. A glee, a recitation, a scenefrom Moliere, another glee, a scene from an English play, and Canning's"Needy Knife-grinder" in dialogue led on to the prize distribution.

In September there were two Schools. Mr. F. W. Sutton in charge atAlbion House, which, once the Assembly Rooms of the town, had beenused by Dr. Stansbury during the rebuilding of the Schoolroom for class-rooms, and later as a boarding-house, started there what Reade in his pros-pectus called "The Laxton Modern School", "one of the branches of theGrammar School founded by Sir William Laxton, A.D. 1556," its objectbeing to give "a good and useful education to boys who leave school aboutthe age of 16 in order to engage in Agricultural or Commercial pursuits".In the Oundle School prospectus (for so he named the Classical School),however, Reade added: "N.B. A separate Second-grade department(called the Laxton Modern School) provides for the education of sons oftradesmen and farmers." That, he must have felt, should make things quiteclear. It may have appeared simple to him, but then he was not a lawyer,nor, unfortunately, a financial genius: the Company was to build a newschool for the Classical School, and the Modern School should after thatoccupy the Grammar School buildings. Both the new were branches of the

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old, the two together representing the original School, endowed by SirWilliam Laxton and placed by him under the Grocers as Governors: soReade saw it as a matter of common sense, but there were difficulties un-suspected by him, and the Company came to view it otherwise. Yet theitalicised phrases in the following paragraph should be noted:

It was then decided, on the recommendation of the new head master, to divide theschool into two branches, viz., (i) a First Grade Classical School, and (2) a ModernSchool for sons of farmers, tradesmen, &c. resident in Oundle or its vicinity. Thisnecessitated increased accommodation, and a building was hired for the latterbranch. The former is at present carried on in the school building, as improved bythe Company, but this arrangement is temporary only. The Company are nowerecting a building for the Classical School, with suitable class-rooms, &c. for 400boys, and when this is completed the Modern School will be transferred to the build-ing now occupied by the Classical School.

This paragraph of the report by a committee appointed by the Court on14 July 1880 was adopted on 2 February 1881, and formed part of the returnsmade by the Company to the Royal Commission appointed on 29 July1880. (Mr. J. H. Warner acknowledged that it was in the main written byhim.) It was published in 1884 (along with Mr. Hare's report of his investi-gations into the Charities of the Companies, undertaken under a minuteof the Charity Commissioners dated 2 February 1863) in the Report of the"City of London Livery Companies Commission". All the Companiesregarded this inquiry by the Crown as illegal, having no Parliamentarysanction, and made their returns under protest. The cynical have said thatthe Companies, knowing that the Commission was coming, had madeefforts to set their houses in order before being summoned to give evidence:it was so said in Oundle in 1882. As is well known, the Commission failedto agree, the majority report condemning the Companies and the minorityreport strongly defending them. Needless to say, no action followed thepublication of Reports, Evidence and Returns: perhaps the work had alreadybeen done.

Under the Endowed Schools Act of 1869 (the avowed object of whichwas to apply the endowments so as to "carry out the main designs of thefounders thereof by putting a liberal education within the reach of children

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of all classes"), the Grocers were establishing, at a cost of ^30,000 largelyderived from obsolete charities, a Grocers' Company's School at HackneyDowns, which opened on i September 1876, a Modern School for thesons of not too well-to-do professional men and tradesmen. To them itappeared that Reade was involving them in creating in Oundle anothernew school—and this new school was not the Laxton Modern School butthe Classical Oundle School. As time went on and Reade began to make asuccess of it, they realised that his aim was to make, not a cheap school forpoor men's sons, but a great public school rivalling Uppingham as Thringhad made it, and this at their expense. To the Grocers, Oundle School wasa new creation of their own, and they grew increasingly suspicious ofReade's ambitions for its future as the latter became clearer to them, a factof which Reade remained so totally unaware that, in the end, the with-drawal of their confidence came as a complete surprise to him.

Mr. Brereton stayed but one term in charge of the two houses in SchoolHouse, where Mr. Hansell succeeded him; later he settled with his motherand sister in Church House, and stayed there till his death. When Laxtonwas ready, Mr. Hansell and his boys moved there in January 1877, and Mr.R. F. Winch, of St. John's College, Cambridge, came to take charge of theSchool House boys. The start of the Michaelmas term was delayed to en-able alterations in Dryden to be completed. A handful of boys, not informedof the delay, arrived early and were set to mark out in the garden of Cob-thorne the first lawn-tennis court to be seen in Oundle. The alterationswhen completed included a new front to the Plough (as part of Laxton),which did away with the bay windows and the front door, and the buildingof a new dining-hall at Dryden with a dormitory above it. More than £2000was spent on these improvements, the "wages of mechanics" in the countrybeing higher than the Grocers' surveyor had supposed. Bathrooms andhot water were not supplied, the Court on Mr. Joseph Warner's motionhaving refused to sanction them. Mr. Stansbury was receiving /^ioo ayear and his house rent free, but, as his kind heart habitually allowed himto accept boarders unable to pay the standard fees, he was making noprofit on his house. Behaviour of this sort, by the way, was characterised

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by Reade as "the last resort of sinking schools striving to keep up theirnumbers". In a sense Mr. Stansbury became the first bursar of the School—that is the term used-^-for Reade assigned him the management of the booksupply (which his father had kept in his own hands) from which some smallprofit might be drawn by him. But it must have been obvious to Dr.Stansbury that his son would not long continue after his departure.

The Company decided to buy the remainder of the island site in thesummer of 1876, Mr. Shepherd's property at the corner of Church Laneand New Street for ̂ 860, Mr. Holloway's cottage for £210 and two housesin brick and slate belonging to Mr. Maddison for £660. The purchase of thesefour cottages and a yard in Church Lane and of two cottages in New Streetwas completed on 6 April 1877. Mr. J. W. Smith was ready to surrenderhis lease of the White Hart on Lady Day 1877, but suggested that compen-sation should be paid to the tenant and that his gardener should be allowedto occupy a cottage adjoining until he could find another. The PeterboroughAdvertiser of 8 July 1876 referred to the need for middle-class houses inOundle, continuing, "the greatest call is for dwellings from ^8 to ;£io,and if a block of buildings in New Street and Church Street purchased bythe Grocers' Company is pulled down, it will necessitate the turning out ofeleven families, several of which require front premises for business, andthere is not a house to be obtained. Surely this is a rare opportunity forspeculators, investors, &c. Why not form a Building Society?" Thecuckoo's egg had hatched. The School has grown at the expense of thehousing available in the town, as will become increasingly obvious. TheCourt was aware not only of the advantages of Oundle as the site for aSchool ("the quaint and almost collegiate character of the Town, thepeculiar beauty of the Church and the antiquity of the School being of nosmall value for educational purposes"), but also of the necessity of main-taining its reputation as a healthy town by close attention to its sewers andwater-supply. Before deciding to build on the island site, the Grocers sentDr. Simon, a former Medical Officer of Health of the City of London, toinvestigate: he reported that the churchyard had been closed for burialsfor seventeen years, and that, if cesspools were cleansed, the site would be

H.O.S.—13* 393


suitable; but the New Street sewer had been constructed for rain-wateronly, and the town relied on wells for its water. The Oundle SanitaryAuthority was anxious to effect a speedy and complete reform by abolishingcesspools, providing new sewers and establishing waterworks—but all thiswould take time. Dr. Haviland, however, had withdrawn his condemnationof the Schoolroom site. Mr. J. S. Gwilt was instructed to prepare plans fora new School building and boarding-houses on the island site, although itmight be thought dangerous to place some two hundred people on the sitebefore the town authorities had carried out their promises.

Reade created a carpenter's shop by making use of two outhouses be-hind the School formerly used as wood stores, instead of converting anoutbuilding at Cobthorne: he had a shed erected at the bathing-place intime for the 1877 season. One private room and the boys' dining-room inSchool House were used as additional classrooms; Dr. Stansbury's fixtureswere acquired, and Reade paid for the extension of gas to three more roomsin School House. Desks and benches were supplied for Albion House, andscientific apparatus for Mechanics, Botany, Geology, Astronomy andPhysical Geography was acquired for ^28. The weekly cost of cleaningthe two Schools went up from IDS. to 155.: this the Court decided shouldbe paid by Reade, and the 145. charged for brushes was deducted from thesum of ^758.14.11 due to be paid by the Company in December 1876.At that time the number of boys in the two Schools together was onehundred and five: and in December 1876 The Laxtonian appeared.2

The Classical examiner of 1876 commented on the superiority of theVerse Compositions over the Prose Compositions of the Sixth Form, andstated that the Classical work of the upper forms was relatively better thanthat of the lower—the Latin of the Modern Form was bad, however;Ancient History had been recently introduced into the curriculum. TheMathematical examiner thought boys should be familiarised with moderngeometrical method, and recommended more elasticity than Euclid pro-

2 Comparison shows that the Haileyburian was the model. The new magazine is made up similarly,and printed in double columns, in types closely resembling those with which Reade was familiar:but The Laxtonian appeared only once a term. Mr. Alfred King was the printer.

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vided, but found the Mathematics as a whole good. (From these remarksa clear picture of Mr. Brereton and Mr. Weightman can be formed.) Theneat handwriting and the clear presentation of the work were commended,but in Geography the spelling of place-names required attention.

In October 1876 the Company consulted Mr. D. C. Richmond, thesecretary of the Charity Commission, under the Endowed Schools Act,as to the position of the Company with regard to the School in Oundle,and received the following reply: "Understanding . . . that under theScheme the Company will undertake to expend ;£ 15,000 on new buildingsand to appropriate to the maintenance of the School a sum equal to theaverage amount so spent during the last few years, the Commissioners ontheir part are willing to provide in the Scheme that the entire administra-tion shah1 be vested as heretofore in the Grocers' Company." The School-room, the School House and ^300 a year formed an Educational Endow-ment, and so came under the control of the Charity Commissioners. Ayear or two later it was thought wise to obtain licence from the Crown toconfirm the Company's title to what had already been bought, for Dryden,Laxton and the houses in Church Lane had cost the Company well over^7,500; on application to the Home Office, the Attorney-General wasquoted as saying that any property already acquired without the licenceof the Crown had become forfeit to the Crown; but it may be remarkedthat the Grocers' Charters clearly exempted them from the duty of applyingfor a licence in mortmain. The Charter granted by Henry VI had limitedthe value of the lands to be held by the Company in spite of the MortmainActs to twenty marks a year, that granted by James I in 1607 had extendedthe Grocers' right to hold lands to the yearly value of two hundred pounds;but that granted by Charles I in 1640 had removed the limit altogether.

Mr. J. S. Gwilt's plans for the island site were based on the conceptionof a quadrangle, one side consisting of the School buildings, the threeothers of boarding-houses. On the question of orientation, he would havepreferred to pull down the old School House and build the School properfacing the churchyard, but practical considerations were against that plan.There were other possibilities: it may be regretted that one, embodying

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a wing to the north of the New Building of 1799 to balance the Schoolhouseof 1763, was rejected: it appears that this was favoured by Reade, with thecorollary that the schoolrooms should face New Street, as they eventuallydid. Mr. Gwilt's plans were referred by the Court to the Oundle Commit-tee: in January 1877 Reade asked to see them "to enable a schoolmaster'ssuggestions to be considered at an early stage", but his application was con-sidered premature and he was told he should see them later on.

In March 1877 the almsmen were lent cloaks with a silver badge: andit was arranged for them to sit at church in the short pews immediatelyunder the pulpit, as the old men had experienced difficulty in hearing fromthe far end of the nave. At the same time Reade repaid the £200 advancedto him by the Court. In the Lent term the numbers were ninety in theClassical School and thirty in the Modern: the town called the former theGrammar Boys and the latter the Modern Boys, perfectly accurately,although Reade had dropped the "Grammar" from the title of the First-grade School. The weather that February was very wet; the playing-fieldsbecame waterlogged, and a few cases of mumps added to the discomfort;"Big Side" paper-chases were either started or revived; and when the floodsfroze, the hours of work were changed to allow skaters and sliders to enjoytwo hours in the mornings on the ice. On 21 February 1877 Captain Webblectured in the Town Hall on his life-story and the importance of swim-ming: the thrill of seeing and hearing the man who eighteen months beforehad swum the Channel can be imagined. A week before, the newly formedSchool Choral Society had given two concerts there in aid of the OundleBenevolent Society, repeating the concert given in the Schoolroom at theend of the previous term, which had included one or two of Mr. Brereton'ssettings of Horatian Odes.

