Mr. Blakiston's resignation was accepted at the same meeting, and Mr. Thomas Bramley was appointed as his temporary successor. He had already been acting as an Assistant in the place of the Usher, and his salary was now raised to £250 a year, and he was liable to supersession at three months' notice; he had no freehold, and was only intended to act as Master for a limited period. Before closing the Chapter on Mr. Blakiston's career at Giggleswick it will be well to recapitulate briefly some of the excellent work that he had accomplished. He had come in a time of transition. Education throughout England was in the melting-pot. Giggleswick itself had very considerable opportunities of expanding into one of the foremost Schools in the North of England. The population was growing rapidly. New industries were springing up on every hand. A generation was coming to manhood, whose needs were as yet a matter for speculation. But Giggleswick had a traditional hold upon the minds of the North, it had also a rich endowment. Was it prepared to meet the necessities of the hour, or was it to continue in the same self-centred policy that had served well enough in the past? Mr. Blakiston answered the question at once. He was young, he was ambitious, he was a scholar. He was also in his ideas a revolutionary. It is not difficult to picture the result. Thrown into the midst of a slow-moving machinery, alone in his estimate of the potential greatness of the School, supremely conscious of his mission, he found himself a solitary. There are two methods of progress. One to oil the old cog-wheels and pray for progression. Another to point out the clogging nature of the machinery and propose a new device. He chose the latter method. It was bold and dangerous. But he went through with it courageously. The numbers dropped rapidly, the fame of the School suffered a relapse, but in the end the victory was his. Before he retired, one new scheme had been adopted, another and a better one was awaiting confirmation, the suggestion of a new Boarding-house was being pressed forward, and the field was clear for the great and revolutionary change--the adoption of a system of capitation fees. The subsequent prosperity of the School owed much of its swift development to the Headmastership of Mr. Blakiston, and it is a grateful task to record it. CHAPTER X. A New Era.