Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/429

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12 s. ii. NOV. 25, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


423


the intercourse between the two towns was so markedly and even jealously limited, even down to our own day, that he would have had no great difficulty in getting his expenses paid by each place without detection (ibid., 1330-33, p. ,552). The whole story, indeed, presents various problems of interest, to the local as well as the constitutional historian, and it is worth examination in the light of both local and constitutional records.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.


QUEEX ELIZABETH'S PALACE,

ENFIELD : DR. ROBERT UVEDALE, SCHOLAR

AND BOTANIST:

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, ENFIELD. (See ante, pp. 361, 384, 404.)

III. THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, ENFIELD.

Now that the old Palace forms no part of any educational establishment at Enfield, the present Grammar School is the sole repre- sentative of anything appertaining to Uve- dale's genius as a schoolmaster in that town ; and whatever may have been his actual position with regard to it, it now claims him as one of its pious founders. How this has come about I do not quite know. At all events, my recent visit to Enfield has shown me that this is the fact. This school, as I have stated, was founded in 1557, late in Mary's reign, though, it is said, there have been traces discovered of an earlier scholastic foundation. It lies just across the High Street, at a very little distance from the old Palace, and practically adjoining the church- yard of the parish church of St. Andrew ; so that its old master lies buried within a stone's throw of where a very important part of his life's work was carried on. In 1875 the school seems to have undergone restoration, and in 1 909 the greater part of it was rebuilt ; the old school or classroom in which Uvedale taught or lectured is now used as the dining-room, being retained, together with the very interesting spiral staircase of old brick and stone work. The whole is now under the financial supervision and control of the Middlesex County Educational Committee ; whilst considerable progress has been made in its advancement, the scholars now numbering nearly three hundred.

I am inclined to think that it was under the late mastership of Mr. W. S. Ridewood,


B.A., B.Sc., that the influence of its old' master, Uvedale, began to be resuscitated in the school ; and it was, I believe, largely at the instance of Mr. J. W. Ford, formerly of Enfield Old Park, a zealous local antiquary, magistrate of the county, and a former Governor of theschool who had taken a great interest in its welfare and development that the Uvedale arms, conspicuous in their sim- plicity Argent, a cross moline gules were adopted as the school badge, and so worn on the boys' school caps. A repre- sentation of the arms appears on a large shield in the fine new classroom ; whilst they also have a place in the old classroom now used as a dining-room as well as over the front entrance door to the school.

Mr. Ridewood, who was master there for thirty -two years, has composed the words of a school song, in which the Uvedale motto, Tant que je puis, is used as a refrain, or chorus, to each verse. It is set to stirring music by Mr. W. T. Trusler, an old boy. This is sung on the annual speech day by the boys, much as ' Dulce Domum ' is sung to this day at Winchester College, the old school of the Uvedales.

A very interesting relic of the botanist is preserved in this old classroom, kept under lock and key in a small glazed wooden box or case over the fire-place, which, through the kindness of the present head master, Mr. E. M. Eagles, M.A., I was allowed to inspect. It consists of a fragment of an old Hebrew Bible* in which, on a single blank page, were entered the names of all the botanist's children five sons and six daughters born whilst he was at Enfield. The dates are filled in with the pedantry of a school- master according to the Roman calendar in Ides and Kalends.

In the pedigree in Hutchins which, as we have seen, was furnished by Uvedale's great-grandson the children are given as three sons and five daughters only. This

  • I believe amongst Dr. Uvedale's accomplish-

ments may be classed the study of Hebrew, in which study his great-grandson, the Rev. Robert Uvedale, M .A., is also said to have been proficient. It is noteworthy how this gift or predilection for Hebraistic scholarship appears to run in a family in which, so far as I know, no Semitic trace has ever been found. Another branch of the family comprises the famous and unfortunate John Udall. . the subject of a recent article by me in ' N. & Q. (II S. xi. 251), the author of the first Hebrew grammar published in English (the first edition of which was printed at Leyden in 1593), and his son Kphraim. also said to have been a good Hebrew scholar the one a Puritan and the other a Royalist divine.