The sports, in view of the weather, were postponed to May, whenA. M. Evanson won eight events: they had been, ever since their inception,managed by a committee presided over by Mr. Weightman. But shortlyafter, Mr. Weightman was taken ill, and Reade, in reporting his illness,suggested that a kind message from the Court might cheer him: on28 May, however, he died of phthisis at the age of fifty-three, having been

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second master since 1855. The Rev. Hugh Weightman is commemoratedby an annual Mathematical Prize from funds contributed by over twohundred subscribers, including the Company. It is open to all, with theproviso that the same boy shall not receive it two years in succession. Thefirst winner was C. A. Eves in 1878; he followed it up with an OpenMathematical Scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1880. TheCourt of 6 June 1877 elected Mr. R. P. Brereton to be second master fromthe Michaelmas term: Mr. E. H. Bell, of St. John's College, Cambridge,temporarily took over the Mathematical work: the Rev. T. W. Allen, ofSidney Sussex, was appointed Senior Mathematical and Science masterfrom September, but retired to a living the following year, whereuponMr. N. F. A. Cobbald, of Sidney Sussex (soth Wrangler, 1877), took hisplace. Before the end of 1877 the retirement of the Rev. J. AdolphusStansbury was being urged by the Oundle Committee: he had refused anoffer of the living at Southwick, as the sum offered him would not build ahouse, but he was prepared to resign at Easter, if assured of compensation.When he accepted the charge of Nassington in April 1878, the Courtgranted him ^250 and awarded a scholarship for four years to his eldestson, in acknowledgment of his twenty years' service. His place as Masterof the Lower School (i.e. the junior part of the Classical School) was takenby the Rev. S. G.Joel, of Trinity College, Dublin, to whom he left peacefulpossession of Dry den House and the goodwill. Mr. R. F. Winch was a greatcricketer, but, while playing in the match against the Old Boys on 24 June1877, in ignorance of the depth of the cutting of the Milton Lane he leaptthe wall of the cricket ground in pursuit of a big hit, fell heavily and brokehis leg. A good hit for six from that ground might carry "both walls"into the gardens on the far side of the sunken lane.

Reade was anxious over the future of boys who held sons of Freemenscholarships for three years: in some deserving cases the Court had beenpersuaded to extend the scholarship, but the three years for a boy of tenfitted him for nothing but a clerkship in a small concern. Reade urged thatsuccessful candidates should stay at School till they were of an age to go toa University. There was a boy, whose father had kept him in Dryden after

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the three years were up without renewal, and had since died: this boy (J. P.Cummins) might well be head boy and go to Cambridge. Reade secureda grant for him, provided no School charges were made on his mother forthe next two years.

At the time of the examination of 1877 there were ninety-four boys inthe Classical School (seventy of them boarders) and thirty-four in the Mod-ern School, of whom sixteen boarded, some in Avondale, where Mr.Sutton had begun to receive boarders. Of the hundred and twenty-eight,only fifty had been in the School in Dr. Stansbury's time. The Oxford andCambridge Board carried out the examination in July, but not to Reade'ssatisfaction: not merely was it three times as expensive as he estimated but,though the Mathematical examiner (an old colleague at Haileybury) haddone his work admirably, the Classical one had been at once slow and hastyin his marking, and unhelpful in his comments. Reade desired to return tothe plan of getting two examiners for ^30, who had no other schools toexamine and could come to Oundle for a week and conduct examinationsboth by written papers and viva voce. The report, when it came, declaredthe School to be "in a good working condition", the Mathematics, if notbrilliant, being "perfectly satisfactory". Reade was told by the Court tocomplain to the Oxford and Cambridge Board, if he thought fit, andinform the Court of their reply. He does not seem to have done so, butnext year he got an examiner for a whole week. Perhaps he never realisedthat he had now criticised two pet schemes—the sons of Freemen scholar-ships and examination by the Oxford and Cambridge Board: his failureto realise that one Junior Scholarship only had been granted (which wouldnot be vacant till the summer of 1879) became evident when he reporteda tie between W. Hemingway of Oundle School and T. Layng of St. John's,Leatherhead: to avoid disappointment, the Court granted forty-five guineasfor the next two years to be divided between the two boys. Reade regrettedthe error and offered to pay for two such Junior Scholarships himself, sothat there might be one each year for competition. The ^20 prize wasnot awarded, as no really deserving boy was leaving. The exhibitionwent to H. R. Banton, who had won the Senior Open Classical Schol-

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arship at Jesus College, Cambridge: and the Taylor to J. P. Cummins.The Speech Day3 of 1877 began with an organ recital by boys in the

parish church; in the Schoolroom later, Canon Brooke took the chair,Reade made his speech on prospects and the examiners' reports, but beforethe prizes were given away came the entertainment—a scene from TheKnights of Aristophanes in Greek, a French recitation, a scene from AsYou Like It, the prize-winning epigrams, a scene from Moliere's Le MedecinMalgre Lui. Two new trophies were instituted; one, a statuette of Victory,was kept by Dry den for a year for having won the largest number of prizesthat July, and the other, a salver, "to be kept for the Lent, Easter, andMichaelmas Terms, by the Cock-House in Football, Athletics, and Cricketrespectively", and known as "the Detur Digniori Salver", was received byLaxton for winning the first cricket house matches by beating bothDryden and School House. The statuette has disappeared, but can be seenin an early photograph of Laxton House: the salver is said to have beenMrs. Reade's tray for visiting-cards, seized by Reade when asked for atrophy for the house matches—a replica of it in silver forms the centre-piece of the ebony shield presented by the Old Boys in 1905 as the trophyfor Rugby football.

The Table for Reade's time is as follows:

Athletics Cricket Rugby Football Lady Lyveden Cup1877 — Laxton School House —

W. Hemingway6

C. E. DyerW. G. Reily»C. S. H. Brereton

In September 1877, appealing for a further grant for scientific apparatus,as there were classes in Land Surveying and Levelling, and in Physics,Reade wrote, "I think that all the boys, those in the Classical as well asthose in the non-classical department, should, at the right age, receive a

3 All Speech Days in Reade's time were for both Schools jointly. 4 Weather intervened.5 No challenge. * For the first two years the trophy was for steeplechasing; from 1882

onwards it was a Cup for the Victor Ludorum.

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187818791880188118821883

School HouseSchool HouseOppidansDry denSchool HouseSchool House

School HouseLaxtonSchool HouseSchool House5

School HouseSchool House

School House(Undecided)4

LaxtonSchool HouseSchool House


certain amount of instruction in natural science", the grant would thereforebenefit the whole School: the grant was made. At the end of October hesuggested the use of the empty houses in Church Lane, should demolitionnot begin at once, to supply the need of the Classical School for more space—a reading-room for senior boys, a room for Physical Science and a roomfor a small Drawing class. The surveyor reported that neither house couldbe adapted for the purpose except at prohibitive cost: demolition wouldnot begin until the town sewers were completed. The following March,Reade was authorised to rent Folkestone Cottages—two newly builthouses in New Street, roughly in front of the present Great Hall—for usepartly as a cottage hospital and partly for practical work in Chemistry andExperimental Physics: for, he wrote, "the prosperity of the School willsuffer if I cannot begin Science Teaching next term".

Before 1877 ended, Reade cancelled an end-of-term concert and sentthe boys home two days early, as it was feared that H. D. Leigh in LaxtonHouse had contracted scarlatina. There was no outside contagion, but,since the house was reopened in February, Mr. Hansell had detected andremedied some defects in the drains (for example, a pipe in the cellar whichconveyed gas freely from the street sewer into the house), and Reade nowknew of other defects which exposed boys to danger and would not bear ahostile investigation. Alterations were necessary; as Reade wrote, "ourfortunes and the health of our boys depend on freedom from infectiousdisease: the boy sick came invited from Godolphin, a genius who, if helives, cannot fail to bring great renown to the School": but publicity mustbe avoided. The town was spending £2000 on new sewers, and hopedwith a Government grant of ^4000 to construct a sewage farm. Water-works were far off, but the Spitchell Spring was being piped for the use ofthe workhouse, a beginning of the departure from a reliance on wells.Reade had plenty of cause for anxiety, but in his haste to put things righthe thoughtlessly earned a rebuke from the Company. In the recent workat Dryden and Laxton Houses, done by Messrs. Halliday & Cave becauseno Oundle builder was thought competent, faults were found—a brokenpipe in a lavatory, and a pipe blocked by mortar—and Reade called on

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local men to do repairs instead of inviting the contractors to correct theirmistakes. This did not seem businesslike to the Court: Reade had beentold in December 1877, in the matter of the bills for work done at Drydenand Laxton in excess of Court orders and for repairs done without ordersof Court, that the Company would pay the bills in future only for workexpressly sanctioned by the Court. Yet on Mr. Stansbury's departure fromDryden, he had work done by way of redecoration during the summerholidays: in December, as the bill was not yet made out, he sent in theestimates! The Court regarded as equally unbusinesslike his letters, writtenat great length, in which he passed on his thoughts about possibilities,instead of submitting concrete proposals for the Court's acceptance orrejection: for example, in December 1877 he wrote a long letter outliningsome plans occasioned by Mr. Weightman's death and Mr. Stansbury'sdeparture, which he first asked the clerk to hold back and then, a week later,definitely withdrew. This was irritating behaviour—but how human andunderstandable! It is to be hoped that he did not withdraw with the planshis estimate of Mr. Brereton: "in a few years he will be in the front rank ofmen who could compete for good prizes in our profession."

Yet things appeared to be going well: the boy recovered, the terms ofthe Sons of Freemen Scholarship regulations were altered, the plans of theproposed School buildings were shown to Reade, the numbers continuedto rise, the repairs were completed and paid for, Reade's nomination ofMr. Alfred Messervy as examiner was accepted, and scholarships werewon. Mr. Brereton's abilities had begun that series of scholarships inClassics which replaces the Mathematical successes of a previous era.Several times boys won scholarships at Cambridge which they declined asthey were too young to leave School: among them was H. F. M. Simpson,who won an Open Classical Scholarship at Pembroke College in 1877 andagain in 1878—he took a first class and was afterwards rector of AberdeenGrammar School; H. Biddell, however, resigned a ^50 Open ClassicalScholarship at King's College, won in April, in order to accept a ̂ 60 OpenScholarship at Magdalene College in May 1878. The latter was elected tothe exhibition by the Court, and the former secured the award of a Latham

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Exhibition of ^30 for three years, which he supplemented in 1881 with aGrocers' Open Scholarship.

Mr. Messervy spent a week in Oundle: the papers in Mathematicswhich he had set were marked by Oundle masters, but he marked his ownClassics, English and Modern Languages papers. His report on the Classicswas thoroughly good, he expressed his pleasure at receiving good versetranslations of unseens, where he had only expected prose (yet the pages ofThe Laxtonian are full of such renderings); the French gave him great satis-faction, the Mathematics not so much—indeed, there were failures inArithmetic in the Modern School, where the intellectual average wasdecidedly lower; the Public Services Department was making good pro-gress in German, Chemistry, Physics and Land Surveying; the Englishbooks, Macaulay's Essays and Scott's Lady of the Lake, receive a mention.(Mr. Winch edited some Macaulay for Messrs. Macmillan.) Gratifying onthe whole though this report was, the Court ordered that the examinationthe following year should be conducted by the Oxford and CambridgeBoard. There was no Speech Day in 1878, but a simple distribution ofprizes and the recitation of prize compositions on 30 July, owing to theserious spinal injury sustained by a boy diving—he died just before Christ-mas. H. D. Leigh received the Junior Scholarship, and C. A. Eves theWeightman Prize. The leaver's prize of ^20 went to E. Jones.

With one hundred and twenty boys, one hundred of them being board-ers, in the Classical School, and forty in the Modern School, Reade on27 November 1878 wrote an address to the Court, in whichhe called attentionto the precarious tenure of the various buildings leased: Avondale, whereMr. F. W. Sutton and Mr. B. Spicer lived with up to sixteen Modernboarders, could be lost at six months' notice; the lease of Albion House,where the Modern School was carried on, expired in September 1879;Mr. J. W. Smith might decline to renew the lease of Cobthorne: the caseof the playing-fields was the same—Eayr's cricket field could be lost bynotice any Christmas (he had threatened to use the field for pasture and turnout the School), and the playing-field on the South Back Way was rentedfrom Mr. J. W. Smith: it was ignominious to be thus at the mercy of the

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town. "No playing-field, no boarding School" was a rule without excep-tion: Reade suggested the purchase of part of Mr. T. S. Sharman's land,to the north of Eayr's field. Residences for the headmaster and secondmaster, and boarding-houses could be built there, and the rest of the land beused as playing-fields. Such a purchase would render the position of theSchool secure. The next step, he suggested, was to clear the White Hartarea and begin building the School classrooms, as two new sewers nowcontracted for would adequately drain the new and the old sites. In viewof the increased numbers there was a shortage of classrooms: he had him-self converted the room in Dryden north of the entrance into a classroomfor his own use "as a kind of luxury for the sake of the additional quiet".By so doing he had set free for Mr. Brereton the room at the top of thestairs which Dr. Stansbury had used so long. As no pledge had been givento accept Modern boarders, it would not be so disastrous if Avondale waslost: but fortunately the owner of Albion House was willing to renew thelease for another two or three years. Reade wrote that, if he had capital,he would back his opinion of the future of Oundle School by buying landand building and persuade his masters to build their own boarding-housesas had been done at Uppingham. He hoped, after ploughing back hisprofits—as indeed Mr. Hansell had done in leasing two small houses adjoin-ing Laxton for seven and eleven boys, each house under a senior boy—thathis harvest was about to begin, as the recent increases in numbers had notyet involved additional staff, there having been one more master than thenumbers justified when he was appointed. The time had not yet come forhousemasters to pay the Court more than nominal rents for their houses.

