that a school must have existed there, previous to the year 1384 A.D., a sufficient time to have been the ground of a custom. It may have been coeval, and probably was, with the foundation of the cathedral itself.

The amount of the original endowment, if any, is unknown, and it does not appear how long the means appropriated from the cathedral funds were found adequate to the purpose intended. The school probably languished until the reign of King Edward VI. who issued an injunction:" That in every Cathedral Church where no free grammarschool is founded already within the close, nor hath any such near unto it adjoining, founded already by any person, the King's majesty willeth, that of the common lands and revenues of that church shall be ordained, kept, and maintained perpetually, a Free Grammar-school. The master to have twenty marks, and his house rent free, and the usher yearly £6. 14s. 6d. and his chamber free.”

Notwithstanding this injunction, Queen Elizabeth deemed it necessary, about thirty years afterwards, to recall the attention of the dean and chapter to this and other topics, as appears from the statutes, which are dated the 6th March, 1583. In consequence of one or both of these royal ordinances, a building was erected upon the site of the decayed cloisters, at the west end of the cathedral, and was applied to the purposes of a school. The next statutes for the government of the Cathedral Church of Hereford and its appendages, were issued by Charles I. in 1637. They confirmed many of the previous regulations, abrogated others, and introduced such corrections and additions as the lapse of time and the change of circumstances render occasionally necessary, to insure the permanence and the purity of every human system. The sixth chapter of these statutes refers to the school. The appointment of the master and under master, and the management of the school, is vested in the dean and chapter.

The charter of Charles I. also increased the master's salary to £20 per annum, with a house; and the under master's to £10 and a share in certain fines.

The building erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth having become dilapidated, about the year 1760 it was taken down, and a more commodious school-house was erected by means of a general subscription. The house for the residence of the master was rebuilt a few years afterwards.

There are fourteen free scholars admitted, the rest pay for their tuition.

1682. The Right Honourable Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Somerset, by an indenture, gave lands for the establishment of scholarships in Brazennose College, Oxford, and in St John's College, Cambridge.

At the present time there are at St John's College,

1. Six scholarships, each of the value of £40 a year, the scholars to be chosen every third turn from the school of Hereford.

2. Five scholarships of more than £20 each per annum, exclusively for students educated at Hereford school, with a preference to such as are natives of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, or Herefordshire.

3. Fourteen scholarships of more than £20 each per annum, for scholars who are to be chosen every third turn from the school of Hereford. (See p. 321.)

Besides these scholarships, there are twenty-two scholarships at Brazennose College, Oxford, appropriated under the same conditions, to students from Hereford school, and two fellowships appropriated to natives of the county of Hereford.

LUCTON.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1708, A.D.

THIS School was founded by Mr John Pierrepont, Vintner, and citizen of London. In the latter end of May, 1709, the founder gave a code of rules, statutes, and ordinances for the government of the school, which he afterwards altered and enlarged by his will.

The founder directed that an exhibition of £20 a year should be granted to a student from the school once in two years, without restriction as to college, so that it were in Oxford or Cambridge.

The school is designed "for the instruction of children in religion, grammar-learning, writing, arithmetic, and mensuration, of such poor parents as are not able to bear the charge of training up! their children so as to be fit for the university, or to be put out apprentices, services, or other employments, whereby they may get an honest and competent livelihood.”

There is at present given annually one exhibition of 50 guineas a year, for four years, if there be a qualified candidate. Candidates for this exhibition may be of any county, and must enter the school before the age of sixteen years, and must remain there for two full years at least before they are eligible.

HERTFORDSHIRE.

ALDENHAM.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1597, A.D.

THIS free-school was founded under the authority of letters patent from Queen Elizabeth, by Richard Platt, Esq. alderman and brewer of London, who by his will directed, that in the election to the mastership, the fellows of St John's College, Cambridge, should nominate three masters of arts, of whom the Court of Assistants of the Brewers' Company, the trustees of the estates, should elect one. There are forty scholars on the foundation of the school, who are required to be the sons of persons who do, or shall, possess the freedom of the Brewers' Company.

This school is also endowed with eight Exhibitions, each of the yearly value of £40, for four years, for pupils proceeding to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, who have been admitted at the school for three years, and are not more than nineteen years of age at the Midsummer examination, when the exhibitions are granted.

BUNTINGFORD.

THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

ELIZABETH FREEMAN, relict of William Freeman, Esq. of Aspeden Hall, in the county of Hertford, by her will, declared that, if in her lifetime she did not convey the house and land purchased of Mr William Watson, of Buckland, in the county of Hertford, then her executors should, immediately after her death, convey the same for the sole benefit of the school and schoolmaster of Buntingford for ever.

It is probable that this school was founded by Mr William Freeman before his death, which took place in 1623. It must have been founded before 1633, the year of Mrs Freeman's decease, for Seth Ward received the rudiments of his education at the school; and he was born in 1617.

1681. Seth Ward, D.D. Bishop of Salisbury, a native of the town of Buntingford, who was himself educated at this school, gave £1000, with which was purchased an estate at Wimbish, in Essex, and settled by him upon the master, fellows, and scholars of Christ's

College, Cambridge, for the endowment of four Scholarships, each of £12 per annum, for scholars from this school. The bishop afterwards purchased fee-farm rents to the value of £22. 11s. per annum, to be settled for the same uses as the estate at Wimbish. He ordered the scholarships to be first paid, and the surplus to be equally divided between the master and fellows of Christ's College and the master of Buntingford school. These four scholarships are appropriated to persons born in Hertfordshire and educated in Buntingford school; and of them such as are born in the parish of Aspeden or town of Buntingford, cæteris paribus, to be preferred.

If, upon a vacancy, none of Buntingford school are qualified, the master and fellows are to inquire for a Hertfordshire scholar in the university, and if any such be found, he is to be admitted to the scholarship. If no such supply is to be met with, upon notice given by the college to the master of Buntingford school, he is to signify to the masters of the neighbouring schools in Hertfordshire (particularly Stortford, Hitchin, Ware and Hertford) the time appointed by the College for the admission, the number of vacancies, and qualification of persons eligible, that they are Hertfordshire born, and educated in some free and public school, licensed in this county, to the end that any one so qualified may offer himself to the College. If upon this notice, none offer himself, the College may elect out of their own students the most deserving.

These scholarships may be holden a year after Master of Arts, provided that degree be regularly taken, although the person be elected fellow.

HERTFORD.

THE FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

FOUNDED 1617, A.D.

THE Grammar-school in the town of Hertford was founded by Richard Hale, Esq. of Cheshunt, in the fourteenth year of the reign of James I. In the letters patent, it is expressed to have been "pro eruditione et instructione puerorum et juvenum in lingua Latina et alia politiori literatura." It was subsequently called, according to the express desire of the founder, "The School of Richard Hale, Esq." for the instruction and bringing up of children and youth of the inhabitants of the town of Hertford, in the Latin tongue, and other literature.

The heir-at-law of the founder appoints the master of the school, and is invested with power "to add and alter, change, disallow, or disannul any of the statutes, as often as he or his assigns shall think fit or needful, for the good government of the school."

In case of a vacancy in the mastership, by death or otherwise, during the minority of the heir-at-law, or his successors, the corporation of Hertford, who are styled Governors, have a right to appoint a

master.

1661. Bernard Hale, D.D. by his will, devised property for founding scholarships, each of 20 marks per annum, at St Peter's College, Cambridge. These scholarships are now 25 in number. (See p. 210.)

BISHOP STORTFORD.

THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

THIS school was founded in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The first mention made of the school is in connexion with a Mrs Margaret Dane or Dean, who by her will dated the 15th May, 1579, left £5 per annum for the school. This sum now reduced to about £2 10s. is paid by the Master and Wardens of the Ironmongers' Company.

The school ceased to exist from the year 1768 or thereabouts, but in 1850 it was revived under the appellation of "the High School,” and about £550 was raised by subscription to build a school-house.

The most important matter connected with the school is a scarce and most valuable collection of books, the gift of former scholars and masters of the school. There are four scholarships at Christ's College, Cambridge, open to scholars from this school in default of properly qualified students from Buntingford School. (See p. 299.)

HUNTINGDONSHIRE.

HUNTINGDON.

THE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL.

Ar what period and by whom this grammar-school was founded is not known, but the endowment now forms part of the revenue of the master and the co-frater of the Hospital of St John in Huntingdon, which was founded by David, Earl of Huntingdon, in the reign of Henry II. The estates belonging to the hospital are considerable. The purposes for which they were devised, are said, in an inquisition