THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL,
which arrests the eye on Castle Gates, was founded by Edward VI., on the 18th of February, 1552, who named it the “Free Grammar School”—a title about the meaning of which there has been a good deal of philological disputation. On the south window is a Latin inscription, which runs as follows:—“At the supplication of Hugh Edwards and Richard Whittaker, King Edward the Sixth laid the foundation of a Shrewsbury School.” The supplication was induced by the fact that there was no public institution for the education of Salopian youth. This want was represented to the king in 1551 by Hugh Edwards, a mercer in London, and afterwards of the Shrewsbury college, and by Richard Whittaker, then bailiff of the town. They solicited for the maintenance of a Free Grammar School a considerable portion of the estates of the dissolved colleges of St. Mary and St. Chad. The king readily granted their request; and the tithes of Astley, Sansaw, Clive, Leaton and Almond Park, the property of St. Mary’s, with those of Frankwell, Betton, Woodcote, Horton, Bicton, Calcott, Shelton, Whitty, and Welbeck, belonging to St. Chad’s—the whole then valued at the handsome sum of £20 per annum—were given for the endowment of the school. Two masters were appointed by the bailiffs and burgesses who were nominated governors, and who, with the Bishop of Lichfield, were empowered to make statutes and ordinances. The appointment of head and second masters now rests with the Fellows of St. John’s College, Cambridge.
The first master was the Rev. Thomas Ashton who is called by Camden “the excellent and worthie,” and who had “the best filled school in all England.” He had 290 scholars, among whom were some of the aristocracy of the county, heirs of the gentry of North Wales, and representatives of the greatest families of the kingdom. He laid the foundation of that brilliant fame which the school has always maintained. From a Latin inscription on the south window we learn that “at the instance of Thomas Ashton, a man pious, learned, and prudent, within these walls ever to be revered, Queen Elizabeth augmented this foundation.” She did so by adding to it on the 23rd of May, 1571, the entire rectory of Chirbury, with further tithes and estates in the parish of St. Mary. The tithes new produce about £3,000 per annum, a portion of which is paid in stipends to the clergy of St. Mary’s, Chirbury, Clive, and Astley parishes.
The School was originally a timber building, and the chapel, tower, and library were added to it in 1595. The chapel was consecrated on 18th of May, 1617, by Dr. John Overel, Bishop of Lichfield, and the sermon was preached by Dr. Samson Price, who, for his abhorrence of Popery, was named “The maule and scourge of heretics.” The wood building which contained the first schoolroom was taken down, and the present fine edifice of Grinshill stone erected in its place in 1627. In the centre is a gateway, adorned on each side with a Corinthian column, upon which stand statues of a scholar and a graduate, bare-headed, and in the costume of the period. The library contains a large and valuable collection of books and manuscripts. It was “increased more than double by the testamentary bequest of Dr. John Taylor,” a native of the town, educated at the School.
During the mastership of Ashton the School acquired and has since maintained the most brilliant renown. The roll of illustrious students is a lengthy one. Ashton had among his scholars George Sandys, the well-known traveller, whose works obtained great commendation from Dryden and Pope: Sir Henry Sydney, ambassador to France from the court of Edward VI., President of the Welsh Marches, and Lord Deputy of Ireland, which country, says Spenser and Sir John Davies, he governed with great wisdom, and proved himself, according to Sir R. Naunton in the Fragmenta Regalia, a “man of great parts:” Sir Fulk Greville, Lord Brooke, an ingenious writer, a friend of Queen Elizabeth, and a poet of repute in his day: Sir Phillip Sidney, the noble and chivalrous soldier and poet whose bravery at the battle of Zutphen is one of the illustrious incidents in our history, and whose exquisite mind is manifested in Arcadia the picturesque and in Defence of Poesie the enchanting. Those were Ashton’s scholars, and besides them there have been educated here Sir Thomas Jones, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., whose answer to the last monarch’s remark that he could soon have twelve judges of Sir Thomas’s opinion as to his dispensation of power, “Twelve judges you may possibly find, sire, but not twelve lawyers,” is well known: Dr. John Taylor, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul’s, Chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln, and Archdeacon of Buckingham, a learned critic and philologist, who wrote a work entitled Elements of the Civil War, and published what were said to be excellent editions of Lysias, Demosthenes and Lycurgus: George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, of whose courageous opposition to the unconstitutional conduct of James II. Macaulay speaks, who, under that sovereign, was President of the Council, in the Convention Parliament was Speaker of the House of Lords, and under William and Mary was Lord Privy Seal: Edward Waring, the learned English mathematician and Lucasian Professor of mathematics at Cambridge in the middle of the last century: while among more recent celebrities there are Mr. Thomas Wright the antiquarian: Captain Richard Lloyd Edwards, an officer of the “brave and bold” six hundred who rode “into the jaws of death,” at Balaclava; and several Englishmen of note. May we not say that these are names of which we may justly boast? May we not, adopting Macaulay’s elegant eulogium on the famous students of Glasgow University, say that Shrewsbury School has sent forth men “whose talents and learning have not been wasted on selfish or ignoble objects, but have been employed to promote the physical and moral good of their species, to extend the empire of man over the material world, to defend the cause of civil and religious liberty against tyrants and bigots, and to defend the cause of virtue and order against the enemies of all divine and human laws.”
On the left of the Schools St. Nicholas’s Chapel was recently observable. It was the only one in existence of eight similar structures. It was erected by Roger de Montgomery for the use of those of his retainers who resided in the outer court of the Castle. At a subsequent period it was appropriated for the accommodation of the President and Council of the Marches of Wales. On the site has been erected a handsome structure by the English Presbyterians, who have retained its ancient name, calling it
ST. NICHOLAS’ CHURCH.
Near St. Nicholas’s Church stands
THE COUNCIL HOUSE,
approached by a fine timber gateway. In Speed’s Map it is called “Lord’s Place,” and it appears to have been erected in 1502. It was the place of residence for the Kings and Lord Presidents of the Welsh Marches when they came to Shrewsbury. King James II. kept his court in it on August 25th, 1687. It has been the scene of many a “costly banquet.” Charles I., Sir Henry Sidney, the Earl of Arundel and other noblemen have been “nobly entertained here at the expense of the town.” From the Council House we stroll on into the street which is the main thoroughfare of the town,