This long and rambling address was referred to the Oundle Committee,and certain expressions in it led to inquiry of Reade as to his meaning. Earlyin February 1879 the Oundle Committee spent a week-end in Oundle: itsmembers were surprised at the size of the town and the importance of theSchool. They were impressed by the number of new stone buildings goingup—the new church (though the parish church was one of the finest inEngland), new magistrates' court, and a workmen's club near the alms-houses. They reported thirty-four boarders in School House, under Mr.

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Winch and Miss Green, at 55 guineas; thirty-three boarders in Dry den,under Mr. Joel, at 50 guineas but some still at a lower figure; thirty-twoboarders in Laxton, under Mr. Hansell (he was unmarried), at 50 guineas;and sixteen Modern School boarders in Avondale, under Mr. Sutton (hewas unmarried) and Mr. Spicer, at ̂ 30. In the sanatorium (i.e. FolkestoneCottages) there was room for six boys: when not serving as a sanatorium,it was "used by the Chemistry master for the preparation of his lectures".There were six classrooms or masters' studies in Albion House, but theaccommodation was inadequate and unsuitable as the building was dilapi-dated: the Schoolroom would do for the Modern School when the newbuildings had been erected for the Classical School. As to Avondale—"wethink that private enterprise may well be left to make some provision forboarding houses." The committee recommended the purchase of Mr.Sharman's thirty acres, Mr. J. W. Smith refusing to sell the playing-fieldsthen in use, and the building of a new range of classrooms in New Street;the former might cost ^4500 and the latter up to ^25,000. But the widerfinancial aspect also received close study: in Dr. Stansbury's time (say, from1852 to 1876) the average excess of income from the Laxton estates overexpenditure on the School and almshouses at Oundle had been /ji2io:in Reade's first year it had fallen to £862—there was the Doctor's pensionof ^400 a year—and in 1877-8 to ^492. The rentals might be expectedto rise to ^4531 by Christmas 1879, yet the Oundle expenditure wasalready ^2745 a year (without the pension), and might easily be more. Asthis afforded the headmaster an estimated clear profit of ^1000 a year, thequestion was whether the Court would go on indefinitely spending at thisrate. The committee advised that a return should be made each term of thenumbers in each house and of the charges paid by the boys: noting that,while Mr. Joel in Dry den received only the profits on his house, Mr.Hansell in Laxton received a salary of fyo in addition to his profits,Mr. Winch in School House had ^120 with free board and lodging andMr. Sutton in Avondale the same, they recommended that agreementsshould be made between the Company and Mr. Joel and Mr. Hansell con-cerning the rent of their houses, at present a nominal ^5 a year.

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The Court of 26 February 1879 decided to continue for the present theexisting annual outlay on the two Schools, to erect a First-grade Schoolbuilding for two hundred and twenty and to buy, if possible, the wholeof Mr. Sharman's land: the Court also made an order requiring the head-master to make each term a return of the boys in each house and of the feespaid, and another instructing Mr. Joel and Mr. Hansell to take a lease of theirboarding-houses at ̂ 5 per annum, the lessee to pay rates and taxes and tokeep the house in good tenantable repair. On receiving these orders, Readewrote on 8 March objecting on the ground that the lease of a boarding-housewould prevent him from dismissing an unsatisfactory man at short notice,and suggesting alternatively the insertion of a clause to invalidate the lease,should the master concerned give or receive notice, or the grant of the leasesto him so that he could collect for the Governors the amounts due for Rent,Rates and Repairs—the three R's, as he called them. He went on: "Ah1 school-masters agree that the peculiar nature of our duties implies insecurity ofoffice and emoluments; and that assistant masters must trust to the head-master just as the headmaster does now to the governors. This is the allimportant point." He asked that the return of numbers and fees shouldbegin only at the end of the three years of nominal rents, as then, after sixyears of his management, there would be "hardly a trace remaining of thatsystem of reduced fees which struggling, sinking Grammar Schools areobliged to adopt in order to keep a fair number of boys". When the Courtreaffirmed its orders, Reade accepted the Court's decision, pointing outthat he had merely tendered advice, and also expressing the hope that itwould be made plain to Mr. Hansell and Mr. Joel that the leases left themstill liable to dismissal at a term's notice without appeal to the Court. This,the Court replied, was the position.

The returns asked for and rendered henceforth can be used to check theprinted Form-lists, probably, like The Laxtonian, a new departure, whichsurvive to show after Michaelmas 1877 the organisation of the School.The numbers in these "blue books" do not always tally with the entries atGrocers' Hall: the discrepancies are to be accounted for by supposing thenames of boys "absent for the term" included or disregarded. There was an

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Upper and a Lower VI (sometimes six or seven, but averaging twelve,once reaching eighteen in the two forms together: these were Mr. Brere-ton's boys), Upper and Lower V (sometimes amalgamated, producing aform of twenty-seven as in November 1881), Upper and Lower IV, Upperand Lower III, Upper and Lower II, and after November 1878 Upper andLower I. The names of the Public Services Department are sometimesincluded in the boys' respective forms, sometimes in a separate list: inthe year November 1879-July 1880 there appears the Remove, whichprobably contained those boys who represented Mr. Hansell's charge as"French, German and Public Services Tutor". In the Register, Readerecorded all entrants alike, Classical or Modern, in the old style, but not soaccurately as his predecessor, for twenty-eight of the entries of his first fiveterms (numbering under a hundred) are left unspecified. In 1878 he changedfrom the old paragraphic form to the entry under columns—after Septem-ber 1881 adding an extra column for the boy's house—but did not enterthe date of leaving. In his twenty-two terms he seems to have admitted fourhundred and thirty-two (there is some duplication in cases of transferencefrom Modern to Classical, but not much); ninety-two of his boys lastedthrough Fry's time into Park's and he noted when they left the School.

The two Schools together numbered one hundred and sixty-one inMarch 1879, an increase of seventeen since December: in January a youngman joined the staff who was to devote his life to the School under fiveheadmasters; this was Herr J. G. Hornstein, known to die generations after1914 as Mr. Lowdell. The growth of the School called for an additionalModern Languages master. It was becoming clear that Oundle School wasproviding an inexpensive education for the sons of professional men; ofthe hundred boarders, sixty were sons of clergymen.

Mr. Cobbald had declined a post at Christ's Hospital "with better pros-pects" in order to teach Science as well as Mathematics at Oundle: it wasnot until September 1880 that the Rev. H. Pooley, of Keble College, Ox-ford, came to assist with the Mathematics: but Mr. Cobbald lacked Mr.Weightman's long experience. The house in Nordi Street, now No. 28,where Mr. Weightman had lived, was later rented by Reade: Mr. Cobbald

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lived there and used some rooms for out-of-school Science teaching andlaboratory work. On 13 March 1879 he gave a lecture to the townsfolk inthe large room of the Workmen's Club on "Magnetism, Electricity and theElectric Light" (this was two years before D'Oyly Carte put electric lightinto the Savoy Theatre), illustrated by drawings and experiments: TheLaxtonian reports that "Mr. Cobbald, ably assisted by Eves I, had himselfmade almost all the apparatus used": the lecture was repeated on the follow-ing night to the School. This boy, C. A. Eves, who later won an OpenMathematical Scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, was the soleexception to the run of Classical Scholarship winners. A boy, who hadcarried off the prize offered for the best examination in the Geography ofNorthamptonshire in December 1878, went to Malvern College with aClassical Scholarship the following year. C. A. Evors won the first OpenClassical Scholarship at Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1879,}. P. Cummins,the winner of the exhibition, won the same at Caius College, W. T. Sut-thery (who had come from Uppingham to Oundle) was elected to a John-son (Oakham and Uppingham) Exhibition at Clare College, that yearthrown open, E. Hinchcliff won an Open Classical Sizarship at St. John'sCollege, Cambridge, and A. M. Evanson gained an exhibition at JesusCollege, Oxford: W. Hemingway declined an Open Classical Scholarshipat St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, on the ground of youth.

But in spite of these successes the report of the Oxford and CambridgeBoard's examiners in July 1879 was considered unsatisfactory: there washigh praise for the Classical work of the Sixth Form, but not for that ofthe rest of the School: the work in Mathematics was held to be not veryremarkable (very little known about indices or fractions in either Arith-metic or Algebra): in French, individual boys were praised but, apart fromthe Upper Fifth, the rest and the Modern School reached but a low level.The Court thought undue attention was being given by masters to portionsof the Classical School and invited Reade's comments, especially as theCourt regarded Grammar as "a most useful Mental Exercise", and attachedgreat importance to Mathematics. It was true, of course, that parts of theSchool were better taught than others: but that was due to the personality

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of Mr. Brereton. He concentrated on small classes, giving each of hispupils an individual attention, Reade himself taking the large classes ofless-advanced boys to set him free to do so. "The peculiar excellences ofMr. Brereton's method," wrote H. D. Leigh in later years, "were met andcompleted by the precisely opposite qualities of Reade's teaching." Mr.Brereton's success makes any information about his method of interest: hehad been a pupil of Dr. Holden at Ipswich and of F. A. Paley at Cambridge,and apparently trained his boys to translate Greek without recourse to thelexicon and to write proses and verses in both Greek and Latin, indepen-dently, without use of dictionary or gradus. This throws added responsi-bility on the teacher, but ensures that the boy's vocabulary, as built up, isin constant use, and tends to create confidence. Any particularly good pieceof composition in prose or verse was marked Inscribatur, and the boyproudly copied it into a volume among other pieces similarly honoured.The practice certainly proved stimulating, but the inscribed versions appearto have been lost; perhaps Mr. Brereton took the volume away with himwith thoughts of publishing an Aufonae Corolla. The fair copies were, inthe case of verses, his own compositions, but for proses he preferred to givewhat can be termed "traditional versions". In later years he contributed to aseries of Latin prose versions printed privately by F. T. Rickards, at Jhansiand Allahabad, 1896-1901: he is credited with having supplied many of thebetter copies, but his own are not outstanding.7 From his pupils he wondevotion, and his coaching gained them brilliant successes.

Speech Day, 29 July 1879, was the day of the inaugural service in thenew Church of the Holy Name (commonly called the Jesus Church) builton the site in Chapel End by Mr. Jesse Watts Russell, who did not live tosee it dedicated. Because this chapel of ease was rendered necessary by the

7 For example, part of the passage in Leland quoted on page 6 is thus translated:Turn profecto mihi Vndellam oppidum intranti aliud obuenit sacellum, quod nescio an S. Thomae

an Beatae Virgini sit dedicatum. Quod oppidum Aufona fluuio hinc illinc circumdatur, quo fit ut nonlonge absit quin insula uideatur, nisi si quis septem triones uersus respexerit. . . . Cum iam ex oppidoexcederem, per pontem saxis exstructum equo euehebar trans Aufonam. Qui pons, Septentrionalis abincolis nominatus, longe deductus est, quo scilicet fluuium extra ripas diffluentem prata aequissimeutrimque patentia tute transgrederentur pagani, arcubus ad triginta (qua tenus memoria teneo) uiaeaggerem sustentantibus, quorum alii perexigui alii satis ampli uidebantur. R.P.B.

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growth of the School and its overflowing into the free seats (only fortyof the hundred and ninety-five pews in the parish church were not "facultypews") to the exclusion of those who did not own pews, the Grocers hadcontributed ^500 towards its endowment. On the hot afternoon the Deanof Peterborough presided and gave away the prizes in the Town Hall: theHeadmaster's speech was followed by a mixed programme of French andGerman recitations, three solo songs and three scenes from Timon of Athens."Every boy who left Oundle for the Universities in 1879 had won his placein open competition" was perhaps the burden of the day.

