^arr0ttJ School cr* CO o 1 •)t 0^. HARROW SCHOOL HARROW SCHOOL EDITED BY EDMUND W. HOWSON, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; ASSISTANT-MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL AND GEORGE TOWNSEND WARNER, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; ASSISTANT-MASTER AT HARROW SCHOOL WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE EARL SPENCER, K.G. CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNORS OF HARROW SCHOOL ILLUSTRATED BY HERBERT M. MARSHALL EDWARD ARNOLD LONDON: 37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 1898 EDITORS' PREFACE In placing this book before the pubhc in general, and Harrovians in particular, it may be well to explain the principle upon which it has been constructed. It has been our object to present a series of studies written by competent authorities on the main aspects of the school Ufe and history. Proceeding on this method, we have found it possible to publish much material which is essentially new. For example, by his labori- ous researches into the Court Rolls of Harrow Manor, Mr. Hewlett has not only collected a large amount of valuable information from the reign of Edward III. onwards, but has discovered traces of a school at Harrow as early as the year 1475. Again, the Master of Trinity in his history of the Benefactions, and Mr. Lascelles in his account of the earlier Headmasters, have succeeded in clothing with human interest what has hitherto been little more than a mere list of names. The article by Mr. C. S. Roundell will be found to provide an exhaustive study of pubhc -school life during the Forties; while those by Professor Courthope and Sir Henry Cunningham on Harrow Statesmen and Men of Letters will, we feel sure, possess a special interest for our readers, not only for the sake of their distinguished authorship, but also for the very remarkable portrait - gallery of Harrovian celebrities which they contain. We know the magnitude of the task we have undertaken ; with- out the generous and loyal co-operation of our various contributors, it would have been impossible. To each and all we are conscious of a deep debt of gratitude, a debt which is all the greater when it is remembered that most of the articles have been written in the intervals of very busy Uves. iwl027a4 vi HARROW SCHOOL We think we may leave Mr. Marshall's illustrations to speak for themselves. To Harrovians they will recall well-remembered scenes ; to those who do not know Harrow they will convey an admirable impression of the school in its life and its surroundings ; to all alike they will be a most valuable portion of the book. It is probable, indeed inevitable, that some errors will be dis- covered in what has been written, but we rely on the indulgence of our readers to pardon them, and, where possible, to assist us in correcting them. We have done our utmost to make the book a work of permanent interest and value ; and with these few prefatory remarks, we venture to submit it to the judgment of the Harrow world. Quod felix faustumque sit. E. W. HowsoN. G. TowNSEND Warner. INTRODUCTORY NOTE I HAVE been asked, as an old Harrovian who has always felt much affection for his old school, to introduce this book to its readers. Even as England herself has no exact counterpart in other countries, so the system of education and the customs of our public schools are not found elsewhere. I feel, therefore, that these sketches of school life during the present century should be of permanent value to the public ; but to old Harrovians, for whom the work is specially meant, its importance will be far greater. We old Harrovians who read it will find many new and fresh facts in its pages, both of times before and after we knew the school. We are also vividly reminded of persons who were familiar to us, but who have long passed out of our lives. We see again before us masters and school-fellows with whom we were intimately acquainted, and we follow with interest and admira- tion their public careers. We recognise scenes which tell us how, in a smaller world, we learned to meet responsibilities and to overcome difficulties similar to those which we have had to encounter in the larger world where we have since taken our places. We can thus recall our school -days and the traditions which belonged to them. These traditions connect us with those who, famous in the Church, in the State, in the Navy, in the Army, in the world of Law as in that of Letters, or successful in Commerce, have left their mark in the history of their country. viii HARROW SCHOOL When we who are no longer young turn from these considerations, we notice with pleasure other things. New advantages have been given of late years to Harrow boys, in the improvement and extension of education, in the better arrange- ment of houses and school-rooms, in the development of a taste for music and school songs, in a greater space for games. These advan- tages are valuable. They have kept Harrow in that position which the Headmasters have successively secured for it in the wide competi- tion which now exists among public schools. I trust that this book will both interest old Harrovians, and also encourage boys now at Harrow to emulate the deeds of their predecessors. Many of these after leaving school have proved, and are still prov- ing, that Harrow can produce not only men of culture and learning, but men of sound religion, of high aims and aspirations in pubUc life, men able to lead others and to promote the well-being and prosperity of their country. Spexcer. April 1898. \ jlri /I t3 K CONTENTS PROLOGUE PAGE "Harrow." By the Earl of Crewe . ....... xvii CHAPTER I The History of the Manors of Harrow and Harrow Hill Rectory, and the School anterior to John Lyon. By W. O. Hewlett ....... 1 CHAPTER n The Origin of Grammar Schools. By the Rev. Hastings Rashdall . . . .11 CHAPTER HI John Lyon. By Percy M. Thoraton, M.P. . ...... 18 CHAPTER IV Harrow School Buildings. By W. O. Hewlett . . . . . .25 CHAPTER V The Houses. By E. M. Butler ........ 35 CHAPTER VI Early Headmasters. By B. P. Lascelles, F.S. A., Librarian in Harrow School . . 64 CHAPTER VII The Drury Family. By B. H. Drury, M.A., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge . 63 CHAPTER VIII Dr. George Butler. By Edmund W. Howson ...... 66 xii HARROW SCHOOL CHAPTER IX PAGE School Life under Dr. George Butler. By George Townsend Warner . . . 71 CHAPTER X Dr. Longley, 1829-1836. By the Right Rev. Bishop Jenner, D.D., Formerly of Dunedin, N.Z 81 CHAPTER XI Dr. Christopher Wordsworth— Harrow in the Forties. By Charles Savile Roundell, Head of the School and Captain of the Eleven, 1845-1846 . . . .87 CHAPTER XII Dr. Vaughan. By Sir Charles Dalrymple, Baronet, M.P. . . . . .108 CHAPTER Xin Dr. H. Montagu Butler. By the Rev. J. A. Cruikshank . . . . .115 CHAPTER XIV Harrow School Chapel. By the Rev. J. E. C. Welldon, Headmaster of Harrow School . 126 CHAPTER XV Harrow Benefactors and Benefactions. By H. Montagu Butler, D.U., LL.D., Glasgow ; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge ; and from January 1860 to August 1885 Headmaster of Harrow School . . . . . . • .135 The School Estate in Harrow. By C. Colbeck ...... 152 CHAPTER XVI Statesmen of Harrow School. By Sir H. S, Cunningham, K.C.I. E. . . . 157 CHAPTER XVII Harrow Men of Letters. By William John Courthope, C.B., Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford . . . . . . . .183 CHAPTER XVIII Speech-Day. By B. P. Lascelles, F.S.A., Librarian in Harrow School . . .199 CHAPTER XIX School Songs and Mr. Farmer. By E. Graham . . . . . . 205 CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XX PAGE Cricket at Harrow. By Spencer W. Gore . . . • • • .217 CHAPTER XXI The Eton and Harrow Match. By the Right Hon. Walter H. Long, M.P. . . 228 CHAPTER XXn Ponsonby and Grimston. By Hon. E. Chandos Leigh, C.B., Q.C. . . • 239 "R. G." and '^F. P." By E. E. Bowen 243 CHAPTER XXHI Harrow Football. By E. E. Bowen ........ 248 CHAPTER XXIV Rackets. By M. C. Kemp ......... 253 CHAPTER XXV The School Bathing-Place. By Arthur F. Hort ...... 256 CHAPTER XXVI The Intellectual Life of the School. By Edmund W. Howson . . • .264 CHAPTER XXVII School Life and Tradition. By George Townsend Warner ..... 270 EPILOGUE " On Harrow Terrace." By Edmund W. Howson ...... 284 INDEX • • 285 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Part of Queen Elizabeth's Charter to John Lyon . . . Frontispiece View from the Church Terrace . . . . H. M. Marshall ix The Parish Church ..,...,,„ 9 The Lyon Brass ........ Facing 18 Lyon's Farm at Preston . . . . . H. M. Marshall ,, 22 The Old School ........ 26 Lyon's Signature ........ Facing 28 The Fourth Form Room . . . . . H. M. Marshall ,, 34 The Old Headmaster's Hovsb, from Ackermann's " Public Schools" . . „ 40 Druries . . . . . . . . H. M. Marshall 42 High Street — looking North .....,,,, 46 The Park .......,,,, 49 The Old Schooi>s from the Steps below the Milling Ground „ „ Facing 54 The Schoolyard from the Cloisters ,...,,,, 68 The Cock-Loft .......,,,, 74 Charles Thomas Longley, D.D., Headmaster 1829-1836, from a Portrait by George Richmond ........ Facing 81 Harrow in 12,^0, from a Picture by T. Mackay . . . . . ,, 82 West End of the Parish Church . . . . H. M. Marshall 85 The Parish Church — looking East ....„,, 94 Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Headmaster 1836-1844, from a Lithograph by J. Mansell ......... Facing 104 Charles John Vaughan, D.D., Headmaster 1845-1859, /rom a Portrait by George Richmond ......... Facing 108 School Chapel from the Terrace .' . . . H. M. Marshall 112 Henry Montagu Butler, D.D., Headmaster 1860-1885, from a Portrait by Hubert Herkomer ........ Facing 115 View from Grove Hill . . . . , H. M. Marshall 118 The Reverend J. E. C. Welldon, Headmaster 1886, ^om a Photograph by Hills and Saunders ........ Facing 126 The School Chapel — Part op the North Aisle . . H. M. Marshall 129 XVI HARROW SCHOOL The Old Schools -H^ ^- MarsMU ViKW FKOM THE PaHK ...''- )y Map showing the School Estate in Habhow A Panel in the Fourth Fobm Room . . . • • Facsimile of a Note by Bybon in his Copy of the '^Phabsalia" Abcheby Dress wobn at HABBOw,/r} Robert Grimston ........ Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, Sixth Earl of Bessborough "Still the big elms, deep shadowed, watch the play" . H. M. Marshall View from the Sixth Form Ground ..-•,},} The Football Field ..■■'•»}} DUCKER . . . . • • • • >} » Ducker Cottage .•••••}}>) " And the sunset glories hover Round the steeple and the trees ",, „ View from the Top of Peterborough Hill . . . „ „ The High Street — looking South ....„,, A Boy's Room ..••••• jj j> The School Tebbace — facing East . . . . » }> PAGE 136 163 155 Facing 158 „ 186 „ 200 202 206 208 212 Facing 217 210 221 233 240 242 Facing 243 245 249 267 261 Facing 262 „ 264 „ 272 277 Facing 284 PROLOGUE HARROW The holy spire that tapers to the blue, — The guardian elms whose vesper shadows fall On turf and tomb, — the many-lettered wall, Carven of hands once manful to pursue Their daily toil of honest things and true, — The ample stair, the street, the field, they all With voiceless magic eloquence recall A fragrance of dead days, when life was new. Yet here, 'mid laughter and the ring of cheers, Immortal Boyhood keeps his joyous throne ; With daring eyes aflame and eager ears He burns for conquest of a world unknown : O stay thee, lonely pilgrim of the years, — Here at the heart of Youth revive thine own. II Harrow ! not thine the vows of saintly King, Nor purple-garded Prelate's fostering pride ; Thy lowly yeoman Founder strove and died. Unwitting what the wondrous years would bring, — What brave procession of thy sons would spring. To quell the stranger foe, and sweep the tide ; Or glow with patriot faith, and greatly guide Our equal England ; — poet-souls to fling From earth to sky their song's defiant dart. And scholars inward-eyed : yet, chance what may, We shall not come less humbly to thy shrine. Knowing that homespun story ; risen thou art From that pale dawn to this thy perfect day ; Our flickering lights but win their fire from thine. CllEWE. HARROW SCHOOL CHAPTER I ' ' '"'- THE HISTORY OF THE MANORS OF HARROW AND HARROW HILL RECTORY, AND THE SCHOOL ANTERIOR TO JOHN LYON In order to give due weight to the great work of our Founder, John Lyon, it seems necessary to learn as much as is possible about the early history of the place in which he founded his Free Grammar School, of its owners, of the different localities within its area, and of the leading residents dwelling within the parish. The sources from which the information embodied in the following short, and necessarily imperfect, account of Harrow has been taken, consist chiefly of the Parish Registers, commencing in the year 1558, the important series of Tracts published by the Rev. W. Done Bushell, and of the valuable collection of Court Rolls of the manors of Harrow and Harrow Hill Rectory, which commence in the reign of King Edward I., to which access has been kindly given by Lady Northwick. It must not, however, be assumed that these materials are in any sense of the word exhaustive. Before an exhaustive history of Harrow can be written, the Public Records must be inspected ; and, in particular, those documents which relate to the possessions of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and are preserved at the Public Record Office, at the British Museum, at Lambeth Palace, and at Canter- bury. There is no doubt that most interesting and valuable information would result from such an investigation ; but it is nevertheless hoped that the facts here recorded will repay a perusal ; and, while serving in some measure to increase our knowledge of Harrow places, personages, and social life generally during the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, may prove an incentive for further and more detailed research in the future. The manor of Harrow at the beginning of the ninth century appears ^ to have formed part of the possessions of Cenulf, King of Mercia. His daughter Cwoen- thrith. Abbess of Southmynster in Kent, was his heiress, and in the year 825 she gave her land at Harrow, with other lands, to Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, as an act of reparation for lands taken away from him by her father. The See of Canterbury seems to have been deprived of this manor in the eleventh century, ^ Harrow Tracts, No. i. B 2 HARROW SCHOOL for we are told in the Conqueror''s Survey of 1086, known as Domesday Book^ that in the reign of King Edward the Confessor Harrow was in the possession of Earl Lewin or Leofwine, who was the brother of King Harold. At the date of the Survey it had been restored by King William to the See, and is returned as the land of Archbishop Lanfranc. It contained 100 hides, or about 12,000 acres, without reckoning its commons or waste grounds. To the demesne, that is, the land retained by the Lord for his own occupation, belonged 30 hides ; a priest held 1 hide ; three knights, who were free tenants, held 6 hides, and had seven tenants ', yn:d^r the.n, who were called in later times undersetters ; a hundred and two villeins, or bond- tenants, held between them in different proportions upwards of 23 hides ; '^Alid '. two cottagers, cottars or cotmen, that is, tenants holding lands called cot- 'lari-ds, held 13 acres. These classes of tenants, viz. the free tenants, the under- setters, the cottagers, and the bond-tenants, are all mentioned on the Court Rolls of the manor from the earliest date, and are at the present day represented by the freehold and copyhold tenants of the manor. The manor itself was, speaking in general terms, coterminous with the old parish of Harrow ; and, besides the area locally known as Harrow, comprised the Hamlets of Roxeth, Greenhill, Weald (now Harrow Weald), Pinner (including Hatch End), Sudbury, Wembley, Alperton, Preston, and Kenton (including Woxindon or Uxendon).^ It contained at the close of last century 13,600 acres, of which 1600 were estimated to be commons and waste ground.^ Some of the Hamlets, notably Sudbury, Roxeth, and Wembley, acquired about the fourteenth century the name of manors, but they were still held of the superior manor of Harrow by services, fealty, and suit to the Court Baron of that manor ; they were thus not legal manors, and had no separate courts of their own — for no manor could be created after the statute of 18th Edward I. a.d. 1290, called Quia Emptores, which was passed to put a stop to the practice of the subinfeudation of the fee-simple, though it gave liberty to all persons to aliene their lands, subject to the provision that all those who took conveyances of the fee should hold of the chief lord. Prior, however, to the year 1240, as is evident from the Endowment Charter of the Vicarage of Harrow (a copy of which is preserved at Northwick Park), the Lord of the manor of Harrow had created a manor of the Rectory of Harrow Hill, which was granted to the Rector of the Parish Church and his successors.^ A map of the Rectory manor as it existed in 1759, which is preserved among the Northwick muniments, shows that this manor comprised the whole of the village of HaiTow, and extended from Greenhill on the north to Sudbury on the south. Early, therefore, in the thirteenth century, if not before that period, there existed two manors, the larger one of Harrow with its Hamlets, of which the Archbishop was the Lord, and the smaller one of Harrow Hill Rectory, of which the Rector was the Lord. The importance of this ownership of the two manors can hardly be over- ^ Court Rolls passim. ^ Lyson's Environs, vol. ii. p. 56, sub tit Harrow-on-the-Hill. 3 Northwick muniments ; Harrow Tracts, No. ix. THE HISTORY OF THE MANORS OF HARROW 3 estimated. For upwards of 500 years the owner of Harrow was the occupant of the See of Canterbury. Of the thirty-four or thirty-five prelates who were Arch- bishops of Canterbury between Lanfranc and Cranmer, no less than twelve were Chancellors of England ; and the list includes the names of such men as St. Anselm, St. Thomas a Becket, Cardinal Stephen Langton, Peckham, Winchelsey, Mepham, Islip, Courtenay, Arundel, Chicheley, and Warham. For the same period the Archbishop's Rector was the owner of the smaller, and, so to speak, inner manor of Harrow Hill Rectory ; and many of those who occupied this position were men of note. William Bampton, or Brampton, who was Rector in 1390, was Steward of the Archbishop's household ; Robert de Kyrkeham, the Rector in 1470, was Keeper of the Chancery Rolls ; Cuthbert Tunstal, the Rector in 1511, was Dean of Salisbury, and Avas appointed Bishop of London in 1522, when he resigned the Rectory. He was also Master of the Rolls, and was translated to the Bishopric of Durham in 1530. His successor, William Bolton, was Prior of St. Bartholomew in West Smithfield. William Warham, who succeeded Bolton in 1532, was Doctor of Laws and Archdeacon of Canterbury. He resigned in 1537, and was succeeded by Richard Layton, Doctor of Laws, Treasurer and Dean of York, and Archdeacon of Bucks, who was one of the Commissioners of King Henry VIII. for visiting the monasteries, and who died in 1544. The last ecclesiastical Rector was Dr. Richard Cocks, and the last Archbishop, who was Lord of the manor of Harrow, was Thomas Cranmer. Thus the Lords of Harrow Manor, from the position they occupied, had great wealth and influence at their command ; and to have received such high promotion, they must have been men of scholarship and trained activity of mind. It may be reasonably assumed that such wealth and influence were exercised in favour of those living under their protection and on their estates. We are un- fortunately not able to fix the place where the Courts of the manor of Harrow were held. They must have been held within the ambit of the manor itself, which would not include the Rectory Manor ; the Court Rolls simply state that the Courts were held at Harrow, though in one instance, in the year 1435, a Court was held at Pynnor, to suit, no doubt, the convenience of Archbishop Chicheley, who was then residing at his manor of Heggeton or Headstone. The Rector resided in the Rectory, where the Grove now stands, to the north of the Church and held his Courts there. ^ The Vicar resided in the Vicarage, which (as appears from a copy of the Endow- ment Charter above referred to) was endowed by Archbishop Edmund de Abingdon during his occupancy of the See, between the years 1234 and 1240. It was on the same site as the present Vicarage to the south of the Church ; and the Church House, where, in the sixteenth century, as will be subsequently shown, the youth of the parish received their education, was situated close by the Churchyard. In the year 1545 both manors were surrendered to the Crown, and in the following year the manor of Harrow was granted out to Sir Edward North, the Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations of the Revenues of the Crown, and his wife. The manor of the Rectory of Harrow Hill was granted to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1546, and alienated by that College in the first year of the reign of ^ Proved by the Court Rolls. 4 HARROW SCHOOL King Edward VL, a.d. 1547, to Sir Edward North, reserving, however, the great tithes, of which the College, as Lay Rector, is owner at the present day. Harrow, therefore, at this time lost two powerful supporters, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Rector ; and the ownership of both manors became vested in a person who had previously been a stranger to the place. Thus the connection of Harrow with the Primacy of All England was severed. The subsequent history of the manors can be briefly stated. In 1631 they were sold by the North family to Edmund Phillips, George Pitts, and Rowland Pitts, and, subsequently, in the eighteenth century came by marriage into the Rushout, now the Northwick, family. Owing to the kindness of Lady Northwick, as already mentioned, access has been given to the Northwick muniments, with the result that, among other Harrow documents and papers, the Court Rolls of the manor of Harrow (in earlier times called Hargh or Harwe) from the reign of King Edward I., and of the manor of the Rectory of HaiTow Hill (anciently spelt Harwehyll) from the reign of King Edward III., have been discovered and inspected down to the beginning of the seventeenth century. These records, which are written in abbreviated Latin, commence upwards of 275 years prior to the earliest entry in the Parish Registers in 1558, and supply particulars as to the place itself; as to the methods and regulations by which the community was governed ; and as to the various families resident in the parish, and their general mode of life. The Court Rolls contain the proceedings of the Court Baron or the Civil Court, and of the Court Leet and View of Frank Pledge, or Criminal Court. At one or other of these Courts, held at some place within the manor and presided over by the Lord or his Steward, all questions affecting the commonAvealth generally, or between the Lord and his tenants, or between the tenants themselves, were presented, prosecuted, and disposed of by the Steward, or by juries elected from the tenants. From the early Court Rolls we learn that among the tenants of the manor of Harrow were the Prioress of Keleburne, or Kilburn, the Prior of Bentley, the owner of the manor of Southall (who held by knight service), the families of Harwe of Harwe, Woxindon of Woxindon (now written Uxendon), Roxheth of Roxheth, Wemble of Wemble, Welde of Welde (Weald), Greenhill of Greenhill, Pynnore of Pynnore, Kenton of Kenton, and Preston of Preston ; among many other names are those of Fynch, Horlock, Edeline, Bokebard, all of which are to be found under a more modern spelling in the Parish Registers down to the seventeenth century ; Atte Estende, Atte Hacche, de la Rokaille, Bon Jour, Flambard, Brembre, Redyng, and Blackwell ; while the name of Lyon occurs on the Harrow Court Rolls as early as the reign of King Richard II. The Rector of Harrow Hill held freely by charter, as in right of his Church of Harrow, a hide and a half of land in the manor ; for which, by the custom of the manor, he was not bound (as the other tenants were bound) to do works of reaping or ploughing. Each successive Rector did fealty and suit of court, and on the death of each Rector a monetary payment for a relief, and a heriot of a horse with a saddle, bridle, halter, and a pair of boots with spurs, became due. He also paid a free rent of eightpence to the Lord of the manor for this hide and a half of THE HISTORY OF THE MANORS OF HARROW 5 land,^ Avhich rent issued out of the manor of the Rectory, and became extinguished by unity of possession, when both manors came into the hands of Sir Edward North. Mention is also made in these Rolls of the windmill at which the tenants' com was ground, of Lez Butty s in Roxheth in 1392, and in 1759 the site of the Butts then existing is shown to have been on the top of Roxeth Common in the garden of what is now known as the Moat ; ^ Harrow Cross, possibly the Market Cross, the site of which is not known, is also named. References occur under various dates to the Church or Chapel of St. John the Baptist of Pynnor, to the Keepers of the goods of the said Church, and to the Chantry of the Blessed Mary of Harrowhyll and its property ; while mention is made in 1334 of Sir Warin, the Chaplain of the Blessed Mary ; in 1353 of John de Kenyngton, the Chaplain of the Blessed Mary ; in 1376 of Thomas, the late Parish Chaplain of Harrowe ; and of William Banaster, the Chantry Priest in the Church of Harrowe in 1488. The following are a few of the most interesting of the entries contained in these Rolls, which have been selected from a very large number. A.D. 1337. — John Le Kyng, John Swetman, and Matilda Le Yonge, Bond-tenants of the Lord, were commanded to be at the next Court to answer the Lord, because they gave their daughters in man-iage to free men witliout the Lord's licence. A.D. 1384. — A surrender is recorded by John Lewyu to John Honeywode of a messuage in Pinner, under the condition that John Honeywode provide for John Lewyn during his life every other year a new woollen garment, and in every year a pair of boots, a pair of shoes, and a pair of woven linen shirts. Also a bed chamber, food and a bushel of apples. A.D. 1423. — Presentment of the death of Joan the daughter of Roger Webbe at Pinner by falling into a vat of " Edromell " (or Hydromell) whereby the vat became the property of the Lord as a Deodand. A.D. 1425. — John Roxheth was presented for being a common '^Eavesdroppere" listening to and prying by night into the secrets of his neighbours to the common nuisance. A.D. 14.30. — John Ponder was fined Gs. 8d., because he disturbed the Court by litigating with John Janky and saying " Raca " to him. A.D. 144.3. — Presentment that John Webbe is a leper dwelling within the Lordship to the common nuisance. The whole tithing was commanded to pi'ovide for his removal to " Le Lokehouse." A.D. 1445. — Presentment that this year no profit fell to the Lord for the pannage of the pigs of the tenants in the Lord's woods, and that the woods were grievously devastated by reason of the timber having been felled for the building of the College of the Lord Henry Chichele, the late Archbishop, at Oxford. ^ A.D. 1454. — £10 was paid by the tenants of the Manor according to custom for Palfrey money {i.e. money to provide a palfrey for the Lord) on the first advent of the Lord Thomas Bourghchier into the Archbishopric of Canterbury. A.D. 1462. — A surrender is recorded by John Broke to Thomas Peryman of a cottage and land, under the condition that he should provide for the said John for his life suflUcient food, drink, shirts, and trousers ; also a chamber with sufficient fire and fuel. A.D. 150G. — John Nuttyng presented for refusing to pay the common fine and to come to the View of Frank Pledge, saying to the Chief Pledge, " I defye the preceous knave." 