nd practical investigation, of the various geological formations
and fossils of the earth, illustrated by specimens largely of her own
collecting. {115} These were very instructive, and attended by a fairly
numerous class of pupils.

Other valuable courses of lectures were given during this early period of
the school's existence. In the autumn of 1896 Dr. R. McLay, of
Horncastle, was engaged by the Committee to give lectures in the Masonic
Hall, on "First Aid to the Injured," under the St. John's Ambulance
regulations. The pupils, numbering 25, were afterwards examined by Dr.
G. M. Lowe, of Lincoln, when 23 of them passed as entitled to St. John's
Ambulance Certificates. So much interest was shewn in these lectures (to
which policemen were specially invited), that it was resolved, in the
following year (1897), that the services of Dr. McLay should be secured
for a repetition of them, with increased remuneration. They were again
given in the autumn of that year (beginning Oct. 18), when 24 persons
attended, of whom 16 presented themselves for examination, which was
again held by Dr. Lowe, all of whom passed with credit, and gained
ambulance certificates. We give these particulars as shewing the value
of the work done at this period.

Similarly valuable instruction has been given in later years, but, with
diminished funds available, and classes smaller, owing doubtless to the
exhaustion in some degree of the stream of candidates for instruction,
compared with its flush at the outset of the school's existence, fewer
lectures on these extra subjects have been given; and instruction has
been confined to more ordinary, but not less useful, work, in drawing,
geometric and from models; modelling in clay, painting in water colours
and oils, book-keeping, arithmetic, shorthand, French, and so forth.

To show that the school has continued to do good work, we may state that
on January 25, 1906, a meeting was held for the annual prize giving, when
close upon 70 pupils, of both sexes (69), received rewards, several of
them for success in four or five different subjects. For the year 1905-6
the school received a grant of 100 pounds from the County Council, 25
pounds from the Horncastle Urban Council, and the fees of pupils paid
about half the expenses.

We now give a brief account of the more important of the work carried on
during the same period in the country parishes. In March, 1892, the
first "pioneer" lecture was give