"5. That eligibility to Exhibitions be extended to all boys who have entered the School under the age of 15.

"6. That any boy who may have been recommended for an Exhibition be permitted to leave the School at the end of the half year in which the recommendation has been made.

"7. That all Exhibitions in the gift of the Company be made tenable at any College in either University.

"8. That a Lecturer in Natural Science be appointed by the Court and furnished out of the School funds with proper apparatus.

"9. That the Head Master be authorized to appoint a German teacher, and Masters of Drawing and of Music, to be paid out of the School funds, and that half-yearly prizes be given for proficiency in these subjects and in Natural Science.

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hand, the Master, Wardens, and Surveyors, with perhaps one or two elective members, of the Mercers' Company; and on the other, an equal number of persons extraneous to the Company, to be selected by the Crown in consideration of personal eminence or special fitness to superintend a place of liberal education.

"Recommendations XXVI. XXVII. and XXVIII. are also clearly inappropriate, but, with these exceptions, all the General Recommendations apply wholly or partially to this School. Of Special Recommendations the following are the principal which we urge upon the attention of the Governing Body with an earnest desire that they may be carried into effect.

“1. The immediate appointment of an additional Classical Master.

"2. The abrogation of the rule that the Master shall annually go through a pro forma re-election, and the transference of the power of appointing and dismissing the Assistant Masters (including the Sur-Master) from the Governing Body to the High Master.

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3. The abolition of the present system of nomination; and the substitution of a system of limited competition. When the School is removed from its present site, we have recommended that the Foundation be thrown open to the unrestricted competition of boys between the ages of 11 and 15, according to a scheme to be agreed upon by the Governors with the assistance of the High Master.

"4. A small immediate addition to the numbers of the School of 40 or 50 boys above the age of 11 and below 15 to be admitted at the discretion of the High Master after an examination such as that proposed in General Recommendation XXIII. these additional boys to pay 10l. per annum for tuition, with a moderate admission fee, should it be deemed advisable; and to be allowed to compete for Exhibitions on the same footing as the 153 boys on the Foundation. The number of these Non-Foundationers to be gradually increased to not less than 300 after the removal of the School to a new site.

"5. That eligibility to Exhibitions be extended to all boys who have entered the School under the age of 15.

"6. That any boy who may have been recommended for an Exhibition be permitted to leave the School at the end of the half year in which the recommendation has been made.

"7. That all Exhibitions in the gift of the Company be made tenable at any College in either University.

"8. That a Lecturer in Natural Science be appointed by the Court and furnished out of the School funds with proper apparatus.

"9. That the Head Master be authorized to appoint a German teacher, and Masters of Drawing and of Music, to be paid out of the School funds, and that half-yearly prizes be given for proficiency in these subjects and in Natural Science.

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MERCHANT TAYLORS'.

HOMO PLANTAT, HOMO IRRIGAT, SED DEUS DAT INCREMENTUM."

CHAPTER I.-HISTORICAL.

THE foundation of this excellent Grammar School, one of the oldest and best-supported nurseries of learning of which London can boast, is due to the wisdom and munificence of the ancient "Company of the Marchaunt Taylors," a society which has, according to Stow, been a Guild or Fraternity from time immemorial, by the name of "Taylors and Linen Armourers," and which had its Fellowship confirmed as far back as the reign of Edward I.; a Company, moreover, which displays upon its roll ten Kings of England, four foreign Sovereigns and Princes, Dukes, Earls, Barons, Prelates, and distinguished characters in various walks of life, innumerable.

The first intention of the "Merchant Taylors' Company" to found a Grammar School "for the better education and bringing up of children in good manners and literature was manifested in the spring of 1560-1. About this period a leading member of the Fraternity, Mr. Richard Hills, generously offered the sum of 500l. (equivalent to about 3,000l. at the present day) towards the purchase of a part of the "Manor of the Rose," in the parish of St. Lawrence Poulteney. The "Rose" was a spacious mansion, originally built by Sir John Pulteney, Knight, five times Lord Mayor of London, in the reign of Edward III. Its fortunes had been various. After passing through the hands of several noble families-the Hollands, De la Poles, Staffords, and Courtenays-their tenancies in too many in