A HISTORY OF RUTLAND liad never been held or applied for by free or day scholars. Not a little of the success of the school under Dr. Doncaster was due to the ability of his sub- ordinates. Four of them, Frederick Edward Gretton (1829-33), who followed Warren, a scholar and fellow of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, seventh classic and a senior optime in 1826 ; James Ind Welldon (i 834-5), also a scholar and fellow of St. John's, twenty-ninth wrangler and fifth classic in 1834 ; Alfred Lee- man (1839-41), a scholar of the same college, a second-class man both in the classical and mathe- matical triposes in 1839; and Charles Thomas Penrose (1841-3), scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, second classic and senior optime in 1839, subsequently became head masters of im- portant schools — Gretton of Stamford in 1833, Welldon of Tonbridge in 1843, Leeman of Aldenham in 1844, and Penrose of Sherborne in 1845. Welldon left Oakham to take up the position of second master at Shrewsbury School, where he served under Samuel Butler and Benjamin Hall Kennedy. He was uncle of the present Dean of Manchester, late head master of Harrow. William Bunting Tate, of Trinity College, Cambridge, who filled the interval between Gretton and Welldon, was twenty-third wrangler and a second class man in classics in 1830 ; he was appointed vicar of Nether Wallop, Hampshire, on 6 July 1834.*' Richard Wilson, of St. John's, who stayed four years between Welldon and Leeman, was fifth classic and a senior optime in 1833. Leeman was succeeded by Charles Thomas Penrose, and he in 1843 by John Bicknell, also ot Trinity, a second-class man in classics and a junior optime in 1843, who stayed only a year. Timothy Byers, of Christ's, the next usher, remained in office twenty years, until 1864. He had taken second-class honours both in the classical and the mathematical tripos in 1844. Gretton, according to the testimony of Robert Noble, the Lidian missionary, writing in 1829, was responsible for stiffening up the discipline and introducing an improved system of instruc- tion :— '» Since I was with you we have had three new masters, two classical ones and a writing master. The two first are clever judicious men, one of whom [Dr. Gretton] was a pupil of Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury. We are now proceeding very much on the system of that excellent man, and it is no small recommendation to the school, for the old method was extremely defective, and from this grand fault arose the circum- stance that Dr. Doncaster has sent so few clever men to the University. And now the idler boys are more under the necessity of studying their lessons, though it is not absolutely necessary (I speak very plainly). " Foster, Index Eccl. '° W. L. Sargant, op. cit. 14. He remarks on the religious and moral tone of the school : — Our school now consists of about thirty boys, the greater part of whom are, I fear, quite ignorant of true religion, but there are one or two among them whom I esteem very highly. I do not think our school is worse than any other of its size, though I am afraid, were I to describe it to you, you would not entertain a very high opinion of us. Wickedness prevails according to the number of persons collected in any body, so that a larger school would, in my opinion, afford a still worse picture. After all, if so severe a critic had nothing worse to say, things could not have been so very bad. The ' old, extremely defective ' method was apparently that followed at Eton ; for Carlisle," in 1815, writes : 'The Eton plan of classical education is pursued at each school ' (i.e. both at Oakham and Uppingham). Even under this unreformed system Oakham had produced useful men, such as Warren, the usher from 1 8 19 to 1829, subsequently head master of Beverley Grammar School ; James Moffat Harrington, of Exeter College, Oxford, B.A. 1823, M.A. 1826, afterwards Q.C. and sometime M.P. for White- haven ; William Newland Welsby, of St. John's College, Cambridge, B.A. 1823, M.A. 1827,3 well known legal writer and a junior counsel to the Treasury ; Thomas Sheldon Green, of Christ's College, Cambridge, nineteenth wrangler and a second-class classic in 1826, B.A. 1826, M.A. 1829, fellow of his college and head master successively of Maidstone and Ashby-de- la-Zouch Grammar Schools ; William Henry Hanson, fellow of Clare, Trinity Hall, and Caius, fourth wrangler and second Smith's prizeman in 1826. But between 1829 and 1846 Oakham was remarkable not only for its university successes, but for the number of its scholars who attained distinction in after life. Francis Hildyard, of Clare Hall, was twenty- seventh wrangler in 1 83 1. Thomas Ludlam, of Peterhouse, was twelfth classic in 1832, and a senior optime. John Henry Pratt of Caius College in 1833, and Richard Stevenson of Trinity College in 1834, were third wranglers. The latter also gained a second class in classics. Joseph Woolley of Emmanuel College was twenty-first wrangler in 1 838, and Thomas " End. Grammar Schools, ii, 3 34. The exact conno- tation of the term, ' the Eton plan of classical educa- tion,' is matter for speculation. The reader may be referred to the history of that school in V.C.H. Bucks. for suggestions. There is less doubt as to what the Shrewsbury system was under Samuel Butler. Benja- min Hall Kennedy said that it was his system of examinations which made his school great ; but his recent biographer considers that even more was due to his plan of constantly changing the position of the boys in a form according to the varying merit of their work ; 8. Butler, Life and Letters of Samuel Butkr, ii, 366 ff. 278
