THE NEWPORT GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND THE OGLANDER MSS., A. D. 1615.

IN the Island Quarterly (1877, 1878, pp. 153-161) will be found an article on The Grammar School at Newport.' The writer of this interesting paper, though he refers to the Oglander MSS., does not seem to be aware of the following entry in those documents. I have transcribed it as

it is quoted in the Vectis Magazine (1822, p. 45).

'MEMORANDA FROM AN OLD MS. OF SIR John Oglander, A. D. 1615.

'The Schoolmaster of Newport is to be chosen by and with the consent of the Mayor and Justices of the town of Newport, and by and with the consent of the chiefest of the knights and gentlemen of the island, who have as free choice in this election as the Mayor. This was concluded before me at the Town Hall, when Mr. Elgor, the first schoolmaster, was there in the like manner chosen. After the election the Mayor confirms it under his town seal, because the school could not be made over to any another but by way of mortmain to the town.-JOHN OGLANDER.'

'Honey Hill, being formerly part of the forest, was, by my Lord of Southampton's approbation, enclosed for a maintenance to the school: it is now stated for £8 per annum, and when it is out of lease will be worth £20.'

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The knights and gentlemen of the island' must have allowed their power of joint appointment of the schoolmaster to lapse, since Worsley, in his History of the Isle of Wight, says, The schoolmaster is appointed by the Corporation. under the common seal,' thus confirming the statement in the Island Quarterly that the appointment of masters was vested in the Mayor and Corporation of Newport, who were virtually the Trustees of the Grammar School.' The wellinformed writer of this article in the Island Quarterly proceeds to state that the management of the Grammar School was transferred to the Charity Trustees, and enumerates a list

of the then Trustees (1877, 1878), all of whom were residents. Here certain questions arise,-Was this change in the Trust effected by the Court of Chancery? If so, was the Court aware of this provision, mentioned by Oglander, respecting the appointment of the schoolmaster by the knights and gentlemen of the island conjointly with the Mayor of Newport? It is the practice of the Court of Chancery in dealing with charitable trusts to act upon the well-known principle of cy-près, that is, in some method conformable to the general object and adhering as closely as possible to the specific design of the donor. And on grounds of public policy, it is, I believe, the custom of the Court to enlarge, rather than restrict, the provisions of the trust. As I am ignorant of the nature of the authority by which the trust was made over from the Corporation of Newport, and afterwards from the more general body of Trustees to those living within the municipal boundaries of the borough of Newport, so also do I know nothing of the provisions which regulate the election of these Trustees.

The present governing body of the School have so efficiently and conscientiously fulfilled their duties that no one would wish to see any alteration in their composition. Under present circumstances it is probably better that the interests of the Newport Grammar School should be watched over by citizens of Newport. If Sir John Oglander be correct, the original foundation contemplated a wider area for the selection of the Trustees, but in these days founders' intentions are slightly regarded and certainly it is not desirable now to make any change in the arrangements of a Trust which has been so recently ordered, by legal authority, under the advice of those who were best able to judge what was for the real advantage of this old foundation.

Let us hope that the present Trustees will not allow any change to be made in the gabled front and interior of the Schoolroom, which has little changed since it served as the presence-chamber of Charles I. There has been some talk about adapting the present buildings to modern requirements. No doubt it is to be desired that more accommodation should be provided, but when that alteration is carried out, let new

buildings be erected. It would probably be cheaper to build a new schoolroom than to alter the old room.

In full reliance that the present Trustees will not make it necessary for the people of the Isle of Wight to call in the aid of the Society which has been established for the preservation of the ancient buildings of this country, I have ventured on adding these few words to my extract from the Oglander Memoirs.

When Charles I occupied the schoolroom as his presencechamber, Mr. Elgor had ceased to be master, and his place was taken by Mr. William Hopkins, 'a little ancient man.' Both he and his son, 'a lusty, stout young man, about twentysix or twenty-seven years of age,' were devoted Royalists. February 7, 1885.

SIR HUGH

MIDDLETON'S ATTEMPT TO

ENCLOSE BRADING HAVEN, AS TOLD IN THE OGLANDER MEMOIRS.

THE operations of the Transit Company,' give the promise of a great boon to the Isle of Wight, and will, when carried out, make Brading Haven one of the busiest harbours in this Island. Under these circumstances the following extract from the manuscript memoirs of Sir John Oglander may be of interest.

