Perhaps as a man he was too impetuous and slightly intolerant, and, though it would have been difficult for the most godly of men to keep a school alive and progressing under such conditions, it was quite impossible for him to hope to succeed, unless he kept the staff upon his side. But he quarrelled with John Howson, the Usher, on two distinct occasions, one on a question of discipline and one with regard to a French Class that he caused to be held during School hours in his own house, by a man of his own choice. On both occasions the immediate cause of disagreement was but the final spark of a smouldering and mutual discontent, and it is impossible to distribute the blame.
The Modern Language Master was placed upstairs in the High School and a space was partitioned off for him from the main part of the room, where Mr. Langhorne was giving Elementary Instruction. Such an arrangement was not entirely suitable and the French Classes were afterwards taken in the room which had been especially built for them next to the Library.
The next months saw the gradual development of a situation that caused Dr. Butterton's retirement. The Rev. John Howson also showed signs of so serious an illness that he expressed his readiness to retire, should some suitable arrangement be made. The Governors agreed to give him a pension of £120 a year.
Dr. Butterton's Headmastership cannot be dismissed without a reference to certain customs that were prevalent in his time. Down the centre of the pathway that runs alongside the School palings on to the main road there is a black stone fixed in the ground. This was a familiar place of torture. Every new boy was taken thither and made to sit down heavily on its top. It was a custom that continued for some years, until the removal of the School buildings to their present position took away the temptation. The distribution of Figs and Bread on March 12 still continued but cock-fighting had gradually died out. It had long been the custom to use the Figs as missiles and the objects of attack were Masters, Governors, spectators and even Ladies. It is very difficult to say whether March 12, was ever a day on which the Masters used to collect money gifts from the boys. Potation Day was the customary day for such offerings in many schools, but at Giggleswick the practice of receiving money from the Scholars was particularly forbidden in the case of the Writing Master in 1799, and at other times. And it may be that money was taken in a more official way. Three guineas frequently appears in the Minute-Book as the "contribution of the Scholars" towards the firing and heating of the School, and in 1852 blinds were provided for the School windows, but the Minute-Book expressly said that they were to be kept in repair by the Boys.
There has already been occasion to notice the very heavy glazier bills that the Governors had to meet, and there is a fitting commentary upon them in an extract from a letter to the Governors written by the Rev. Dr. Butterton:
"I take the opportunity of mentioning a circumstance, which requires the interference of the magistrates or at any rate of the police. Every evening all the rabble of Giggleswick and Settle assemble in the Schoolyard and conduct themselves in such a riotous manner, that no schoolboy dare enter the yard and no lady dare pass through it. They play at ball against the library wall to the imminent danger of the windows, and frequently climb up to the top of the building to the serious injury of the roof. As the nuisance seems to increase every evening, it appears to me that strong measures must be taken to put it down."
This chapter cannot close without a brief and inadequate account of the Rev. John Howson. He was born at Giggleswick in 1787 and was a pupil at the School during the later years of William Paley's Headmastership; in 1798 his name was in the list of pupils who received a prize. He graduated B.A. and M.A. at Dublin, and in March, 1814, he came back to his old School as Second Master on John Armstrong's death. He was ordained Priest and married a daughter of Mr. J. Saul, who had been at one time Writing Master at the School. He remained at Giggleswick till his death. He was of a type of schoolmaster, now extinct, hot tempered, but kindly natured; one of his pupils is said to have returned from the Colonies bent on one thing, determined to have his revenge on Howson for some act of supposed injustice done to him as a boy. His portrait reveals a geniality that marked him always, though at times he was inclined to distrust new ideas and new men. He preferred the well-trodden path.
REV. JOHN HOWSON, M.A.
