The closing years of Rowland Ingram's time were not bearing the fruit that the first decade had promised. But the School turned out at least one good Scholar—John Saul Howson—a son of the Usher. Born in 1816 he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1833, at the age of seventeen. He won a Scholarship there and also received money from the Tennant Exhibition Fund. He took some University prizes, and a first class in both Classics and Mathematics. As Head of Liverpool College for ten years he did a great educational work, by releasing it from debt and reforming its system. Later he was appointed Dean of Chester where eventually he died. As a Churchman he was a notable figure and as a Christian he will be remembered long.
On the whole the teaching in later years was not efficient. J. S. Howson relates how before he was eight years old he had said the Latin Grammar through four times without understanding a word of it. This was a remarkable achievement but not adequate evidence of supreme genius in the teacher. Education, like most other things, was everywhere at its nadir, and Giggleswick was no exception. In the whole of Ingram's time as Headmaster—43 years—he had three Ushers. One was mad, one died after four years, and one—John Howson—grew grey-headed with the work. He had during the same period three Writing Masters, of whom one was most cantankerous, another stayed twenty-four years, and the third—John Langhorne—was not wholly a success. He managed the School Accounts from 1839-1845, but they were found to be "so inaccurate and confused" that Mr. Robinson had to enter them in the book afresh.
The constancy of a staff which from 1814-1831 never varied, and of whom two were local men, contributed to the depression of the School. Another contributory cause lay in the constitution of the Governing Body. During the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first decade of the next the Governors showed themselves very diligent in the pursuit of the School's welfare. But as time went on, the increasing revenues created an increasing thirst for more. The Accounts dealt less and less with things appertaining to the School, more and more with the management of the North Cave Estate. Between the years 1810 and 1843 there were not more than two meetings of the Governors, the minutes of which refer to the conduct of the School; instead they refer constantly to the growing balance in the Bank (in 1817 it was over £1,500) and they dissipated it by gratuities equivalent to half a year's salary to the several Masters and in profuse expenditure in building and repairs. There was but one man among them who had known the days when £350 was all they had a year, and only a tumbledown school to teach in. John Clapham must have looked back with mixed feelings as he regarded the energy, the efficiency, and the swelling numbers of that early part of the century and compared them with later years.
There was one more change of importance in this time. The Potation was still retained and the cost of the meetings on March 12 grew more and more. The Governors came to dine but they remained to sup. In 1784 fifteen sat down to a dinner, costing 1s. a head, they had eight bottles of Wine, 12s. 6d. worth of Punch, and Ale 4s. 6d. In 1802 ten had dinner at 2s. 6d. a head, nine had supper. They drank fourteen bottles of Wine, on Rum and Brandy they spent 15s. 6d., and on Ale 4s. 6d. Similar meetings took place each year. There was also a change in the boys' share. They probably—there is not always a record—had Figs and Bread given them every year but, sometimes Ale was also provided. In 1802 they had 5s. 6d. worth, and in 1807 they had some but it cannot be asserted that they always had it and between 1807 and 1825 the practice completely dropped and has never been revived.
Rowland Ingram—old Rowland, as the boys called him—was growing old, and in 1844 he retired on a pension. His friends and neighbours determined to give him some substantial recognition of the esteem with which they regarded him, and in January, 1845, a committee was formed to decide its nature. In the end a Portrait was painted, and the surplus was placed in the hands of the Governors, to be expended on the foundation of a library, to be attached to the School, or in any other substantial way, such as would seem to them more likely to be permanently beneficial to the School.
