Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/341

SCHOOLS taken in hand, the schoolhouse hall was enlarged, and a new boarding-house, Bank House, was erected (1884). Apart from these improvements in the material equipment, the school practically recovered the proud position in the sphere of university distinctions which it held under Dr. Doncaster. Against 1902, when he left, fourteen first classes in various triposes at Cam- bridge were gained by old pupils, one place in the Indian Civil Service, and five in various services in the colonies and dependencies, as well as an inspectorship of schools under the Board of Education. Four of the first classes were secured in the Natural Science Tripos at Cambridge, a fact which shows that the school has kept pace with modern requirements. On his retirement Mr. Hodge was appointed rector of Normanton and Pilton. Under the present head master, Mr. Walter Lee Sargant, of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, twenty-ninth wrangler in 1888, M.A. 1892, who had been an assistant master at Brighton and Fettes Colleges, it is to be hoped that the same high standard may be maintained. Since his advent considerable progress in build- ings has already been made. The Old School has been restored, fives courts have been built by subscription, the new gj'mnasium has been opened, and the science rooms and workshops finished. Important additions have also been made to the schoolhouse. The school at pre- sent numbers 82 boys, of whom 58 are boarders, and there is a staff of 7 masters. (3) Subsequent History of Uppingham Grammar School From the beginning until the spacious days of Edward Thring, the old schoolroom, which still exists as the studio, affording accommodation for one of the most recent additions to a Public School curriculum, housed the boys of Upping- ham during the hours of instruction. The build- ing bore a close resemblance to that at Oakham, being a structure of stone with a high roof, oblong in shape, with a door surmounted by a big window at the west end and a chimney at the east, a series of small-paned windows along the south side, and a blind wall on the north. The date of its erection, 1584, was carved on a stone let into the outside of the east wall, while over the door was a tablet, similar to that at Oakham, bearing inscriptions in the three lan- guages then taught in an ambitious school, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In selecting the texts, suggesting and consecrating the work within, the founder or whoever is to be adjudged responsible for them took some little trouble ; while repeating one of the Hebrew quotations used at Oakham, Proverbs xxii, 6 : ' Train up a child in the way he should go : and when he is old he will not depart from it,' he varied the Greek and the Latin, the former being Mark x, I 2i 14 : ' Suffer the little children to come unto Me,' and the latter Ecclesiastes xii, i : ' Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' Bordering the churchyard on its eastern side, the schoolroom was some distance from the ' habita- tions and lodgings ' which the founder had pro- vided for master and usher in his hospital higher up in the town, where, in addition to their scholastic duties, the one was enjoined to 'have an eye to the behaviour and disorders' of the inmates, and the other to ' read prayers with them at least twice in the week.' ' The first distinguished person we hear of in connexion with the school was a pupil, Henry Feme, son of Sir John Feme of York, who was author of an early book on heraldry. The Blazon ff/" Gc«/rzV, published in 1586. Born in 1602, the son proceeded from Uppingham to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated in 161 8 ; but two years later he migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was subsequently a fellow of Trinity, Archdeacon of Leicester 1641^ and D.D. both of Oxford and Cambridge in 1642 and 1643. As chaplain to Charles I and a stout supporter of the Royalist cause, he suffered during ' the troubles,' but received his reward in subsequent preferment, being appointed Master of Trinity in 1660, holding the office for two years. Dean of Ely 1 66 1, and Bishop of Chester next year, the year of his death. His master at Uppingham must have been Ismael Burrowes, the third there ^ whose name is recorded, who seems to have held sway from circa 1606^ until 1 61 8, being succeeded in that year by John Clarke (Clerke in St. John's College registers), affectionately referred to by the founder in his statutes of 1625 as 'my schoolmaster of Upping- ' The schoolroom, except for the addition of a class- room for the usher joined by a passage to the north- east corner, remained practically untouched when Thring was appointed. There is a vivid description of it in Early Days at Uppingham under Edward Thring^ by an Old Boy, p. 17. ' The Uppingham Sch. Roll gives William Pickering as master in 1605. The master appointed by the letters patent of 1 587 was D.ivid Blacke, and the usher Robert Fullarton {supra, p. 261). Ismael Bur- rowes was a Leicester boy, who had gone to Lincoln College with one of the Earl of Huntingdon's scholarships and took his B.A. degree on 29 January 1585-6 and his M.A. in 1589. A Mr. ' Fullerton ' was master of Ashby-de-la-Zouch Grammar School from 1594 to 1597. Mr. Millers is mentioned as usher in the Peterborough diocesan records in 1591, and Mr. Pye in 1600. Possibly Mr. Millers is the same person as Abel Mellors, the first usher at Oak- ham, who may have changed schools. ^ Edward Shield, aged sixteen, son of Thomas Shield, husbandman {agricola), who had been four years at Uppingham under Mr. Burrowes, was ad- mitted a sizar at Gonville and Caius College 26 June 1 610 (J. Venn, Biog. Hist. ofG. and C. Coll. i, 208). The Uppingham Sci. Roll gives 1 61 2 as the date of Burrowes's accession. Il 36