1 Receiver's Account 1553, North wick Manor. 2 The College of All Souls, founded by Chichele in 1437. This devastation may be the reason for the curious fact that so few oaks are now to be found on the west side of Harrow. 6 HARROW SCHOOL A.D. 1512.— Ordinance that no one take hares in nets or otlier engines called "Ilarpipes" until the feast of St. George (23rd April). Christopher Armigyll and Alice his wife presented for being thieves called "Pety Pykers." Presentment that Thomas ^Fellys, Prior of St. Gregory without the walls of Canterbury, had not presented any Canon of his Priory to be Prior of Bentley for 20 years past ; and had not found any Priest to celebrate mass and other divine services in the Chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalene within the Priory of Bentley for two years and more, contrary to the form of the foundation, by which the aforesaid Priory and all lands and tenements thereto belonging were granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury beyond the time of memory to the Prior of St. Gregory aforesaid, and to the Convent of the same place in pure and perpetual alms. A.D. 1521. — William Cok presented for allowing a horse having the diseases called "Le Mangy " and " Le Fassy " to cross the Common. A.D. 1529. — Presentment that a certain "Ermitage" of St. Edmund and St. Katherine with two gardens had been in the hands of the Lord for many years past. A.D. 1533. — Presentment of John Stroder for erecting a dovecote in Pynnor to the nuisance of the Inhabitants there, by the destruction of the corn of his neighbours. A.D. 1540. — Admission of Henry Bette to a messuage with a garden and orchard containing one acre, called '' Le Ermytage," formerly of the waste soil of the Lord. A.D. 1550. — Henry Bette was presented for not stopping the water running from the pond called St. Edmond's Ponde. The Court Rolls of the manor of the Rectory of Harrow Hill contain the pro- ceedings, similar to those recorded on the Harrow Rolls, of the Courts Baron and Courts Leet held at the Rectory house, now known as the Grove. They also record payments to the Lord by way of a legacy, or mortuary, in the shape of a beast, on the death of a tenant, in accordance with the terms of the Endowment Charter of the Vicarage, granted by Archbishop Edmund de Abingdon, Entries occur from time to time relating to the Chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Parish Church of Harrow, founded in the year 1324 by William de Bosco or Boys, the Rector and Lord of the manor ; the patronage of which Chantry was some time after 1367 ^ vested in the parishioners of Harrow ; and the names of the Chaplains of this Chantry, sometimes called the Parish Chaplain, are met with at intervals on the Rolls, as has been already mentioned. Here, too, we find notices of the Keepers and Guardians of the goods of the Parish Church of the Blessed Mary of Harwe (that is the Churchwardens) in 1467, and of the Parish Clerk in 1526. There were houses within the manor called Le Chantryhouse, Le Crossehouse, Le Churchehouse of Harrow, and Le Gatehouse ; but the sites of none of them, except the Church- house, have at present been ascertained. The following are some of the more interesting of the entries on the Rectory manor Court Rolls : — A.D. 1384. — Precept to seize the goods of John Intowne, a bond-tenant, for that he against the will of the Lord delivered his son William into remote parts to learn the Liberal Arts. A.D. 138G. — The Bailiif answers for a horse taken as a distress from John Intowne, because he placed William his son a bond-tenant of the Lord to School without the licence of the Lord. * The Archbishop of Canterbury presented John Harrode in this year. Reg. Langham, 103. THE HISTORY OF THE MANORS OF HARROW 7 A.D. 1394. — William Graye attached for occupying laud of the Lord by the Vicarage Gate, and for selling boots without the licence of the Lord. A.D. 1456. — Thomas Archer presented and fined 12d., because he disturbed the Court with threatening words and saying " Raca " to his neighbours before the Steward when sitting in Court. A.D. 14G2. — Joan Sextayne presented and fined 2d., for refusing to expose her Alesign called Le Alehoope. A.D. 1501. — Peter Austen presented and fined 4d., for standing under the windows and walls of various of his neighbours at night, stopping there to hear the different words spoken there, whereby divers strifes and discords have arisen between the neighbours. A.n. 1503. — No one dwelling within the jurisdiction of this Court shall fish in Harrow Pond under the pain of 3s. 4d. A.D. 1505. — Presentment that there was not a pair of Butts within the Manor, and precept given to the tenants and Inhabitants to make a pair. A.D. 1517. — Robert Wynter and others presented and fined for permitting common players at dice to play in their houses. A.D. 1521. — Robert Sowlle, Chaplain, presented and fined as a common dice-player with two servants of John Lyon. A.D. 152G. — Thomas Colvile, the Parish Clerk, presented and fined for selling cotton candles and for buying candles, and then taking one candle from every pound and selling the rest as a pound, in deceit of the people of the Lord the King. A.D. 1559. — Order that the Chief Pledges and Constables of every Hamlet see that all boys beyond the age of 12 years have bows and arrows according to the form of the Statute in such case passed. And that no man not having a wife, and no woman not having a husband, and those having no masters shall remain in the Parish for the space of 14 days and nights under the pain of 20s., and that no one maintain or support such person in his house unless he be his servant for a quarter of a year at the least. A.D. 1561. — The Constable is commanded to have sufficient stocks in the village to punish vagrants. A.D. 1574. — The Leet Jury presents as follows : " Moreover we think that Richard Valantyne is not a fit man to live amongst honest neighbours, because he is a drunkard, and not only behaves badly in his own house but wherever he goes, so that Katherine Bellamy, being his landlady, is commanded to remove the said Richard before the Feast of St. Michael next under the pain of forfeiting 40s. '^'^And that Thomas Aty scour his ditch as far as his 'Tenys Court' extends into William Fuller his ditch." A.D, 1576. — Elizabeth Elkyn Widow ordered to remove out of her house Elizabeth her maid servant and Matthew Spencer, Schoolmaster, before the Feast of Pentecost next under the pain of 40s. A.D, 1577. — Order that no Alehouse keeper keep his house open on Sundays and Feast days during the time of Divine Prayer. Order that John Lyon remove Richard Falantyne and Brigit his Wiie from his dwelling house before the Feast of St. Michael next under the pain of 40s, A,D, 15B0. — A grant recorded by Roger, Lord North, to William Gerard, his Receiver, of a " Welle " called AFhytewelle, and a piece of land containing 20 feet square by and around the said well, and of a strip of land containing in width 1 foot and in length 380 feet to make a trench for laying a lead pipe to convey water from the well to the mansion-house of the said ^Villiam Gerard called Flambards, and license to the said William to enlarge the well and to erect a " Poompe-House " over the same for the use of all the tenants of the manor to draw and fetch water at the said " Poompe." A.D. 1610. — Order that if any person be found drunk in any Alehouse, he shall forfeit and lose to the Wardens of the Parish Church of Harrowhill for the time being to the use of the poor, for every such offence 5s. 8 HARROW SCHOOL A.D. 1611. — Order that no common Victualler permit any person to remain to drink in his house after the hour of 9 of the clock after noon of any day, except such person be a Traveller, under the pain of 20s. These entries for the most part speak for themselves. Many of the orders were made in conformity with the Statutes from time to time in force for the maintenance of Butts and for training youth in the exercise of archery, for providing for the poor, and for regulating the law of settlement in parishes and of trades. It is curious to note that the application of the word " Raca "" to neighbours appears to have been a special form of insult in Harrow ; and we should have liked to know the reason why fishing in the Harrow pond, then part of Roxeth Common, was prohibited. The parish well, enlarged by William Gerard, and over which he erected a Pump House in 1580, is situated at the top of West Street, opposite to Moretons. The Governors of the School in 1847 contributed £25 towards the repair of the Pump House, which was finally removed in 1880, exactly 300 years after its erection, when the present granite drinking -fountain and trough was given by the late Mr. Hudson. Flambards, anciently the property of the Flambard family, is frequently mentioned in the Court Rolls, and the mansion-house probably occupied the site of the house now known as the Park. It remained in the possession of the Gerard family until the middle of last century. At the end of the century its owner was Richard Page, and a picture of the lake when it belonged to this family is still in existence. It was subsequently bought by Lord Northwick, and in the year 1832 passed into the pos- session of the Phelps family, by whom the bulk of the estate, including the mansion- house, Avas, in 1885, sold to its present owners. But the most suggestive of the entries are the first two in point of date, which show that as early as the years 1384 and 1386 the goods of a bond-tenant were seized because he, " against the will of the Lord," placed his son to school in remote parts to learn the Liberal Arts without the Lord's leave. Although the offence committed was merely a breach of the law, which obliged bond-tenants of the age of fourteen to reside within the limits of the manor, and a failure to obtain the Lord's licence to remain outside those limits, we can readily believe that the conduct of the tenant, in preferring to send his son to a school outside the parish, would tend to aggravate the importance of the offence, if a Grammar School was in existence at Harrow at this date. There can be no doubt that Grammar Schools are among the most ancient institutions in England ; they existed from the earliest times in connection with Cathedrals, Monasteries, Collegiate Churches or Colleges, Hospitals, Guilds or Chantries, or as independent institutions, and served to provide for the education of the sons of landowners, farmers, tradesmen, and the middle classes generally. It is difficult, therefore, to believe that the Archbishops of Canterbury did not, in a large and impoi-tant manor like HaiTow, establish and maintain, either at their own ex- pense or with the assistance of the inhabitants, an independent Grammar School without any fixed endowment, of which the Vicar or perhaps the Priest of the Chantry of the Blessed Mary in Harrow Church would be the Master. This Chantry was, as mentioned above, founded in 1324 by William de Boys, THE HISTORY OF THE MANORS OF HARROW 9 the Rector of Harrow ; but it is certain no school was attached to it, for none is mentioned in the Certificate, dated in 1548, of the Commissioners assigned for the City of London and the county of Middlesex for the execution of the Chantries Act of King Edward VI.^ It is also interesting to recollect that at the date of the above-mentioned presentments, William of Wykeham was Bishop of Winchester. Previous to the time of Wykeham, the education of the people had been conducted mainly in Schools taught by the Chantry Priests attached to Parish Churches ; but William of Wykeham was the first to set the example, followed almost immediately by Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord of the manor of Harrow from 1413 to 1443, of devoting large ecclesiastical revenues to the establishment of Schools and Colleges, to be conducted by the secular or non-monastic clergy, that is, by those who performed their ministry in the world, as distinguished from the Monastery itself. According to tradition, Chicheley was sent by William of Wykeham among the earliest pupils to his recently- founded School at Winchester, and he afterwards went to his New College at Oxford. It is certain he imbibed some of the educational spirit of his great master, for he founded at his native place, Higham Ferrers, a College, which was suppressed at the dissolution of the larger Monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII., and also a Free Grammar School and an Almshouse, which are still in existence. He also founded the College of All Souls, Oxford, towards the erection of which he cut down a large quantity of tim- ber in his manor of Harrow. Evidence of the existence of a School at Harrow as early as the reign of Queen Mary (a.d. 1553-58) is afforded by a letter, dated 25th May 1626,^ and written by one G. Roper, in which he states that he was then above fourscore years old, and that after his father's death Queen Mary had caused ^ Harrow Tracts, No. ix. ^ Thornton's Harrow School, App. B. The Pahish Church. 10 HARROW SCHOOL both himself (then about eight or nine years old) and his brother Richard to be sent to Harrow to school. The Records of Caius College, Cambridge, prove that Richard Gerard, son of William Gerard of Harrow (one of the first Governors of Harrow School), was admitted as a Scholar for four years at the age of fifteen on 4th November 1567. The place where the School was canied on in 1596, four years after the death of John Lyon, was the Church House of the parish. This is proved by a deed in the possession of the Governors, dated 2nd November 1596, by which the Governors of the Free Grammar School agreed to grant a lease to Philip Gerard of lands at Harrow, Preston, and Kingsbury, for thirty- one years from the death of Joan Lyon, upon notice to be given to the said Philip Gerard " at the nowe Schoole or Churche House of the Parish of Harrowe." From the following entry in the Harrow manor Court Rolls the existence of the Church House can be traced back to the year 1475, and its situation identified. At a Court held for the manor of Harrow in May 1475 is recorded a surrender by Alice Williams to William Bunne and Joan, his wife, of lands in Sudbury, upon condition that twelve marks be paid to the said Alice on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist next to come at the house called Le Church Howse, situate close beside the Churchyard of the Parish Church of Harrow- hyll. And at a Court of the manor of the Rectory of Harrow Hill, held on the 6th of May 1538, a surrender by John Page to Nicholas Elkyn is recorded, on condition of the payment of df 10 within the house of the Church called the Church House of Harrow. The Church House, therefore, situate close beside the Churchyard, and belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury, was the place where in 1596 the Grammar School was held, and the education of the children of the inhabitants carried on ; nor can there be any reasonable doubt that the School of the time of Queen Mary was held in the same building, mention of which is made in the Court Rolls in the year 1475. Such, therefore, is a brief account of the Harrow community as portrayed by these valuable Records. In the Manorial Courts, presided over by the Lord or his Steward, the tenants of the respective manors chose their Officers, and insisted upon prominent inhabitants taking office ; conducted their lawsuits ; regulated their trades ; acted as the Local, Sanitary, Poor Law, and Highway authority ; enforced the Statutes relating to the assize of ale, and to travellers, vagabonds, labourers, and the like ; they also put a check upon unlawful games with dice or cards by the punishment of offenders ; discouraged the repetition of ill-natured or scandalous gossip or abuse of neighbours ; made regulations for the commons and the com- monable rights thereon ; and it may well be that in the Church House of the Parish, which was in existence as early as the year 1475, and was situated close by the Churchyard, the sons of the residents in the parish of Harrow received their education. W. O. Hewlett. CHAPTER II THE ORIGIN OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS To the popular mind the Middle Age is synonymous with the Dark Age. This identification unfortunately mixes up two periods of European history which ought to be sharply distinguished. There is a " dark " age, i.e. an extremely ignorant age, of European history, which begins soon after the barbarian invaders had fairly taken possession of the Western Empire, say in the course of the seventh century, and ends with the great revival of culture and education which (though it began i-ather earlier) may best be associated with the eleventh century a.d. The twelfth century and the thirteenth were ages of astonishingly rapid intellectual growth and development ; and, although in many respects the later Middle Age was a period of intellectual decline, there was no decay, but rather a continued diffusion, of ordinary educational opportunities. It has indeed long been vaguely known that certain institutions for the promo- tion of knowledge called Universities owe their origin to the Middle Ages. Indeed, in this matter the popular mind has been disposed to credit the really Dark Ages with more than their due : since our popular school histories have hardly yet ceased gravely to record the fact that the University of Paris was founded by Charlemagne about the year 800, and the University of Oxford by Alfred the Great at a some- what uncertain date. The still extant charter granted by King Arthur to the University of Cambridge seems to have made less impression upon traditional history. Even those who have realised the fact that the Universities were founded in the twelfth century, and have been quite alive to the importance and the brilliancy of the great intellectual Renaissance out of which the University move- ment grew, have often been little in advance of the " general reader "" with regard to what would now be called the primary and secondary schools of the Middle Ages. It has been supposed that the Universities were created in the Middle Ages, but that for the grammar schools this country had to wait till the enlightened days of the Reformation and its youthful prodigy. King Edward VI. That University education should have been so abundant (for every schoolboy knows that there were 30,000 students ^ in medieval Oxford), while the modest grammar school or the still humbler establishment for the teaching of the two R's (Arithmetic was still very much of an extra) was an unknown luxury, might, even a priori^ seem a rather ^ Sane criticism will reduce the number to 3000 at the outside. 12 HARROW SCHOOL improbable va-repov -n-porepov. But then of course we all know that the Middle Age was a funny time, when people would be more likely than not to do things in a way opposed to common sense. But after all it was not possible for people to learn everything all at once even in the " Dark Ages."" Even in the Dark Ages it is probable that children learned to walk before they could run : and it has always been pretty generally understood that University lectures were given in Latin, and this Latin would have to be learnt, even supposing people were not very particular about accidence and syntax, and even reading and writing can hardly be supposed to have come by nature any more then than now. Oh, but then, I think I hear the well-informed person exclaim, of course there were the monks ! In popular impressions of the Middle Age, " the monks *" act as a sort of convenient Deus ex machina, supplying a ready and adequate solution of anything about this mysterious period which seems otherwise unaccountable. Now it is quite true that there was a time when the monks were the great educators of Europe. For three or four hundred years after the barbarian inroads, learning survived mainly in the Benedictine monasteries. But the monks had nothing to do with the growth of the Universities : the growth of the Universities was directly due to the great revival of learning and education among the secular clergy. And after the growth of the Universities the monks gradually ceased to teach any- body but members of their own order. It is true, as we shall see, that a monastery did occasionally support the grammar school for the town in which it was situated, but this was probably the least numerous class of medieval schools : and even these schools were never taught by monks. Nor again is there any reason to believe (as has sometimes been suggested) that boys were in any number sent to the Universities for elementary education. The medievals were queer folk, no doubt, but it is unlikely, to say the least of it, that in an age in which more or less literate priests were to be found all over the country, boys would have been sent on a journey half-way across Europe, or even (say) from Northumberland to Oxford, to learn their ABC. The fact is, that the whole of this theory about the dearth of grammar schools, and other schools still more elementary, is a mere delusion. The immense prestige that Edward VI. has acquired as a patron of education is due simply to the fact that he refounded out of confiscated church property some small percentage of the schools which he and his rapacious father had destroyed. The probability is that England was far better provided with grammar schools before the Reformation than it has ever been since. Let me add a few proofs and illustrations of this somewhat startling fact. In Fitzstephen's description of London, written 1174-79 a.d., we have an interesting account of the schools of London. He tells that there were already three "principal schools," besides those occasionally allowed to be opened by private persons, and details are given of the "conventus*" of its masters on festivals, and of the disputations and rhetorical exhibitions of the pupils. " The boys of different schools abuse each other in verse, or contend about the principles of the art of grammar, or the rules of preterites and supines. [Such grammatical disputations are recommended by John Lyon. Sometimes it appears that the interest in the proceedings was stimulated by allowing the successful THE ORIGIN OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 13 "poser" to administer blows on the hand to his beaten opponent.] There are others who exercise that ancient trivial wit in epigrams, rhythms, and metres ; with Fescennine license, suppressing the names, they freely lacerate, bandy gibes and scurrilities, touch the vices of their comrades, or perchance of their elders, with Socratic salt, or mordaciously bite with Theonine tooth in audacious dithyrambics." It will be seen that headmasters' conferences, and verse-making, and speech-days are not inventions either of the New Learning or of the nineteenth century. The writer goes on to speak of the athletics of the London youth of the century. These are, no doubt, in a much more rudimentary state of development than their scholastic exercises, but include cock-fighting on Shrove Tuesday in a " suburban place " ; football in a similar place, "at the same season"; and skating in winter upon bone-skates {singuli pedibus suu- aptantes sub talaribus suis alliffantes ossa), as well as spectating at the boar-fights, bull-fights, or tournaments — including nautical tournaments at Easter — which formed the principal amusements of their seniors. About fifty years earlier, an anonymous writer declares, " throughout Gaul and Germany, Normandy and England, not only in towns and villages (castellis) but even in mere hamlets (villulis), there are to be found most expert schoolmasters as numerous as the curators and officials of the royal revenues." Another writer of about the same period declares that in former times, and even to some extent in his own time, there was " such a scarcity of grammarians that almost none could be found in towns, and hardly any in cities ; while the knowledge of such as were to be found was slender, and not to be compared with that of the wandering clerklings {clericuli) of modern times." At Paris, in the thirteenth century, we have a list of forty-two schoolmasters and twenty-one schoolmistresses duly licensed by the chanter of the Cathedral. The greatest of medieval book-collectors, Richard of Bury,^ the reputed author of the Philobiblon, gives as a hint to his brother- collectors the suggestion that they will do well not to neglect in their search for MSS. the " masters of country schools and the pedagogues of rude boys." Such allusions might be multiplied to any extent. But now we have before us Mr. Leach's elaborate extracts from the reports drawn by or for the Commissioners appointed first by Henry VIII. and then by Edward VI.