Negotiations ended in the purchase, on 24 December 1879, for ^5000,of 30 acres 3 roods 30 poles of Sharman's land, known as "the Thirty Acre"or "Grocers' Field" at different times: there was a quarry there of goodbuilding-stone, from which Folkestone Cottages had been built. A newagreement was made with Mr. T. Weed, the owner of Albion House: thenew church enhanced its value and he was well aware that the ModernSchool of forty boys had nowhere else to go: on the other hand, to findother tenants he would have to spend money on conversion: the new leaseran to August 1881 at ^36 a year. The vicar offered the use of the Work-men's Club rooms for £8 a term, but Reade wanted them for the ClassicalSchool and had to find desks and seats to make them of use: the Schoolstill uses the smaller room downstairs. As to the new schoolrooms, therewas delay, due partly to alterations in Mr. Gwilt's plans devised by Readeand partly to doubts of the sanitary state of Oundle. On 25 February 1880the Court accepted a motion by one of the Wardens "that no buildingoperations at Oundle be commenced by this Company until proper sani-tary arrangements have been completed and a satisfactory supply of purewater provided", and ordered a copy to be sent to the Oundle Urban Sani-tary Authority. The clerk of the authority replied on March 12 that theinstalment of the full town plan of sewerage which served the island sitewas already done, that lack of money alone delayed the completion of theplan, yet the death-rate in Oundle was very low, under 1-5 per cent, andthat in view of the numerous and copious wells for all purposes, there wasno immediate need for waterworks: Dr. Arthur Haviland was quoted in

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FIG. 6. THE WHITE HART IN 1839, FROM MR. JOSEPH GWILT'S NOTEBOOK(This was pulled down in Reade's time and provided part of the site for the Cloisters)

4IO


support of these statements. Reade, himself a member of the authority,wrote that the authority was a reliable body, and that the increase of tradeprovided by the School was not great enough to enable the town to becoerced into doing more than was locally thought necessary: the recentpurchases of land had had a good effect on confidence; a further stepforward, the beginning of the new buildings, would have good results.Accordingly, on 14 April 1880 the Court unanimously resolved that theerection of a School building with classrooms be proceeded with: it wasan instruction to the Oundle Committee, which was to settle the plans,that no steps should be taken to increase the boarding-house accommoda-tion unless the sanitary arrangements and water-supply were completedto the satisfaction of the Court. Mr. Gwilt's plans for the Cloisters (as thepart actually built is now called) were for a quadrangle, with the OldSchool House preserved intact for the present as its eastern side; the westernside facing New Street, containing the classrooms, was to be built first:the other sides were to contain the large Hall, Library, Museum andLaboratory. Thus it was hoped to accommodate a hundred and fifty boys,which Reade thought was the limit until new boarding-houses could bebuilt. Reade was overruled when he asked for Collyweston instead ofWelsh slates, and for heating by pipes and not by open fires: but at hisrequest the two rooms on the right of the entrance on both floors werethrown into one, the upper permanently and the lower with a movablepartition. The contract was secured by Messrs. Thompson Ltd. of Peter-borough at ,£11,983, with allowance of ^100 for old materials. Possessionof the White Hart and of the other cottages was obtained after paying somefyo in compensation. Early in November 1880 the demolitions began:the Headmaster in cap and gown mounted a ladder to make a ceremonialbeginning, and the schoolboys were allowed, for one delirious half-hour,to assist in the work of destruction.

Mr. Hansell was married on 31 March 1880, and Oundle School gavehim as a wedding present a silver cigar-lighter in the form of a model of thetower and spire of Oundle parish church—the angle turrets come out withthe light—which is now in the vicarage as a gift to the vicar for the time

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being. The names of the four representatives who made the presentationon behalf of the School can still be read.

In April 1880 the Court, on Mr. J. H. Warner's motion, establishedtwo more Open Junior Scholarships of forty-five guineas for three years:there was now one every year. No decision was reached as to the use ofSharman's land; Mr. Lotan of the Talbot was allowed to buy the hay. Onthe question of examinations, Reade, realising that he was thought anxiousto avoid the Oxford and Cambridge Board examiners, favoured by theCourt as they afforded a comparison both with previous years and with otherschools, asked for what would now be called an Inspection. He wanted athorough Classical and Mathematical examination of all boys in Sixth andFifth Forms, entirely by paper work, for the selection of the successfulcandidates for the leaving exhibition and the Junior Scholarship; an exam-ination of the rest of the School in Grammar, Greek (where offered), Latin,French and Mathematics; a careful inspection of the whole School in work-ing order with a report on time-table, text-books, methods and generalefficiency; and a test of the whole School in reading and speaking Frenchand writing French from dictation. The Oxford and Cambridge Board didwhat was asked: the examiners' report of the examination in July must haveseemed to Reade most satisfactory. It is most illuminating.

The numbers had grown "to a point not previously approached", asthere were a hundred and thirty-four in the "Upper School" and forty-three in the "Laxton Modern School". The Rev. T. W. Burbidge approvedof the elimination from the Upper School of a lower-class element, com-posed chiefly of dayboys from the neighbourhood, now provided for in anentirely separate school. "The Upper School, which is a first grade PublicSchool, is now composed exclusively of sons of gentlemen, almost all beingboarders." (There were actually one hundred and nine boarders.) "Thisjudicious separation of classes by the present Head Master has proved adecided success." He was enthusiastic about the excellent Classical work,mentioning the books read: -Upper Sixth, Plato's Protagoras and Juvenal, andSophocles' Electra and Pliny's Letters with the Lower Sixth and Fifth; theSixth and Fifth had also read Xenophon's Agesilaus. The Mathematical

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report, though not quite so impressive, was quite good. Mons. A. Manier,approving of the good accent of the boys, made suggestions for text-booksto make the work more methodical, and so easier: he mentioned that Frenchtranslations of Caesar, Xenophon and Demosthenes were in use by boysreading these authors in the original. The report on the Modern Schoolhad high praise for Mr. Sutton and declared that the School was answeringits purpose, adding that some of the boys came each day considerabledistances to attend it.

The scholarships won during the year were the ^100 Open ClassicalScholarship for five years at New College, Oxford, which in view of hisyouth, H. D. Leigh received permission to take up a year later; a RustatScholarship for Classics at Jesus College, Cambridge, won by T. Layng; anOpen Mathematical Scholarship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, wonby C. A. Eves; an Open Classical Scholarship at St. Catherine's College,Cambridge, won by W. Hemingway; and another at Downing College,Cambridge, won by J. R. Line. Another boy won an Open ClassicalScholarship to Malvern College. The Leaving Exhibition was awarded toEves, but on Reade's appeal for help to enable Layng to take his scholarshipat Cambridge (his father had resigned his living after a paralytic stroke), theCourt gave him ^£50 a year for four years. The Junior Scholarship wasawarded to E. O'Connor: as the Court had now sanctioned one every year,Reade, making a joke about "retrospective legislation having its uses aswell as its abuses", prevailed on the Court to adopt the two boys, to whomsince discovering his mistake in 1877 he had himself given Junior Scholar-ships, H. D. Leigh (now head of the School) in 1878 and F. Hemingwayin 1879. Apart from these payments, the success of the School8 was provingexpensive to Reade, for the very number of Classical Scholarships gainedsince 1876 made it necessary to add ̂ 300 to the ̂ 250 paid by the Governorsto Mr. Brereton. The Speech Day on 27 July 1880 was presided over by

8 A naval officer, a brother of the Headmaster, was a tricyclist of some determination: he publisheda little book in 1880 entitled Nauticus on His Hobby Horse. He described his arrival at Oundle, andwrites: "Oundle is a charming little town of nice old-fashioned houses and well-kept streets. Thechurch has a beautiful tower and spire in perfect harmony with one another. There is also a goodschool which is just getting its 'name up'."

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Canon Collins, the entertainment being less ambitious, consisting only ofrecitations in English, French and German, with a poem and an essay byH. D. Leigh.

The work on the new buildings can be traced in the records of the twoflourishing School societies. The Choral Society, founded in 1876, whichhad earned a reputation for its Christmas concerts (repeated the followingterm in the Town Hall for charity), gave a concert on n April 1881 to themen employed on the new buildings. There had been an attempt as farback as December 1878 to institute an inter-house glee-singing prize anda solo contest: the glee-singing lasted two or three years, but the solocontests lasted longer at the Christmas concerts, when Mrs. Reade, MissCharlesworth and the masters helped to fill out the programme. The out-standing treble at this period was R. D. Beloe of Dry den, afterwardsheadmaster of Bradfield. In March and April of 1881, in friendly rivalrythe three houses gave concerts to the School, Dryden on 29 March, Laxtonon 31 March and School House on 7 April. The Choral Society, whichin 1880 had given its concert as a prelude to Old Boys' Week, gave twoconcerts in July 1881.

The Literary and Dramatic Society, which had been started, after somecorrespondence in The Laxtonian, in October 1879, and had produced underMr. Hansell's direction The Rivals at Christmas 1879, on 20 December 1880performed Sheridan's The Critic, and The Heir-at-law by George Colmanthe younger. The programme for the occasion was covered with a profusionof puns, doubtless much to the taste of the period, with clear reference tothe work on the new buildings of "Your Worships, It Grows Sirs, School".(The first payments became due to the builders in March.) The drop-curtain painted by Mr. W. J. Caparn presented a view on Lake Maggiore:he had a studio in a turning off the Benefield Road behind the Horseshoes,taught Art in the Modern School, exhibited at the Royal Academy and isremembered for having introduced the large oriental poppy into Oundle.

A letter in The Laxtonian of December 1877 (inspired, if not written,by Reade), signed EuNOiis (where the diaeresis makes the pun), asked forinformation about the Founder and the past of the School. Reade, with all

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an Englishman's love of knowing his roots in the past, racily and sketchilyreplied with an article term by term, based on Mr. Yorke's MS., put inhis hands for this purpose. Mr. Brereton, who from the first acted as censorand director of The Laxtonian, also wrote for the School magazine illumin-ating articles on Architecture in Northamptonshire, Italian Sketches fromhis foreign tours, and at least one on his lesser known hobby, BritishButterflies, all signed X. News from Cambridge showed that Old Boys weredoing well both in games and in earning distinction in examinations. Oneof Dr. Stansbury's last boys to go to Cambridge, J. R. Morgan, a ClassicalScholar of Jesus College, represented his University in the sports of 1876in the weight (he was unplaced, however), and in the Association footballmatch of 1877: this is paralleled by the achievement of A. M. Evanson, thefirst Captain of Rugby football at Oundle and an exhibitioner at Oxford,who was second in the weight in the sports of 1880 and won the event in1881 with a putt of 35 feet n inches: he played in the Oxford XV in 1880and 1881, was elected Captain for the season 1882-3, but was unable toplay in the 'Varsity match through ill health. Other Oundle blues in Reade'stime were all won at Cambridge—J. H. Plant, unplaced in the mile of 1877;G. A. Shoppee, third in the 25-mile bicycle races of 1877 and 1878; G. L.Colbourne, who as a freshman tied for second place in the high jump inthe sports of 1881, and won the event for the next three years, finally clear-ing 5 feet 9 inches: he also played in the Cambridge XV in 1883; andH. W. Bradley, who ran seventh (the last Cambridge man to count) in thecross-country race of 1883. There was at that date no inter-Universityswimming contest, but two or more Old Boys distinguished themselvesin swimming and presided over the C.U. Swimming Club. A. M. Suttheryhad learnt not merely his Classics but his cricket at Oundle, and eventuallygot his blue in 1887, long after Reade was dead.

It was said afterwards that Reade had discouraged visits from Dr.Stansbury's Old Boys: indeed, only a few of them play in the Old Boys'matches. When, on 9 June 1881, the Oundle Rovers Cricket Club wasformed with thirty members, they were mostly boys of Reade's own time.There was as yet no Old Oundelian Club, but Old Boys at Cambridge

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raised three O.O. scratch fours and an O.O. Rugby football XV in theMichaelmas term of 1881. Masters played regularly for the Rovers; indeed,Reade himself and Mr. Winch (whose feat in 1879 in bowling all ten wicketsof the Gentlemen of Northamptonshire in their first innings and makingthe top score against them was long remembered) were, to begin with, themainstays of the Club.9 The first School match against the masters tookplace in 1880, resulting in an innings defeat for the School, Reade havingscored 114 not out. (The full score-card is printed in The Laxtonian, 1stSeries, Vol. I, p. 159.)

