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NOTES AND QUERIES. to* B. XL JTOE 27, IMS.

recently closed war between Harvey and Nashe was not a subject to be meddled with in any very pronounced or serious fashion, and Ben was too young a hand as yet to interfere with antagonists so much his seniors and of such heavy metal. He is, indeed, stretching his wings, and showing symptoms of his immediately later achievements in this kind with Dekker and Marston. More- over, Ben was too good a scholar, too devoted to the study of the classical writers, to be uncharitable to one whose erudition he must have acknowledged and respected, however much he disliked his pedantry. Harvey, though swamped by this quality, was capable of writing unaffected and beautiful verse, as his lines to Spenser (Todd's * Spenser,' ii. p. cxcvii) bear witness ; and for prose I refer readers to his attack on Dr. Perne, " round and sound " for twenty pages in Pierce's ' Supererogation ' (ii. 298 et seq.). A finer and more withering deluge of sarcasm was never poured out. It is a masterpiece of language, bitterness, and skill. As it developes, lie be- comes grand and eloquent in the ferocity of his attack, and perfectly marvellous in his wealth of language and his metaphor from every conceivable source. He must have been a superb lecturer. But to return to 'The Case is Altered.' I have made a list of Juniper's words, those obviously used gro- tesquely. I find a decided majority of the more remarkable ones in the available writings of Harvey, those in Grosart's edi- tion. How much more may have been printed it is hard to know, but in his own letter to Sir 11. Cecil (1598), printed in Gro- sart's introduction to vol. iii., applying for the Mastership of Trinity Hall, he says he has

" in MS. as many royall cantoes nearly as Ariosto wrote, in celebration of her Majesty's reign, and

will transcribe them for publication together

with many other tracts and Discourses in Latin and English, verse and prose, on Humanitie, Historic, Pojlicy, Lawe, Reason, Mathematique, Cosmogra- phie, Warre, Navigation, Chymiciue."

He says "he can in one year publish more than any Englishman hath done hitherto."

H. C. HART.

(To be continued.)

WESTMINSTER NEW CHARITY SCHOOL. WHEN the trustees of the parochial charities of St. Margaret arid St. John, Westminster, were preparing their voluminous, excellent, and very useful report for 1890, I was asked by their then clerk, Mr. J. E. Smith, who also held the position of vestry clerk, if I could discover any particulars of the " Drab Coat

School," formerly held in Dacre Street. For a considerable time I was unsuccessful, as the institution seemed to have altogether faded from memory, some of the oldest residents in the neighbourhood never having so much as heard of it. I notified my failure to the clerk, who in reply stated that "unfortu- nately, owing to the fact that the school was not an endowed parochial charity, more than a brief reference to it is precluded from the scope of the trustees' report." At that the matter rested for a while and the report was issued ; but as the few facts I ultimately obtained are of some interest, I venture to transcribe my notes for preserva- tion in ' N. & Q.,' in the hope that the parti- culars will be useful to some subsequent inquirers. As the remarks in the report were thus very few, I reproduce them here, as the book is now very scarce and probably unobtainable. It says :

" Before passing from the benefactions relating to the ' Clothed Schools,' a mention of the ' Drab Coat School ' is necessary, if only to avoid the inference that it has been overlooked. Indeed, it is only on this ground that allusion to the institution can be justified, for it was not one of the charitable endowments of the parish. The school was established in Dacre Street, probably about the year 1840, and during its short existence was supported entirely by voluntary contributions. Walcott, who wrote in 1849, gives a sketch of the recent educational efforts then made in the parish, and states that ' in Dacre Street a large free school has been established,' recording the attendance as 100 boys and 101 girls. These scholars were supplied with drab clothes, whence the name of the school was derived, and were further distinguished, so far as the boys were concerned, by large oval tablets of white metal, bearing an engraving of the old Broad- way Chapel, worn on the left breast. The school attended the services at Christ Church, erected in 1843 on the site of the Broadway Chapel, for the first few years after its opening, but appears to have become extinct on the opening of the National Schools connected therewith."

Thus the report. The inquiries which I set on foot resulted in my finding that an in- habitant whom I had known for many years had received a part of his education"^ this school, having been there for four years. Of the early days of its establishment next to no particulars were forthcoming ; utter oblivion seemed to have overtaken it. It was started in a fairly large house on the right-hand side of the street, entering from Great Chapel Street, about a third of the way down, and was numbered 5 ; but the house disappeared many years ago. The boys' school was in the lower part of the house, while the girls had the upper portion devoted to their requirements. The boys' dress con- sisted of a drab coat, cut in what may be said to have been the Quaker fashion, with a high