^ to conduct the suppression of the chantries. These reports really supply us with almost as full an account of the educational resources of the early sixteenth century as the modern blue-books would be able to give of the educational history of the present age. Mr. Leach provides us with an elaborate classification of the schools. The schools may be roughly graded into grammar schools, reading schools (sometimes we hear of writing schools), and song schools, though, probably, there were many schools which it would be impossible to assign definitely to one class or the other. There were, no doubt, schools of every description, from the cathedral school, which served as a substitute for the University to the poorest class of clergy, especially in the remoter districts (where logic, if not philosophy, would be taught as well as grammar), down to the parish clerk's or dame's school, where nothing was taught but reading and perhaps plain-song. Since boys were probably taught to read the ^ Or, as is considered most probable, Holcot. ^ English Schools at the Reformation, by Arthur F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A, Westminster, 1895 14 HARROW SCHOOL Latin Psalter almost from the first, the distinction between the elementary school and the humbler grammar school was not so sharp as it is in modern times. Then as to endowment and constitutional position, there was also a great variety of arrangements. There was the cathedral school, the grammar school supported by a monastery, whether out of its general revenues or out of a distinct foundation (like the school founded by Cai'lyle's Abbot Samson at Bury St. Edmunds), or out of a trust-estate bequeathed to ,it by some outside benefactor. There were the schools attached to collegiate churches, at the head of which stand the colleges of Winchester and Eton, where the school was the main ralwn cVetre of the whole foundation. There were schools attached to endowed hospitals or almshouses ; there were schools supported by guilds ; there were independent schools, provided for by a distinct endowment just like ordinary grammar schools of more recent foundation. But by far the commonest type of grammar school was the school kept by a chantry priest. A chantry does not properly mean a chapel, though chantries Avere often founded in connection with chapels and altars in a church. The Cantaria was simply an endowment to provide a priest to sing mass for the soul of its founder, or other specified person. Such endowments were very numerous, and they called into existence in every town or large village, and in many small ones, a class of priests who had no duties except to say their one daily mass (at most), together with the daily recitation of the Breviary incumbent on every priest. It was natural that the more competent of these men should seek to add to their scanty pittance — some ^^5 a year Avas above the minimum — by taking pupils or keeping a school. In some cases the keeping of a school — often in this case a free school — was part of the founder's intentions and provided for by his will ; the more public-spirited medieval benefactor usually seeking to combine some work of public usefulness with his elaborate arrangements for the perpetual benefit of his own soul. At other times the schools, though started as private adventure establishments, became in practice continuous public institutions connected with the church to which the chantry belonged. In all cases, it must be remembered, the schoolmaster had to be approved by the proper ecclesiastical authority ; in a cathedral city, and sometimes throughout the diocese, by the chancellor of the cathedral church. In some cases it is very possible that the schoolmasters received some such inauguration as was customary in admitting to degrees in grammar at Oxford and Cambridge, when the candidate was solemnly invested with his office by the traditional rod, which he immediately proceeded to use upon a " shrewd " boy, " purveyed " by the bedel, " openlye in the schollys," after which the bedel received a groat for the birch, and the boy a similar consideration " for hys labour." Such was the status of the average medieval school. Now observe how the Reformation told upon this educational system. The monastery schools — probably not a very important element — were of course disestablished by the two suppressions of the monasteries in 1536 and 1537-38. This Act was also, however, fatal to the hospitals. Then came the Chantries Act of Henry VIII. (1545 or 1546), but the provisions of this measure had hardly begun to take effect before the King*'s death ; and the work of plunder was resumed by the Chantries Act of Edward VI. (1547) — an Act in whose operation the religious guilds or confraternities, and also the THE ORIGIN OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 15 property of all collegiate churches not specially mentioned, were included. Although provision was made for the continuance of schools, but only where a school formed part of the original endowment, the Act was in practice so administered that only a small proportion of the schools suppressed were ever refounded. It is by the refoundation of these schools that Edward VI. has earned his precarious title as a Father of Learning — a title for which Mr. Leach proposes to substitute that of " Spoiler of Schools." In the majority of cases, even when the school was continued, it was granted merely a fixed payment in lieu of its share of the old chantry estates. The value of this payment continued to decrease with the decrease in the value of money. The net result, then, of the Reformation changes was to produce a great dearth of schools. This dearth Avas everywhere felt and complained of. Latimer, for instance, speaks of the " devilish drowning of youth in ignorance, the utter decay of the LTniversities." From this time, however, the provision of new schools, or of new endowments for some school which had been robbed of its ancient revenues, became a constant object with benefactors anxious to do something for their town or neighbourhood. There is evidence to prove that Harrow School was in existence as early as the reign of Queen Mary ; and that even in earlier and medieval times there would have been a school at such a place as Harrow — a manor and peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury — it is impossible to doubt ; but, whatever may be the exact degree of historical continuity between John Lyon''s School and its medieval predecessor, it is well to bear in mind the general historical fact that, just as there were brave men before Agamemnon, so there were grammar schools before the sixteenth century. Of course there can be no doubt about the enormous improvement which the New Learning eventually effected in the method and scope of grammar school education. But here, as in so much other history, the breach of continuity between the new and the old was far less abrupt than is commonly supposed. In the Middle Ages, as in later times, boys were taught to construe the classics, and to imitate them both in prose and verse. A certain chantry endowment, for instance, provides that the boy holding it shall go to the University as soon as he is able to read and sing, and to compose twenty-four verses on the same subject in one day. The earliest reading-book was probably the Psalter, the next Cato, i.e. a collection of moral aphorisms by Dionysius Cato, still recommended in John Lyon"'s Observations ^oj' the Ordering of' the School. Then came Ovid or Virgil very much as now. The principal Latin classics were never either " lost *" or " buried,"" or even altogether forgotten, though no doubt after the twelfth century one hears less of the prose- writers than of the poets. It was the instinct for understanding and appreciating them that was not yet born, just as people studied history for centuries without discovering the meaning of " historical criticism." The greatest defect of the medieval system, so far as external organisation goes, is that boys did not stick to their classics long enough. At twelve or fourteen they went to the Universities to begin the Latin Aristotle and to dispute in syllogisms ; and nobody touched the classics again unless he became a schoolmaster. The reform of classical education was already begun when William of Wykeham insisted that his scholars at Winchester should 16 HARROW SCHOOL stay at school till they were sixteen. It is a mistake, again, to suppose that in the Middle Ages the study of grammar was neglected. The average medieval priest could write Latin much more correctly than the average modern passman. " Ut " in medieval Latin always takes the subjunctive, though the inferior or later medieval writers may show more want of sensitiveness to the nicer uses of that interesting mood. Only the medieval schoolmaster had to choose between the too elaborate works of the great classical grammarians, Donatus and Priscianus, and the wretched rhymed doggerel of the thirteenth-century friar, Alexander de Villa Dei. It was in Magdalen College School that Alexander was first supplanted by the improved grammars of Stanbridge of New College, the headmaster, and Whittington of Magdalen, the usher of that first home of the Renaissance — founded, it will be remembered, by William Waynflete, the headmaster successively of Winchester and Eton and the first of our great headmaster Bishops. It is to these forgotten worthies that we owe the beginnings of that reformed grammar teaching which Coke and Lily, both Magdalen men, introduced into the more famous school at Paul's.^ The teaching of Greek is of course the greatest innovation in the grammar school of the sixteenth century. By Lyon''s rules no Greek book is read except in the two highest Forms. The evolution of the modern grammar school out of the medieval was far more gradual than is commonly supposed. Another popular prejudice about the medieval school is that owing to the scarcity of texts the boys had no books, but were compelled to listen to purely oral instruc- tion and take notes. The medieval schoolboy, no doubt, had — perhaps not as his very own, but certainly the use of — a copy of his text. It is true there were no dictionaries, and in lieu of them, much later than the foundation of Harrow, the master adopted the excellent method of literally " reading the lecture," i.e. constru- ing the lesson to the boys and making them do the same after him. In the little woodcuts which the early printers prefixed to their black-letter grammars, the book in the hands of the boys is as invariable as the birch in the hand of the master. It may perhaps be just worth noticing the first faint trace of the "monitorial system," which we can connect with medieval times — a very different system truly from that which has perhaps grown out of it. A very interesting sermon has come down to us, which was preached by the famous Robert de Sorbonne to the students of the illustrious college which he had founded in the middle of the thirteenth century. The greater part of it consists in an elaborate parallel between the University examinations at Paris (examinations, by the way, are a distinctly medieval invention) and the last Judgment, intended to emphasise the indefinitely greater severity of the latter ordeal. In the course of it, the preacher is constrained to dwell with pathetic earnestness upon the duties of pastors. He illustrates it by the usages of the grammar school. If, at the weekly inspection by the headmaster on Saturdays, it is found that the boys do not know their lessons, and that this is due to the fault of the 2)arvi Maglstri, the headmaster {magnus Magister) proceeds to beat not merely the boys (for " contributory negligence," we may suppose), but also the ^ Wolsey, who began life as headmaster of Magdalen College School, wrote a preface to Lily's Syntaocis. Heahe Lr£ h bvm m i h: bodye of IohnLyon ijvteof Preston ^ ' iNTHlS-PiSH YEOR\N DECEASED TffiJ}'r.1)AYE OF OCTOBER IN THE YEARE OFOXTi LORD t$92yVHO HATH Fo\7s^DEOA FREE Crammer Schoole jn thls^Pish to ha\^ conTINVANCE, FOR EVER and FORMAT N TENAVN CETIEREOFANI) FOR RELEYFeJ OFHE POOREIAND OF SO^E POORE SCROLLERS INT^EtNiVER ! 51TYES. REPAYRINGE OF HJCH WAY£S AND OTfER GOODATO , C HAR! TABLE V5ES HAH MADECONVA\AVNCEOF LANDSOF I GOOD v:aJA' E to ACORPOR-lCiON GRAVN TED FOR Fi AT PVRPOS^ PHAYSE HETOTHEAVTHOR OFALGOODNES WWO MAKEVS ^ HYjNO&PyLLTO F.OLLOWE HIS GOOD EXAMPLE" .?. The Lyon Brass. Facing page i8. THE ORIGIN OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 17 parvi Magistri. These unfortunate parvi Magistri may perhaps be identified with the Suh-monitores (never monitores) constantly mentioned in connection with the medieval grammar schools. All this may seem a far cry from the proper subject of this volume, but it may perhaps be interesting to reflect that, if our pedigree be less lengthy than that of some more venerable schools, it may, after all, be due merely to the document- destroying tendencies of invida aetas. Over and over again, as the researches of Mr. Leach have shown, it turns out that the school, said to have been founded by " Edward VI.*" or some more modem benefactor, is really of early medieval origin. If we cannot prove that such was the case with Harrow, nothing forbids the hypothesis of a pre-leonine origin from assuming the position of a pious opinion. We will not, as would have infallibly been done by a sixteenth-century scholar, forge an early charter or interpolate an ancient text. But a song of Mr. Bowen's, set to music by Mr. Farmer, would soon convert it into authentic history on a level with the historic interview between Lyon of Preston and good Queen Bess. If we want to name a particular personage as founder, what prevents our supposing that that great promoter of education, Thomas a Becket, founded the school on the day when he excommunicated the Vicar of Harrow .? Hastings Rashdall. CHAPTER III JOHN LYON A CAKEFUL consideration of the words, de novo erigere, in the Harrow School Charter granted by Queen EHzabeth, would have doubtless led classical scholars of former periods to believe that an ancient school must have been in existence before the recognised foundation date of 1571. And yet this old educational establishment, which John Lyon seems to have desired to re-establish, was not even suspected before Dr. Butler, the present Master of Trinity, about thirteen years ago, encouraged Mr. Edward Scott, keeper of the manuscripts at the British Museum, to search and catalogue the school title-deeds and other archives, thrust away as these interesting documents were from sight in that very "tomb of all the Capulets"" known as the Muniment Chest. This is strange, for it is obvious that the words de novo could have only been superfluous, had not some older institution existed which John Lyon was endeavouring to revive as part of what has always been considered the above-named foundation of 1571-72. It happened, at the same moment that this revival of interest in the past of Harrow School commenced at Dr. Butler^s instance, that the history of Caius College, Cambridge, was also being subjected to scrutiny under the guidance of Mr. John Venn, who communicated to the President of that College, the Rev. B. H. Drury, the fact that several entries of scholars from Harrow had been found in the college registers anterior to the time when, in 1571-72, John Lyon founded Harrow School. For instance, the following excerpt was communicated to Mr. Edward Scott and his coadjutors working together at the British Museum : " Gerarde Richard, son of William Gerard, Gent of Harrow Middlesex School, Harrow, four years, age 15, admitted scholar litt. grat. Nov. 4, 1567"; this entry being made four years previous to the granting of the Harrow Charter by Queen Elizabeth. Evidence of this character had hardly become known to the searchers, when the Rev. W. H. Roper communicated to them a family letter of the early seventeenth century, which related certain recollections of one Mr. G. Roper, who told how Queen Mary had befriended his family. The writer's father had been keeper of Enfield Chase, Hyde Park, and Marylebone Forest, but died leaving a widow and six children unprovided for. The writer therein described how "Queen Mary JOHN LYON 19 came into our house within a little of my father's death and ftbund my Mother weeping, and took her by the hand and lifted her up — for she neeled — and bad her bee of good cheer, for her children should be well provided for. Afterward my brother R. and I being the two eldest were sent to Harrow to School, and were there till we were almost men. Sir Ralph Sadler took order for all things for us there by Queen Mary''s appointment so long as she lived." ^ It will be observed that Harrow School is here spoken of as a notable place of education, much as it might be casually mentioned now, while the institution existing in 1557 was certainly not a corporate school of the type which became famous in the reigns of Elizabeth and Edward VI. Our readers will not be unprepared for the conclusion that the decaying edu- cational life which Lyon succoured was of ecclesiastical origin, because not only were the clergy mainly responsible for training the minds of the young in country parishes before the Reformation, but at Harrow the Archbishop of Canterbury had a local position in a district termed "peculiar," and was often a visitor. It would be travelling beyond the subject-matter of this chapter to narrate in extenso the historical memories clinging to these associations, which, starting from the consecration of St. Mary's Church by Archbishop Anselm in 1094, afford glimpses of the great Thomas a Becket at two crucial periods of his life, — first, when as a youth, during 1142, he visited Archbishop Theobald at his Harrow home ; and afterwards, before proceeding to martyrdom at Canterbury in 1170, he himself received the Abbot of St. Albans in that same retreat. But a knowledge of the archiepiscopal connection with Charles II.'s " Visible Church" on Harrow Hill is necessary, if we would realise how thoroughly the education of the place must have been tinged with clerical traditions before the Reformation came. Nor is it unworthy of remark that Queen Mary would scarcely have chosen a school for her youthful proteges under other auspices. For even at the moment when the young Ropers were thus provided for, the character of the education at Harrow must have been dependent for its ecclesiastical colour upon individual bias, such as the above-named royal patronage, inasmuch as Archbishop Cranmer in 1545 had parted with his manorial rights there to the Crown.^ The need of some such effort as John Lyon made to sustain and reform the existing school was at this period indeed apparent. It is now time to tell what sort of man it was that undertook this great re- cuperative task, and consecrated thereto all his energies, and devoted all his worldly goods to the same purpose. The portrait of John Lyon that has been presented to most living Harrovians is that of a respectable yeoman, who had raised himself just above the peasant class, tradition averring that he took tolls from passers-by at a local medicinal well. Mr. Edward Scott's researches amongst the archives at once blew all these theories to the winds, and the Founder of Harrow School stood revealed as a landowner of considerable extent in Middlesex with property in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex, the whole of which he 1 For the whole of this interesting letter, see Harrow School and its Surroundings, W. H. Allen, 1885, p. 384. 2 Lysons's Environs of London, vol. ii. p. 575. 20 HARROW SCHOOL left to the " Keepers and Governors " of the new educational institution, whenever he and his wife Joan should die. During the intermediate period succeeding 1571-72, Lyon provided education for thirty poor scholars at Harrow, having also in his rules and regulations dis- tinctly enjoined that strangers of the character of Queen Mary's above-named pensioners, or even youths of better position and means, should find their position in the ideal establishment he hoped to create. It is certain that this result was not arrived at without the advice and con- nivance of a coterie of able and celebrated men who lived in the neighbourhood, and who are known to have consorted more or less together. The coincidence of Dr. Caius — resident at Ruislip — founding the Cambridge College which bears his name, and being a neighbour of John Lyon of Preston, would not attract so much attention, but for the connection which existed between these two institutions during the early stages of their history. Again, John Lyon''s greatest ally seems to have been Sir Gilbert Gerard, Queen Elizabeth's Attorney-General, who had skilfully and successfully defended her against divers enemies during the reign of that sister queen, Mary, wherein her life was in continual peril. The Gerards of Flambards, whose mansion was situated at the Park, occupied the most important position in Han'ow, after Archbishop Cranmer had abdicated his manorial rights, and conveyed them to an absentee ; and as Sir Gilbert was joint Treasurer of Gray's Inn with Sir Nicholas Bacon, who wrote the rules for St. Albans Grammar School in 1559, greater interest than otherwise would be felt centres around the fact that these regulations, promulgated by the Lord Keeper, were almost identical in many respects with those made by John Lyon when founding anew the school on Harrow Hill. Indeed, the inference is not overstrained that assumes both Sir Gilbert Gerard and John Lyon to have communicated on the matter with Sir Nicholas Bacon. There is a passage in Love's Labour's Lost which has led some thinkers to believe that Shakespeare was not ignorant of these educational changes at Harrow. He makes Armado, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Scene 1, ask the schoolmaster, Holofernes : — Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain } and to this Holofernes replies : — Or mons, the hill. More than one Shakespearian expert to whom the passage has been submitted allows its probable relevance on the ground that Shakespeare .was ignorant of the department of France, viz. Navarre, wherein the scene was laid, and could not have meant to indicate any other school upon " the hill " in England but Harrow, as that was the one with which he was most probably acquainted. Dr. Caius, it will be remembered, is one of the dramatis personam of the Merry Wives of Windsm: But we pass from the region of the probable to that of absolute fact, which fortunately stands revealed to us by the school archives at Harrow. JOHN LYON 21 John Lyon was fifty-seven years of age in 1571-72 when the charter was granted, and had Kved at the hamlet of Preston all his life on land which came into his family as early as 1393, such property being added to from time to time by purchase or bequest. The brass in Harrow church does not show that he ever had a son, but the record in the parish register of the burial of a child named Zachary Lyon on 11th May 1583, led to the belief that the entry relates to the Founder's heir. That this is not so, a letter in the Public Record Office of Sir Gilbert Gerard's to a certain Mr. John proves. It is therein urged that John Lyon should not be called on to pay =£'50 on loan to the Clerk of the Signet for State needs, because his property was invested in lands which were intended to be bestowed for the erection of a school at Harrow, and he had not the ready money which his local position warranted. Sir Gilbert added that Lyon designed this public bene- faction because he was childless ; and as this letter was indited in 1579, Zachary Lyon, who died three years afterwards, could not have been the Founder's son. He was possibly a child of relatives who were living in the neighbourhood. It is clear from this letter that John Lyon strained his resources to compass the object of his life, and also that he was a personage of marked importance in the neighbourhood where he resided. This the school archives endorse, by showing that in 1562 he headed the rental list of Harrow parish, and that eighteen years later he figured as bailiff and parish officer {PreposiUis et Bedelhis) ; while, most important of all, during the complications with Spain and the Low Countries in 1567, Lyon was chosen as collector of local subsidies for support of the national defences. It should always be remembered that an interregnum of thirty-six years occurred between the granting of the Royal Charter in 1571-72 and the death of Joan, wife of the Founder, in 1608, after which time the old schoolhouse was directed to be built. Lyon himself had passed away in 1592, but the income of his property re- mained in his wife's possession until her death; and beyond that of the maintenance of thirty poor scholars, any current expenses would seem to have been borne by the same voluntary contributions which had kept together the ancient church school, which doubtless had its habitation in the Church House mentioned in the school archives. There is mention of the place where the school was held in 1596 in a re- versionary lease, dated 2nd November in that year and agreed to, granted by the Governors to Philip Gerard of Gray's Inn, upon notice to be given " at the nowe School or Church House of the parish of Harrowe." And, indeed, this may be read together with Norden's record written a few years earlier and before John Lyon's death. " There is a schoole at Harrow, as yet no free schoole, but intended, whereunto one John Lyon hath given to