HARROW-on-the-HILL, a parish (formerly a market
town) in the hundred of GORE, county of MIDDLESEX,
9 miles (N. W. by W.) from London, containing, with
the hamlet of Weald with Greenhill, 3017 inhabitants.
This place is chiefly distinguished on account of the
free grammar school, founded in the reign of Elizabeth,
in 1571, which ranks among the most celebrated classical
schools in England. The founder was John Lyon, a
native of the neighbouring hamlet of Preston, who, in
1590, drew up a set of statutes for the school, in which,
among various regulations, he directed that the pupils
should be instructed in archery, and it was customary,
until about the middle of the last century, for the scholars
to hold an annual festival on the 4th of August, when
they shot at a mark for a silver arrow: this usage having
been abolished, public speeches are now delivered on the
anniversary of that day: the school is under the direction
of six governors. The head master has a salary
of £20 per annum from the funds of the institution,
with liberty to take private pupils; the second master
has £ 10 per annum j and there are six assistant masters;
but the emoluments of all these gentlemen are principally
derived from stipendiary tuition. The school is
free for all boys belonging to the parish of Harrow, who
are entitled to gratuitous instruction, but very few avail
themselves of the privilege. The number of boys
not on the foundation is usually between three and four
hundred, and they enjoy all the privileges attached to
the institution. Two exhibitioners from this school are
admitted at Cambridge, and two at Oxford, with pensions
allotted by the founder, who directed that £20
per annum should be divided among them, but they
now receive £20 per annum each for eight years. The
governors have not long since instituted two annual
scholarships, with pensions of £52. 10. for four years
at either of the Universities. The. rents of the estates
given for the support of this institution by Mr. Lyon,
amounted in 1795 to£669 per annum, which.was expended
by the governors in paying salaries and exhibitions,
educating poor children, relieving decayed housekeepers,
repairing roads, &c., agreeably to the directions of the
donor: at present the income is much more considerable,
part of the estates having been let on building leases. A
charter was granted by Henry III. to the inhabitants of
Harrow, for a market on Monday, and an annual fair;
the former has been discontinued,but a fair is still held on
the first Monday in August. No staple manufacture is
carried on, the trade of the place depending chiefly
on the demand for the necessaries of life for the supply
of the school, and of the numerous visitors from the
metropolis and its neighbourhood.
The living is a vicarage, in the exempt deanery of
Croydon, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, rated in the king's books at £33.4.2., and
in the patronage of Lord Northwick. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, is a spacious structure, with a tower
and lofty spire at the west end; the pillars between the
nave and the aisles, and a part of the tower, where there
is a curious Norman doorway, probably formed portions
of a church recorded to have been founded by Lanfranc
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of William I.  but
the remainder of the edifice appears to have been rebuilt
in the latter part of the fourteenth century: in this
church was interred the celebrated poet and physician
Sir Samuel Garth. There is a chapel of ease at Pinner,
in this parish. Here are places of worship for
Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. Besides the grammar
school, there is a charity school for twelve poor
children, with a small endowment, partly from a bequest
by Edward Robinson, in1711; and also a
school on the National plan. At the extremity of the
parish, towards Stanmore, was anciently a priory called
Benethly, or Bentley, the site of which now forms part
of the estate of the Marquis of Abercorn, who has
near it a splendid and richly furnished mansion, called
Bentley Priory. The learned Dr. Samuel Parr was born,
in 1747, at Harrow, )where his father practised as an
apothecary,) and died at Hatton, in Warwickshire, in
1825.