published a letter from him in which he stated that he had on October 25th presented a memorial to the Bishop of London, signed by the Free Burgesses, in which the Bishop's attention was drawn to the condition of the School, with a petition that he should consider a revision of the curriculum, and that the Bishop had promised his earliest possible attention to the matter.
As the Bishop was acting in his capacity as Visitor, Dunningham and the Council were virtually powerless. On July 11th, 1844, new Statutes and Ordinances (a copy of which hangs in Big School) prepared by the Bishop of London and the Dean of St. Paul's were published, by the first of which the original series of 1587 was cancelled. Some of the statutes which followed were merely repetitions of the old, but the expected changes were made. The nature of the classical education was left to the discretion of the master, and the teaching of such subjects as mathematics, history and geography was introduced. Religious instruction was reorganised also: morning and evening prayers were retained on weekdays, and the scholars were to be prepared for confirmation— though now through the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer. On Sundays the scholars were to be free to attend church "with their respective parents or friends," unless they were boarders, when they were to attend with the master.
The number of free scholars was to be increased, provisionally to 20, with a view to admitting a larger number when the income of the endowment itself increased. In the future, also, the free scholars were to be chosen by the Mayor, Aldermen and Council "from among the children of the inhabitants of the Borough at large," and it was added that "no distinction is to be made by the master between the free scholars and those who pay."
One Statute in the new series regularised the allowance to be made for holidays, which were not mentioned in 1587, although we know that there was at least a Christmas break in Dugard's time. The holidays were to consist of five weeks at Midsummer, four at Christmas, one at Easter, "and no more"; but the Mayor was empowered to grant others "on any occasion of public solemnity or rejoicing, whether national or local." This was offset by provision for annual examinations, either before Christmas or Midsummer.
These Statutes effected a considerable change in the character of the School. The desired broader education was now offered, by reason of the changes in the regulations governing the free scholars, to a much wider section of the town's population, and while allowance was made for a still wider extension of the curriculum at the Visitor's discretion, the inclusion of the new subjects, now authorised by the Statutes, meant that the free education was no longer exclusively classical. Between the publication of these Statutes in 1844 and the year 1850 28 boys were admitted as foundation scholars.
