No school of the period attracted more attention or enjoyed greater prosperity than did the New York High School, a private institution for boys, which the son of its founder[209] calls, at the time of its organization, “the first and the only pay school in this country established on the professed principle of cheap and efficient instruction based on ... the adoption and employment of the monitorial system, by which one teacher can communicate his knowledge to a large number of pupils.” It was located in New York City, on Crosby Street, above Grand, and opened March 1, 1825, with about 250 boys; but the numbers rapidly increased to more than 600, and there were still about 400 at the time of its discontinuance, near the close of 1831. The founder was John Griscom (1774-1852), who during a year of foreign travel had examined many famous European schools, and refers in the published account of his observations[210] to the gymnastic exercises which he saw in Paris, at the school of Amoros[211] (August 27, 1818), and in Switzerland at the schools of Fellenberg, in Hofwyl (October 2 and 3, 1818), and Pestalozzi, in Yverdon (October 8 and 9, 1818). In writing of the visit to Amoros he remarks: “A systematic course of instruction, with proper exercises, on the right use of their limbs, I have long thought would be very advantageous to boys;” and his opening address at the New York High School[212] contains the following: “I shall refrain from dwelling longer on the literary pursuits of this seminary; but I cannot dismiss my subject without adverting to one branch of instruction which it is equally the wish, I believe, of the trustees and principals to establish as a constituent part of our general plan, from a conviction of its advantages to the bodily vigor and of course to the intellectual strength and activity of our pupils. I allude to _gymnastics_.” The second annual report of the Trustees[213] informs the public that “Gymnastic exercises have been introduced, under the superintendence of an experienced and careful teacher, and they have been attended with evident advantage to the spirits and health of the pupils.” Other schools which introduced gymnastic exercises, or planned to do so, during the period under review, were the New Haven Gymnasium, conducted by two sons of President Timothy Dwight of Yale; the Berkshire High School, at Pittsfield, Mass.; the Mount Pleasant Classical Institution, at Amherst, Mass.; the Livingston County High School, near Geneseo, New York; the Buffalo High School; Gideon F. Thayer’s private school for boys, in Harvard Place, Boston; the Noyes School, at Andover, New Hampshire; Walnut Grove School, at Troy, New York; a High School in Utica, New York; the Brookline (Mass.) Gymnasium; Mount Hope Literary and Scientific Institution, near Baltimore, Maryland; and the Classical and Scientific Seminary at Ballston, New York.[214]