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Chap. XIV.] Old Private Schools. 191
or treacle. When it was a case of currants, the resulting pudding bore the local name of " putty-and-flies," elsewhere sometimes called " spotted dog." Mr. Bown was twice married, and a sister of his first wife is still .alive in East-Bourne. Before my time I fancy that the social status of the pupils was higher than it was in my day. At any rate, when my old friend Sir John Lennard •of Wickham Court, Kent, came to see us one day some years ago, he told me he had been at the school, and wished me to take him round to see the buildings as they then •were, which of course I did.
The other private schools in East-Bourne between 1850 and 1860 were kept by the Misses Shoosmith, The 'Grove (small boys); Mr. Hopley, Grand Parade (big boys); the Misses James, Grand Parade (girls) ; and the Misses Martin, The Susans (girls of commercial rank). A brother of the Misses Martin (Spencer Martin) kept a grocer's shop at the Old Town, exactly opposite the Lamb ; it was pulled down not long ago to cut off the corner.
The contrast between then and now in the number of schools in East-Bourne is marvellous. I know not the present number, but as far back as 1894 they had grown to more than 200, a fact wrhich I found out when acting as Secretary of the Elementary Schools Extension Committee.
I have nothing to say about the Oxford and ■Cambridge Local Examinations except to commend them. The late Sir William Harcourt came down to give away the prizes on June 19, 1875, and made a speech a yard and a half long. I remember almost colliding with him and his eldest son, a boy of 12, at the stile near the Manor House. The said boy is now the Rt. Hon. L. Harcourt, M.P., one of the best administrators in the Asquith Cabinet.
Thus far I have been considering what in the educational parlance of the day is called " Secondary Education," but something must be said on " Primary Education." The record of the town as regards this is one of which the town may well be proud. Beginning with the year 1814, when my grandfather, with the |
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