fees in 1853, but it was adjudged by the inspector to be a not unreasonable fee for the high standard of education provided (certainly it compares favourably with the 120 guineas a year charged by Crosse for boarders, between 1806 and 1810, when the condition of the school was very poor). Nevertheless, the inspector recommended that the Nonconformists, if dissatisfied with the condition of the School, should appeal to the Trustees and once more to the Commissioners.
Acland resigned in April, 1892, and the Rev. John Thomas, the second master, took his place. In that year also the official enquiry was reopened. The discussions continued until May, 1899, when an Order in Council was approved by Queen Victoria, and while a new scheme was being framed G. J. Yates, M.A., held the post of headmaster as locum tenens.
Under this new scheme of 1899 a governing body of 15 members was appointed with the Mayor (ex-officio) as chairman. Five of the other members were to be appointed from the Town Council, and two from the Essex County Council, while the others were to be nominated by such interested authorities as the Bishop of St. Albans (in whose diocese, detached from that of London in 1875, Colchester was now situate), King's College, London, and the Local School Board. It was required that the headmaster (but not the Governors) should be a member of the Church of England, and the fees were scaled from £8 to £15 a year. The institution of foundation scholars came to an end, but was replaced in some measure by the creation of "entrance scholarships."
We now reach the beginning of a new age, as we are approaching the Balfour Act (1902), which brought secondary education under the control of the County, or County-Borough, Authority, with the result that the old "Town Schools" lost at least some of their purely local character. So the nineteenth century, during which the School passed through some of the most critical phases of its existence, ended characteristically upon a note of reform. The changes effected during these 100 eventful years were very great. The medieval character of the School was swept completely away, partly by the changes in the Statutes which had remained in force since Tudor times, but no less perhaps by the removal from the medieval atmosphere of Westons into the new buildings, which, in spite of their "medieval" guise, are otherwise typical of their period, and form the nucleus of the present School. Even the oldest tie of all, the School's connection with the Bishop of London, was severed when the Bishop of St. Albans replaced him as Visitor with a nomination to the Board of Governors (1899).
It is a great pity that so much that was ancient and good was lost when those changes took place. It is greatly to be regretted, for instance, that Westons was allowed to pass into private hands and be changed almost beyond recognition, instead of being preserved by the town. Yet this loss does not alter the fact that changes were necessary, and we may congratulate ourselves that the School, as
