But centuries before this the Beverley Grammar School must have been in existence. For it was part and parcel of the Collegiate Church of Saint John of Beverley, and one of the first duties of a collegiate church was to establish and maintain a school for the education of youth. Therefore, just as the Minster of St. Peter at York maintained a school—and a very famous one too—as early as the year 730, so the Minster of St. John of Beverley will undoubtedly have maintained a school for many years before the Norman Conquest. Its foundation is, in fact, believed to date from the eighth century. [Illustration: ARMS OF HOWDEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL. (_Originally the Arms of Bishop Skirlaw_) ] Beverley Grammar School is, far and away, the oldest school in the East Riding. But not long after, if not before, the date of the first written evidence of it, there was in existence another East Riding School—the HOWDEN GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Its origin was similar to that of the Beverley school, for in 1265 the parish church of Howden was turned into a collegiate church, and the rector was replaced by a body of canons, whose duty it became to establish a school. This duty they fulfilled, and the Howden Grammar School thus came into being some time before 1312. [Illustration: ARMS OF BRIDLINGTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL.] The beginnings of BRIDLINGTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL are shrouded in mystery. It was originally a school attached to the Bridlington Priory, and its earliest mention occurs in a document promising that a royal grant formerly paid to the ‘Prior and Convent of St. Marie, Byrdlington,’ should be continued, whereas other similar grants were then being withdrawn. This was in the year 1450. The fact that this document was issued by King Henry VI. gives the Bridlington Grammar School some claim to the title of ‘A Once Royal School.’ The royal grant was made—using the King’s words—‘for the great affection and singular devotion that we have to the glorious confessor, Saint John of Bridlington’; and by it the Prior and Canons of Bridlington were bound as in finding of XII. Quarasters, and a maister to teach them both gramer and song. * * * * * The HULL GRAMMAR SCHOOL is a notable example of a chantry school. It owes its existence to the piety of John Alcock, Bishop of Rochester, who in 1482 founded ‘The Chauntrie of Bisshoppe Alcocke in the parish churche of the Trinities in Hull.’ [Illustration: ARMS OF THE HULL GRAMMAR SCHOOL. ] This means, in other words, that the founder purchased lands and gave them to the Church, on the understanding that the rent of these lands was for ever to be used for the stipend of a priest who should each day at th’aulter of Our Ladie and St. John the Evangelist ... pray for the soules of King Edward IV., the founder, and all christien sowles. But Bishop Alcock’s chantry priest was to do more than this. For the license granted by the King states that he