ABSTRACT
The first half of the seventeenth century may be regarded as in many respects the golden age of the English grammar school—and not of the grammar school alone. There is growing evidence to support the view that during this period something approaching a national system of schools of varying types was established, or at any rate that by 1660 a whole network of schools had been set up, covering not only the principal towns, but many villages and hamlets as well.
