been considerably improved, and the area of the subjects taught, widened; assisted as he has been by the able Second Master, Mr. C. W. Gott, B.A., London, and Miss Gibson. But it has also been increasingly recognised that there was room for still further development, if the institution was to take its proper position among the endowed educational establishments of the county. This, however, is a subject to which we shall recur hereafter.
In 1855 a school Library was commenced, the Governors granting £10 for the purchase of books; £20 being given in the following year, and this has been further enlarged in later years, until the books now number nearly 500.
In March, 1893, a Magazine entitled Banovallum was established, to be mainly carried on by the scholars, the Editor being J. G. Meanwell, Sub-Editor J. R. Cowburn. It was a monthly record of school work and sports, with various other matters of interest. It was intended also to be a link of connection between "old boys" and new; and with this view former pupils of the school were invited to contribute."[1] The outside support, however, of such a publication was not sufficient to render it a paying venture, and after an existence of rather more than two years, it expired with the July No. of 1895.
Here we may fittingly introduce some personal reminiscences of the school, and those connected with it, in its palmiest days, under the regime of Dr. Smith, and first we may mention members of his own family.
Although, as before stated, himself of humble origin,[2] he married the daughter of a General Sandwith, a lady who was highly esteemed by all who knew her. She bore him three sons and three daughters, and predeceased him. His eldest son, Bainbridge, graduated at Cambridge University, took Holy Orders, was at one time English Chaplain at Smyrna, and succeeded his father in the Rectory of Sotby. He married a daughter of Judge Haliburton of Nova Scotia, the author of Sam Slick, The Watchmaker (1839) and other works, which were popular in their day. The eldest daughter, Frances, married a member of a then well-known Horncastle family, the Rev. John Fawssett, a graduate of Cambridge, who afterwards became in turn Rector of Minting and Vicar of Baumber with Stourton. A second son, Joseph Coltman, became a Solicitor in Hull, but died early in life. A second daughter, Isabella, married the Rev. W. Affleck Peacock (named after his relative Sir Robert Affleck, of Dalham Hall, Newmarket), Rector of Ulceby near Alford. The youngest daughter, as already stated, married the Rev. Henry Fiennes Clinton, Rector of Cromwell, near Newark, a near relative of the Duke of Newcastle, to whom he was appointed domestic Chaplain. The third and youngest son, Clement Madely, so named after his godfather, the esteemed former Vicar of Horncastle, adopted the medical profession and went out to India, where he became known as a keen sportsman among big game; a group of two tigers shot by him, and stuffed by Ward the great taxidermist, being exhibited in the Crystal Palace several years ago.
Of the scholars at the school, under Dr. Smith, we recall a few names, as samples of the class of pupils whom he received. There were three Sandwiths, Humphrey, Godfrey, and Henry, who were his nephews on his wife's side.
- ↑ Among those, formerly connected with the school, who contributed to this Magazine, were the late Head Master, Canon S. Lodge; the Senior Governor, Dr. R. Jalland; A. C. Clapin, a whilome French pupil in the days of Dr. Smith, who was son of an officer in the army of Napoleon I.; and the present writer, who wrote School Reminiscences.
- ↑ To the credit and honour of Dr. Smith, he brought his aged father and mother, the former being blind, to Horncastle, and provided for them in their old age. They resided in a small cottage, close to his own house, now adjoining the Great Northern Hotel.