Brading Haven was begged by one Gibb, a great favourite and groom of the bed-chamber to King James the First. The Haven was challenged by the gentlemen of the island whose land joined to it. King James was very earnest in the suit against them, both because it concerned his old servant, as also that it might be a leading case to the fens in Lincolnshire. After the verdict went in the Exchequer against the gentlemen, Sir Beavis Thelwell, a page of the bed-chamber to King James, also gave Gibb £2,000 for his grant. One Sir Hugh Middleton came in a sharer with Sir Beavis Thelwell, and by the help of Dutchmen

undertook the enclosing of it. They began to inn the haven Dec. 10, 1620. Sir Beavis after the enclosure enjoyed it eight years, bestowed much money in building a barn, house, mills, and many other devices, until March 8, 1630, that the sea broke in again. The nature of the ground after it was in was not answerable to what was expected; for almost a moiety of it next the sea was a light running sand little worth; the best of it was down at the farthest end next Brading. I count that there were 200 acres that might be worth 6s. and 8d. per acre, and the rest 2s. and 6d.; the total of the haven was 700 acres. Sir Hugh Middleton, before he sold his share, tried all experiments, sowing wheat, barley, oats, cabbage, and onion seeds, and last of all, rape seed, which proved the best, but all the rest came to nothing. The great inconvenience was that the sea brought in so much sand, and oaze, and sea-weed, that choaked up the passage where the fresh should go out, insomuch that I am of opinion, if the sea had not broke in Sir Beavis would hardly have kept it, for there would have been no current for the fresh to go out, for the east tide brought so much sand in that the fresh was not of force to scour it away, so that in time it must have lain to the sea, or the fresh would have drowned the whole country; therefore, in my opinion, it is not good meddling with the haven. The cause of its being lost again to the sea was by reason of a wet time when the haven was full of fresh water, and then at a high spring-tide both the waters met underneath, which caused a breach to ensue. I would wish no friend of mine to have a hand in the second inning of it. It cost at the first taking of it in £4,000, afterwards in building the barn, dwelling-house, water-mill, with trenching and quick-setting and making the partitions not less than £1,000 more; so that it stood then in the total (purchasing the grant and all) full to £7,000. All the encouragement I can give any that will venture to inn it a second time is that it will yield in some seven or eight years £150 per annum, but you must never expect much more. It will improve the country for health, but the danger is in bringing in beach, weeds, and sand, that will stop the current next the sea, and consequently the passage of the fresh water.--J.O.'

The one Sir Hugh Middleton' of this extract (whose

grandson and namesake married Dorothy, grand-daughter of Sir John Oglander) was the citizen and goldsmith,' who in 1606 offered to bring to London a sufficient supply of pure water at his own cost. His offer was accepted, and having fixed on the Chadwell and Amwell springs near Ware in Hertfordshire as the sources out of which his 'New River' was to be formed, he commenced in 1608 a work which, considering the imperfect mechanical agencies of those times, was a wonderful effort of engineering skill. In 1622 Middleton was created a baronet (the king by special warrant excusing him from the usual payment of the fee, £1,095) for three reasons which are assigned in a paper in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum signed W. Camden, Clarenceux.'

The second of these is for gaining a very great and spacious quantity of land in Brading Haven, in the Isle of Wight, out of the bowelles of the sea; and with banks and piles, and most strange and defensible and chargeable mountains, fortifying same against the violence and fury of the waves.'

In 1699 another scheme was suggested for what Sir John Oglander calls the 'inning' of Brading Haven. This good old-fashioned word 'inning,' which, though found in Chaucer, seems to have died out except in the cricket-field, might well be revived. The abstract of this scheme, an estimate of the charge of taking in, draining, and securing the Haven of Brading,' at the cost of £4,170, signed by Heny. Sher, Surveyor, will be found in Appendix No. lxxxiv. in Worsley's History. The Appendix lxxxiii. is the copy of the award made to Sir John de Weston, who had claimed the right of fishing in Brading Haven, and had submitted it to arbitration in the sixth year of Edward II. Worsley (Hist. I. W. p. 195) has also mentioned some earlier attempts to recover this large piece of land from the sea, a part of it having been taken in by Sir William Russell, Warden of the Isle of Wight in the reign of Edward I.

Mr. Thorne, in his excellent description of the Isle of Wight (The Land we Live in, vol. ii. p. 262), has told the ancient legend of the Haven: Now in former days neither lake nor swamp existed here, but instead, a green valley.