CHAPTER XI

ST. PETER'S COLLEGE, WESTMINSTER (continued)

CLARENDON COMMISSION'S RECOMMENDATIONS-GOVERNORS OF THE College-MODERN REGULATIONS-EXAMINATION AND ADMISSION OF KING'S SCHOLARS IN 1914-“ The Challenge "—Inner Life of the ELIZABETHAN SCHOOLBOY-TRANSLATION OF LATIN STATUTESINSISTENCE on Indigence-Masters' DUTIES-Manner of ELECTING CHORISTERS-RULE AND ORDER OF SCHOLARS-WESTMINSTER NO CHARITY SCHOOL FOR URIAH HEEPS THE HUMANITIES-ANNUAL WESTMINSTER PLAYS-COMMONS IN HALL-STIPENDS AND ALLOWANCES IN TIME OF PLAGUE-THE WESTMINSTER PLAY.

THE principal recommendations of the Clarendon Commissioners in regard to the administration and government of Westminster School and revenues were that the governing body was to be called the governors of St. Peter's College, Westminster; should consist of three ex-officio members, namely, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Master of Trinity, Cambridge; and six nominated or elected persons, five of whom were to be laymen, four to be nominated by the Crown, and two elected by the governing body itself. The four Crown nominees were to be University graduates; members of the Established Church (as the rest of the body in this respect); three of such nominees, at least, to be selected with especial reference to their attainments in literature or science. Such a portion of the chapter estates as might be adequate to the support of the school was to be legally vested in the governors, to be by them applied to the maintenance and education of the Queen's scholars, building repairs, improvements, etc. And such portions of the chapter estates, necessarily and exclusively connected with the school and college, as the dormitory, hall, school and classrooms, covered play-room, head and undermaster's

houses, playgrounds in Great Dean's Yard and Vincent Square, etc., were to be vested in the governors, with the proviso that if the school be removed from its present site, such buildings, etc., shall revert to dean and chapter, or to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, as the case might be. The dean and chapter, or the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, were to pay £31 10s. for each scholar's tuition, and the Westminster School governors were empowered to throw the Queen's (or King's) scholarships open to general competition, irrespective of previous birth-place restrictions or requirements of previous education in Westminster School. Paying town boys were to be charged £70 for board per annum; £31 10s. yearly for instruction; and £10 yearly for any private tuition required. The use of rackets, caps, and other instruments of "punishment" by seniors upon juniors and the practice of the "kicking" of juniors were recommended to the attention and correction of the masters. The Commissioners recommended the abolition of the fagging custom of lighting fires and gas and the getting up at an unduly early hour by juniors for the benefit of the senior scholars, additional servants to be appointed for those "menial offices."

"Having regard to the spirit of the Statutes the choristers at the proper age should be either apprenticed to some trade or receive a fair equivalent at the expense of the College funds," they say elsewhere.

They did not "feel called upon to pronounce whether there had been any departure from the statutes by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, who were responsible for the education, out of their general revenues, of the so-called poor scholars. The Chapter had, in fact, followed the example of diocesan authorities at Bristol, Gloucester, Peterborough, Chichester, and elsewhere, and starved the school for many years. "In 1878 the annual value of the Westminster School endowments was returned at £4,782.'

• See a " Return to an Address of the House of Commons," House of Commons Accounts and Papers, 1879, vol. vii., B. Mus. It is there

7

There is no class approximating to the workers enjoying free education to-day at St. Peter's College, Westminster. The Public Schools Year Book for 1923 shows that the King's scholar who resides at the college holds a scholarship worth over £100 per annum, but his parents have to find another £46 per annum. A non-resident King's scholar living at home receives a scholarship of over £65 per annum, but it may be said that, even on this latter basis, the cost of such an education would be prohibitive where poor people were concerned. There are forty resident foundation scholars living in the part of the buildings called the college, and twenty non-residents living at home or in the boarding houses. All of them must wear a simple dress, without colours, black neckties and tall hats. If 5 feet 4 inches in height, or over sixteen, boys must have tail coats.

For purposes of contrast, if not of comparison with present day conditions, it may be useful to quote at some length from the Statutes of Westminster; as, apart from the question of alienation and endowment diversion, these Royal injunctions are an embodiment and present an interesting glimpse into the intimacies of the inner life of the Elizabethan schoolboy in a well-ordered and appointed eleemosynary foundation. We apologise to the reader if he should find these excerpts tedious.

Statutes of Westminster School, 1560.-Cath. Commission Report, 1854, p. 159; from Pat. 2 Eliz. p. xi. (translated from the original Latin) :—

"Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, France, and Ireland queen, defender of the faith, etc., to our beloved in Christ the Dean and Chapter of our collegiate church of the Blessed Peter of Westminster, health in Jesu the Saviour.

The rate or distribution of the college of the Blessed Peter at Westminster, founded by the most illustrious Queen Elizabeth":

stated that £15,000 in cash was paid over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to the new Westminster College authority, set up under the Public School Acts of 1868. This money was invested in Consols, and the accruing interest added half-yearly to the capital.

After enumerating the ecclesiastical dignitaries and officials comprising the dean, prebends, reader in theology, priests, clerks, she ordains that there shall be a precentor over the singing boys (ten in number), a teacher of the choristers, two masters to educate the youth, and forty grammar scholars, together with twelve Poor men.

Let it be here said that, as at Eton, the twelve poor men have long disappeared.

De duobus Præceptoribus Puerorum, etc. ("Of the 2 masters of the boys and their duty"): The headmaster "shall be a master of grammar or of arts," the other "a bachelor of arts at least. . . . Both of them shall be religious, learned, honourable, and painstaking, so that they may make their pupils pious, learned, gentlemanly and industrious (ut pios, eruditos, ingenuous, et studiosus efficiant discipulos). The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, shall in turn elect these masters, with the consent of Westminster. Their duties shall be not only to teach Latin, Greek, and Hebrew grammar and the humanities, poets and orators, and diligently to examine in them, but also to build up and correct the boys' conduct, to see that they behave themselves properly in church, school, hall and chamber, as well as in all walks and games, that their faces and hands are washed, their heads combed, their hair and nails, their clothes, both linen and woollen, gowns, stockings and shoes kept clean, neat, and like a gentleman's, and so that lice or other dirt may not infect or offend themselves or their companions, and that they never go out of the college precincts without leave." Monitors "from the gravest scholars" were to be appointed "to oversee and note the behaviour of the rest everywhere. . . . If any monitor commits an offence, or neglects to perform his duty, he shall be flogged as an example to others."

CAP. V. De Discipulorum duplici Electione ("The twofold election of Scholars "): The scholars, being 40 in