Page:The education of the farmer.djvu/56

 The training Colleges in various parts of England have been raised at a very heavy outlay; their annual expenses average about 50l. per head for each student, calculated on 645 students in all parts of England and Wales'; of this sum 157. per head is the cost of tuition; the masters cannot be said to be highly paid, for the average of their incomes is 100l. per annum, including the salaries of men of high professional standing in very responsible offices. I believe there is no institution better managed than our own Exeter College. The entire cost per head is about 45l.; the board, including in the average that of masters and servants as well as pupils, is 17l. 10s. 6d.; washing about 21.; fuel and light about 21.; books 31. The amount per head for tuition is much below the general average, but the masters are in the proportion of one to every 13 pupils. It will be observed that in these figures there is no charge for house rent. The College has been built at a cost of 9000l., besides 2000l. for adjacent land. I have heard, in consequence of the publicity of the West of England prize schemes, of the existence of a proprietary school recently established by the middle classes at Hereford, with a capital sum of 1200l. raised in 40 shares of 30l. each. The terms to proprietors are—boarders 25l., day scholars 6l. 10s. per annum; to the public, boarders, 30l. per annum, day scholars 8l. This institution is still in its infancy.

An institution of a public kind for the education of the middle-classes exists at Probus in Cornwall, owing to the efforts and spirit of the son of a Berkshire yeoman, in which a very good education is given for 30 guineas. The school at Minehead, and at Failand Lodge near Bristol, are in some degree also due to public effort, and I believe are giving a very good education.

Should it be decided to attempt the building of a Middle-Class College, which I have heard suggested, I do not think it would be wise to commence operations without the prospect of raising five thousand pounds at least.

Supposing the College intended to hold 100 boarders, sleeping-room at 1000 cubic feet for each pupil would cost 20l. per head, or 2000l., with a plain style of building. I doubt whether school-rooms, class-rooms, masters'-rooms, offices, and other conveniences, including site, could be obtained for less than a further sum of 2000l'., to which must be added a residence for at least one married man with his family. Schools are often established in old mansions depreciated in value. Experience would lead me to think that such a building would in the end be found unsuitable except for domestic purposes, and that sooner or later the dining-hall, school-rooms, and dormitories, must rise from the ground.

Whenever any large body of men in the middle ranks are agreed on the course to be pursued, there can be no doubt that they will