That the two Exhibitions endowed out of the tithes of Mears Ashby, should be consolidated into one; that the consolidated Exhibition should be awarded by competitive examination, open to both Scholars and Commoners, and should not be tenable with a Scholarship at New College, nor with a Bedminster or Superannuates' Exhibition.

That as regards that part of the scheme of studies which relates to instruction in natural science, no distinction should be made between the Scholars and the Commoners.

That the maximum age for admission into the Fourth Form should be 13; for the junior Part of the Fifth, 14; and for the senior Part of the Fifth, 16. (See General Recommendation XXV.)

That the permission to discontinue some part of the course of the study, in order to give more time to some other part, (General Recommendation XIII.), should not be granted to any boy who has not reached the senior division of the Fifth Form.

That the promotion of the boys from division to division should not depend wholly, as it has hitherto done, upon the marks gained for class-work and compositions during the half year, but should depend also in part upon their performances in a special competitive examination occurring once at least in the year.

That a larger amount of translation from English into Latin and Greek verse and prose should be introduced; that the amount of original composition in these two languages should be diminished; and that some part of the original composition in them should be exchanged for translations from Greek and Latin into English, both oral translation (as distinct from construing), and written, and that in estimating the merit of such translations due regard should be paid to the correctness and purity of the English.

That English composition should be cultivated in the junior division of the Sixth Form.

That the practice of learning by heart passages from Latin and English authors should be introduced in the Sixth Form.

That the number of Classical Masters should be increased as soon as may be, so as to provide one Master for each division of the School.

That in applying to Winchester the principles of General Recommendations XXVI., XXVII., XXVIII., the sum to be paid by the College for the instruction of each Scholar should be not less than 20%., and that, until the number of Scholars exceeds ninety, the College should pay, in addition to 20%. at least for each Scholar, such further sum as will raise its total payment for the Scholars' instruction to 1,800l., and that the annual payments from the Goddard Fund to the Head and Second Masters, should be deemed pro tanto payments by the College for the instruction of the Scholars.

That arrangements should be made by which the Scholars under the Sixth Form, instead of being left almost wholly to themselves after six in the evening, should prepare their lessons for the next day in the presence of a Tutor or Master, as is now the practice with Commoners.

That the application to Winchester College of General Recommendation XXX. should receive the special attention of the Head and Second Masters and of the Governing Body.

CHAPTER I.-HISTORICAL.

THE Royal School of Westminster claims precedence among the public Schools of London, partly on the score of its antiquity, but chiefly on account of its connexion with the ancient Palace and Court of Westminster. The School, as at present formed, it is true, cannot point to an origin so remote as either of its two great rivals, Winchester and Eton, which date respectively from the reigns of Edward III. and Henry VI. Yet there can be no question that there has existed from time immemorial, a Grammar School attached to the Monastery of Saint Peter; and that, in fact, though the actual Statutes were framed by Henry VIII. and his daughter, Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Foundation was no more the origin of the School than the Reformation was the origin of the Church of England. Ingulphus, who, for several years before the battle of Hastings, had acted as scribe or secretary to William the Conqueror, expressly says that there was a school at Westminster, which he himself used to attend; and adds that "Queen Edgitha," the accomplished consort of Edward the Confessor, "would often, as he returned from school, oppose him touching his learning and lesson, and falling from grammar to logic, wherein she had some knowledge, she would subtilly conclude an argument with him, and by her handmaiden give him three or four pieces of money and send him unto the palace where he should receive some victuals, and then be dismissed. The History of Crowland, in which this statement appears, is not