be employde after his decease d£'300, and £^0 per annum for a master and ^10 for an usher." In all these matters we are inclined to believe that Sir Gilbert Gerard must have been a moving agent, just as he doubtless had been the medium, in the capacity of Attorney -General, through whom the Royal Charter came to be granted to Harrow School in 1571-72 — a privilege not conferred lightly in Tudor ti mes. 22 HARROW SCHOOL If it is desired to know what the advantages of possessing such an imprimatur may be in our own day, the decided dictum of Parhamentary experts must suffice that the education clauses brought forward during 1896 to control secondary schools, could not have exercised such power over either royal foundations or royal charters, to abrogate either of which a special Bill, such as that known as the Public Schools Act 1868, would become necessary. Not the least satisfactory result of later research into Harrow history has been the disclosing of certain personal characteristics of our Founder. We have spoken of the sacrifices John Lyon had made to endow the school, and we now like to contemplate the personal interest he took in the sustenance of Harrow education. A glimpse of his habit of riding to Harrow from Preston is given in a lease granted in March 1572 by the Founder to Hugh Ffelyskyrk, shoemaker, in which provision was made for resumption of the house if required for a dwelling-house or lodging for a schoolmaster, and also for stable and house-room for his horse, whenever he or his wife should have occasion to come to Harrow village on horseback. It is impossible to do more in these pages than give a general sense of the debt which old Harrovians owe to their prescient Founder, whose memory has been rendered clearer, and seen in an adequately historic perspective through the effiarts of Dr. Butler and Mr. Edward Scott, commenced in 1884. The Han'ow School orders, statutes, and rules should be read by themselves ; but it becomes necessary to state here the avowed object of the Founder, when devoting his free grammar school for boys, to the special exclusion, be it noted, of the female sex. Lyon, during his lifetime, "used to give twenty marks of lawful money of England annually for the thirty poor children of the town of Han-ow.'"" Taken with the words on his brass, which connect the foundation with the relief of the poor and of some poor scholars in the Universities, there is little doubt that the once customary habit of apprenticing a certain number of Harrow children to trades was an admirable means of carrying out the spirit of the Founder's wishes. As the townspeople have lost these privileges through changes of habits such as are common to modern life, the institution of a lower school of John Lyon, wherein local tradesmen and others can educate their children, seems but fair towards those whom John Lyon desired so greatly to benefit. There is not an unnatural desire to learn the extent and value of the lands which Lyon demised in perpetuity for the caiTying out of these purposes, only charging the Governors with the necessity of devoting a considerable portion of the funds towards keeping the road to London in order, a proviso which has led to money being expended on the Paddington property which now goes to the repair of Edgware Road and Oxford Street. This sacrifice probably assisted the school to become better known, as it is certain that indifferent communication with the metropolis did retard the northern suburbs for a considerable period. On the other hand, Harrow can never become the rich educational institution which a full enjoyment of the Founder''s property would have made her. Why Lyon put this condition concerning the roads into his testament is explained by Norden, a contemporary of his, in the Pars-Speculi Britanniae^ 1593, p. 11. After saying of the stretch of country towards the London Road between Harrow and Perivale, 1 ■ ^ -. ^ % '. ■■ ' " ^"'-'t %\ '. ^•^ .JP •= . ; 1 1 -« 1 <.|^-^i m % M •4 - • :.*^ 1 ^ JOHN LYON 23 "that the husbandman which waiteth for the fruits of his labours cannot but clap his hands for joy," Norden adds : " Yet doth not this so fruitful soyle yeeld comfort to the wayfairing man in the winter time, by reason of the claiesh nature of soyle," a description which even a modern winter -resident in this part of Middlesex might appreciate. Indeed, according to Walford's Greater London, it took a waggoner a day to drive his team from Harrow to the metropolis early in the present century. A digression upon the question of the roads is necessary, when endeavouring to make an estimate of the benefactions left by the Harrow Founder, which amounted to c£*179 : 6 : 8 in 1590. The money was distributed as follows : — Qts of Harrow „ Alperton ....... ,, Preston (including £20 for Paddington) . £28 . 13 . 138 6 8 £179 6 8 This income in money of our own times is about equivalent to .£'2150,^ and, as only the £9Q derived from Paddington could be drawn upon for the London roads, at least d£'2000 a year must have been at the disposal of the Keepers and Governors of that date, which included Sir Gilbert Gerard, his brother William, and Mr. John Page of Wembley. This computation is taken from the Harrow Parish Records, a source likely to be trustworthy, and was issued on the responsibility of the churchwardens in 1833. Of course the success of Harrow as a place of learning has depended more upon the insertion of the so-called foreigner clause into Lyon's rules and regulations than any other circumstance, and we therefore give the extract in extenso here : — " The Schoolmaster may receive over and above the youth of the inhabitants within this Parish so many Foreigners, as the whole may be well taught and applied and the place can conveniently contain, and of these Foreigners he may take such stipend and wages as he can get." A foreseeing and wise provision, into the development of which it will be for others to deal in succeeding pages, but which can ojAy receive passing mention here. We are conscious that these initiatory pages must of necessity contain matter which, antiquarian in character, will fail to compete in interest with details of events nearer to or connected with our own times. But we appeal to Harrovians of all ages not to forget what is due to the Founder's memory. It unfortunately happened that the Tercentenary of Harrow's existence as a recognised educational institution was held before anything definite came to light about John Lyon, except that he had devoted his landed property to founding a grammar school there. True it is that the late Mr. C. E. Long conducted some interesting researches into the Founder's pedigree, which he communicated to the Harrow Gazette in 1861 ; the researches in question showing a strong probability that Sir John Lyon, Lord Mayor of London in 1554, was first cousin of John Lyon of Preston, but 1 This computation appears to some excessive. It is much higher than that adopted by Mr. W. O. Hewlett in Chap. IV., and would raise the cost of the old schools to over £8000. — Edd. 24 HARROW SCHOOL without the assistance of the deeds contained in the school chest that which is now practically assured could only be matter for mere surmise. The famous gathering at Harrow in 1871 was therefore one of faithful Har- rovians full of patriotic enthusiasm, but devoted to the worship of a shadowy memory in that of John Lyon. Desirous, therefore, of now emphasising the real facts to all Harrovians past and present, we would say, do not refrain, either before you leave the school or after, from making a pilgrimage to Preston, and on the high ground above John Lyon's house, still standing as of yore, look upon the beautiful hill-outline which must have been familiar to John and Joan Lyon them- selves, and may have fired him to accomplish the great purpose of his life. Return thence along the bank of the Brent, past the farm of Uxendon, the site of a former house wherein Anthony Babington was taken prisoner for his conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth in 1586, together with Belamy the friend and neighbour of John Lyon. It is possible that the visitor, interested by these historical memories and attracted by the truly English character of the scenery, while realising (which few Harrovians did thirty years ago) that the Founder lived and died in these pleasant surroundings close to the school he re-created, may be led to forgive the length to which this chapter has extended, or even, some time hence, essay to read it a second time. Percy M. Thornton. CHAPTER IV HARROW SCHOOL BUILDINGS In a preceding chapter the early history of the manors of Harrow and Harrow Hill Rectory has been traced, and some account has been given of the social life of the inhabitants during the ownership of the Archbishops of Canterbury and their Rectors, down to the close of the sixteenth century. In the present chapter it is proposed to deal with the steps taken by our Founder to secure the continued existence and future management of the Grammar School in a building to be erected at his own cost, and to trace its subsequent history ; to enumerate the additions to our School Buildings, to notice the connection which existed between the School and the Parish Church, and to allude to some of the entries in the Governors"* Minute and Account books which bear upon general matters of interest, and have special reference to School Buildings. Although the great increase in building which has taken place on and around our Hill during the last sixty years has done much to spoil the natural beauty and picturesque character of Harrow, it still retains many points of attraction. But the appearance which Harrow presented in the time of John Lyon, and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, must have been far more attractive and beautiful. Situated about twelve miles from the City of London, the village was approached through an avenue of trees, commencing near the first milestone, and ending at the green opposite the Kings's Head ; indeed, one of such trees is shown in a picture dated in 1796 ; and the Rev. B. H. Drury, the present Senior Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, has stated that he recollects the last few trees of this avenue being cut down in his early youth. The map of 1759, to which allusion has already been made, shows that on all sides of the Hill the roads were fringed with strips of waste ground. On the western side of the Hill no houses seem to have been in existence ; the whole of the large tract now bounded by Roxeth Hill on the south, the Lower Roxeth Road on the west, by West Street, Crown Street, and Byron Hill on the north, and by the London Road on the east, formed, with the exception of some enclosures, Roxeth Common. The village Butts were placed at the corner of the Common, which faced the London Road and Roxeth Hill, at the top of Roxeth Hill across the London Road stood the turnpike gate, Harrow pond was on the Common, and there were smaller ponds just below the Hermitage, at 26 HARROW SCHOOL the foot of West Street and on the site now ^ occupied by Mr. BushelPs house. On the east side of the London Road were the Hermitage, on the site of an ancient Hermitage dedicated to St. Edmund and St. Katherine,^ and the large property known as Flambards. In the village itself, and down what is now known as West Street, were a few houses and shops extending as far as the School, above which was the Vicarage. On the summit stood the Church, the Church House, and Church- yard, with the magnificent and extensive view it still possesses ; and among other more distant objects could be seen, on the west the Church of St. John at Pinner, The Old School. on the north the Priory of Bentley, built in honour of St. Mary Magdalene, and belonging from a time anterior to legal memory to the Priory of St. Gregory, Canterbury,^ and to the east the Hamlets of Kenton and Preston, the home of the Lyon family. To the north of the Church was the Rectory (now The Grove), with its garden, long called the Hanging Garden, lying between the Upper and Lower Church roads, on part of which stood a few shops. Down to the commencement of the present century, Harrow could only boast of one School Building. Springing from no Royal Foundation, endowed by none of the illustrious Archbishops and Primates of All England, who owned from Saxon times till the Reformation the parish within which she was placed, our Free 1898. ^ Court Rolls Harrow Manor, a.d. 1529. 3 Ibid. A.D. 1512. I HARROW SCHOOL BUILDINGS . 27 Grammar School has only possessed a corporate existence since the year 1571, and has only enjoyed possession of her moderate endowment and the income derived therefrom since 1608. The Royal Charter of Incorporation of the Keepers and Governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the Free Grammar School of John Lyon, was granted on the 19 th of February 1571, but it was not until the year 1575 that John Lyon surrendered the lands held by him by copy of Court Roll of the manors of Harrow and of the Rectory of Harrow Hill (with which and other property elsewhere he intended to endow the school), for a regrant to himself and Joan his wife, and the heirs of his body, and in default of such heirs to the Keepers and Governors of the School. John Lyon, who was, it is believed, bom about the year 1514, and who first became a tenant of lands in Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1564, died in October 1592, and by his Orders and Statutes for the governance of the School, which are dated the 18th January 1591, and were made by him in pursuance of the power for that purpose conferred by the Charter of 1571, gave the following directions with regard to the erection of the Schoolhouse : — And whereas I, the said John Lyon, do purpose by the leave of God to build upon some part of my lands lying within the said town of Harrow-upon-the-Hill as well meet and con- venient rooms for the said Schoolmaster and Usher to inhabit and dwell in, as also a large and convenient School House with a chimney in it. And also a Cellar under the said rooms or School House to lay in wood and coals, which said Cellar shall be divided into three several rooms, the one for the Master, the second for the Usher, and the third for the Scholars. My full mind and will is, that if such said rooms. School House, and Cellars shall not be made and builded in my lifetime, then the sum of Three hundred pounds of lawful money of England to be levied and taken of the rents of the lands conveyed and assured, and hereafter to be conveyed and assured to the said Keepers and Governors for the space of three years next after the deceases of me, the said John Lyon, and of the said Joan, my Wife, or so much of the said sum of Three hundred pounds, as by the discretion of the said Keepers and Governors shall be thought meet and convenient, shall be employed and bestowed upon the building and making of the said rooms. School House, and Cellars, anything aforesaid to the contrary notwithstanding. Provided, nevertheless, that during the said three years the yearly payment of the twenty marks of lawful English money which I, the said John Lyon, have used to give and pay for the teaching of thirty poor children of the said Parish of Harrow shall be continued and paid by the said Keepers and Governors until such time as the said buildings be finished and the said School Master and Usher placed, which said placing of the School Master and Usher I would have to be done as soon as conveniently may be after the finishinge of the said buildings, and the same to be finished with all reasonable and convenient speed ; and if there be any overplus of the said three years rents, besides the said Three hundred pounds and the said twenty marks, my mind and will is that such overplus shall also be bestowed upon the said buildings, if by the discretion of the said Keepers and Governors it shall so be thought meet and convenient. And if the said buildings, or any of them, shall be begun in my lifetime and not finished, then my mind and will is that only so much of the said sum of Three hundred pounds as will reasonably and conveniently serve for the finishing of all the said buildings shall be bestowed thereupon. And forasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God of His great and infinite mercy as well to bless me with the lands and possessions aforesaid, as also to assist me with His Grace for to assure and dispose the same to the uses and purposes herein mentioned and specified, wherein I have 28 HARROW SCHOOL only sought the advancement and setting forth of the glory of God, and the good example, henefit, and furtherance of good Christian people, I do therefore, in the name of God, straightly charge and require all the said Keepers and Governors which now be or at any time hereafter shall be, as they will answer before God and our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming, to be careful and faithful in the just and true disposition, ordering, execution, and performance of all and singular the things herein mentioned belonging to their charge ; and to see and provide that the whole profits of the said lands, the yearly rents, all fines, and other commodities whatsoever thereof in anywise arising or coming, be wholly employed and bestowed to and for the uses, intents, and purposes herein mentioned and declared in the best and most beneficial wise that may be to their skill and knowledge. And if any overplus be, the same to be safely kept in stock towards necessary charges, and part thereof to be given and bestowed for help and relief of poor marriages, and other such good and charitable purposes, within the said Parish of Harrow at the discretion of the said Keepers and Governors. From these Statutes, therefore, we learn that no School House had been erected in 1591, and that John Lyon during his life paid for the yearly schooling of thirty poor children of the parish. The Governors'' Account books prove that the erection of the School House was not commenced until 1608. Prior to its erection, as has already been stated, the Grammar School was carried on in the Church House situated close by the Churchyard ; which was in existence in the year 1475, and belonged to the Arch- bishops when Lords of the manor of Harrow. The maintenance of a Grammar School could not, from a pecuniary point of view, have been a matter of moment, so long as the Archbishops of Canterbury, who possessed both influence and wealth, and their Rectors were Lords of the manors of Harrow and of the Rectory of Harrow Hill ; but when the ownership of both manors was united in one person, who was a stranger to the place, when the powerful patronage of the Primates of All England was removed, when the Rectory was no longer held by an Ecclesiastic resident in the place, but by an Oxford College, the fortunes of the School must have been seriously affected. As has already been mentioned, the manors were surrendered to the Crown in December 1545, and were granted out by the Crown in the following year. At the very time when this change of ownership took place, the Chantries Act of King Henry VIII. was passed, to be followed, after his death in January 1547, by a further and more sweeping Act of King Edward VI. The effect of these Acts upon the Schools of England has been fully dealt with by Mr. Leach in his work on English Schools at the Refoi-matio7i, 1546-48. He has shown that, coupled with the Act for the dissolution of the larger Monasteries, they signed the death-warrant of many Grammar Schools in England ; that many were deprived of part or of the whole of their original endowments ; some were swept away entirely ; others were refounded with new endowments. A new state of things with regard to Schools generally had, therefore, been created ; and uncertainty as to the future of the unendowed and independent Grammar School, which existed at Harrow in the reign of Queen Mary, must have been felt, even though it did not fall within the purview of the Chantries Acts. The question, too, was one which seemed to concern the community at large, rather than Sir HARROW SCHOOL BUILDINGS 29 Edward North, the Lord of both manors, alone ; and the duty of providing for its continued existence as a seat of learning, with a sufficient endowment for its future maintenance, was a pressing necessity. We can, therefore, well imagine that beneficent and thoughtful minds would come to the conclusion that the only method of placing the School on a permanent basis was to follow the plan adopted by the Crown in the reign of King Edward VI. when refounding Schools, and to create a Governing Body, with perpetual succession, as a Corporation under a Royal Charter, and to endow it with property and revenues of sufficient value to effect the purpose in view. This, at any rate, was the course adopted in 1571 by our Founder. His Charter is framed on the model of the Charter granted on 13th May 1550 for Sherborne, one of the first Schools refounded ; and this is the constitution, with such modifications as from time to time have become necessary, under which Harrow School is now carried on. In the reign of King Edward VI., the population of Harrow-upon-the-Hill and Pinner must have exceeded the number of 1700 persons. The Certificate made by the Commissioners, in pursuance of the Chantries Act in 1548,^ records the number of " howseling people "" in Pinner as 300, and in Harrow-upon-the-Hill as 1000. Howseling, or Husseling people, so called from a Saxon word signifying the Holy Sacrament, were the communicants ; and, assuming that the age of fourteen was the earliest at which a person would become a communicant, all below fourteen are ex- cluded in the above returns.^ If therefore, for these, an increase in the above numbers of one-third is adopted, the population resident in Harrow and Pinner in the middle of the sixteenth century may approximately be fixed at upwards of 1700 persons. Among the residents there were some influential families, from whom five out of the six original Governors named in the charter of 1571 were selected. Two were members of the Gerard family, viz. Gilbert Gerard, the Queen's Attorney- General, afterwards Sir Gilbert Gerard, and William Gerard, his brother, who lived at Flambards. Two belonged to the Page family, viz. John Page of Wembley and Thomas Page of Sudbury Court ; a descendant of whom was Deputy-Chamber- lain of the Exchequer in 1634. Thomas Redding of Pinner, resident at Headstone, and Richard Edlyn of Woodhall, Pinner, whose ancestors were tenants of Harrow manor from the earliest times, were the remaining two Governors. Immediately after the death of the Founder's wife, Joan Lyon, on 27th August 1608, the Governors entered into the full possession of the Founder's endowment property, and proceeded to erect the School House on a site selected in 1572 by John Lyon himself for this purpose, for in that year he granted a lease of the premises immediately to the south of the Vicarage, with a proviso that he might * Harrow Tracts, No. ix. 2 The 112th Canon required all persons to become communicants before the age of sixteen years ; and with triennial confirmations (as ordained by the 60th Canon), this supposed many to become so at twelve or thirteen years of age. Before that age they were forbidden to com- municate by one of Queen Elizabeth's injunctions ; the time for confirmation, therefore, appears to have been from twelve to sixteen years of age. 30 HARROW SCHOOL resume possession, if at any time he were minded to take the house, and convert it into a house for a Schoolmaster. In one of the most popular of our School songs,^ our Founder, in asking for a Charter " firm and free," addresses Queen Elizabeth thus : — " Queen," he says, " I have got in store A beautiful School from roof to door." The plan ^ of such a School was in the possession of John Lyon, and is still preserved among the Governors' muniments ; the architect who prepared it was Mr. Sly ; and on its main lines, though not in strict accordance with all its details, the Governors, according to their own account, as given in their answer to an Information filed against them in February 1610 by the Attorney-General in the High Court of Chancery, commenced to build " a fair School House with a chimney in it, and with meet and convenient lodgings for the Schoolmaster and Usher, and with cellars, studies, and other things, as near as they could, according to the intent and meaning of John Lyon, their Founder ; the which they were the rather induced to do for that they well knew the same to be a work of charity, which the said John Lyon, above all the said charitable uses, most and principally affected." But they had to confess that " in their proceedings touching the same, they had fallen into the common error of builders, and had bestowed much more money thereabout than at the first was meant or intended " ; and so much so, that three years' rent more, in addition to the sum of ,£'300 directed by the Founder to be expended, would hardly suffice to perfect the building answerable to his intention. The building of the School House was entrusted to Mr. Thomas Page of Roxeth, and was completed ready for the reception of the Scholars, and furnished as a residence for the Schoolmaster and the Usher, in 1615, at a total cost, according to the accounts among the School Muniments, of not much under £100, a sum equal to at least dPSSOO of our money ; ^ and this fabric, which forms the western wing of the present old School, remained in the same condition until the commencement of the present century, as several prints of the old building of this date and still in existence remain to testify. The entrance and stairs were at the east side, and gave access to the large room on the first floor known as the Fourth Form room ; above this were the Master's room at the north end, and the Usher's chamber at the south end ; while the middle room, wainscotted for the first time in 1669, as it still remains wainscotted, was reserved for the Governors, and continued in their occupation until 1847, since which time it has been used as a schoolroom. Above these rooms were the garrets or attics, known in more recent times as the Cock-loft, and in the basement were the cellars, divided into three parts for wood and coal for the use of the Master, Usher, and Scholars, as provided by the Founder's Statutes. So long as the School House was the residence of the Master and Usher, the room now known as 1 Queen Elizabeth, by E. E. Bowen. 