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A HISTORY OF RUTLAND ceiling which had previously hidden the tim- bered roof, and by opening the windows on the north side, which had been blocked. The com- plete scheme for the internal decoration includes a series of frescoes representing the story of Gareth. Over the fireplace at the east end is a fresco representing the founder, with lists of the exhibitioners since 1710 on either side.^ The stone over the school door, removed from the west end in 1830, bearing inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, probably dates from the founda- tion, as the date on it, 1584, seems to indicate. The selection of texts from the three languages is symptomatic of the pedantry of those days, and mav also have served to suggest the scope of the teaching given within. The Hebrew quotations are from Psalm cxxvii, I, with the last word omitted, possibly for want of space, possibly as unimportant : ' Unless the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it' ; and from Proverbs xxii, 6 : 'Train up a child in the way he should go : and when he is old, he will not depart from it.' Of the texts in Greek, one is Ephesians vi, 4, with a slight alteration : ' Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' The other is a sentence made up of certain words taken from Roger Ascham's Scholmaster, Book I, expressing ' the true notes of the best wits for learning in a child,' and by him culled from Plato's Republic, Book vii, 535 : ' He will have good abilities, a strong memory, industry, ambition, and be teachable, inquisitive, and fond of learning.* The Latin inscription runs : ' Learning gives sobriety to the young, solace to the aged, riches to the poor, and dis- tinction to the rich.' A similar tablet, also bearing inscriptions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, was affixed to the wall of the Old School at Uppingham. The earliest incidents to be recorded in con- nexion with the school as a separate institution are the gifts of two endowments,' one of 4OX. a year out of the manor of Nether Broughton in Leicestershire, by Sir Andrew Noel, M.P., and Sheriff of Rutland, on 23 April 1588, for the better support and maintenance of the master and usher, and another of 20s. a year, out of the manor of Martinsthorpe, in the county of Rut- land, by William and Basil Fielding, on 29 April, for the same purpose. The former rent-charge seems to have been lost some time before 1784. Very little can be told of the early history of the school. It is true that the names of the head masters are known from the beginning, with perhaps one exception,^ and that a study of the admission registers of St. John's College, Cam- ' W. L. Sargant, loc. cit. and private informa- tion. ' Ciar. Com. Rep. ' i.e. between 1642-4, according to W. L. Sargant, op. cit. ; but see infra. bridge,' shows that, at any rate after 1630, there was a steady influx of boys from the school to that university. Between 1630 and 1715 as many as fifty-five old Oakhamians entered this one college alone ; and there is no reason why at least three other colleges, Clare, Sidney, and Emmanuel, should not have exercised an equally potent attractive force, since at these also the founder established scholarships to which the alumni of his schools had a preference. Unfor- tunately the registers of these three colleges have not yet been published, so that we must rest content with probabilities. It is not until 17 10 that the school records become of much use ; from that date the decrees and accounts of the governors throw light on the internal life of the school. The first master, according to The Book of Oakham School, was James Madson or Watson,* to whom references are said to occur in 1585, 1591, and 1597. This statement is not very probable, seeing that the letters patent of 1587, as we have seen, distinctly appointed Robert Rush- brooke as first master, and Abel Mellors as first usher. Watson was succeeded by Abraham Greene, M.A., who on 11 June 161 1 was licensed by the Bishop of Peterborough to teach at Oakham.^ In 161 3 and 1614 a Mr. Leacocke occurs as master in the records of the diocese ; no doubt the same person as John Lacock, men- tioned as usher from 1589. Next came Mr.Wallis (Wallace), whose mastership must have begun as early as 1 613 ; for John Jessup, from Oakham School, who had been under Mr. Wallis, was ad- mitted to Gonville and Caius College on 23 October in that year.^" The Bookof Oakham School^^ ' Admissions to the Coll. of St. John the EvangeFist, pts. i and ii, by J. E. B. Mayor ; pt. iii, by R. F. Scott. The identifications and notes, especially in pt. iii, are most useful. ' W. L. Sarg.int, op. cit. 21, from Peterborough Registers. James Watson is mentioned as ' ludi- magister ' in 15S8, 1597, 1607, and 1608, and James Madson, also called Thom.is, in 1585, 1589, I 591, and I 597. Madson may be wrongly given for Watson, or he may have been usher or assistant, and not master. From these registers we gather that ' Robarte Caudrye ' was ' scholemaister ' at Oakham in 1570 (Epis. Visit.), and that in 1577 Francis Clements vv.is presented for teaching during the last one and three-quarter years without licence (Archid. Visit.). Thomas Ashbrooke, mentioned in an Epis- copal Visitation of 1585, is probably given by mistake for Robert Rushbrooke, who also occurs as Thomas Rushbrooke. W. L. Sargant, loc. cit. from the Peterborough Registers. '" J. Venn, Biog. Hist. ofG. and C. Coll. i, 223. " W. L. Sargant, op. cit. 21. L. M. = ' ludi- magister.' In the registers of Sidney-Sussex College, under the year 1624, there is the following entry : 'William Wallace, son of John Wallace, artium magister et medicus, born at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, educated at Oakham School, which his father con- 270