Page:Account of the Boys' Charity School founded, in 1733, by Mrs. Katherine Bayley, in the city of Coventry.pdf/4

 master. In the same year a band was established in connection with the school, vocal music being also introduced. In 1858 a circulating library of such books as were calculated to instruct and amuse children was commenced, the interest being kept up by the monthly addition of juvenile periodicals. The number of books now exceeds 1,000. They are largely used and highly appreciated by the scholars. The introduction of drawing has also been attended with very satisfactory results. In 1857 and 1858 considerable additions and improvements were made to the apparatus, the desks and other furniture re-arranged, a better mode of ventilation adopted, a new porch built, and other alterations carried out, with a view to the increased comfort of master and children; the quality of the clothing being also further improved. The holidays have been revised, and now consist of a week at Easter and Michaelmas, three weeks at Midsummer, two-and-a-half weeks at Christmas, besides a few days in the course of the year on special occasions. Excursions once or twice during the summer have been organised for the older boys by way of encouragement, the expenses of which are defrayed by a separate fund collected by the master. Visits have thus been paid, during the last seven years, to London, Lichfield, Matlock, Stratford-on-Avon, Rhyl, Warwick, Leamington, &c. During the recent depression an attempt was made to increase the number of boys on the foundation to 56, but owing to the falling off of the annual collections, depreciation of the charity property, the rise in price of material for boys' clothes, and other causes, the trustees have been compelled to return to the former number of 51, after an unsuccessful trial of four years; the premium, too, from the state of the funds, being of necessity reduced from £3 to £2.

The boys are elected annually, in February or March, and are selected from the children of resident mechanics, whose circumstances, character, or industry recommend them. The candidates are nominated by the trustees, and must be over ten years of age and under 11 at the time of their admission, and must produce a certificate of their baptism on application. The livery of the school comprises a drab coat, with dark blue collars and cuffs with brass buttons round them (after the style of the last century), drab vest, dark green corduroy trousers, black naval They are caps, boots, and socks (two pairs). newly clothed every Easter, and remain in the school three years, receiving three suits of clothes; all the requisites for their use in school being found gratuitously for them. They are carefully taught in the principles of the Christian faith, according to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, also in reading, writing, and casting accounts, and such other branches of secular instruction as may fit them