Until 1349 it was the custom for boys to translate their Latin authors into Norman-French, this being the ordinary language of ‘gentlefolk.’ But then the change of making English the medium of translation was introduced; and thirty-six years later an English chronicler lamented that, because of the change, ‘grammar-school children knew no more French than did their left heel.’ What a lively time the schoolboy had in those ‘good old days’! Hours of study, from early morning till bedtime; subjects taught, Latin grammar and Latin authors—these being plentifully varied with such pleasant interludes as that pictured in the seal of Louth Grammar School. Little wonder that Shakespeare, himself an ‘old boy’ of the Stratford-on-Avon Grammar School, had memories of ... the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. Little wonder, also, that in the churchwardens’ accounts for Howden there occur numerous payments for ‘glasse for repairing the schollehouse windows.’ Boys will, of course, be boys, as long as the world lasts, and even in the seventeenth century they had to work off their excess of high spirits somehow or other. * * * * * _Grammar Schools_ were not the only class of schools in existence during former days. There were two other kinds. _Song Schools_ were closely connected with the services in large churches. They ranked below the Grammar Schools, and their scholars were taught to read, write, and figure, as well as to sing the various portions of the church service. The Choir School attached to Holy Trinity Church, Hull, is a modern representative of the mediæval Song School. Of less rank, again, were the _Reading Schools_. Populous towns might possess a school of each kind, as did Howden in 1401. But often the Song School and the Reading School were combined in one; and sometimes, as at Bridlington, the Grammar School was also a Song School. But generally the vicar or the chantry priest was the master of the Grammar School, while the parish clerk was the master of the Song School. Any decrepit old man who had sufficient learning, but who had fallen on evil days, might be the master of the Reading School; where it would be his duty to teach the _petits_, or little ones, their ABC. Sometimes the _petits_ had their name changed into English, and were then known as the _Petties_, or as the _ABCies_. The latter of these two names was usually written in a very quaint form—_abseies_. * * * * * In the extracts from the foundation deeds of the Hull and Pocklington Grammar Schools given on pages 325 and 326 are two noticeable points. First, in both the master is to teach all boys who may come to the school, and in the one first quoted it is expressly stated that he is not to take ‘any stipend or wages for the same.’ The school was to be a _Free Grammar School_.