Old School Customs.
The chequered histories of the old schools at Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Kendal, Crosthwaite, Carlisle, Penrith, and several other towns in the two counties, would suffice to make a large book of an interesting character. Some of the rules which governed the institutions in bygone days were decidedly quaint. The nineteen long paragraphs which make up the “Constitutions, Ordinances, and Statutes for the Free Grammar School at Kirkby Stephen,” as drawn up in 1568 by Lord Wharton, included this curious stipulation:—
“I will that the said Schoolmaster shall have and receive yearly £12 as his Hire and Wages, at two Terms of the year, if he teach in manner and form following, viz., At the Feast of Pentecost and St. Martin, by equal portions, by the hands of my Son, Heir, and Heirs, and the Governours. And the said Schoolmaster shall, within ten dayes after he hath taken upon him and be installed in the said Office, before the said Governours, or two of them, and before my Son and Heir, or Heirs of my House of Wharton, for the time being, and in presence of the Churchwardens and Twelve men of Kirkby-Stephen Parish, or six of them, in the Parish Church there, make this Oath following: ‘I do swear by the holy Contents of this Book that I will freely, without exacting any money, diligently teach and instruct the Children of this parish, and all others that resort to me, in Grammar and other Humane Doctrine, according to the Statutes thereof made; And shall read to them no corrupt or reprobate Book, or Works set forth at any time contrary to the Determination of the Universal Catholic Church, whereby they might be infected in their youth with any kind of Heresy or corrupt Doctrine, or else be induced to an insolent manner of Liveing; And further shall observe all the Statutes and Ordinances of this School, now made or that hereafter shall be made, which concern me; and shall do nothing in prejudice thereof, but help to maintain the same, from time to time, dureing my abode herein, to the best of my power. So Help me God, and the Contents of this book.’”
At six o’clock in the morning, and at the same hour in the evening, master and scholars had to march from school to church, for prayers, afterwards going to the tomb which Lord Wharton had erected in the quire and sing one of fifteen psalms. This was the order for working hours:—“And the same Scholemr., every Work-day at the least, shall begin to teach from Six a Clock in ye morning in Summer, and from Seven a Clock in Winter; and so shall continue in teaching until Eleven a Clock. The self same thing shall he diligently do after Dinner, from One of the Clock till Six in Summer and five in Winter.”
The history of Appleby School extends over nearly four and a quarter centuries. In 1478 Thomas Whinfell, one of the chantry priests, was bound “to keep yearly a sufficient Grammar School, taking of the scholars of the said school scolagia et custumaria secundum antiquam consuetudinem scoloe prædictæ.” Old school-boys living within the present decade remember that the scolagia et custumaria included a cockpenny, which had to be paid by each boy on Easter Tuesday, for the purpose of enabling the master to provide the pupils with a cock-fight. One of the regulations for Kendal School was that it should be “free to all boys resident in the parish of Kendal, for classics alone, excepting a voluntary payment of a cockpenny as aforetime at Shrovetide.” The “Literary Rambler,” who contributed a series of papers to the Kendal Chronicle in 1812 (when the custom was commonly observed), remarked:—“A stranger to the customs of the country will suspect something whimsical in this name, but it has its foundation in reason; for the boys of every school were divided into parties every Shrovetide, headed by their respective captains, whom the master chose from amongst his pupils. This was probably done in imitation of the Romans, who appointed the principes pivenum on certain occasions. These juvenile competitors contended in a match at football, and fought a cock-battle, called the captains’ battle, in both which contests the youthful rivals were not more interested than their parents.” Though the barbarous sport had disappeared, the payment of a cockpenny survived certainly until the middle of this century. This is shown by Mr. W. Sayer, who, in his History (1847), says that the endowments of Bowness (Westmorland) School, “together with a cockpenny given by each scholar on Shrove Tuesday,” amounted to about £60 per annum.
George Smith, a relative of Dr. Smith who became Bishop of London, built and endowed the school at Asby, and left £10, the interest of which (about 12s.) was to be disposed of on St. George’s Day yearly for ever in the following manner: 6s. to the poor of the parish; 5s. to be spent in ale by the feofees of the school; and the remaining shilling to purchase a football for the scholars. A custom which seems to have been peculiar to Appleby was for each pupil leaving to pay half-a-guinea towards the library, and Mr. R. E. Leach, the headmaster, some years ago compiled a most interesting list of these donations. It was also an occasional occurrence that “old boys” gave money when they were married.
It was by the ancient Parochial Council of Sixteen that the first attempt to supply elementary education in Torpenhow was made, it being recorded that on May 12th, 1686, a resolution was passed in favour of founding a free school for the Bothel district. The “sixteen” from time to time drew up various rules for the conduct of the school, one of which would greatly astonish the present generation of certificated masters, because, in 1689, the master of the institution at Bothel (locally pronounced “Bohl”) was ordered to “keep school from 6 in the morning till 11, and from 1 till 6 from Lady Day till Michaelmas,” practically the same rule as was enforced by Lord Wharton at Kirkby Stephen.
An instance of the uncertain position occupied by the village schoolmaster in former days may be found among the records of Holme Cultram. In 1607 there being some controversy concerning the payment of the parish clerk or sexton, which previously had been paid in no regular manner, and the clerk claiming to be paid in meal, though no certain measure of it had been ascertained, it was agreed and ordered by the sixteen men, with the consent of the other parishioners, that for the future there should be one person who should be both parish clerk and schoolmaster, and that he should have for his wages for every copyhold tenement and lease within the parish paying above 18d. rent, fourpence, and for every cottager and under-tenant twopence, to be collected yearly at Easter by the clerk, who was to be chosen by the sixteen men and approved by the ordinary. In addition, the schoolmaster was to have a quarterly sum for each scholar as the sixteen men from time to time directed. That scheme was recorded in 1777 as being still in operation.