A HISTORY OF RUTLAND Oakham School was visited by Mr. Henry Wes- ton Eve for the Schools Inquiry Commission.* He reported that although the numbers were so small as to give rise to difficulties in teaching they were on the increase. In the latter half of 1864 there were 34 boarders, all in the head master's house, and 18 day boys, most of them from the town ; and between that time and the Assistant Commissioner's visit the num- bers had increased twenty-five per cent. The townspeople were well satisfied with the curri- culum, although there was some desire for a more modern form of education. The popularity of the school was largely due to the tact of the head master, who ' appears to have won, to a remark- able degree, the confidence and goodwill of everyone connected with the school, whether trustees, parents, or old pupils.' Thring, at Uppingham, seems to have been less fortunate in this respect. The performance of the scholars in the classical test was tolerable, but in mathematics 'the general standard was not high.' But in recent years an Oakham boy had usually come out top in the joint examination for exhibitions to the University. On the average three or four boys each year left for the universities. It was agreed that there had been a distinct improve- ment in the tone of the school under Dr. Wood. The trustees had assisted in the development of the school ; they had lately built a new house for the head master and proposed to erect a new schoolroom on the site of the vicarage. The head master's salary was ;ri53 in 1864, and the usher's £^2^, both paid from the endowment. The master also received the profits of boarders, of whom he might take an unlimited number, and shared the fees with the usher. Day boys, natives of Oakham, paid six guineas without, and ten guineas with, French ; others twelve guineas. There was an additional charge of four guineas for drawing. Four boys were admitted at a re- duced fee of two guineas, possibly in considera- tion of Timothy Helmsley's legacy. The Com- missioners of 1820 had suggested that the pay- ment to the usher in accordance with it should be renewed, adding that if this were done ' we may hope the governors will not overlook the conditions annexed to the bequest.' The terms for boarders were forty to sixty guineas, with twelve guineas tuition fee, and an extra charge of two guineas for share of a study, if desired. The average cost of boarding was ^^82. In 1884 the tercentenary of the foundation was celebrated, naturally on a smaller scale at Oakham, where less had been achieved, than at the sister school. When in 1875 Dr. Wood resigned there were only two boys in the school." The numbers had '• Schols Inf. Rep. " A good idea of the var)-ing popularity of the school since 1886 can be obtained from a study of the Admission Register, which is printed at length in The been reduced, partly through a recent outbreak of typhoid, slightly in advance of the epidemic which stimulated such heroic efforts at the sister school, partly through uncertainty as to the position of the school under the new scheme which was being drawn up by the Endowed Schools Commissioners. Their proposals seem to have wrought as much real damage at Oak- ham as they produced irritation at Uppingham. Oakham was in the weaker position, and natu- rally suffered most. The Commissioners, in accordance with Thring's views,"* prepared a scheme which would have reduced Oak- ham to what they called a second-grade school — although there was very little demand for such a school in the neighbourhood. They laid down that boys were to leave at 1 7, and that Greek was not to be taught. The Governors fought the scheme with great determination, and it was not until 1874, a month before the scheme was to have passed into law, that a change of Ministr)- occurred, and the obnoxious clauses were modified. Boys might stay until 19, and Greek might be taught.'^ Dr. Wood was followed by Robert Tabra- ham, a graduate of Dublin University, B. A. 1870, M.A. 1873, who came from an assistant-master- ship at Malvern College, and staved only four years. His successor, the Rev. Edward Vere Hodge of Balliol College, Oxford, who took second-class honours in classics both in Modera- tions (1868) and in the Final Schools (1871), had been second master at Gloucester Cathedral School, and senior classical master at Bradford Grammar School since 1875. His reign was a period of strenuous achievement, and he almost brought back the golden age. During the twenty-three years of his regime the new class- rooms were built (1880) and a sanatorium estab- lished (1880), a swimming-bath was provided by subscription, science rooms and a workshop were Book of Oakham School. In 1836, at the beginning of Dr. Doncaster's last decade, there were 3 5 boarders in the schoolhouse, 8 boarders in town, and 4 day boys, making a total of 47, increased to 5 i before the year was out. During the next five years the average num- ber admitted was about 12 ; and during the next four years the admissions were 8, 8, 4, I. In Dr. Wood's third year the number had risen to 1 2 ; then for nine years it only once rose to 10 ; between 1858 and 1 87 1, inclusive, it averaged 15 ; and in his last four years the admissions fell to g, 5, 12, and o. "' Parkin, Life ofE. Thring, , 82-3, 259. " W. L. Sargant, op. cit. 17. " Dr. Wood had been curate of Brooke (1853-65), and after his retirement was vicar of Higham (1875— 97) and Rural Dean of Gravesend (1877-87). He died in 1902. " The increase in numbers was remarkable. The number of admissions in any year between 1879 and 1902 only once fell as low as 18, and once was as high as 40 ; the average for tvventy-four years was about 30. Naturally there was some falling off when he left. 280