2 A watermark, similar in character to that on this plan, is given in Sotherby's Watermarks of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, and is dated a.d. 1585. 2 Thorold Rogers, Pub. Sch. Com. Bept. vol. ii. App. HARROW SCHOOL BUILDINGS 31 the Fourth Form room was the only one used for scholastic purposes. When the Master and Usher ceased to reside, their rooms, together with the attics, became available for schoolrooms, as the necessity for additional accommodation arose. Externally, the School was adorned by a sun-dial, but this had disappeared before 1800. A Vane and a Lion were added in 1704 ; a collar was given to the Lion in 1728, and he was gilded in 1730. A portion of his tail is now in the Butler Museum. The Schoolyard, to which entrance was gained from the street by a gate, was gravelled and enlarged as the requirements of the time demanded ; additional ground was taken for recreation grounds and playfields in 1680 and 1748. The furniture purchased for the use of the Master and Usher consisted of two bedsteads, three cupboards, two round tables, and six stools, a drawing-table, and a mat ; while the Governors"' room was furnished with a chair and five stools, covered with Russia leather, two pairs of curtains and valence, and a Turkey carpet. An oak chest for the muniments, with three locks and keys, directed by the Statutes to be kept in the house appointed for the Schoolmaster, was provided at a cost of £^ : 6 : 8 ; it is now placed in the Fourth Form room and measures 4 feet 6 inches in length, 2 feet in width, and 2 feet in height. So far as the Governors' Account books show, no furniture or utensils were supplied for the kitchen, and indeed there are now no traces to be found of any kitchen accommodation, or offices, or of any access from the basement to the staircase leading up to the rooms of the Master and Usher. The inconvenience of the School House as a residence for the Master must soon have been felt, both from the absence of the accessories usual in private residences, and of accommodation for the reception of foreigners, whose parents desired that their sons should reside with the headmaster ; and it appears to have ceased to be a residence in 1650 or 1651. William Hide, appointed headmaster in 1628, obtained from the Governors in 1651 a lease of a house on the site believed to be that now occupied by the present headmaster's house; and from the early part of the eighteenth century leases have been granted to successive headmasters of their residence at a peppercorn rent, the cost of by far the larger amount of the repairs and of all permanent improvements falling on the tenant for the time being. The Governors' Minute books, which commence in 1615, and Account books, com- mencing in 1608, contain frequent orders and payments for general repairs to the Schoolhouse, including work when the chimney was blown down in 1631, and glazing, which formed a heavy item until wire was placed over the windows in 1772 ; for furniture for the Governors, and books for the School House ; for gravelling the Schoolyard ; for levelling it in 1682 ; for making, in 1645, a hearth in the School, possibly the one now in the Fourth Form room ; for an hour-glass in 1651 ; for a clock in 1654, and a pendulum clock in 1686 ; for a school-bell in 1738 ; for the disposal of the old school-bell, and the purchase of a new one of a larger size in 1820 ; for ringing the bells, called by the various names of " The Bell before the Free School Sermons," " The Sermon Bell," " The Month Bell," « The Great Bell," « John Lyon's Bell," or "John Lyon's Knell." Payments, too, were made for quartering soldiers and for parliamentary taxes during the Civil War ; for chimney-money, or smoke- farthings, and for hearth tax, imposed for the first time by Act of Parliament of 13th 32 HARROW SCHOOL and 14th Charles II. c, 10, in lieu of smoke-farthings ; for Royal aids and supply ; for the militia-tax and trophy-money, or money levied for supplying arms, coats, and hats for soldiers between the years 1671 and 1710, and for other taxes imposed by various Statutes passed after the Restoration. The Account books also show that each of the Governors for the first time in 1618 received the modest sum of 13s. 4d. for his yearly allowance for his pains in attending at the two meetings in every year, enjoined by the Founder's Statutes ; and in the same year is recorded for the first time a payment of 13s. 4d. for the dinner of five Governors, being the sum directed by the Statutes to be bestowed upon each of those solemn entertainments. In many years two dinners are recorded, one at Easter and one in October. The amount, however, in subsequent years is always in excess of the above modest sum ; and in 1708 no less than £6 :5:6 was paid in October for " wine, oysters, carriage, and entertaynement " for the Governors. The Governors'' muniments also show the close connection which existed between the School and the Parish and Parish Church. By his Statutes John Lyon ordained that : The Keepers and Governors shall provide and procure thirty good, learned, and godly sermons to be preached yearely for ever in the Parish Church of Harrow-upon-the-Hill aforesaid at con- venient times ; and shall pay to the Preacher or Preachers thereof ten pounds yearly of like lawful money (that is to say) for every sermon, 6s. 8d. And if the said Schoolmaster or the Vicar of Harrow for the time being shall be thought by the j udgment and discretion of the Keepers and Govei-nors for the time being to be a meet and sufficient man for that pui-pose, and that he, the said Schoolmaster, can well and will do the same, without any hindrance to his teaching of the said School, then the one of them, before any other, to have the preaching of the said sermons and the said ten pounds for his pains therein. And also the said Keepers and Governors to pay yearly to the Sexton of the said Parish of Harrow for towling the Bell before the said sermons, 6s. 8d. of like lawful money. And in his observations for the ordering of the School is the following direction : All the Scholars shall come to the Church and there hear Divine service and the Scripture read or interpreted with attention and reverence ; he that shall do otherwise shall receive correction according to the quality of his fault. In accordance with these provisions for religious training, the Scholars of the Free Grammar School attended the Parish Church and listened to the ministrations of successive Vicars of Harrow for nearly three hundred years. In 1668 the Governors obtained a license to build a gallery in the Church for the use of the Scholars, which was accordingly erected at a cost of nearly dC'lOO. This gallery was in the north aisle, and was finally taken down in 1886. On 23rd April 1763 the Church steeple was set on fire by lightning, which threatened the destruction of the whole building, and a contribution of ^£'10 was given by the Governors as a gratuity to those persons who ventured their lives in extinguishing the fire. In 1724 the old Parish House in the Churchyard, believed to be the old Church House mentioned in a previous chapter, was taken down, and a house of maintenance for the poor was erected on a site in West Street, granted by the Governors on lease in trust for the use of the Parish ; and d£'300 was contributed by them towards the cost of this building, which ceased to exist in 1835 when the Hendon Union was formed by an Order from the Poor Law Commissioners. HARROW SCHOOL BUILDINGS 33 In 1823 assistance was also granted towards the erection of an organ in the church, and in 1824 i,-*50 Avas given as a voluntary subscription towards the cost of repairing the steeple. In 1834 and 1837 the Governors refused to contribute towards the removal of the Parish Cage. This was a brick building with a sloping tiled roof. It had a large door and an iron grating above it, and was situated in West Street, just to the east of the path leading into the Church fields. It was used as a lock-up house for persons taken up by the Constable or Police, and was removed about the year 1845. In 1825 Dr. George Butler wrote to the Governors as to the relinquishment of attendance by the Scholars in the Church on certain days, thus opening up the question which led finally to the erection of a Chapel for the use of the School. In 1835, the Parish Officers having raised some question " as to the right of the Schoolboys to occupy their present sittings in the Church without paying for them," counsel's opinion was taken by the Governors, and was given in favour of the right to the free enjoyment of the sittings in Church by the Scholars. In July 1845 the question of the continuance of services for the Scholars in the Church was considered by the Governors ; in February 1857 the withdrawal of the Scholars from morning service was sanctioned; and in July 1858 the con- secration in November 1857 of the Chapel as it now exists was reported to the Governors. Thus all connection of the Founder's School with the Parish Church finally ceased in November 1857, and the connection of the Grammar School, which was carried on in the Church House prior to the erection of the School House, with the Parish Church also terminated. For two hundred years the School had remained with no other building than that provided by the Governors in accordance with Lyon's bequest. But with the nineteenth century an era of expansion set in. With this I have little concern, and I need do no more than enumerate the buildings which have clustered round Lyon's foundation. First came the addition, at a cost of upwards of ^5000, to the old School itself in 1819 and 1820, of a new wing, containing a Speech-room, Class-rooms, and a School library.^ It is impossible to feel too grateful for the wisdom which made the new design correspond with the old, and produced one harmonious whole. Nay, more, there was one improvement, for it is to this time that we owe the great oriel window in the Fourth Form room. In 1839 the first Chapel was built, and this was replaced by the Chapel as it at present exists in 1857. An additional block of schoolrooms, which are still, with a confusing scantiness of nomenclature, known as the " New Schools," was built by subscription on the site of the old dancing -school in 1855, The foundation-stone of the Vaughan Library was laid in 1861. The new Speech-room was opened in 1877, and the Science Schools in 1874. Dr. Butler's headmastership was commemorated by the noble block of buildings known, from the Butler Museum at the top of it, as the Museum Schools. This is the most successful in design of all our modem additions, and stands, with its fine proportions and beautiful open stair, as a ^ This addition was made under the advice of Mr. Cockerell, Architect to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. D a4 HARROW SCHOOL worthy example of its architect's^ reputation. A small and inconvenient Music School, which had at first housed Mr. Farmer's pupils, was replaced by a new Music School in 1890. This possesses an excellent concert-room, in addition to smaller recesses where young pianists can secure that privacy which is desirable for them and for others, and a semi-soundproof, underground chamber designed for the brass band, l^ast in the roll comes the Art -School, the gift of Mr. Henry Yates Thomson in 1895. Besides these strictly educational buildings, we have seen the erection of Racket-courts and Fives-courts, a Gymnasium, an Observatory, and a Carpenters shop. But as these have been, like the rest, mainly built by subscriptions of the sons and friends of HaiTow, the record of them is more appro- priately placed in the chapters upon the benefactions, and in those which deal with the reigns of recent headmasters. Of all the buildings now belonging to the School, the chief interest must always be centred in the western wing of the Old School, which contains the Fourth Form room. In spite of the many changes which have from time to time taken place in other parts of the building, this room remains unchanged ; the seats in which successive headmaster's and ushers have, since the beginning of the seventeenth century, sat and taught ; the cupboard in which the instruments of punishment were kept ; the benches upon which succeeding generations of Scholars have received their tuition and punishment, are all still preserved. On its panels have been carved, with their own hands, the names of many of the most hcmoured and famous of the sons of Harrow ; while above the panels are enrolled the names of later Harrovians. Within its walls "the squash" was held for the election of cricket-club keepers, public whoppings by the Head of the School have taken place, and, until a comparatively recent date, Bill was called. In these memorials we find the link which unites the present with the past, and the proof of the wisdom of the policy adopted for the preservation of the Grammar School by our Founder ; and of him we can, while standing in their presence, say with truth and gratitude — Si monumentum requiris circumspice. W. O, Hewlett. ^ Mr. Basil Champueys. 1 i J \ J__ CHAPTER V THE HOUSES When John Lyon drew up his " Orders, Statutes, and Rules," after providing for the free education of a certain number of the children of the parish, he laid down the following : " The Schoolmaster may receive, over and above the children of the inhabitants within the parish, so many foreigners as the whole number may be well taught and applied, and the place can conveniently contain, by the judgment and discretion of the Governors."" The number of free scholars seems originally to have been fixed at 30, but in 1615, by a resolution of the Governors, it was raised to 40. It is obvious, therefore, that, while John Lyon wished primarily to benefit the parish of Harrow, he also looked forward to a time when foreigners would be induced to come to the hill for their education. This confidence was soon to be justified. In the preceding chapter will be found how, according to the terms of the charter, " meete and convenient rooms," together with a large and convenient schoolhouse, were built for the master; how these rooms were immediately over the Fourth Form room, and how this accommodation must have proved insufficient for the master as soon as the foreigner clause came into operation. Indeed, the master did not reside there after 1651 ; and just a century after the granting of the charter, William Home, who had become headmaster, received an increased allowance from the Governors for fitting up a house, which was made over to him and his successors, to receive boarders. From this time forward the headmaster"'s house became an important school building, and was gradually enlarged as the fortunes of the school demanded it. In the year 1721 the numbers of the school had reached 144, of whom 40 were free scholars and the rest foreigners ; but in 1738 the free scholars had diminished to 19, and one year later to only 14. From this time forwards the character of the school seems to have changed ; foreigners increased in numbers, free scholars diminished, till we find that in 1780 there were only seven or eight inhabitants who sent their sons to the school, and in 1816, when the total numbers reached close on 300, only three free scholars were to be found amongst them. During the first century of the schooPs existence it seems to have been the custom for certain good ladies, called " dames," appointed by the headmaster, to visit in their homes the youngest of the free scholars, and to impart to them what 06 HARROW SCHOOL elementary knowledge they themselves possessed. Amongst the Governors' Order and Account books we find various entries concerning them, such as : " The number of those that teach children to read shall not exceed six. The children to come constantly to school" (1660). There are entries of payments to "six good wives" for teaching the poor of Wembley, Roxeth, Sudbury, and Harrow (1660-61). " Paid to six School Dames for teaching to read ^24" (1703-1704). "That the annual payment of ,£'4 to the School Dame of Harrow division be discontinued" (1818). Even as late as 1847, " =£*10 a year given to building a School at Wembley, with the understanding that the School Dames at Wembley and Alperton be withdrawn." When it is remembered that in those early days boys came into the school almost straight from the nursery, the reason for this system will be obvious to all ; and it was to this that we owed in after-years the dames houses, which played so large a part in the school-life up to fifty or sixty years ago. Readers of Mr. P. M. Thornton's history of the school are aware that in 1745 and 1746, during the headmastership of Dr. Coxe,the numbers of the boys fell to 50, mainly because the said Dr. Coxe, according to a Minute of the Governors, had " for a great while past lived a disorderly, drunken, idle life." But when Dr. Thackeray was ap- pointed to succeed him, the numbers rapidly increased, and in addition to the houses of the headmaster, of Mr. Reeves, the writing-master, and of Mr. Hawkins, a certain Dr. Glasse opened a boarding-house on his own account, the residents in which seem to have been neither free scholars nor ordinary boarders, but a mixture of the two. However, the house became popular, especially in aristocratic circles, and, amongst other privileges, claimed the singular one of exemption from "bill" for all its members. This continued through Dr. Thackeray's headmastership, but Dr. Sumner foresaw the danger of this privileged doctor, and issued an edict that all boys must attend " bill." As Dr. Glasse objected to this, he was soon forced, in spite of many remonstrances, to close the house. This brought the headmaster into difficulties, for the numbers of the school were advancing by leaps and bounds, and he had reduced the boarding accommodation. Thus it was that he finally decided to allow six of the dames to open boarding-houses, and so inaugurated a system which continued for the following sixty or seventy years. It is difficult now to imagine how this scheme worked ; we are scarcely surprised to hear that it led to great abuses. One old Harrovian wrote many years ago : " Let me here mention a great evil that existed in my time. Dames houses, as they were called, where no master resided — there were several of them, Leith's near the church, Armstrong's and Maxwell's — were the source of many irregularities." And we find that another wrote : " At the dame's we did pretty much as we liked. She used to say, ' Now, boys, if you do not make too much noise in the house, and give me little trouble, if any boy comes to me and says he has a hard lesson on such a day, and fears the consequences, I may be induced to say for him that he is a little unwell, and I have directed him to keep within, or, as it was called, 'stay out.' This was, as may be supposed, occasionally taken advantage of. Our dinners at the dame's were so bad, and worse cooked (the dame's husband being the cook), that 1 never dined there, but hoarded up my pocket-money and weekly allowance, and made my dinner of fruit-pies, either at Grace's or Hemming's (names that an old THE HOUSES 37 Harrovian will recollect). It was to this practice that I attribute much of the ill- health I have suffered through life." Mrs. Armstrong's house was that between the school -gates and the present chapel, and differed very little from what its appearance is now, except that there seems to have existed a row of studies adjoining it, the windows of which, at some height from the ground, overlooked the road opposite the chapel. Similar studies can be seen in the old prints of Dr. Drury's house. But the most famous and successful of the dames houses was held by Mrs. Leith in the old vicarage. Whilst Mrs. Armstrong was latterly allowed only two or three boarders, Mrs. Leith ruled over a flourishing and popular house, famous for its distinguished boarders and its success at cricket. " Leith's against the rest of the school " was an annual cricket match ; and among other distinguished members of the house were Charles Perry, Bishop of Melbourne, 1847-76 ; R. C. Trench, Arch- bishop of Dublin, 1863-84 ; Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, 1853-92 ; and A. J. Beresford-Hope ; whilst almost the last to be entered, in 1841, during the tenure of Mrs. Leith was Charles Savile Currer, better known to modern Harrovians as Mr. Roundell. Although Mrs. Leith"'s house used to play the school at cricket, it must have trusted to quality rather than to quantity, as it contained only a dozen boys. No tutor lived in the house, but Mrs. Leith was supreme. It was unlike most of the other houses in one respect, the boys did not sleep in their studies ; but these were away from the house, round a piece of ground, on one side of which stood the dining-hall, — a number of snug little rooms, built of wood and lined with green baize. Later on, the old vicarage came into the hands of Mrs. Wood, niece of Lord Chancellor Hatherley, and boys still continued to be in the house. But Mrs. Wood was never a " dame "" in the proper sense of the word. She rented the house and lived in it ; and the master who resided there with a few boys paid her so much a year for board and lodging. Finally, Mr. Bushell had a " small house " there from January 1868 to Mid- summer 1870, when the old vicarage was pulled down to make way for the vicar's present residence. Amongst those who held houses at the beginning of the century, Benjamin Evans was one of the foremost. Coming to Harrow in 1783, he served the school for fifty years till his death in 1833, and for many years lived in the house in Hog Lane, once Hogarth Lane, now Crown Street, at the top of the cricket-ground, the garden of which runs down close to the pavilion. Amongst the members of his house were Isaac Williams, of the Oxford Movement ; George Lockwood, a hero of the Balaclava charge, the " one hopeless, splendid man " of Mr. Bowen's poem ; and last, but not least, Hon. Frederick G. B. Ponsonby, sixth Earl of Bessborough. We now come to the family of the Drurys, to whose services Harrow owes so much. Five of them held houses. Joseph Drury, whilst an assistant master, lived in the house, now converted into shops, which stands between the King's Head and AValdron Road. Mark Drury's house stood on the site of the present school book- 38 HARROW SCHOOL shop and of the house immediately to the north of it. These two are said origin- ally to have been an hostelry, called the " Queen''s Head " — a tradition which is borne out by the existing large gate leading into the yard behind. We do not hear of any one succeeding to his house ; and as he retired in 1826, when the numbers of the school, owing to various reasons, were beginning to fall rapidly, it is probable that the house was then closed. Here Sir Robert Peel found his Harrow home, and is said to have carved his name on a brick of the outer wall. This, however, is no longer to be found there, but was taken out more than thirty years ago, and is not in school hands. Many other houses, no longer used as boarding - houses, have existed at various times during the century. A list of them may be seen in the Harrovian of 21st November 1895, but the only one which calls for any mention is the Butts, where Mr. Rendall and Mr. Westcott, now Bishop of Durham, each spent five years between 1849 and 1859. In addition to Mr. Hewlett, the school doctor, various residents at different times have been permitted to take two or three boarders into their houses. Thus in Dr. George Butler's time we find an Upcher boarding with Mr. Cunningham, the vicar ; in Dr. Wordsworth's time, a Sanctuary with a Mr. Styles, and a Goring with a Mr. AVarneford ; whilst, in Dr. Vaughan's time, Mr. John W. Cunningham several times received permission to take two boarders, the first of whom was Sir George Trevelyan ; and the parish curates were occasionally granted similar privileges. Headmasteii"'s House The exact duration of the occupancy of the old school building as a residence by the master and usher is not known, but it certainly did not last beyond the year 1651 ; and it can easily be imagined that the inconvenience arising from a want of due provision in the building itself for the usual accessories of a private residence must have become felt in a very short time. From the Order-books we learn that, on 17th June 1650, the Governors agreed that Mr. William Hide, the headmaster, should have a lease of the tenement in the occupation of Mary Jones, for twenty- one years, at the yearly rent of £^ ; and a lease was accordingly granted to him on the 2nd August 1651, and £S was, in 1653, allowed to him for repairing his house. Mr. Hide continued to reside in this house long after he ceased to be master in October 1661, and even after his lease had expired ; for, in February 1685, he received notice to give up possession by Lady Day then next following. From this time forward we find that each successive headmaster resided in a house of his own, and that the Governors assisted with pecuniary grants towards repairs and alterations, to provide better accommodation for himself and his boarders. But this arrangement was also found inconvenient, and the Governors, on 7th October 1672, passed the following resolution : — " Whereas there is no convenient house of habitation for the schoolmaster of the Free School, by which means the present Schoolmaster (Mr. Home) is enforced to hire a house in the town for his present accommodation at an extraordinary t THE HOUSES 39 charge, therefore the Governors, having it under their consideration how the Schoohnaster may be furnished with an house at the charge of the School for the future (but finding that the