It will be recalled that Reade had been associated with "colours" atTonbridge; naturally he introduced them into Oundle. The distinguishingcolours worn for athletics were changed in 1876: School House adoptedred and black, Dryden light and dark blue, Laxton blue and black and theOppidans (dayboys) purple and white. Boys in the Modern School worethe colours of the house in which they boarded, or of the Oppidans. Thesurviving photographs of XVs and XIs and house groups suggest that thepractice, by the date reached, had developed as follows. For Rugby foot-ball, the First XV wore a blue jersey with the Grocers' shield and whitetrousers (shorts were unknown) with dark stockings pulled up over them,and a black velvet fez with a white silk tassel and crest. (One Old Boyrecalls his housemaster's wife making his for him.) The Second XV worea School shield on their house jersey, and the Third XV a white shield with ared St. George's cross. Apparently the house XVs wore a woollen jerseyof coloured and black horizontal stripes and, later, similar rings on theirstockings. For cricket the XI wore a four-buttoned blue flannel coat, withthe Grocers' shield not centrally placed on the breast pocket, and a blue capwith crest. School House boys wore a black and red vertically striped flan-nel coat, with a cap of red and black rings with a crest, but, regrettably,caps seem to have been worn with the peak at the back, unless this was alocal "side rule" marking seniority. Laxton House boys wore a white andblue coat of rather narrower stripes and a cap, with or without a badge, of

9 Mr. Winch was one of the first to bowl fast overhand: Reade bowled round-hand under theshoulder, and his lobs were very puzzling.

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Photograph by G. Priestnum

THE REV. H. ST. JOHN READE, HEADMASTER 1876-1883.

This unsigned portrait has been on loan to the School and now hangs in one of the classrooms ofthe Great Hall block.

Plate 27

Photograph by K. Dtghton, CMtrnha.

THE REV. T. C. FRY, HEADMASTER 1883-1884, AND MRS. FRY

This photograph was taken immediately before they left Cheltenham.

By courtesy of Miss K. Haslam, Ambleside.

Plate 28


alternate sectors of blue and white: Dry den boys were similarly attired intheir own colours. The word "blazer" was, of course, unknown: the onlyflannel coat to survive Reade's successor's condemnation (on 20 June 1884)of this "perfectly needless expense" was that of the School Eleven, whichhas been subsequently modified. There was no uniform costume for usein School—small boys still wore knickerbockers. Straw hats with diagonalbands of black and colour were worn, again without the bow beinguniformly on the left.

Mr. J. S. Gwilt's plans for the Thirty Acre were for a road runningnorth from the corner of Milton Road to a sanatorium at the top of theslope, with a levelled cricket ground on the left and a ground for footballon the right: for the headmaster's house to be on the left at the bottom(leaving the quarry unfilled) and the second master's on the right. Aboutthirteen acres would be available for games, and there would be room fora dozen smaller houses, if needed: but much draining and levelling would berequired. The Court of 22 June 1881 decided to construct the road and inthe autumn to plant trees on either side. The road was to be 25 feet widefor the first 87 yards and then 15 feet wide for the next 234 yards: a sewerwould have to be dug down Milton Lane. The old North Back Way andMilton Lane are now called Milton Road.

In July 1881 there were more boys in the two Schools than the numberon which capitation fees were paid: at the Classical School there were ahundred and seventy-two with forty of them in School House, fifty inLaxton and forty-two boarding in Dryden, and at the Modern Schoolthirty-eight —a total of two hundred and ten. Naturally Reade asked for, andreceived, a larger sum for prizes, but when he suggested that capitation feesshould be paid on two hundred and fifty instead of two hundred, the matterwas referred to the Oundle Committee. The Oxford and CambridgeBoard examiners awarded the Junior Scholarship to R. A. Streatfeild andrecommended H. D. Leigh for the exhibition. Speech Day was 26 July; theMarquess of Huntly was expected to give away the prizes, and somemembers of Court hoped to be present "not officially": but when Govern-ment business prevented the Marquess from coming, the Master of the Com-

H.O.S.—14 417


pany, Mr. E. T. Helme, agreed to go as chairman, and he requested othermembers of the Court to accompany him. Thus, to Reade's delight, afterso long an interval, the Master and Wardens of the Grocers wore their robesonce again in Oundle. That day was, perhaps, the highest point of Reade'ssuccess: the new buildings were going up and he and his staff knew theywere doing good work, with their boys, past and present, winning a repu-tation for the School.

Two songs and a recitation of part of a Macaulay speech by H. D.Leigh were all the entertainment: the establishment of the Christmastheatricals had brought about the discontinuation of acting on Speech Day,and it was "no longer thought necessary to prove to our visitors that Frenchand German are as unintelligible as Latin and Greek". The Master's speechdeclared the Company's full confidence in the present management of theSchool and its determination to maintain and increase its prosperity. Per-haps not all the Court agreed with the Master's declaration.

The leases of Albion House and of Folkestone Cottages were extendedto Michaelmas 1883. The machinery for the extension of the scholarshipsfor sons of Freemen was overhauled in the sense desired by Reade, andH. D. Leigh received a grant in addition to his exhibition to ensure him ̂ i 80a year at Oxford, also at Reade's request. But there were doubts aboutsome of the charges made by housemasters, which came up when theprospectuses and the circular for the Freemen were revised. There was thecharge often guineas a year for sharing a study, and a charge for meat forbreakfast: these, rather than the extras for German and Drawing, were notwholly approved. The numbers, too, of boarders were in excess of accom-modation in the three houses owned by the Company: both Mr. Hanselland Mr. Joel had rented annexes, not always adjoining their premises.Then, in December 1881, a notice was issued that Mr. Winch, havingmarried, would open a new house in January 1882. A few boys from SchoolHouse went with him as a nucleus, and Mr. Llewellyn R. Jones, the Cam-bridge rowing and running blue from Jesus College, succeeded him asReade's deputy in School House. "Mr. Jones is a man of the right sort",wrote Reade, with admirable judgment: the next third of a century was to

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prove him right. In November 1881 Reade asked for the levelling of anadditional acre south of the cricket pitch on the Thirty Acre, but the deci-sion was in favour of a gradual slope. In the Michaelmas term accountswas an item not sanctioned by the Court: "improved double doors tolarge School room to exclude cold in winter (Prentice) ^9-5-8." Askedfor an explanation, Reade replied that he always took on himself to provideabsolute necessities for the boys at moderate cost: this answer did not im-prove matters. The benefit of the double doors was doubtless felt during thetheatricals on 19 December 1881, when "ye Undell Schule Clubbe ofLetters and Mimickrie" (to quote the programme) presented Colman'sPoor Gentleman with a cast of fifteen, before eight sets of scenery mostlyof Mr. Caparn's painting. The solo-singing competition and concert camenext day.

Early in January 1882 the Oundle Committee, which was examiningwhat would nowadays be called the wages structure of the industry, wasplanning a readjustment of the terms on which the Company supportedthe School: the question of raising the tuition fees was also in the air. Thepayment of capitation fees to the headmaster for him to apply the moneyto salaries and various expenses seemed to confer a proprietary interest onthe headmaster: the committee therefore proposed a new permanentscheme, which abolished capitation fees altogether, and under which theCompany would fix and pay the salaries of the headmaster, second masterand all assistant masters other than housemasters: the last would be whollyor mainly remunerated out of the profits on their boarding-houses: theCourt would fix the boarding-fees, and would allow the headmaster toreceive, in addition to his fixed salary, a tuition fee from every boy inthe School. Such a scheme, of course, involved the keeping and auditingof full accounts. Reade discussed this proposal with the committee on27 January 1882, and on 8 February he sent a long letter on the matters underdiscussion, in the course of which he wrote: "The Headmaster of a schoollike this ought to have a good income secured to him. If he proves unworthyof it, he must go. But up to a certain amount he ought not to be worriedby fluctuations." He hoped to stay in Oundle for ten or twelve years: he

419


had come without ready money; indeed, had been grateful for the loanfrom the Company, having only his furniture and a small private income:all he had inherited (except the land) on his father's recent death had goneto clear his bank account: he had not been feathering his nest—his realreward lay in the growth of the School and his busy life in Oundle, happyin the belief that the Court approved his proceedings. As his profits weresmall owing to his arrangements for the payment of the other masters andthe fact that the School House held fewer than forty boys, he would welcomethe payment of salaries direct by the Court after Easter. The existing staffof nine in the Classical School and two in the Modern School (apart fromteachers of Music and Art) was adequate. There was difficulty in gettingparents to pay the extra sum for studies, which often had to be allowed to theboys free of charge, although the expenses on fires, light and service wenton just the same: he proposed that after September the boarding-fee shouldbe ^54 and the tuition fee fy in the Classical School: but when the newhouse for the headmaster was built, the boys in School House might beexpected to pay more. Houses should be uniformly forty-five in numbers.If the existing School House were retained, the six rooms in the ChurchLane cottages should be converted into studies—indeed, he seems alreadyso to have been using them—an improvement as necessary as the lavatoryhe had put in at his own expense. He made certain additional suggestions,which show his mind working: seven of his staff lived in hired houses; inview of the housing shortage (every vacant house in Oundle was immedi-ately snapped up), what would happen if their rents were extortionatelyraised? The rooms on the east of Laxton House, then in use as a parishdispensary, should be added to the House. A permanent stage was neededin the large Schoolroom which was used for "Assembly". There was anurgent need for a proper sanatorium: equally urgent was the provision of alaboratory and a room for model machinery. As the Rugby football groundwas liable to flood, he hoped that an almost flat area on Sharman's landwould be available by November.

It cannot have been generally known in Oundle that discussions weretaking place, and the Oundle Committee did not discuss the plans in public:

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Reade, who might have been expected to maintain a similar security silence,indubitably felt it his duty to warn town parents, intending to send theirsons to the Classical School, that the raising of the tuition fees (which aloneconcerned them) was a possibility: he may even more definitely have saidthat he intended to raise them: and the word went round the town. Butbefore the inevitable storm burst about his head, Reade received on 3 March1882 a letter from the clerk of the Company asking for his approval of thesuggestion that an accountant should come to Oundle and, with the assis-tance of himself and his housemasters, prepare a detailed account of theincome and expenditure of the School. Without waiting a day to calmhimself, Reade replied by return of post opposing "this inquisitorial investi-gation", even if its object were to repay him for being out of pocket. "Wehave received what we were entitled to receive: and how we have spentour incomes is our private affair." The accountant should be referred to thestatements already forwarded to the Court: there was no controversy overthe past; and as to the future, if the Court were to pay the staff direct, thecase of each master must be taken separately. The profits on forty to forty-five boys paying ^50 a year might make an income of £600 a year. Forhimself he expected a total income of ^1200 a year: "till any change ismade, I remain satisfied with the terms I accepted and signed at my appoint-ment." (Did he clearly recall them at the moment? The Court had thepower to dismiss him at six months' notice without assigning a reason.)This hasty letter, written to business men of all people, was a lamentableblunder: but it should be remembered that Reade was wont to protestquite violently against any proposal he did not like at first sight, but, if itwere persisted in and passed to him as an order, he would carry it out incomplete loyalty to his Governors. The Grocers did not press their request,but drew their own conclusions from Reade's refusal to accept a profes-sional's assistance in preparing the accounts, which they deemed essential,if the new scheme was to be financially sound.

Ten days later the storm blew up."The Headmaster of the Oundle Grammar School having stated his

intention to raise the fees of the day pupils," a meeting for the purpose "of421


taking such steps as might be deemed necessary to prevent such an unjustproposal" was summoned in the Town Hall on Monday, 13 March 1882.Reade asked his dayboys to copy a letter to their parents requesting themto attend: he took with him to the meeting a dozen senior boys carefullywarned not to vote or take any part in the proceedings. In the absence ofMr. J. W. Smith, the chair was taken by Mr. George Siddons: but, beforethe meeting began, Mr. Bullivant objected to the presence of the school-boys. Reade said that they too were interested in the School, but, on Mr.Bullivant's declaration that, if they stayed, he went, he sent them away,remarking that he had merely invited them to listen and see how publicbusiness was transacted. Mr. Deacon asked if the Grocers' Company hadapproved the increase, and Reade replied that the Company had expressedno opinion on the subject. "I don't see why we want to stop here anylonger," said Mr. Deacon, but Mr. Thomas Willson insisted on proposinghis motion "that the headmaster of the Free Grammar School at Oundle,founded by Sir William Laxton, Knight and Alderman of the City ofLondon, having stated his intention to raise the school fees for the day-scholars from two guineas to nine guineas per annum, this meeting resolvesthat immediate steps be taken to represent to the Worshipful Companyof Grocers the great injustice which such a proceeding would 'thus inflictupon the inhabitants of the town of Oundle". Reade, objecting to thepreamble, said it would be more correct to say "The headmaster havingsubmitted to the Grocers' Company a proposal to raise the fees . . ." Mr.Creeser, a churchwarden, having inquired if the Modern School wasaffected, Mr. Willson retorted that the motion referred to the Free GrammarSchool. Mr. Deacon having seconded the motion, Mr. Willson refused toaccept Reade's amendment. Reade was allowed to explain the situation,which he did ably and good-temperedly: his points were that the averagecost of education at Classical schools in England was ^15, and sooner orlater the fees at the Oundle Classical School would have to go up: that inBedford, at the Classical School, there were three hundred and eighty boyspaying from £9 to ̂ 13 and in the Modern School four hundred and ninepaying £6 or ̂ 4; obviously, therefore, the increase in fees did not adversely

