Autograph Letter Signed ('C S. Calverley.') from the poet Charles Stuart Calverley [C. S. Calverley] to 'Mr. Stocker', with a description of the 'Johnian System of Marking' [St John's College, Cambridge?], and his use of it at Cheltenham College.

Both letter and description on the same bifolium. Letter: 1p., 12mo. On recto of first leaf. Description (headed 'Johnian System of Marking'): lengthwise across the verso of the first leaf and recto of the second, and thus making 1p., 8vo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Calverley begins by wondering whether he has 'made the Johnian System [...] intelligible' in his description. 'It was devised by some old John's man, has been in use for many years in Examinations in that college and elsewhere, and has been found by experience to save much time and trouble when one has to deal with large figures, as is of course very generally the case'. Calverley found it 'so easy' that even he 'could understand and profit by it', and he used it 'since I learnt it from my coexaminer at Cheltenham College' until 'my examining days were over'. Overleaf from the letter he gives a description of the Johnian System, before contrasting it with the Common Notation. In a note he recalls how he, while 'examining at Cheltenham (Chattenham) marked the classical papers in the usual way. My Colleague, a Fellow of John's, marked the mathematical as above: then reduced my Notation to his, and found the sum of each boy's classical and mathematical marks in J. N. Finally, as the Headmaster woulnd not understand pluses and minuses, he multiplied the result by 3, and sent it in in C. N. it was all done very rapidly and would have taken me 10 times as long.' Beneath this Calverley explains the reference to 'Chattenham', and describes his colleague as 'an excellent fellow, with about as much idea of sticking on a horse as a pair of compasses might have.'