work cannot suddenly be effected), do hereby order that £10 at present be given unto Mr. Home, the present Schoolmaster, for a present supply to continue until further order." Thus early do we trace evidence of the Governors finding, as their successors still find, that the work urgently required " cannot suddenly be effected." It was not until the mastership of William Bolton that the Governors' object was realised. The house was more than once enlarged and altered, generally at the headmaster's expense, though the Governors sometimes paid a share. What was done by Dr. George Butler is mentioned in the article upon his headmastership. Thus gradually was built up the original headmaster's house of which F. Mackenzie's picture, published in Ackerman's History of the Public Schools (1816), gives us an excellent view. The porch and other architectural ornaments were added to the house by Dr. George Butler, in whose time it reached its final proportions. Growing up, as we have seen, gradually and as need required, it bore traces of the handiwork of most of the headmasters, — a great rambling building, which, at its fullest, held the enormous number of 120 boys. Facing the road was a long wing, in which were the studies of the boys, and looking over the headmaster's shrubbery was a large yard, round three sides of which were their bedrooms. Along the big corridors could be seen cut up the names of generations of Harrovians, which, according to tradition, once saved the house from destruction. The house being so big, there were two large halls provided for the boarders, the one the common breakfast-room, or playroom, where the lower boys took their breakfast and tea, and the other, the hall, or Sixth Form room, which was looked upon as a sort of club, where no boy was allowed to enter except at dinner- and prayer-time, until he had become a member by passing through the trying ordeal of "rolling in" described elsewhere. The hall was the scene of " handing up," and this shows that the headmaster's house was looked upon, not merely as one of the boarding-houses, but as a school building. For when a boy was handed up to the monitors, and was found guilty of some offence, a rmmber of boys from the upper part of the school collected in the hall, and watched the victim receive several blows from each of the monitors, who were armed with study toasting-forks. On 22nd October 1838 a great misfortune happened to the school. At a little after 6 p.m. the school-bell and church-bells were heard ringing violently, and shouts rang through the houses, — " Wordsworth's house is on fire. Come and help." For some time the old parish engine tried in vain to cope with the fire, and when engines came down from London, it was difficult to supply them with water, the more so as the village pump at the top of West Street was out of repair. Finally, their pipes were taken to the Grove pond, and two lines of men and boys were formed from the Park pond to the headmaster's to pass buckets to and fro. But all in vain ; by 4 a.m. nothing remained of the house but the frontage and a few large walls. The coal-cellars were alight, and remained so for many days after- wards, and Harrow had lost a storehouse of ancient anecdotes and traditions. For 40 HARROW SCHOOL the superstitious, an odd fact is connected with the fire. When the Grove was nearly burnt down in 1833, a hare had been seen running through the town. A few days before the great fire in 1838 a hare was chased through the town, and killed by the Park gates ; and only a few years ago, a day or two before a fire broke out in Mr. Davidson's new house, which luckily did little damage, a hare ran through the town, and was killed almost upon the same spot. It will interest our readers to read extracts from a letter written the day after the fire by Mr. Henry Drury, then occupying " Druries," to his son Benjamin, then at Caius College, Cambridge. " After having been up the whole of last night, and tired with visits, con- gratulations, and a gratuitous influx into my house of Mr. Colenso's boys for ten days, I sit down to add a line to what E wrote to H . I had just been in to prayers at 6, and was going at the half-hour to do Fourth Form trial in my study, when E told me that Mr. Wordsworth's house was on fire. I rushed out, and saw the second window of the study next to Mr. Wordsworth's vomiting out flames, then the next, and so on ; but had there been a fireman who could have divided the houses, the whole of Mr. AVordsworth's might have been saved. Providentially, there was but little wind, and that not at first unfavourable. It was a magnificent sight in Mr. Colenso's long passage to see hall, playroom, study, and every window in the yard sending out volumes of flame. I then got together some boys, and succeeded in saving most of Mr. Wordsworth's books in good condition. The street was at one time so hot that it could not be passed, or scarcely so, opposite Royston's (i.e. next to the archway of Druries), which caught fire three times ; and had I not personally caused the Harrow engine to play on that, and that only, we must have been involved in the general ruin. At last, Bradwod, the general inspector, called, and said he feared our premises must go, for the wind changed against us, and the flashes of fire flew over our premises as thick as a snowstorm. We had two men stationed on my house, and three in Royston's, and then we began to remove our plate and my best books. . . . Webb's house and F. Bowen's were completely gutted, but the new part of Mr. Colenso's is saved. I had two police- men in front, and two in my garden all night, besides King. The engines are still playing on the smouldering ruins. His wine is safe, also his plate, now in the Governors' room in school. He has lost all his clothes, all his linen ; the boys have lost all but the clothes they had on. . . . Several thieves have been taken up, and the streets are full of ill-looking strangers. Major Abbs is now riding up and down giving search-warrants. A cart full of furniture, etc., was met going up to London early this morning. I was wet to the skin from seven o'clock till five, but am not very feverish or gouty. . . . Some rascals cut the hose of two of the engines in three places, and there was altogether a great want of water. No serious accident occurred ; the engines will not leave the street to- night, and are to be thoroughly patrolled. " Monday morning. — I am recruited by a long night's rest, and except that I am so hoarse that I cannot be understood, I am all right. The Times' gentleman (Tyas of Trinity), who got a Greek ode, says the two o'clock train came here THE HOUSES 41 loaded with pickpockets ; his own pocket was picked. The Governors only insured for df 2800, and the damage is ^£'5000 at the least, without reference to aught but the building. Thank God, I have saved my premises by my own exertions. Had I been in town, they must have gone. Wordsworth has taken Phelps's cottage.^ Adieu. H. D." One thing in this letter will probably strike many of our readers with surprise. The house which was burnt down is called Mr. Wordsworth's, the boarders are called Mr, Colenso's. Mr. Drury, however, was correct, for, in 1836, the Governors came to the conclusion that it " appeared to them desirable, as likely to promote the best interests of the school, that the boarders should be removed, and in future prohibited at the headmaster's house."" Mr. Burton, the school architect, was asked to prepare plans for rearranging the headmaster's house for this purpose, and for erecting a new house adjoining it for the purpose of a boarding-house. The question, however, remained in abeyance, no doubt owing to the want of necessary funds, until February 1838, when Mr. Colenso, mathematical master, and afterwards Bishop of Natal, offered to erect a new boarding-house over part of the site of the premises occupied by Mr. Webb, the dancing-master, and a portion of the headmaster's premises. This proposal was adopted, and, on the proposition of Dr. Wordsworth, the boarders were directed to be removed from his house. Within a few months the great fire occurred, and at a meeting of the Governors, 7th February 1839, the origin of the fire was stated to have been ac- cidental, but most serious in extent, having destroyed the whole of the residence of Dr. Wordsworth, with the studies and rooms recently transferred to the occupa- tion of Mr. Colenso for his boarders. The accounts in the Governors' Minute-books of the subsequent discussions are interesting, but long. Mr. Colenso proposed, on conditions, to rebuild a boarding-house ; but, Mr. Phelps having announced his intention of leaving Harrow, and his house, the Park, having been offered to Mr. Colenso and accepted by him, he was released from his engagement as to the erec- tion of the new boarding-house. For some years nothing was done, but in 1843 the re-erection of the headmaster's boarding-house was looked upon as imperative (a private house for the headmaster had already been built on the old site) ; and a letter from Dr. Wordsworth to the Governors, in February 1843, calls at- tention to the detriment caused to the school from the loss of the boardinff-house destroyed in 1838. This caused the matter to be taken up afresh. A committee for collecting subscriptions was soon formed, on which Hon. Fred Ponsonby and Hon. Robert Grimston took an active part ; and in 1845 we find a letter from the former saying that the subscriptions already amounted to d£^1500. Things pros- pered ; Mr. Beaumont, M.P., gave i?1000 ; Mr. Mackenzie, who held the house adjoining the headmaster's, declared his willingness to give up his premises, and the present house was begun. As originally finished, the house was very different from what it now is, for it was not till some years later that Dr. Vaughan added the top story to the private part 1 A small, ivy-clad house which stood on the site of tlie present Manor Lodge. Dr. AVords- worth continued to live there for some time. 42 HARROW SCHOOL of the house, which looks out on the street ; and towards the end of the seventies further large additions were made to the same part, the expense of which fell partly upon the Governors, and partly on the headmaster. Extensions were made both to the north and south, an upper story, coiTesponding to Dr. Vaughan's, was added looking over the garden, and a small new wing of four stories was added to .^ "Jc DmiiiEs. the north-east on the garden side. That which is now called the old house, next to the Vaughan Library, was originally known as the new, and continued to bear the name till 1866, when Dr. Butler built the present new house at his own expense, and this did not become the property of the Governors till many years afterwards. Another large addition was made only last year on the same side as the new house, in order to meet the present regulations of the school with regard to single rooms. THE HOUSES 43 To give a list of the distinguished men who have been members of the house would be impossible. We are content with mentioning Lord Byron ; but it is probable that a large proportion of the distinguished men, who were boys at the end of last century, under Dr. Joseph Drury, came here to be under his especial influence, and were members of his house. DiiuniEs Towards the end of last century a house opposite the headmaster's was held by Rev. T. Bromley, who was assistant master 1774-1805, and had married a sister of Dr. Heath. He was thus uncle by marriage to his successor " Harry " Drury, who held the house from 1806 to 1841. At first it was of small dimensions, but Mr. Drury soon began to build, and we are told that in 1818, when his new drawing-room and dining-room were finished, he " gave a grand ball, band from London, floor painted, coloured lamps going down to the arch-end, ladies in mourning for Princess Charlotte.'' The house at this time was called "The Abbey." Mr. Henry Drury continued to buy up surrounding ground and premises and to build upon them, and we are informed by Dean Merivale, his nephew, that in his time " his uncle held for many years the amplest boarding-house and the most crowded pupil-room of any." At that time next to the archway was Royston's tuck-shop and dwelling-house, extending up the hill as far as Mr. Drury's pupil-room, which had two windows looking on the street, the entrance being from the yard behind. When Mr. Henry Drury died, his old pupil-room was sold to Mr. James Winkley, who lived next door ; but Mr. Benjamin Drury rented it from him and used it for sleeping-rooms. Meanwhile, Royston of the tuck-shop had died, and Mr. Drury rented his house, using the old tuck-shop as a pupil-room, and the rest of the house as sick-rooms for his boys. To make an entrance into the new pupil-room he cut a door, which still exists, through the outside wall into the middle of the archway. Then suddenly came a change. The landlord, Mr. Woodbridge, insisted on pulling down the greater part of the new pupil-room and sick-rooms, and built in their place the present house, which contains two shops, and in part of which the Philathletic Club now finds shelter. Such is the story of the shops, which so many now wish to see done away with. In 1864 Mr. Holmes succeeded to the house, which he held till his death in 1887. His first step was to thoroughly rebuild the boys' part of the house, and he made it what it now is, with the exception of a small addition in 1894. Of illustrious members of the house. Lord Palmerston comes the first, his house- master being Mr. Bromley. Amongst a very distinguished number we also find Dean Merivale, Sir Thomas Wade, and Teignmouth Melvill, V.C., of Isandlwhana fame, whose name is cut up in the house in gilt letters, as a small tribute to his heroic death. 44 HARROW SCHOOL MORETONS This house was opened about 1806 by the Rev. W. J. J. Drury, the son of Mark Drury. When he left in 1826, he was succeeded by the Rev. W. Oxenham ; who, two years later, pulled down the old house, and built in its place a large part of what we see to-day. When he died in October 1863, Mr. Westcott, now Bishop of Durham, succeeded to the management of the house, and retained it till 1870, when he was followed by Mr. Hutton, who was master there for the next twenty years. The accommodation of the house in 1870 fell far short of what was then required. Sufficient proof of this is that the room where boys had previously taken their meals was used in Mr. Hutton*'s time for keeping football boots. Mr. Hutton twice added to the house — first, building a private dining-room so as to give up the old dining-room for the use of the boys, and, secondly, in 1881 and 1882, adding the big new wing overlooking High Street, by which the house gained a large dining-hall, bedrooms and sick-rooms, and everything else which was necessary. The name " Moretons " was given to the house by Mr. Hutton soon after he succeeded to it. Those who look in the Harrow Register under the entrances of September 1829 will find the names — Moreton, Edward (Mrs. Hutton''s) Moreton, William (Mrs. Hutton's) These Moretons, cousins of Mr. Hutton and pupils of Mr. Oxenham, were the last of the male line of the Moretons of Moreton Hall, Cheshire. AVhen they entered the school they resided (at first at any rate) with Mr. Hutton's father, who was then curate at Harrow, and when Mr. Hutton was looking about for an appropriate name for his house, he chose the name of his cousins, partly from family feelings, and partly because they had been associated with the house as pupils of his predecessor, Mr. Oxenham. Some of the distinguished members of the house have been the Hon. Percy Sraythe (Viscount Strangford), T. C. Baring, Admiral Sir Michael Culme Seymour, the Bishop of Peterborough, Lord Gifford, V.C., and the Right Hon. Walter Long. The Grove Through the researches of Mr. W. O. Hewlett and the Rev. W. D. Bushell much has lately been brought to light about the early history of the Grove. It will be found in the chapter on the Manors at Harrow how the rectory dates back to very early times, and how the manor came into the hands of the Archbishops of Canterbury. The Rector was Lord of the manor of Harrow Hill Rectory, and resided, when he was at Harrow, for his office was a sinecure, at what was called the Parsonage, or sometimes the Lord"'s Wood or Grove, and finally, as now, the Grove. That what is now the Grove was once the Rectory manor-house there is no doubt ; indeed, the house was called the Rectory until quite recently. It is THE HOUSES 47 so spoken of in Brewer''s Beauties of England (a.d. 1816). With the history of the Grove before it became a schoolhouse we cannot now deal fully, but we may note in passing that during the headmastership of Dr. Heath, at the end of last century, Sheridan came with his wife to live there; and there still remains a small picture of the outhouses at the top of Grove Hill, under which is printed " Mr. Sheridan's stables." It was not till about 1820 that the connection of the Grove with the school began. Mr. Batten, who married a sister of Henry Venn, had been appointed a master in 1813. When he found that his popularity was great in the school, he took the bold step of buying the Grove and fitting it up as a boarding-house. The speculation proved successful. By 1826 we find that he had forty -three boarders, each paying ^£'150, and his house was for some years the most popular with parents. But, dying suddenly in 1830, he was succeeded by Benjamin Hall Kennedy, famous to the world as headmaster of Shrewsbury and Professor of Greek at Cambridge, and to schoolboys as the author of the Latin Primer. During his tenure a great misfortune happened. The old house, of which we know little except that it is believed to have been a mansion with two or three floors of seven windows each, with an adjoining wing rather lower, was burnt down on 23rd January 1833. The fire began about 7.30 a.m., just after the boys had gone into first school, on a bright but freezing day. Masters and boys did their best to stay the flames, but, in spite of water being handed up by relays of buckets from the pond, the whole house was destroyed, with the exception of the present modern front. This alone, with traces of old work about the basement, is all that now remains of the old rectory-house. The same day which proved fatal to the Grove nearly saw the destruction of the Park as well. Mr. Phelps, who had hastened to the Grove and was very active in organising assistance there, was struck with a sudden fear that his own house might not be safe, as every one had rushed to the Grove. So he hurried home, and happily arrived just in time to extinguish a fire which had broken out in one of the boys' rooms. The house at the Grove was soon built up again, and when Mr. Kennedy was elected to Shrewsbury in 1836, it was taken by the Rev, T, H, Steel, in whose hands it remained till 1881, with the exception of twelve years from 1844 onwards, when Mr, Steel retired for a time to St, Ippolyts, a Trinity College vicarage near Hitchin, From 1844 to 1845 the house-master was the Rev, R, Shilleto, the famous Greek scholar, who was thus unfortunate enough to be in charge of the big house at the time of the school's greatest depression. When Mr, Bowen succeeded to the house in 1881 many alterations were made in the interior, and it was the first house in Harrow to be provided with the modern system of single rooms. The Grove, which still belongs to the Batten family, has been the Harrow home of, amongst others, the Hon. Sidney Herbert (afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea), the Hon, Robert Grimston, Lord Knutsford, Earl Cowper, Sir William Hart Dyke, Alfred Blomfield (late Bishop of Colchester), Sir George Trevelyan, the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin, and Augustus Hare. 48 HARROW SCHOOL The Park The early history of Flambards, part of which is now represented by the Park, will be found in a previous chapter. At the end of last century the pro- perty was in the hands of Mr. Richard Page of Wembley Park, Governor of the school from 1774 to 1803. He it was who began to build the present mansion, but he does not seem to have lived there at the end of his life, for we find that, in the year 1800, the house was neither inhabited nor furnished. At Mr. Pager's death it was bought by Lord Northwick, who finished the house upon an enlarged scale, and decorated its walls with beautiful pictures, among them the famous St. Catherine of Alexandria^ by Raphael, and Christ disputing with the Doctors, by Luini, both now in the National Gallery. For some little time towards the end of Lord Northwick's tenure the Park was rented by Marshal Sebastiani, the French Ambassador; and the little town was often gay with the carriages of statesmen, diplomats, and the leaders of society, who drove down from town to dine with the Ambassador. But in 1825 Lord Northwick conveyed the property to General A. M. M'Gregor, who then, as we are told in Archdeacon Phelps's Life, was the greatest personage in Harrow and had the finest house. But that was not long to remain so, for in the following year the General mortgaged the property, and it eventually passed into the hands of Mr. W. W. Phelps, who had been previously disappointed in his attempt to secure the Grove. He had indeed applied for it after the late owner, Mr. Batten's funeral ; but prompt as was his application, he had been anticipated by Benjamin Hall Kennedy, who had just been appointed to a mastership. The Park, which then contained rather more than 47 acres, with a frontage from the house in High Street, now called Flambards, to the entrance of Woodlands, with the exception of a few houses to the south of the Park gates, remained for the greater part in the hands of the Phelps family till 1885, when about 17 acres of it were purchased by the Harrow Park Trust. In this way the Park became a school- house, and to Mr. Phelps great credit is due, for " the gi^eat tenantless mansion in Harrow Park was about to be taken down and sold for the value of its materials." Several times in its history since 1832 the house has been enlarged and altered. Mr. Harris added the pupil-room wing to the south side of the yard, and divided the beautifully proportioned big drawing-room into two rooms, which are now used as drawing-room and dining-room, whilst the old dining-room was turned into a hall for the boys. Later on, rooms were built above the pupil-room, and in 1887 Mr. Hallam added the wing to the north of the yard, which contains sixteen single rooms. The distinguished members of the house have been many ; amongst them we may mention Sir Alexander Grant, 1838 ; Sir Robert Peel, 1835 ; Sir William Peel, 1837, of the Naval Brigade in the Mutiny; William Spottiswoode, 1840, President of the British Association ; C. S. Blayds (Calverley), 1846 ; Lord Lytton, 1846, Governor-General of India ; Sir Matthew Ridley, 1856, the present Home Secretary ; whilst of our present Governors Mr. Roundell and Dr. Walter Leaf both finished their schooldays there. ■■S ^ ' THE HOUSES 51 Once the Park has been honoured by the presence of royalty. In 1804 George III. drove over unexpectedly from Windsor (Thornton, p. 210), and, visiting Lord Northvi'ick, complimented him on the beauty of his grounds and the loveliness of his view, Chukch Hill In the middle of last century all the ground from the Grove between the upper and lower roads as far as opposite the Old Schools formed " the Hanging Garden " belonging to the rectory at the Grove. Just opposite the vicarage was a small shop, and there were also one or two small shops lower down, facing what is now the west front of the chapel. Towards the close of the century houses began to spring up there, but up to the year 1845 the only buildings which existed between the school and the chapel were Armstrong House, exactly opposite the school-gates, a small cottage adjoining it higher up the hill, and Ivy House, built on the side of the steep hill overlooking the present Speech-room steps, where the new wing of the large house now stands. Ivy House, more picturesque than comfortable, was inhabited for many years by various masters, and was pulled down in 1878 to make room for the new wing of the large house. The little cottage, which filled part of the space between Ivy House and Armstrong House, was for some years the residence of the school Gustos ; it afterwards formed the nucleus of the present large house. It consisted of what is now the house library, formerly the dining-hall, the windows of which are almost under Church Hill road, and of one or two stories above. Soon after Dr. Vaughan's arrival, when numbers were rapidly increasing, Mr. Middlemist doubled the house towards the east, and later on added " the private side," the extent of which is clearly seen from the road below. Finally, the new wing next to the Speech-room was built by Mr. Cruikshank on the site of Ivy House in 1879 and 1880 ; and nothing, perhaps, shows more glaringly the different conception held now and formerly of what schoolboys require, than the contrast between the present airy and beautifully-proportioned dining-hall and the old one, half under- ground, which received no sun and very little light. Three of the most interesting of the old members of the house were Captain Burnaby ; the Right Hon. Edward Stanhope, who was at various times Secretary for India, and Secretary for War ; and General Earle, who was killed in Egypt. Byhon House Byron House, which in old times seems to have been called Pond House, from its proximity to the old Harrow pond (the name Byron House cannot be traced back farther than 1846), was built at an unknown date by Thomas Brian, clerk. As we know that before 1789 there were at least six different occupiers of the house, we are taken back for the date of its erection to the early part of the eighteenth century ; and as the headmaster of the school from 1691 to 1730 was named Thomas Brian, we can hardly doubt that he was the builder of this, one of the oldest houses in Harrow, and this supposition is strengthened by the fact that one, at least, of his sons