Master; but of his rights in that respect the present Warden knows nothing. It is one of the most interesting Foundation documents of the date in existence. It is not confined to a bare legal definition of the schoolmaster's salary and method of appointment, and the government of the school (which was vested in Mr. Thomas Rolleston of that ilk and his heirs male, together with the churchwardens), but also gives the Founder's views on school methods. For instance, he directs that the Master is to pay attention to and often ask where in men's judgment is the Grammar School of best repute for advancement of learning, what style of teaching and what authors it uses; and as far as he can to imitate those whom he understands by results are most proficient in teachings. Sound advice, not always followed! He is particularly careful that his School should use the Winchester prayers (preces), which are set down in a schedule. Among other nice directions is one that the Master is to look after the boys' manners and dress as well as learning, and particularly that "their bodies are free from worms and their clothes whole." The clever boys he is to press on, so that they may act as pupil teachers (paedagogos) to teach small boys who may be brought to him the alphabet and first rudiments. He is to take particular care of the clever boys, while the stupid, the lazy, and those in human judgment incapable of learning he is to sharpen as far as he can by reading, writing, and casting accounts, lest they should seem to have come to this our school for nothing. If the Master gets in a "bate," as Mr. Horman says, he is to follow Plato's example, and dropping the subject which makes him angry, pass on to some other boy or another subject until he has cooled down. For the Master must set a good example, and that is a "vulgar." Turpe est doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum. On the teacher the shame When his is the blame. And, indeed, this age has seen teachers who had far better have been asleep than teaching like maniacs. He would have his Master remember that blindness is to be enlightened by skill, not by force, and imitate Ipocrates, the prince of doctors, with his aphorism “that we ought to lead nature whence it came.” If a boy at the beginning has grasped even one thing, he is to praise him vehemently with this or the like good saying Omni bina die si discam verba sophiæ The English of which is Two words of wisdom mastered every day Make clever clerk, and drive dull boy away. But all those words of wisdom were thrown away. Not being able to find any land for sale near Rolleston for the endowment of the school, Sherborne gave £500 to the Dean and Chapter of Chichester for a perpetual rent charge of £10 a year. That is still duly paid. The result is that the School which was to take Winchester for its model is now a Public Elementary School. XX A DAY AT WINCHESTER SCHOOL IN 1550. Ar the turn of the sixteenth century we have a contemporary picture of the everyday life of the School, which leaves little to be desired for fulness and completeness; and is a record which would of itself make the historical fortune of any school less ancient and famous. This is the celebrated poem of Christopher Johnson, published by Charles Wordsworth, late Bishop of St. Andrews, Second Master, in 1848. Of course it was left for a foreignera Harrovian-to make known this unique poem, as it has been left for the present Bursar, an Etonian, to write the Annals of the place from the College documents. Johnson was Head-master from 1560 to 1571, when he retired to practise as a physician in London. But the poem was clearly written when he was only a boy. He says, in a preface, which Wordsworth unfortunately did not print Sum puer et vires tantas Natura negavit; and the first person is often used in the poem of the boys' doings, not the Master's. According to the Annals he came in 1549, and went to New College in 1553. My impression is that it was written when he was still a junior. But a year or two would make no difference. It clearly belongs to the reign of Edward VI., when the old preReformation order in religion had passed away. The poem is admirably written, in the liveliest style, yet with the most scrupulous adherence to fact, so far as can be tested by subsequent custom. The poet first states the numbers of the community. He almost always uses pueri for the Scholars, which was undoubtedly a translation of the word "children,” a term technically used of the Scholars even to my day, when the Warden's "child" still had duties to perform. He lends no countenance to the term "Men," which was invariably used in my time for our noble selves, who in other Schools would have been called boys or fellows or chaps. The last word was never heard, and was utterly tabooed. It was considered quite "t'other school "— the most unmitigated expression of contempt that could be used. Dr. Moberly used to be fond of translating the line in Virgil applied to Æneas' rowers— Exercete viri et propriis consedite transtris— "Rouse up, ye Fourth Book men, and sit on your proper benches in Chapel;" and made a point of adding, that the word "men was an innovation, unknown to his younger days. The eighteen Seniors, Johnson tells us, are rightly called "Prefects," and so he always calls them, so that 'Præpostors," which seems to have been the official term 66 |