There were four principal applicants for the Headmastership and on May 26, 1869, the Governors elected as Headmaster the Rev. George Style, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, who since the beginning of 1868 had been an Assistant Master at Clifton College.
The staff of Masters consisted of Mr. Style, the Headmaster, Mr. C. H. Jeaffreson, late Scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford, the Second Master, without however a freehold, Mr. Arthur Brewin, who was still in charge of the Lower School, which at this time came rather to be known as the Junior or Preparatory School, and Herr Stanger who visited the School on certain days each week in order to teach German.
When Mr. Style came he found fifty-six boys in the School; of these, three became boarders in the Hostel, fifteen were boarding in various houses in the neighbourhood and the rest lived with their parents. In March, 1870, at the Annual Meeting, the Headmaster reported that there were sixty-one boys in the School of whom nine were in the Hostel and sixteen in private Boarding-houses. The system of Private Boarding-houses constituted a difficulty common to many of the older schools in England at this period. It was not possible to put a sudden stop to a practice that had been prevalent for the most part of three centuries and yet the accommodation in many of these lodging-houses was inadequate and the sanitary arrangements most prejudicial to health. It is only necessary to glance at the regulations which the Governors thought fit to make to realize how unrestricted had been the life of the boys who lodged in such houses. Henceforward no boy could live in a house, other than his parents', unless the tenant had received a license from the Governing Body. No boy was to be allowed to leave the house after 7-0 p.m. in Winter, and 9-0 p.m. in Summer. No boy should enter a Public House, or smoke or play cards, and any breach of the rules was to be forthwith reported to the Headmaster. This was the first occasion on which any rules had been laid down. Eventually the private Boarding-houses gave place to the Hostel, where greater opportunities existed for study and discipline; in 1871 only four such private boarders remained and soon afterwards there were none.