took up his residence in Harrow. The house, then, may be said to be a con- 52 HARROW SCHOOL necting link between us and Thomas Brian, who was elected headmaster more than two hundred years ago. Perhaps few houses have changed hands so often. The names of its occupiers during the first few years of the present century are numerous, the name of Drury appearing amongst others ; but after being in the possession for a short time of Mr. Edwards, one of the masters, in 1828 it was opened as a small house by Mr. Phelps, who during the next three years had about a dozen boys as boarders. Though his numbers were small, they were evidently select, for we notice amongst other names those of Sir Henry Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford ; General Lord Mark Kerr ; John Godley, to whom there is a memorial brass in the chapel ; and the sixth Duke of Grafton. When Mr. Phelps migrated to the Park, no master seems to have taken the house, but it became a private residence till 1849. In that year it was opened again as a boarding-house by Mr. E. H. Vaughan, who remained there for five years, and then gave up the house to Mr. A. G. Watson, who was there till 1867. In 1867 the Knoll was opened by Mr. Bosworth Smith as a small house, and Byron House again closed ; luckily, perhaps, for the place, as in 1868 Mr. Matthew Arnold, looking about for a residence at Harrow, found Byron House empty, and being much pleased with " the old countrified, Middlesex look of the house," took it, and remained there till 1873. His coming to Harrow was naturally of great interest to the place, and this interest was increased by the fact that H.R.H. the Duke of Genoa, brother of the Queen of Italy, was entrusted to his charge whilst he was a member of the school from 1869 to 1871. It seldom happens that a Harrow boy refuses a royal crown, but the Duke of Genoa, whilst an inmate of Byron House, refused, on 1st January 1870, the crown of Spain, which had been offered to him by a majority of the Cortes on 3rd October 1869. Byron House was again reopened as a small house by Mr. Hallam in 1880, and he was succeeded by Mr. Gilliat in 1887. West Acre, etc. Amongst other houses opened soon after the coming of Dr. Vaughan was West Acre. On its site originally stood two semi-detached villas, which, in 1847, were turned into a boarding-house by the Rev. G. T. Warner. The house was at first popularly known as " Warner''s long range " ; this nickname it owed to its long, low appearance, and to the fact that about that time a Captain Warner made himself conspicuous by offering to successive Cabinets a secret for destroying ships of an enemy at long distances. This house has been twice largely added to by Mr. Stogdon. Another house, opened about the same time by Mr. Keary, was that opposite to the Park gates. But in building no consideration was taken of rights as to "lights,'^ about which there arose a serious dispute between Mr. Keary and his next-door neighbour to the south, Mr. Marillier. In consequence of this, all the windows on the south side had to be blocked up (as is visible now), with the exception of one, for permission to keep which open a consideration of one shilling was to be paid to the owner next door every year. Mr. Keary had six or eight boys in the smaller or northern portion of the house. THE HOUSES 53 whilst the south part remained untenanted owing to the curious dispute about the windows. In the early part of 1852 Mr. Keary fell ill and soon died, and Mr. Westcott, now Bishop of Durham, who had come to Harrow as his substitute, was appointed to his place, and remained in the house till 1854, when he moved to the Butts. Meanwhile, in 1853, Mr. Bradby had altered and opened the south portion of the house for sixteen boys, and in 1864 he added to this the north portion, so making a " large house "" ; whilst Mr. Farrar, now Dean of Canterbury, who was evicted for this, succeeded Mr. Holmes, next door, in the house which has lately been converted into shops. When, four years later, Mr. Bradby was elected headmaster of Haileybury, he was succeeded by Mr. A. G. Watson, under whom, from 1868 to 1891, the house acquired a Themistoclean reputation, for every other house classed it as the second best after itself. Amongst its members have been General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, V.C. ; Sir Frank Lascelles, Ambassador at Berlin ; the Bishop of Winchester, and Canon Charles Gore. Amongst more recent houses, the big house at the top of Grove Hill was built by Mr. Kendall in 1853 on the site of an old pond, John Addington Symonds being one of the first boarders, and soon afterwards Dr. Vaughan built the two small houses adjoining it. In 1864 Mr. Hay ward built Garlands, the small house lowest down in Peterborough Road ; and subsequently Mr. Bosworth Smith built "The Knoll," which was at first a small house, but was converted into a large house a few years later. In 1870 Mr. Rendall became the owner of a second house by building Hillside, just to the east of his own garden ; and finally, during Mr. Welldon's headmastership, Mr. Marshall built Newlands in the Park in 1889. and Mr. Davidson transferred, in 1893, the inmates and traditions of Mr. Watson's house to his new residence on Grove Hill. Such is the history of the majority of the houses. Public opinion has changed in the last century about few things more than about the necessity of light and air to growing schoolboys. " The meete and convenient rooms " of a hundred years ago would hardly be termed so now. The demand for single rooms has become so loud that within the last few years most of the old houses have added on stories or wings to supply that want ; and where, till a short while ago, two or three boys were crowded together, now one owner reigns supreme. Again, within the last few years nearly every house has been supplied with the electric light, so that the air of the rooms on long winter evenings is no longer vitiated by gas. It has been difficult to keep this article within bounds. There is so much that might be said, and a great deal has had to be omitted. Even as it is, it may appear to a reader who is not an Harrovian somewhat disproportionate to dwell, even so fully as this, on the history of the various houses ; but in the school, as we know it, the house must always play the most important part in a boy's life. His feats and pranks and friendships are indissolubly connected with it. It is the first place he sees, and the last he leaves ; and when he revisits his school in later years, there is no comer of it more interesting to him than his old room. E. M. Bun.EB, CHAPTER VI EARLY HEADMASTERS When I was asked to write a chapter on the records of early headmasters, I immediately thought of the famous seventy-second chapter of Horrebow''s Natural History of Iceland, perhaps the shortest and most disappointing chapter ever written. It runs : — "Concerning Snakes. " There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.'' I do not mean to say that there were never any early headmasters of Harrow, but that their records are so slight that their history must of necessity prove scrappy and uninteresting. And here let me record my indebtedness to the many friends who have supplied material for this chapter, specially to Mr. J. W. Clark, Registrary of the University of Cambridge, for his notes on such of the headmasters who were members of his University ; nor must I omit to tender special thanks to those who have undertaken the irksome labour of a fruitless search. 1611. Anthony Rate died. Of our first headmaster no record remains, except the entry in the parish register recording his burial. This entry runs : " Buried, Anthony Rate (formerly) schoolmaster at Flambards (afterwards) elected school- master for the free schole." If he was really the first headmaster of Lyon's school (and there is no reason to doubt it), we can fix the date of his appointment by reference to the clause in John Lyon's statutes, which orders that the first schoolmaster shall be chosen by the Governors within six months of the death of either himself or his wife, whichever survived the other. Johan ^ Lyon outlived her husband and died in August 1608, so Anthony Rate must have been appointed within six months of that date. Flambards was the name of the house and estate owned at that time by William Gerard, the friend of Lyon, by whom he was appointed one of the first Governors of his new foundation. Whether William Gerard allowed a school to be held in his house for the benefit of the parish, or whether Rate was a private tutor in the Gerard family, we have no means of determining, but this much is ^ Tlie name is written indiiferentlv as Johan and Joan. Facing page SA- The Old Schools. From the Steps below the Milling Ground. EARLY HEADMASTERS 55 certain, that Anthony Rate was headmaster of the school of John Lyon seven years before the present school was built, for the schoolhouse was not opened until 1615. Anthony Rate was succeeded by Bradley, probably appointed on the death of his predecessor. We find from the Governors' accounts that, in 1614, eight pounds was paid to " Mr. Bradley, the schoolmaster, for two years." Four pounds a year does not sound a magnificent salary in these days. A Thomas Bradley of Trinity College, Cambridge, took the degree of B.A. in 1603 and M.A. in 1607 ; it is just possible that this is the same man, but the entry in the accounts is the only authentic record of him that I have found. The schoolhouse was now being built, so he probably used the same building as his predecessor, wherever that may have been. What became of Mr. Bradley we cannot say. His reign was a short one, for in 1615 he was succeeded by William Lance, M.A., the first headmaster whose appointment is registered in the Governors'' Order-book.^ Lance's election coincides with the opening of the schoolhouse, so his name heads the long list of headmasters who have used, and still use, the Fourth Form room for various purposes. There is a mystery about Mr. Lance. Not only is his name spelt indifferently as Lance, Launce, and Launse, but although he is registered as M.A. his name does not appear among the graduates of either Oxford or Cambridge, but this is probably due to an omission in the register. On his resignation in 1621 he took a London cure, the Church of St. Michael's, Querne, and was private chaplain to Lord North, from whom he received in addition the vicarage of Harrow (1625). Those were troublous times for the clergy ; it is probable that Mr. Lance was ejected from his Harrow vicarage in 1645, and it is certain that he was turned out of his London church at about the same time.^ He was succeeded in 1621 by Robert Whittle, who belonged to Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A. 1617, M.A. 1621). During his reign we come across the first of the long line of benefactors who have helped, and still help, the school. John Page, a Governor, left by will twenty pounds to the school, which was acknowledged by the Governors in 1628. Whittle resigned his office in 1628, and was followed by William Hide, perhaps the William Hide, or Hyde, of Jesus College, Cambridge, who took his B.A. in 1616, and M.A. in 1620. Up to this time it appears that the headmaster and the usher lived in the rooms provided for them in the school buildings over the Fourth Form room. But Hide did not approve of this arrangement (which, considering the accommodation, was not surprising), so he took a house in the town on lease from the Governors (1650).^ Here we have the first intimation of a headmaster's house, and it is probable that it occupied the site of the present house. William Hide resigned in 1661, but continued to occupy his house, so that his successors for three generations had to live elsewhere. In 1685 the house again ^ The first recorded scholar of Harrow school was Macharie Wildblud, the son of Humphrey Wildblud, vicar of Harrow, the date of his entry being 1615. 2 Rev. W. Done Bushell, Harrow Octocentenary Tracts, No. ix,, 1897. 3 It is worthy of note that in the lease Mr. Hide is described as " gent," which disposes of the common idea that the headmasters were always in holy orders. 56 HARROW SCHOOL came into the hands of the then headmaster (Bolton), whose successors have continuously occupied the same site ever since. Hide was succeeded in 1661 by Thomas Jonson, M.A. As the name is extremely common, it is impossible to identify this particular Thomas Jonson, or Johnson, among the number that took their degrees about this time ; but it is quite possible that he may have been the same Thomas Jonson of Trinity, Cambridge, whom the Governors had elected as one of their University scholars in 1652, The holding of such a scholarship by no means implies that the holder was an Harrovian. If there was no member of the school in a position to take the scholarship, the Governors were at liberty to elect whom they pleased. Jonson's departure from Harrow was mysterious. His office was declared vacant because he " went suddenly to Lincoln on the Monday following Nov. 2, 1668."" It is true that his departure was not wholly unlooked for, as he had announced his speedy removal at a Governors'* meeting held a fortnight before the aforesaid 2nd November. The Governors accepted his resignation (they had no choice), but it is clear from the wording of their Minutes that they regarded a fort- night as extremely scant notice. What took him to Lincoln I cannot guess ; the Chancellor of the diocese has been most kind in endeavouring to trace the truant headmaster, but without effect. The vacancy was filled (1668) by Thomas Martin " of C.C. in Oxford." Probably Thomas Martin of Christ Church, B.A. 1657-58, M.A. 1660, incorporated at Cambridge 1664, B.D. 1669. Martin was not a success. He reigned about six months, and was deposed by the Governors under a statute of the Founder, which enables (or enabled) them to remove a headmaster within half a year of his appointment, if they found cause of complaint against him. The precise charge on which the Governors based their action is not stated in the Order-book. Martin's place was filled by the election of William Hobne (1669), the first of the many illustrious headmasters that Harrow owes to Eton ; and, like one of his successors, a connecting link between Harrow and Tunbridge School. His father passed from the headmastership of Tunbridge to that of Eton, where William Home was appointed under-master after taking his degree from King's College, Cambridge, of which society he was elected Fellow. His appointment at Harrow was the cause of an important change in the statutes of the school. John Lyon had decreed that his masters were to be single men, and the new headmaster wanted to marry ; should he persist in his intention, he must either resign his newly-acquired office, or the statute must be altered. Happily for himself and for his successors, the Governors took the latter course, and (to quote the Statute-book) " having by long experience proved the rule to be very inconvenient, abolished it in the case of the master."" It may be of interest here to trace the subsequent history of the marriage statute. It looks as if the Governors were not satisfied that they had power to make so violent a change in the Founder's statutes, as we find that they solemnly confirmed the altered statute on three subsequent occasions, so that there might be no doubt about their intention. Thirty years after the alteration of the rule, we find a ratification of the alteration (1699) entered in the Statute-book, with a EARLY HEADMASTERS 57 preamble stating that after thirty years' experience they had every reason to be satisfied with the change, and extending the benefit of the order to the then head- master, Mr. Bryan. Three years later, on Mr. Bryan's demanding leave to marry a second time, the Governors inform him that " we are of opinion that he had, by virtue of the first license, no occasion to request the second favour," i.e. their leave was not required. In 1722 the order is again confirmed in due form, and the privilege of marriage extended to the usher. In 1785 a minority of the Governors questioned the validity of Dr. Drury's election, on the ground of his being a married man, and took the opinion of the Attorney-General, who supported them on the evidence before him, which appears to have been merely the Founder's statutes. The majority simply ignored the protest and the counsel's opinion, and Dr. Drury was installed without further question. Lastly, in 1818, Dr. George Butler applied for leave to marry, and the original statute was again for the fourth time rescinded, but without any mention of the previous repeals. It is possible that Dr. G. Butler made this formal application in view of the famous Chancery suit then impending, and to enable the Governors to correct what was perhaps an oversight in the three previous repeals. The alteration had never hitherto been recorded among the Governors' Minutes ; it had on each occasion been entered in the Statute-book only. The answer to Dr. Butler's request is embodied in the Order-book. But to return to Mr. Home. The question of his marriage having been settled, his next care was to find a house. In this he experienced great difficulty, for the only good house belonging to the Governors was still in the occupation of his retired predecessor, Mr. Hide, whose lease had still three years to run. Accord- ingly, the headmaster had to live where he could ; and very poor the accommoda- tion seemed to have been, for in 1670-71 we find the Governors voting money for the use of the headmaster " for the better accommodation of his present habitation," as " both he and his boarders were suffering cold." This last quotation from the Order-book shows that the foreigner element was now of some importance. And here it is worthy of remark that the first "foreigner" of whom we have any definite information had joined the school a short time before this date. William Baxter, a well-known scholar of his day, came to Harrow about the year 1668. He was born in Shropshire, and has left it on record that when he came to Harrow he could not speak English, Welsh being his native tongue. In the following year (1672) the Governors cast about for a house for the headmaster, and after deploring that he is " enforced to hire a house in the town," they end by voting him ten pounds annually towards his rent. As Mr. Hide's lease expired about this time, it is difficult to see why the Governors did not instal the headmaster in their own house ; but for some unknown reason they preferred to allow Mr. Hide to continue his occupation as a yearly tenant, while Mr. Home had to shift for himself. This condition of things continued for the next fourteen years, until the appointment of the next headmaster. In 1680 a piece of land adjoining the schoolyard was purchased " for the Schollers' recreation " : the first of those benefactions toward the out-of-school life at Harrow, the list of which still grows from year to year. 58 HARROW SCHOOL In 1685 Mr. Home died. He had become so far incapacitated by bad health that the Governors had invited him to resign his post. He died before his resigna- tion became due, and was succeeded by William Boltok, M.A. (1685), second master of the Charterhouse, of which foundation he had been a scholar. Bolton was a member of both TJniversities, being B.A. of St. John's College, Oxford, and B.A. and M.A. (by incorporation) of King's College, Cambridge. He was rector of Dunsby in Lincolnshire. He died at Harrow (1691), and was there buried "in wool," in accordance with the Act in that case made and provided. On Mr. Bolton's appointment the question of the headmaster's house was finally settled. Mr. Hide was still in occupation of the Governors' house, but there was no alternative but to turn him out ; until he went, Mr. Bolton must do as his predecessors did, take his ten pounds and make the best of the situation. But the aged Mr. Hide was not easy to move. The Governors were vague about the law of notice to quit, and made mistakes, but ultimately he made way (perhaps he died ; he must have been of a great age), and in 1686 the house was put into thorough repair, and the head- master again took possession of a site which has been held by his successors for more than two hundred years. Bolton was the first headmaster who was also a literary man. True, his con- tributions to literature were of no great importance, but there they are, and A book 's a book, although there 's nothing in 't. He published two sermons (1683-84), both overflowing with loyalty to the House of Stuart, and a serio-comic Latin poem upon a laurel leaf (1690). It appears that the author had been recommended to make use of laurel leaves as a cure for rheumatism. As the treatment was efficacious, it is a pity that he has omitted to specify how the laurel leaves were to be used, whether for internal or external application. However, at the request of Lady Gerard of Harrow, he celebrated his cure in Latin verse. There is a copy of this extremely rare pamphlet in the Vaughan Library. On Bolton's death, the Governors had recourse to King's College and Eton (as they have done both before and since), and appointed Thomas Bryan, or Brian, M.A. (1691), Fellow of King's, and master of King's College school. His candidature was backed by a strong letter from the provost of King's (Roderick), who reminded the Governors that the school had already prospered greatly under the rule of a headmaster of Eton education (Home). Under Bryan's rule, the number of "foreigners" (i.e. boarders) increased so greatly that at length, after several squabbles between the headmaster and the usher (who, with the writing-master, constituted the whole staff), the Governors gave a definite ruling as to the division of authority, work, and pay. The headmaster was to have complete control of the course of studies pursued throughout the school, and was to receive all the entrance fees, as well as three- quarters of the fees derived from the teaching of " foreigners " ; the remaining quarter to go to the usher, who at the same time received a rise of ten pounds a year in his stipend, which hitherto stood at the magnificent figure of £1S : 6 : 8 per annum, and his fuel. Moreover, the headmaster was at liberty to engage an EARLY HEADMASTERS 59 assistant (at his own expense), but the said assistant " shall not have the power of the rod." Here we have the beginning of the assistant masters with their limited power of punishment. It is worthy of note that the usher, or under-master as he was afterwards called, held the " power of the rod " in the absence of the head- master — a privilege he enjoyed until the abolition of the office in modern times. In 1725 the following advertisement appeared in the Whitehall Evening Post for Tuesday, 6th April, which, apart from its historic interest, deserves to be tran- scribed as a monument of involved grammar : — " Whereas the School House at Harrow on the Hill in the County of Middlesex was broken open between last Saturday Night and Monday Morning, and in a Chamber over the School, called the Governors' Room, was a strong Oaken Chest with Iron Plates, wherein the Money and Writings belonging to the Corporation are usually kept ; but being unable to force open the three several Locks, they sawd out a Piece of Wood at each End of the Chest, and another at the Top, sufficient only to put in their hands, but could come at nothing of Value to take away, except the Seal of the Corporation, which is a Lion Rampant cut deep in Silver, with a Motto round it, about the bigness of a Half-Crown, and fixed to a large Ivory Handle ; this is to give Notice, that if any Person or Persons shall discover, appre- hend and convict any Person or Persons concerned in the said Felony, he or they shall receive the reward oi £\0 to be paid by the Rev. Mr. Brian, Master of the said School, upon his or their Conviction." Bryan died in 1730, and was succeeded by the Rev. James Coxe, the usher, whose vacant place was filled by the election of the vicar of Harrow, the Rev. Francis Saunders. Coxe (or Cox) was an Oxford man from Merton College (B.A. 1713, M.A. 1716, B.D. and D.D. 1731). As well as his office of usher, he held the curacy of Pinner (then part of Harrow parish) and a lectureship in London, which latter he had to resign on his election to the headmastership. I fear there is little good to be said of Coxe. Although we may take for granted that he was a steady and respectable man when he was appointed, for he must have been well known to the Governors, having been usher since 1722, yet after his election he seems to have gone steadily to the bad, dragging the school with him. Not only did the "foreigners" fall off sadly, but such was his reputation that even the free scholars fell from their normal forty to fourteen, and it was only after two visitations of the Governors that they could be whipped up to the number of thirty-three. Things went steadily down hill until, in 1746, Coxe absconded " upon account of his great extravagances," having been leading, " for a great while past, a disorderly, drunken, idle life." Much of Bryan's good work had been destroyed by his successor. The new headmaster must be one capable of repairing what was broken, and of carrying on the school in the path of success marked out by that eminent Etonian. Accord- ingly, it was to Eton and King's that the Governors again turned. Thomas Thackeray, D.D. (1746), educated at Eton, then scholar and Fellow of King's College, passed from Cambridge back to Eton as assistant master during the stormy days of Snape's headmastership, a violently polemical High Churchman, in the sense which the epithet bore in those days. Thackeray soon found that he 60 HARROW SCHOOL differed so strongly from his head on rehgious and poHtical questions that it was impossible for him to retain his mastership, which he accordingly resigned. In 1728 he became rector of Heyden and Chishall Parva in Essex ; in 1743 he stood for the provostship of King's College, which he just missed. Three years later he was elected to the headmastership of Harrow, a post he occupied for fourteen years. He resigned in 1760, and died immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, his resignation of his Eton mastership had not been forgotten. In 1753 Bishop Hoadley, the great antagonist of Dr. Snape, presented Thackeray with the Archdeaconry of Surrey, an office which he held conjointly with his headmastership, and until his death. Dr. Thackeray has been called the " second founder of Harrow," but I am not sure if the phrase would not apply with greater justice to Mr. Bryan, in whose footsteps Dr. Thackeray so closely trod. But be that as it may, there is no doubt that the school flourished greatly under his rule. Himself an Eton man, he came to Harrow pledged to the maintenance of the Eton system of education and dis- cipline which had already been introduced by Mr. Home and developed by Mr. Bryan. The numbers of the school increased to 130 (ten less than in 1721 under Mr. Bryan), and it was thought advisable that the under-master should be allowed an assistant. At this date we find that the holidays consisted of four weeks at Christmas, two at Easter, and four at Bartholomewtide (end of August and beginning of September). In 1760 Dr. Thackeray resigned his mastership, and died suddenly within the following month. He is buried in the churchyard at Harrow. Dr. Thackeray was great-grandfather of the novelist. The Archdeacon's successor was the Rev. Robert Sumner, M.A., assistant master in Eton school (1760). "Sumner flits like a splendid meteor over the history of Harrow, but leaves behind little trace of his personality." ^ His in- fluence on his pupils was great, as we learn from the lives of Sir William Jones,^ R. B. Sheridan, and Dr. S. Parr (" the Great Home Boarder "), while the Governors' Minutes bear witness to the firm hand with which he ruled the school. But there our knowledge ceases. There is a portrait of him in the Vaughan Library, which was purchased in 1852 from a Mrs. Brownrigg, who lived on the way down to the cricket-ground, who had received it from an aunt who had been in the service of the Sumner family, and had been given the picture by Mrs. Sumner's brother. Another portrait exists, as is shown by a letter — now in the Vaughan Library — from the late Bishop Sumner (a descendant or connection of the headmaster), but as it is described as the portrait of a boy grasping a bun, it was thought that a copy of it would look somewhat out of place among the august portraits of reverend heads. In 1771 Dr. Sumner died suddenly at the early age of forty-one, and was buried in Harrow church. His epitaph was written by his friend, pupil, and colleague. Dr. Parr, from whose Biography nearly all our scanty knowledge of Dr. Sumner is ' P. Thornton, Harrow School and its Surroundings. 