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affect the numbers. He made it plain that the figure of fy, with reductionsfor brothers, was a tentative figure, whether first put forward by himselfor the Grocers' Company's Oundle Committee: as it applied only to theClassical School, only twenty of the sixty Oundle boys would be affected.Dr. Calcott, an old partisan of the 1843 litigation, remarking that "Tibbittshad continued to bark after he had lost his bite", recalled ancient historyand claimed that there was an agreement, although no pledge was given,that the School fees should not exceed two guineas. Objecting to a remarkof Reade's that he wished to raise the tone of the Classical School, hedeclared that "it had always been high-class and had secured high honoursin excess of Harrow, Eton and Rugby". He said it was undesirable for themanagement of the School to get into Government hands, for the townhad the Grocers' Company in their hands—an expression deprecated by thechairman. More bitter still than the doctor was Mr. Willson, but he pre-tended to be attacking not the Company but the Headmaster. The chairmanasking if any gentleman wished to move an amendment, Reade rose, onlyto be told that he was the only person present incapable of doing so: hetherefore begged some gentleman to move his amendment "in the interestsof truth". At this the doctor protested, but the curate, the Rev. P. Schole-field, attempted to move the amendment and (surely inconsistently) wastold he could not, as he was not a ratepayer! The Rev. S. G. Joel of DrydenHouse, unquestionably a ratepayer and an inhabitant of Oundle, proposedhis Headmaster's wording for the preamble: and Mr. R. P. Breretonseconded "in the interests of truth": but only six voted for it. The un-amended motion was then carried by a "large majority of the principalratepayers and inhabitants of Oundle". Mr. Willson then moved "That theRev. C. Hopkins, J. W. Smith Esq., G. M. Edmonds Esq., Messrs. Bulli-vant, H. E. Roper, Thomas Willson and W. Richardson, with power toadd to this number, be requested to draw up a petition embodying theabove resolution and that they apply to the Grocers' Company to receivea deputation to present the same at their next meeting". This was carriedand the meeting broke up: the account of it fills four and a half columnsof the Peterborough and Hunts Standard, and is really well done.

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The memorial, prepared in due course and signed by one hundred and

twenty-nine inhabitants of Oundle, tacitly accepted Reade's amendment,

for it runs as follows:

Sheweth That your memorialists are informed by the Headmaster of the OundleGrammar School that a suggestion has been made by him to your WorshipfulCompany, and which suggestion he has intimated to parents applying for theadmission of their boys would probably be carried out, that the fees to be paid infuture for tuition in the Classical School by those admitted in and after September1881 should be raised as under, viz., for each day scholar from £2.2.0 to .£9, butif more than one from the same family, .£6 for the second and .£3 for the third:

That the arrangement made many years ago that a tuition fee of fji .2.0should be charged for each day scholar has been ever valued by your memorialistsas a great boon to them and an equitable manner of carrying out the intentions ofthe founder:

That in the event of any improvements being carried out in the School suchas your memorialists observe widi satisfaction have already taken place and of anyadditional advantages to be thereby given, your memorialists respectfully urge theirequal interests in these improvements as in the original foundation:

That the proposed increase of fees would press heavily upon many of yourmemorialists and greatly lessen the benefits intended to be conferred upon them bythe endowment:

Your memorialists would therefore respectfully express their hope that your"Worshipful Company will not entertain the suggestion, but, having regard to thebenevolent intention of the founder, you will allow the scale of fees to remain as atpresent so that the same advantages and benefits may be secured to your memorialistswhich they have hitherto enjoyed.

Two days after the meeting in the Town Hall, Reade called one in the

Schoolroom: it was attended by eight members of his staff and ten others,

including Mr. J. W. Smith (who remained unconvinced), Mr. G. M.

Edmonds and Mr. R. B. Pooley. But a sort of whispering campaign was

going on in the town: rumours spread that the Headmaster was making

money out of the School and out of his housemasters—he was certainly

living in some style in a large house and taking his place in county society.

Another complaint was that the town derived no benefit from the separation

of the Schools and that Reade neglected the Modern School entirely: but

perhaps the unkindest suggestion ran that he was spending money outside

the town instead of dealing with local retailers. On hearing these rumours

Reade issued a handbill, which Mr. Willson indignantly sent to Grocers'

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Hall along with the newspaper account of the Town Hall meeting and therequest for a deputation to be received. This much-criticised documentran:

Inhabitants ofOundle

How long will you listen to false Reports ?During the year 1881, I myself paid to the Tradesmen ofOundle .£4030.6.11

and to tradesmen elsewhere only ^51.14. i while the other Masters have spent notless in Oundle than another .£4000.

Is it reasonable to be angry because we do not spend all our money in Oundle >Have I not managed the School tolerably well so far for you and your sons ?N.B. We cannot have everything we want in this life.Is it not possible that I may be right now >I can guarantee good education for the Boys of Oundle, and this large custom

for the trade of Oundle, if my plans are adopted.What can anyone else guarantee ?I do not expect you to change your minds very quickly about the Fees: but I do

expect you to treat me courteously as one who has always tried to do his best forOundle Boys' education and Oundle tradesmen's prosperity.

H. St John Reade, M.A.Head Master of the Grammar School.

This was issued before 22 March: the Peterborough and Hunts Standard of25 March naturally reprinted it.

Mr. J. H. Warner told the Court of 22 March that he had replied to aletter from the vicar of Oundle, and had allowed him to read his answer ata meeting on 20 March. Although the Court approved of the answer, it wasruled that in future all letters to individual members should be referred tothe Court. The Oundle Committee was ordered to report on Mr. Willson'sletter, the Press-cuttings and Reade's handbill, and to receive the deputa-tion : Reade was told of this order. The same Court decided to acceptMr. Thomas Beal's offer to sell his copyhold premises lying to the southof the Three Tuns for ^350 (according to Mr. J. S. Gwilt, its freeholdvalue), feeling it advisable to secure the site, as the master of the ModernSchool had nowhere to live and building there might be possible: it alsohad before it the accounts for the Lent term, showing one hundred andsixty-two boys in the Classical School and forty-two in the Modern (buttwo were absent), a total of two hundred and two. Before the deputation

H.O.S.—14* 425


was received, Reade reported not merely that H. F. M. Simpson had beenplaced thirteenth in the First Class of the Classical Tripos and H. Biddell inthe Second Class, but also that scholarships had been won by five boys inthe School, all in Classics—F. Hemingway and A. M. Sutthery at JesusCollege, Cambridge, E. O'Connor at Lincoln College, Oxford, C. E. Dyerat Caius College, Cambridge, and C. S. H. Brereton at Queens' College,Cambridge: the last two had declined their awards as being too young toleave school. The clerk was directed to acquaint Reade with the Court'sgratification at these successes.

The Oundle Committee, with Mr. Steinmetz, received the deputationfrom Oundle (to which Mr. George Siddons had been added) on 21 April1882. The members had brought suggestions in writing, but first they madetheir verbal complaints: they resented Reade's conduct at the meetingon 13 March, his neglect of the Modern School (which was only a gradebetter than the National School and did not represent the Laxton founda-tion), the invidious social distinction between the two Schools (Reade wassuspected of trying to force all town boys into the Modern School) and adeficient system of religious instruction, especially in the Classical School.They urged that, in spite of the legal decision of 1843, the School andalmshouses with all the revenue from the Laxton estates were their birth-right as inhabitants of Oundle. After that they came to their nominalbusiness, the question of fees. Their written suggestions were four: thetuition fee in the Classical School should go up to five guineas for all, buttwo more yearly leaving scholarships for four years (one each year beingear-marked for a boy resident in Oundle) should be given for Law,Medicine or for a course at a University; the tuition fee in the ModernSchool should remain at two guineas for all scholars, but the master andhis staff should be graduates and the senior master should take boardersin a house provided for the purpose; that four boys from the Modern Schoolshould each year be given scholarships entitling them to three years' freetuition in the Classical School (sons of Oundle residents having first claim);and that there should be an annual scholarship for an Oundle boy to boardin the house of the Modern master for three years with free tuition.

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(Against an uncertain increase from fees and apart from the capital outlayon a Modern boarding-house, this appears to ask for another /^looo a yearto be spent for the sole benefit of the town.) The Grocers' committeeconsidered these points in private: and then rejoined the deputation toreply that the future of the Schools and the payment of masters' salarieswere under discussion; that they desired the Modern School to be madeefficient, the social distinction being left to the boys themselves; that tosecure the success of the Classical School, tuition fees of fy ought to berequired of dayboys; that it was always intended to assist boys by exhibi-tions, after an examination in each case, to pass from the Modern into theClassical School; that the tuition fees in the Modern School would not beraised for Oundle boys above two guineas a year. Then, inviting discus-sion, they said that, although they thought it for the benefit of the town tohave two schools, they were prepared to consider a single Second-gradeschool should the deputation desire it. The vicar, deprecating a singleSecond-grade school, explained that the grievance was that there were nospecial privileges given to boys native or resident in Oundle; there wereonly twelve Oundle boys in the Classical School, which some members ofthe deputation considered to be of little advantage to the town; theydesired some special pecuniary advantage for the townspeople—anyprofits from increased fees should go to the benefit of the town and notinto the masters' pockets nor to the Company!

Mr. Thomas Willson was then "reproved in terms of just indignation"for some remarks of his on 13 March contained in the Press-cutting he hadhimself sent to the Governing Body. He was reported thus: "As to its(the School) coming into the hands of government, without speakingpolitically (a laugh) I believe it was entirely owing to a change of govern-ment that they (the Grocers) began to build. They were frightenedbecause the Commission was sitting. The Grocers' Company thirty yearsago had ;£700,000 of our money. What must they have now?" The facts,he was told, were that under Laxton's will the Company then had an in-come of about ^4000 a year: on the Schools and the almsmen about^3200 was spent annually: interest at 3 per cent on their heavy capital

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outlay equalised income and expenditure. Mr. Willson, without dissentfrom the others, changed the subject by alleging that Reade received, inaddition to the capitation fee, a sum of five guineas a year from the house-masters in respect of each boarder. The deputation, having fired thatParthian shot, withdrew.

Reade answered an inquiry from Grocers' Hall about this allegationwith a complete denial, which the housemasters were ready to support.He said he did not wish to know where this calumny started, it must havesprung from a confusion with the capitation fees: "though there are manyblockheads about, I am not aware that I have any enemies." He went on tocomment on the vicar's known views: if it was now desirable that the staffof the Modern School should be graduates (and certainly they would bewhen Mr. Sutton left and young Mr. Spicer was replaced), it was becausethese two had made the positions of senior and assistant master worthy ofacceptance by men of higher educational qualifications and of riper years:the return to the old Schoolroom would give increased dignity to theModern School, and its success would be assured if the scheme for higherfees in the Classical School went through: the numbers and social status ofnew boys in the Modern School were most satisfactory, and parents weredelighted—there was no dissatisfaction among parents who had boys toeducate. Finally, Reade urged caution in building a boarding-house forthe Modern School: it would be easier to build than to fill it.

The new buildings were passed by the Grocers' surveyor, and on3 May Mr. Gwilt's estimates for the fittings to meet Reade's expressed wisheswere before the Court (^1000 in pitch-pine or ^1250 in oak) but werereferred to the Oundle Committee. Their report on the Headmaster'sactions and on the future of the School or Schools was laid before theCourt of 7 June 1882; after discussion a special Court was summoned for14 June. In ignorance of the way in which opinion had hardened againsthim at Grocers' Hall, Reade, between these two Courts, wrote to suggestthat the official opening of the new buildings might be combined with thedistribution of prizes by the Master on 25 July. The clerk was instructed toinform Reade that the Master would be unable to attend the prize distribu-

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tion and that the Court had decided to postpone the opening of the newbuildings.

The report assigned, as the immediate cause of the indignation in Oundle,Reade's statement of his intention to raise the fees for the dayboys in theClassical School. He had no authority whatever to make such a statement:the Committee had not considered the matter, though it had been talkedabout in January. (This is a nice distinction: but even if Reade had spokenof his intention, he had at least made it plain that the last word rested with theGoverning Body.) If the raising of the fees had been "put out as part of ageneral scheme of reorganisation, the opposition would not have been soacrimonious". It was a further error to take boys to the meeting, and theexcuse offered made things no better. Nothing could have been in worsetaste or more unworthy of the headmaster of a public school than the hand-bill. "Putting together the general feeling current at Oundle respecting theModern School, Mr. Reade's opposition to the proposed enquiry into thefinancial working of the school (which shows, at least, an unreasonabledistrust of the governing body), and the grave indiscretions which he hasrecently committed at Oundle, it seems to your Committee that the timehas arrived when the Court must seriously consider whether they can anylonger, injustice to the School, continue their confidence in Mr. Reade."The report discounted Mr. Willson's unfair charges, which had, indeed,tended rather to make the committee sympathise with Reade. The state ofopinion in Oundle was analysed: there was, in addition to a very strongpersonal opposition to Reade, much ill feeling towards the Company, "anunworthy return for their good and liberal intentions towards the Town":to the townsmen the success of the Classical School was a matter of in-difference compared with a good and almost free education for their sons,for Oundle demanded that all town boys equally should derive a directpecuniary benefit from Laxton's foundation, no distinction being made inrespect either of the parent's position or the boy's ability. (Mr. J. W. Smithhad said that he did not see why the clever Oundle boys should go by ex-hibitions from the Modern to the Classical School and the rest be leftbehind as less able.) In these circumstances, to make the Classical School

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exclusive by a high tuition fee would add to the discontent in the town,where many looked on the Classical School as their sons' birthright: butto throw the School open to town boys by a low tuition fee would keepaway the better class of boarders and lower the tone of the School. Thecommittee had accordingly drafted two schemes, the one providing fortwo schools and the other for a single school, to be achieved by allowing theClassical School gradually to disappear. On the former there would be aFirst-grade Classical School, maintained by the Company on their ownland and out of their corporate funds, known as the Grocers' Company'sSchool at Oundle, using the new buildings but independent of the Laxtonfoundation, with a tuition fee of fifteen guineas a year, reduced for theOundle-born to nine guineas with further reductions for brothers: andalongside it a Middle-class Modern School, regarded as the foundation ofSir William Laxton, using the old buildings with the addition of DrydenHouse should the other School thrive, with a tuition fee of six guineas ayear, reduced to two guineas for the Oundle-born. On the latter schemethere would be a Middle-class boarding School, called Sir William Laxton'sGrammar School, using all existing buildings, with an inclusive tuition andboarding fee of ̂ 35 to ^45 a year and eight guineas extras.

This report was discussed on 7 June and at a special Court on 14 June:it will not escape notice that Reade was not summoned and heardby either committee or Court. After the resumed discussion on 14 June,twenty-one members of Court being present, it was moved, seconded andcarried unanimously "that it is desirable in the interest of Oundle Schoolthat Mr. Reade be called upon to resign the Head Mastership of thatSchool and that it be referred to the Committee to carry out this resolu-tion". Reade was not dismissed, he was asked to resign. If he had beendismissed, he would have had to go at six months' notice and no cause needhave been stated. As it was, there was no intention of indicating thereasons for requesting his resignation.

The Court did not vote in favour of either scheme drafted by thecommittee: but opinion seemed to swing in favour of a single school. TheClassical School did no honour to Sir William Laxton as it belonged solely

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to the Company, it was argued, and the Court would be spared muchtrouble in future by adopting a scheme for a single school. Finally, thematter was referred back to the committee, with instructions to considersome suggestions put forward by Mr. J. H. Warner. It can hardly be anaccident that these represent a return to the report of 1875, for a singleschool (Sir William Laxton's School) with both Classical and ModernSides: tuition fees for Oundle boys to be two guineas, but more for others:boarding-houses to be on such a scale as Dryden and Laxton then were andnot higher, intended especially for the sons of needy professional men,with limited charges: "if the School is to be called a First Grade School, itis to be distinctly understood that this does not mean competition withschools of a grade like Uppingham or higher, or any attempt at a scale ofeducation or system of management inconsistent with the participation ofTown boys paying so low a fee as two guineas a year or likely to treat suchboys unfairly."

If that represented Mr. J. H. Warner's aim, it certainly did not representReade's. But it is clear that if Reade knew what he wanted to make of theSchool at Oundle, his Governing Body did not know their own minds. Ifthere is any moral to be drawn from this tragic affair, it is this: a headmastermust retain the confidence of his governors by carrying them with him sothat both parties have the same hopes and aspirations. When Mr. A. F.Leach, writing in 1906 in the Victoria County History of Northamptonshire,Vol. II, pp. 260-1, attempted to explain that "in September 1876, theGrocers' Company, largely under the influence of Sir Joseph Warner, . . .made a new scheme for themselves", he is wide of the mark. (He, inciden-tally, spells the headmaster's name Read.) The fact that the existence of theOundle Schools, at the time of writing, is due to Reade's work must bethe justification for the length and detail of this chapter devoted to his time.

Reade was for seven years the guiding spirit of Oundle School: hispersonality was the secret of what success he had: his assistant masters feltthis and knew him to be a fine scholar, and good with parents and boys alike.For a school of the type he had in mind, numbers were essential, and he sethimself to fill the School (even at the cost of accepting reduced fees, as it


transpired) knowing that there would be enough good material availableto secure the honours which advertise a school: but, Mr. Brereton commen-ted later, he was in too great a hurry—the School increased beyond theavailable boarding accommodation: and the results of boarding out weredisastrous in some cases. Mr. H. D. Leigh, perhaps the most distinguishedof his pupils, wrote long after his old headmaster's death: "Reade's aimwas to create not a system, but a spirit and a character. The unique charac-teristic of Oundle was its happy life, the pleasant relations of teacher andtaught, and comparative freedom. This idea could only be carried out byits author and even in his hands its defects soon became apparent. It dependstoo much on the personality of a man and the co-operation of the boys.A certain laxity of discipline produced an effect. . . ." That laxity has beensaid to have been the reason for asking for Reade's resignation, but thereis not a word about it in the records until afterwards. As an example of thefreedom referred to, it may serve to mention that rooms were rented fromMr. Sherard opposite the Talbot for the senior boys to use as a referencelibrary and quiet room. H. D. Leigh and W. Hemingway concocted therea letter to the Standard signed "Head Boy" suggesting that, as die Head-masters' Conference had proved beneficial, so also a Head Boys' Confer-ence might be useful: the Standard of Saturday, 27 December 1879, pub-lished it and gave it a leading article. How the public received it will neverbe known, for Monday's papers were full of the Tay Bridge Disaster,which drove all thoughts of anything else from the public mind.

In what terms it was intimated to Reade that he must resign remainsunknown. His reply, dated 19 June, a long letter of eight foolscap sheets,shows a surprise that is manifestly genuine—he had no suspicion that hewas out of favour. In trying to account for it, he could only think the Courthad been offended by the tone of his letters, or by his refusal of theauditor—but had the Court insisted on it, he would have obeyed loyally.Of the four reasons for dismissing a headmaster—immorality, dishonesty,incompetence and disagreeableness—he concluded that in his case it mustbe the last. His temporary unpopularity in the town did not hurt the School:as Welldon had found at Tonbridge, and Thring at Uppingham. He had

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gone to that unlucky meeting to explain that the Company's authority,under Parliament, was supreme and that, if fees were raised, it would be awise use of that authority. It would be a perpetual disgrace to be forced toresign: a headmaster of Pels ted opposed his governors, was dismissed andhad to remain unemployed. Reade asked the Court either to reconsider andwithdraw the demand for his resignation, or to allow him to resign at July1883, thus saving appearances, and delay the announcement till Easter. TheCourt on 21 June regretted that their determination could not be altered:they were anxious as far as possible to meet his views and to make the changeas little painful to him as might be: they would accept his resignation (tobe sent in forthwith) in strict privacy, to take effect in July 1883 and not tobe made known before Easter next. The opening of the new buildingswould depend upon the arrangements finally made for the future of theSchool. On 22 June Reade wrote the desired formal letter of resignation:it was read at the Court of 5 July. Only those who have had a similarexperience can imagine Reade's agony until the announcement was made:he had no peace of mind and no one with whom to discuss things: thereis no wonder that he often changed his mind: he found the Court ready toagree to an earlier departure, not to a further postponement.

In the summer term of 1882 there were one hundred and seventy-one(one hundred and thirty-four of them boarders) in the Classical School andforty-six in the Modern School, a total of two hundred and seventeen.When the examination was over, the report (which happened to be a goodone) went to Grocers' Hall before Reade saw it: C. Nash, a boy whoseSons of Freemen Scholarship had been extended at Reade's request, wasawarded the Junior Scholarship: S. Crawley received the ^20 prize andF. Hemingway and E. O'Connor tied for the Leaving Exhibition—theGrocers later gave each the full amount. Speech Day followed, with thevicar of Oundle in the chair—"all present were highly gratified to see thevicar in the chair", says the School magazine: perhaps Reade had forgivenhim for heading the deputation—and with a brilliant list of scholasticsuccesses. It moved Reade to write a letter to the Company in which heexpressed the hope that his system might last till he left, even if the

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examiners said again that Oundle Mathematics did not come up to OundleClassics. The Laxtonian of July 1882 began: "Before the next number...appears we hope to have taken possession of the Class-Rooms in our NewBuildings."

The Oundle Committee's report on the single-school scheme was pre-sented on 5 July and again considered on 2 August: the plan was to giveuniform instruction in the lower part, with parallel courses either Commercialor Classical and Mathematical in the upper, with a boarding-fee not above£60 all told, of which £10 was to go to the School Fund: this was approvedand the committee was instructed to continue planning, but Mr. W. T.Steinmetz's dissentient view was recorded "that the whole matter be againreferred to the Oundle Committee requesting them to propose a schemein which the Oundle boys shall be fully protected and the Head Master'sinterest in them provided for by a liberal capitation fee with each Lax-ton boy, also to relieve the Company from all cost and responsibilitywith regard to boarders and boarding houses". But the days of Dr. Stans-bury were beyond recall. The new Oundle Committee was electedon i November.

As Reade had taken Cobthorne on lease for himself, he was at one timethinking of staying there, but the obvious objection to his remaining inOundle was too strong: the family house at Ipsden was there, a house forReade to occupy. When it became clear that the new buildings would notbe in use while he remained, he realised that the delay in opening them wascausing much scandal in Oundle and that an announcement of his resigna-tion would allow everyone to see a reason for postponement. But it wasgalling not to have a key of the buildings: every time he wished to showparents over them, the clerk of the works had to be approached—between10 a.m. and 4 p.m. To this day the tale told in Oundle to explain the delay isthat the Company refused to pay the Peterborough builder's bills in fulland that he retaliated by refusing to give the Company the key! Yet moregalling was ignorance of the reasons for which the Company had called forhis resignation.

Reade found some relief in work and in making arrangements:

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Albion House was not to be continued on lease after July 1883, nor bought,but the lease for Folkestone Cottages was to be renewed,10 the vicar's roomsin the Workmen's Club were to be retained and Mr. Sherard's two rooms(the rent of which was paid by the profits on the boys' book bills) likewise:even so, the dining-rooms and day rooms in Dryden and School Housewere in use as form-rooms, for the numbers at Christmas 1882 were onehundred and seventy-one in the Classical and thirty-six in the ModernSchool. In the houses there were thirty-nine boarders in School Houseunder Mr. Jones, forty-two in Laxton under Mr. Hansell, thirty-nine inDryden under Mr. Joel and fourteen in Sidney under Mr. Winch: therewere thirty-seven dayboys. The Christmas entertainment on 18 December(and repeated next day) was in two parts: the first consisted of scenes fromKing John and King Richard HI acted by Stephen Phillips and his brother,the second of an original farce in four scenes, the work of Reade himself.Did he recall that in his Haileybury days he had written plays for his boysto produce with a few dormitory chairs and a table? Mr. Caparn againpainted the scenery for Reade's last theatricals. But in the holidays Readewrote to the Master, on 12 January 1883, what he termed a last remon-strance out of love for the School; in this he asked again for the reasons."I have a modest opinion of myself and am astonished by my success here."He could only accuse himself of "hasty expressions in private letters to theCommittee or some injudiciousness at an unimportant public meeting"; orwas it "because I refused to allow a professional accountant to overhaul myexpenditure"? His plea for information to relieve his mind elicited merelythe reply that the Court in arriving at its decision had done so with regretbut under a full sense of its responsibility as the Governing Body of theSchool, and that the Court could not reopen the matter.

A month later, on 12 February 1883, the School (given a half-holiday),the staff and the parents were staggered by this circular: the Court of14 February expressed approval of its simple tone and form:

10 It was quite inadequate as a sanatorium to meet any epidemic such as the measles outbreak of1880, when almost the entire School House went sick: at the best it could take a few cases of fever.

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OUNDLE SCHOOL.

The Rev. H. St. John Reade has to announce to the Parents and Friends of hisPupils, that he has resigned his Head-Mastership, and will leave Oundle next July,at the end of the Summer Term.

He is pleased to record that during his seven years' tenure of office the number ofBoarders has risen from 40 to 160, and the School has been provided with handsomeclass-rooms and extensive premises worthy of its increased numbers and establishedreputation.

He regrets that he will so soon be leaving the boys entrusted to his charge; buthis own retirement does not involve that of his colleagues, and he begs of Parentsthat they will arrange to keep their sons at Oundle, and continue in every way theirsupport to the School.

Oundle. Feb. I2th. 1883.

The scholarship list at Cambridge was: A. M. Sutthery (improving ona previous award), the Senior Open Classical Scholarship at Jesus College;C. E. Dyer (who refused an Open Exhibition at Caius), the Second OpenClassical Scholarship at Jesus College; S. Phillips, an Open Classical Scholar-ship at Queens' College, and C. S. H. Brereton (who refused an award atQueens'), an Open Sizarship for Classics at St. John's College: R. A.Streatfeild was offered, and declined, the best Classical Scholarship atPembroke College—he was only sixteen.

On 21 February 1883 the Master of the Company (J. T. Miller) and theSecond Warden (J. A. Kingdon), with two members of Court (W. T.Steinmetz and J. H. Warner) and the clerk (W. Ruck), attended theLivery Companies Commissioners, and read a reasoned defence of theCompany against charges made by witnesses in earlier hearings: a weeklater Mr. J. H. Warner, supported by the clerk, answered some fourhundred questions11 with outstanding ability. Lord Langdale's Judgment of1843, as quoted in the sixth volume of Beavan's Law Reports, was relied onalso by Companies other than the Grocers, as establishing the full owner-ship of much alleged "trust property".

Meanwhile the Oundle Committee had again sounded local opinion,and discovered that, owing to the unwillingness of landowners to partwith land for building purposes, there was no prospect of any greatly in-creased number of new residents to take advantage of the educational

11 Questions Nos. 2184-2582.

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facilities about to be offered, to dayboys. The town boys in the ModernSchool numbered twenty-five, who were above National School level:another twenty-five of superior merit or social position were in theClassical School. The town, therefore, needed both Schools. Their reporton 9 April 1883 urged the retention of the two Schools and the rescindingof the Order of Court of 2 August 1882, which had been in favour of a singleschool. After discussion on 18 April 1883 the Court unanimously acceptedthe committee's recommendation, and then referred to it such outstandingpoints as the desirability of one headmaster for both Schools, the qualifica-tion for an "Oundle Boy" and the terms on which Oundleboys should passinto the Classical School. The committee reported in favour of one head-master and of retaining birth or five years' residence of parents as thequalification, and of a system of exhibitions for boys of merit. The Courtconsidered the report on 2 May, 9 May and n May: by this time thingswere far enough advanced for the advertisement to be inserted and "In-formation for Candidates" to be prepared. The committee, studying theimplications of the order of 18 April, came to the conclusion that the build-ing of a house for the headmaster and forty boarders was essential, andinstructed Mr. Gwilt to prepare plans for that, and also for the develop-ment of playing-fields and thinning of plantations. Acting at once on aninquiry by Reade about the future tenancy of Cobthorne, they secured alease of it from Mr. J. W. Smith on slightly more favourable terms. Thenew scheme was surprisingly like what was already in force: the age of theJunior Scholarship candidates was altered, and the fees were changed—inthe Second-grade School, to be known as Sir William Laxton's GrammarSchool, the tuition fees were to be two guineas for Oundle boys and sixguineas for others; in Oundle School, as the First-grade School was to beknown, the tuition fees for all alike were to be ^15 and the boarding-fees^65 a year instead of fifty-two guineas. Oundle School was to have bothClassical and Modern Sides, and as far as possible to be self-supporting.Any reduction for Oundle boys at the First-grade School was to await thenew headmaster's views: in fact the final scheme was not approved until.7 November. In June the Committee considered questions which applicants

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might be expected to ask about a School chapel and a new boarding-house for the headmaster: the parish church should be used, if possible,either at ordinary times or for separate services; if not, the Court wouldconsider building a chapel on Sharman's land: the headmaster's boarding-house was definitely to be built, but the idea of building other boarding-houses would also be entertained. For the financing of these projects it wassuggested that the net rent derived from Laxton's bequest in the yearbefore the purchase of Sharman's land should be capitalised at thirtyyears' purchase: from that sum the amounts spent at Oundle as capitalshould be deducted: the remainder should be regarded as the capital valueof the endowment: the interest on this capital calculated at 3 per centwould then be the maximum annual amount available for the Laxton alms-houses, the Laxton Grammar School and Oundle School: if a chapel orboarding-houses should be built, the Company would provide the capital,but charge the interest on it at 4 per cent against the School Fund.

After announcing his resignation Reade's troubles were by no meansover. Well-meaning parents of boys at Oundle School wrote letters to theNorthampton Herald suggesting a petition to ask him to withdraw it andstay on at Oundle. He could easily have lost his dignity and drawn awayboys—and masters—to create a new school elsewhere. In April the Courtinquired about a rumour, to which its attention had been called, that a boynamed Bayley had been either dismissed or flogged for having climbedthe spire of the parish church. Reade replied that the boy had not been dis-missed, but flogged for direct disobedience of rules, and for acting in de-fiance of a recent warning and in breach of his promise never again to makethe attempt, a former attempt having failed through fear of discovery byan assistant master.12 Half a century later, although the dangerous feat had

12 A newspaper cutting, 19 March 1883, is here reproduced, mistakes and all:"A Remarkable Feat. Yesterday a boarder named Bailey with the Rev. Mr. Joels, at the Oundle School,scaled the steeple of St. Peter's Church, and tied a piece of ribbon to the weather cock. The steeple,which is the highest in the county, is 196 feet high, and the crotchets are three feet apart. The daringyouth successfully descended. The scene was a very exciting one."

A boy at the School at the time reports that it was not a ribbon but a School cap; which wasafterwards found in a field two miles away! If the dating is accurate, the day chosen for the ascentwas Palm Sunday. The boy probably found the crockets more substantial than his fancies.

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been several times repeated, the story current in Oundle was that theclimber had received a guinea as well as a flogging: and that the climb wasa direct acceptance of a challenge to the youth of the day made by CaptainWebb in February 1877. It appears from an epigram in The Laxtonian ofMarch 1880 that the climbing had occurred then: but the truth of anypart of the story (other than this correspondence of 1883) cannot now beaffirmed.

His financial position also caused Reade anxiety; he was paying hisstaff a sum equal to the tuition fees and the capitation fees put together:when Mr. Winch's house reached twenty-five boarders, his salary woulddrop to ;£8o, leaving the /jioo required to pay Mr. Jones: in the meantimehe asked the Court to assist. The answer was that the Court would con-sider the refund when Reade retired, and also of the ^124 he had spent onconverting the Church Lane cottage into studies for the School House boys.Another trouble arose thus: he had recommended C. E. Dyer for a LathamExhibition to the Duke of Buccleuch, and Mr. H. J. Nicholl of BarnwellHospital had written announcing the probable discontinuance of theLatham Exhibition: but the Duke paid Dyer's exhibition out of his ownpocket. Shortly before that, the owners of a building in which he lodgedsome of the overflow from School House, "his cheap boys", required itfor their own purposes, and other arrangements had to be made. For thenumber of boarders was still going up and it was a problem to find roomfor them: in his last term there were forty-nine in School House and itsannexe, fifty-two in Laxton and its annexe, forty-two in Dryden and itsannexe and eighteen in Sidney and its annexe; a total of one hundredand sixty-one. There were also twenty-three dayboys in the School, andforty-four in the Modern School. The announced increase in the board-ing-fees caused Mr. Joel to inquire what to do about the boys in hishouse whose parents could not meet it: Reade asked the Court what adviceto give him, and learnt that Mr. Joel could please himself about takingthem at the old figure.

On 27 June 1883 the Committee submitted a short list of candidates forelection by the Court on 4 July: there was the headmaster of St. Edward's,

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Oxford; the chief master of the Modern Side at Malvern; the dean ofHertford College, Oxford; and assistant masters at Haileybury, Welling-ton, Cheltenham and Marlborough; they were all in orders or expectingto take them. The Rev. T. C. Fry of Cheltenham was elected by seventeenvotes to eleven cast for the Rev. H. Foster of Malvern. Before acceptingthe post, Fry paid a visit to Oundle on 7 July to interview Reade, and wasassured that all was well in the tone of the School. That very day, afterFry had gone, Mr. Brereton brought Reade information indicating thepresence of vice in one at least of the houses. On 9 July Reade wrote ahorrified letter detailing the discovery and the punishment of the half-dozen boys concerned: the Court approved his action in expelling two atonce and requesting the parents of others to remove them. This must havebeen a very bitter pill to swallow in his last weeks in Oundle, especially asone of the offenders was a lad of promise, who had recently won a scholar-ship at Cambridge. Reade was not himself a housemaster, but he did notshirk accepting responsibility: the lack of supervision, to which his succes-sor, who seems to have exaggerated the extent of the trouble, attributed it,was probably less to blame than the accommodation available for the boys,the annexes in which boys slept, or had studies, and so were much left totheir own devices. In a letter of 10 August, written after he had left, con-taining the phrase "Mysterious as my own dismissal is to myself", he said:"You engaged me to raise the number to 200 . . . I deeply regret that we[the housemasters who had made that possible] acted in such an indepen-dent way with regard to providing accommodation for the increased num-bers. But I venture to think that the Governors, having full informationof the increase and knowing that their own houses could not contain morethan half the present number of boarders, gave a virtual sanction to ourproceedings." In reply to this, on the motion of Mr. J. H. Warner, theCourt on 14 November 1883 voted a censure on Reade's action in takingsmall detached boarding-houses, as leading to the misconduct.

The July examination was conducted by an examiner appointed by theOxford and Cambridge Board, who, without visiting Oundle, did hiswork wholly by written papers. The Leaving Exhibition was awarded

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to A. M. Sutthery, and the Junior Scholarship to A. G.-Bostock. The reportregretted that the standard reached in Mathematics was not so high asmight fairly have been expected in so large and flourishing a school: "onthe other hand the Classical attainments of the boys are remarkably good;there is, perhaps, too great a bias to pure scholarship: but when that hasbeen said, there is room for little but praise." The School upon the wholewas pronounced to be in a highly efficient state, with a recommendationthat Mathematical studies should be held in higher estimation than seemedto be the case. This merely means that Mr. Brereton was a more successfulteacher than Mr. Cobbald and monopolised the better boys. As Reade wasconvinced of the value of a Classical education, he must have felt that thelast report had not condemned his work at Oundle.

He played cricket still. The summer concert came on July 10, andSpeech Day in Cobthorne garden to end the term; Reade himself took thechair and distributed the prizes. Many visitors and recent Old Boys werepresent to do honour to the retiring headmaster. At the conclusion of theprize-giving a series of presentations was made to Mr. and Mrs. Reade:for the staff, Mr. Brereton gave a gold watch-chain, a gun and a picture ofBiggin Lake by Mr. Caparn recently exhibited at the Royal Academy;for the Old Boys, the Rev. E. H. Puttock presented Mrs. Reade with agold bracelet and locket; A. J. Skinner, head boy of the Modern School,presented a silver inkstand; C. E. Dyer, head boy of the Classical School,and the other Cambridge Scholars presented an illuminated address withthe names of all the boys then in the School, and, in conjuction with theOld Boys, a convertible dining and billiard table. And then Reade madehis farewell speech. The local papers published a full account of a veryremarkable utterance, and before the report they printed a letter fromCanon Beresford, of Castor, regretting that no opportunity was given theparents to express their appreciation of all that the Headmaster had donefor the School.

The following 27 July Mr. Warden Kingdon and the clerk came toOundle to install Mr. Fry: they reported that the two men were on friendlyterms, that Reade's "retirement" had passed as such with compliments in

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the Press, and that Reade appeared to bear no ill-will, had surrendered keysand inventories, and had been given a cheque to cover his outlay on thecottage in Church Lane and Mr. Jones's salary. Reade had promised not tovisit Oundle for two years. He retired to Ipsden House under the Chilterns,from which he wrote a few letters to the Court, but he was not fated toenjoy a long period of leisure after his twenty years as a schoolmaster.Distressing and painful symptoms soon appeared: he went up to Londonto consult a specialist, who diagnosed cancer. A year and a day afterannouncing his resignation he died. He had just turned forty-four. TheLaxtonian printed an obituary notice and a poem by H. D. Leigh, bothtouching in their sincerity. A notice in the Guardian signed C. R. (probablythe Rev. Compton Reade, a first cousin of the late headmaster) attractedsome attention, as in the course of some inaccurate statistics there was areflection on the Company; but it pays an earnest tribute to Reade'sworth: "Those who knew him well will not easily forget his geniality,simplicity, and quick intelligence." There is a brass on the south side of thechancel arch in Ipsden church, which reads:

IN MEMORIAM

HENRY ST JOHN READE, M.A.

OF IPSDEN HOUSE

BORN JANRY 4™ 1840

DIED FEBRY 13™ 1884

THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED

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Reade and the Division of the School 1876-1883 Toundle-heritage.daisy.websds.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=... · CHAPTER XV Reade and the Division of the School 1876-1883 T HE