2 A most brilliant sketch of Dr. Sumner in Latin may be found in the preface to Sir William Jones's Poeseos Asiaticae Commentariorum libri sex. EARLY HEADMASTERS 61 drawn. Dr. Parr prepared a life of his master, but it appears never to have been finished, at any rate it was never published. Dr. Sumner was succeeded by Bekjamin Heath, M.A. (1771), of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, under-master at Eton, whose election was the cause of the great rebellion which so nearly wrecked the school. The ups and downs of this (to us) momentous contest are to be found elsewhere, notably in Johnstone's Works of Dr. S. Parr, vol, i., and Thornton's Harrow School and its Surroundings, so what follows will be merely a brief outline of the incident. Samuel Parr, son of a physician in Harrow, and head of the school under Sumner, had gone to Cambridge (Emmanuel College) with a Harrow Exhibition, but from want of means had been compelled to leave the University without a degree. One of the finest scholars of his time, he was induced by Dr. Sumner to return to Harrow as assistant-master, where his great abilities did much to increase the growing reputation of the school. Now for some reason to us unknown. Pan* had settled in his own mind that he was to be the next headmaster ; in fact, he afterwards asserted that Dr. Sumner had designated him as his successor, but this seems improbable, as the choice lay entirely with the Governors. Be that as it may, when Sumner died suddenly in 1771, Parr felt so sure of the succession that, to remove his technical disqualification, he petitioned the University of Cambridge for an honorary degree of M.A., which was accorded him,^ At the same time he adopted a powdered wig to increase his dignity, and to give himself an appearance of age, for he was not yet twenty-five. Great was his wrath when the Governors, who probably mistrusted his youth and perhaps objected to his (for that time) advanced politics, unanimously elected Heath, and (strange as it sounds to us in these days) great was the wrath of the school. The boys rose in rebellion, and after addressing an ineJfFectual memorial to the Governors, protesting that " a school of such reputation ought not to be considered an appendix to Eton,"" ^ and taking a very high tone with that august body, they proceeded to mark their disapprobation by wrecking the carriage of a Governor (Mr. Bucknall). After stoning the vehicle (presumably empty, for what would be the end of a miscreant who stoned a Governor ?), they dragged it to Roxeth Common, now the cricket-ground, and there broke it to pieces. The only result of this demonstration was the speedy removal from the school of some of the ring- leaders, including the great Lord Wellesley, a juvenile rioter of eleven. We must entirely exonerate Parr of any complicity in this tumult. He promptly wrote a letter to Mr. Heath, expressing his distress and indignation at what had occurred, and assuring his rival that towards him personally he felt no sentiments other than respect. But for all that. Parr determined on a deed of vengeance. Not only did he resign his mastership, a great blow to the school in his own opinion, for he had a good notion of his own importance, but he proceeded to set up a rival school across the valley at Stanmore, taking with him forty of the disaffected boys and one master. There was another master whom he tried hard to ^ In 1781, Parr took the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Laws by theses and disputation in the ordinary course. 2 Given in full in Johnstone's Works of Parr, vol. i. 62 HARROW SCHOOL • induce to follow him, but who, after some hesitation, decided to " stick to the ship." And well for us that he did. He was Joseph Drury, who afterwards succeeded Dr. Heath in the headmastership. Parr's venture proved a failure ; but suppose it had been the other way. Suppose the schismatic school had prospered, and the old foundation dwindled until tlie school was at Stanmore instead of here. A Harrow with a cricket-field on the top of a hill, on a gravelly soil ! A thing imagination boggles at. It is worthy of note that through this turmoil the Governors took a highly dignified course. Nowhere in their Minutes is there the slightest reference to the rebellion. They had chosen the headmaster, and there was the end of it. Neither the scholars"' memorial nor the destruction of Mr. BucknalFs carriage moved them in the slightest. In such troublous times did Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Heath commence his reign. It was well that Dr. Heath possessed private means as well as a liberal hand. We find that in his first four years he expended no less than a thousand pounds on the repairs of his house. Of this sum he ultimately got back two hundred from the Governors, together with his fire insurance. During Dr. Heath's regime the school, numbering about 180 boys, preserved the even tenor of its ways. No incident of special interest occurred ; and if the nation is happy that has no history, perhaps the same is no less true of a school. In 1785 Dr. Heath retired to his rectory of Walkern, having been elected Fellow of Eton College, and his colleague and brother-in-law, Joseph Drury, reigned in his stead. B. P. Lascelles. CHAPTER VII THE DRURY FAMILY The first of the Dnirys connected with Harrow was the famous headmaster, who ruled over the school for twenty years, that is, from 1785 to 1805. He was born on 11th February 1750, and became in 1762 a king's scholar at Westminster, and was subsequently elected from Westminster to Trinity College, Cambridge, and went into residence in 1768. He was placed under the tuition of Watson, after- wards the well-known Bishop of LlandafF, for whose instruction he always expressed the deepest respect and gratitude, and whose judgment of Drury's ability and character was the cause of his going to Harrow. For before the youth had com- pleted his twentieth year, Dr. Sumner, at that time headmaster of Harrow, had applied to Dr. Watson to recommend him some gentleman of good talent and scholarship to succeed to a vacant assistantship in the school. Such was the steadiness of conduct and manliness of mind, combined with sound scholarship for his years, in his pupil Drury, that Watson did not hesitate to propose the situation to him, and recommend that what remained of necessary college residence should be kept at such convenient intervals as he could contrive to find for short periods of absence from the occupation on which he was about to enter. The strong recommendation of the tutor of Trinity, together with the pupiPs own desire, and the fact that his father''s income had become less adequate than before to furnish supplies for a life in college, soon decided him to accept the offer, and he embarked on the world for himself at this early age. Under Dr. Sumner's mastership at this time the school was in high repute, containing about 250 scholars, a large proportion of whom were youths of the best connection in the country. At this time (1769) he was not above thirty years of age, a matter which was of some importance to his young assistant, as the latter fell more easily into habits of ease and familiarity with a superior of that time of life than he probably might have done with a gentleman of more advanced years ; and he always spoke with great warmth of feeling of the advantages he received from this species of intercourse with a man of such a powerful and well-stored mind. After the premature death of Sumner in 1771, and the election of Benjamin Heath as his successor, Drury was invited by Dr. Parr to accompany him to Stanmore, where he set up a school of his own with about sixty seceders from Harrow. But after some deliberation he, most fortunately as it turned out, deter- 64 HARROW SCHOOL mined to remain at Harrow. The circumstances are described well and at length in Johnstone's Life of Dr. Parr. For fourteen years, in addition to those passed under Sumner, Drury continued to instruct with uniform diligence, judgment, and discretion, to rouse the indolence of the sluggish, to correct the taste and control the exuberance of the imaginative, and, both by precept and a most persuasive example, to sow the seeds of moral and religious excellence. In 1777 Mr. Drury married Louisa, youngest daughter of Benjamin Heath, D.C.L., of Exeter, and sister of the headmaster of Harrow. To those who are fond of local associations, it may not be uninteresting to add that the house in which Mr. Drury resided after his marriage, until his appointment to the headmastership, was that next the King's Head Inn, afterwards occupied by Mr. Mills, another assistant, and after this for many years by Mr. Hewlett, the gi'eatly esteemed surgeon to the school. When, on his election to a Fellowship in Eton College in 1785, Dr. Heath determined to resign the mastership of HaiTow, the eyes of all Harrovians naturally fell on Mr. Drury, and for the first time for a hundred years or more it was thought quite unnecessary to look to Eton ; nor, indeed, did there appear any candidate from thence. Mr. Drury had just completed his thirty-sixth year when he became headmaster. He had been so closely connected with his brother-in-law and predecessor in all their views regarding the studies of the place, that little or no immediate change was made in the system ; and such improvements as in progress of time suggested themselves were the fruit of his own experience in the management of boys. Dr. Drury's success as headmaster was not at first remarkable. He continued for some considerable time without any unusual degree of encouragement but what came from his own mind and the opinions of his most sensible friends ; but before the end of the century the school rose, and attained a degree of celebrity altogether unknown in its previous history. The numbers exceeded 350, and it was crowded by members of the families of the first rank in professional eminence and hereditary honours and property.^ But there were at that time domestic reasons, principally such as were connected with the health of Mrs. Drury, which made him determine at the time of his greatest success to prepare for retirement, and he fixed the term of twenty years from the period of entering on the duties of the headmastership as the close of his labours in education. Accordingly, he vacated the post at the beginning of the Easter holidays in 1805. The closing of the book of the last day's lesson, in last school, is said to have been a trying scene, not only to his own feelings, but to those of all the boys assembled around him. They would hear no more that voice so full of warning and encouragement, those admonitions in private so truly parental. Some years ago, at one of the annual Harrow dinners. Lord Palmerston, in the course of his speech, told his audience that, in the Sixth Form, the charm of hearing his rebukes and exhortations was almost enough to tempt them to do wrong. He visited Harrow but once during the remaining twenty-nine years of his life. » See p. 164. THE DRURY FAMILY 65 The boys on that occasion, which occurred some eighteen months after his departure, loosed the horses from his carriage and drew him up the hill, a performance that so affected the old doctor that he never after could summon courage enough to revisit the scene. The name continued at Harrow, for he had appointed his brother, Mark Drury, to an assistant mastership in 1806, and he eventually became under-master ; and Mark's son William was also appointed an assistant in 1805. They both retired in 1826. Dr. Drury's eldest son Henry,^ educated at Eton, and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, was appointed an assistant in 1801, became under-master after the death of Mr. Evans, and died in March 1841. His crowded pupil-room for many years bore testimony to his reputation as a ripe scholar ; and the efficacy of his instruction showed itself in the unusually frequent successes of his pupils in competitions for school honours and University distinctions, to which many old Harrovians still living bear grateful witness. Mr. Henry Drury, " Old Harry," as he was familiarly called, was a great character, and many stories are told of him. Mr. R. Broughton, one of his old pupils, contributes the following interesting and diverting reminiscences : " Old Harry was mad upon fires ; he would go any distance to see one. In the year 1834 he was looking over my monitor's Greek exercise in the dining-room at Druries about 8.30 p.m. The subject was a passage from Childe Harold. ' Ah, little did I think,' he said, ' a few years ago, when I was looking over Lord Byron's exercise in this very room with him, that I should shortly be looking over a monitor's exercise being a translation from one of his principal poems.' Just then in comes the butler with — ' Oh, sir, there is a very large fire in London ! ' Immediately exercise, Childe Harold^ etc., were closed and forgotten. ' Come along,' he cried, ' up to the churchyard at once.' We hurried up as fast as we could go, and sat together on the tombstones from nine o'clock till midnight watching the fire. It was the burning of the Houses of Parliament. Among other things he had a wonderful memory. He knew all Virgil, Horace, and Lucan by heart. On one occasion a boy put three or four lines of Virgil into a copy of his verses. Old Harry began, 'Well, this is a good copy of verses, the best you have ever done. Did you do them all yourself ? ' — ' Yes, sir.' — ' Quite sure .'' ' — *Yes, sir.' — 'What, allV — 'Yes, sir.' — 'Then,' says he, 'it is a very curious co- incidence that you and Virgil have had the same thought, but jnost unlucky for you that he thought of it first. Please write out an jEneid.'' " Henry Drury 's third son, Benjamin Heath,^ was summoned from Caius College, Cambridge, in the year that he took his B.A. degree, by Dr. Wordsworth to take a mastership. When he retired, after twenty- three years of service, to undertake the tutorship of Caius College, the name of Drury ceased to appear in the list of assistant-masters of the school. It is not yet, however, entirely lost, as it is still enshrined, as old Benites, to use a familiar term, observe with pleasure, in the present appellation of their well-remembered house. "r PT n ^ More familiarly " Harry " Urury, Byron's tutor. 2 [The writer of this article. Mr. B. H. Drury will pardon the recording of the fact that the connection of the Drury family with Harrow is still maintained by his annual visit on Speech-day. — Edd.] F CHAPTER VIII DR. GEORGE BUTLER The year 1805, so illustrious in the annals of the British nation, was memorable also in the history of Harrow. Two names more than any others have been associated with the government of the school — Drury and Butler — and this year marked the transference of authority from the former to the latter. On the retirement of Dr. Joseph Drury in the spring of 1805, three candidates offered themselves for election — the Rev. Mark Drury, second master ; the Rev. B. Evans, one of the assistant masters ; and the Rev. George Butler, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. As the votes of the governing body were equally divided between Mr. Drury and Mr. Butler, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Manners Sutton, was requested by the Governors, in accordance with the statutes of John Lyon, to arbitrate between them. Mr. Butler's candidature was supported by Dr. Parr and the famous scholar, Richard Porson. His academical qualifications were unusually strong, for he had been Senior Wrangler in 1794, first Smith's Prizeman, and had it not been for an attack of illness he would in all probability have also carried off the senior Chancellor's Classical Medal. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Archbishop decided in his favour ; and from Easter 1805 to Easter 1829 Dr. George Butler devoted his great abilities with unsparing energy to the service of the school. " His stature," says Dean Merivale,^ " was somewhat below the middle height, but his limbs were lithe and well-set. His countenance, with its keen eyes and curved beak, was full of expression, but evidently kept under strict control ; and his march up to school at the head of a procession of lagging and perhaps unwilling assistants, now I fear disused, was decidedly impressive." In many respects his headmastership presents features of remarkable interest, and the two school rebellions which took place in 1805 and 1808 throw a singular light on the character of public-school life at the beginning of this century. It is very easy to exaggerate the importance of these puerile insurrections, and yet they can hardly be omitted from such a record as this. The first was an insubordinate protest against Dr. Butler's election on the part of those boys who, out of devotion to Dr. Joseph Drury, had hoped and expected that Mr. Mark Drury would be his successor. It was led by Lord Byron, and this circumstance, no doubt, has given it ^ Quoted in Thornton's Harrow School and its Surroundings, p. 239. DR. GEORGE BUTLER 67 a factitious importance. Byron was a monitor at the time, and misused his privileges and authority for promoting a conspiracy. He spread about among the boys satiric verses, he even laid a train of gunpowder in one of the passages where the headmaster passed, and the explosion was only prevented by a boy named James Richardson, afterwards the well-known Judge, who appealed to his companions not to destroy the walls where their fathers' names had been cut. The second rebellion of 1808 was a more serious affair. It was due to some modification of the monitorial privileges, and was as formidable as a schoolboy rising can be. The keys of the birch-cupboard were seized from the school Gustos, the monitors resigned their offices, all communication with London, postal or other- wise, was forcibly arrested, and the words " Liberty and Rebellion "" were posted up on the Fourth Form room. This state of things continued for several days, but Dr. Butler was equal to the occasion ; the principal ringleaders were expelled, and His Majesty George III. was pleased to express his approval of the way in which the disturbance was repressed. The truth is, that just at this time the government of public schools, and more particularly of Harrow, was unusually difficult, and this is attested by the variation of the numbers in the school, which often, though not always, serve as a barometer of success. At Dr. Butler's accession, there were 257 boys in the school ; in 1816, in spite of the two emeiites, there were as many as 295 ; in 1828 they had sunk to 128. There are many reasons to account for this fluctuation. In the first place, there was an uneasy feeling in the evangelical world at that time that the public-school system fostered an irreligious tone, habits of roughness, oppression, and even of vicious conduct, and this criticism found expression in the writings of Wilberforce, Bowdler, and Miss Edgeworth. Then, again, the spirit of educational, no less than political, reform was in the air. Many public writers and speakers denounced the exclusively classical character of public-school study, and pressed for the introduction of a wider curriculum. Besides all this, the financial crisis of 1825, the most serious that had occurred in England for many generations, affected very widely the richer classes from which the Harrow boys were drawn. These circumstances and difficulties were not, of course, peculiar to Harrow. Westminster, for instance, shows at this time a similar depletion of numbers, but there were also local embarrassments which intensified the strain. One of these deserves our special consideration, for it was the means of raising and settling a question of the very first magnitude for the welfare of the school. In 1810 one of the churchwardens, Mr. John Foster, persuaded the parishioners to lodge an appeal in the Court of Chancery, the main object of which was to limit the number of " foreigners," or, as we should now say, boarders, and so to convert the school into a place of education for the sons of the purely local inhabitants and the tradesmen of the town. In other words, it was a deliberate attempt to reduce Harrow to the position of a third-rate village school. The suit was defended by Mr. Fladgate, the school solicitor, with conspicuous ability. The appeal was brought before the Master of the Rolls, Sir William Grant, who decided against the limitation of " foreigners "" ; but maintained unimpaired the privileges conferred on the local inhabitants by the statutes of the Founder. How little 68 HARROW SCHOOL reality there was in the appeal is proved by the fact that six years after this im- portant decision there were only three " free scholars,"'"' out of 295 boys, who were found to claim the privileges open to the families of the neighbourhood. From these difficulties it is a pleasure to turn to the various benefits con- ferred upon the school by Dr. Butler. To proceed from the less to the greater, it is interesting to note that in his time ^ Duck-puddle was first started (1809), though perhaps he can have little dreamt of the future attractions of that captivating The Schoolyard fkom the Cloisters. resort. He introduced the new school motto, Stet Fortuna Domus, and the use of the cross arrows in the arms of the school, though he was careful to insist that the former was not meant to supersede John Lyon"'s Donomm Dei D'lspensatio Fidelis, and that the latter was not to be regarded as a species of canting heraldry, but as a reminiscence of the old competitions in archery. In 1813 the Lyon monument, by Flaxman, in the parish church was erected by public subscription, the inscription * It was natural that Dr. Butler should have introduced this salutary addition to the outdoor life of the school, for he was himself an excellent swimmer, and at the advanced age of sixty-eight, on a cold January day, obtained the Royal Humane Society's medal for saving a drowning woman in the Grand Junction Canal when he was Dean of Peterborough. DR. GEORGE BUTLER 69 of which was written by Dr. Parr. In 1825 the attendance of the school at the parish church on Saints' Day was discontinued in the interests of school work. Nor should it be forgotten that the first cricket match between Harrow and Eton belongs to this period. It was played on 2nd August 1805 in the first year of Dr. Butler'^s headmastership ; and though it was, properly speaking, a " pick-up " rather than a regular school match, still it is generally regarded as the earliest of the long and famous list of contests between the two schools. But these events, interesting as they are, are not of course the main features of Dr. Butler's reign. How long and devotedly he laboured from 1819 to 1829 to raise subscriptions for the extension of the old school buildings, how he rebuilt the head- master's house at a cost of .£12,000, how he was instrumental in founding prizes for annual competition, is recorded in the article on benefactions. But a schoolmaster must be judged by the character and success of his teaching. And here it must be admitted that Harrow is under deep obligation to Dr. Butler. To him belongs the credit of introducing the study of science and Euclid ; and though he had never been trained in the finished scholarship which characterised Mr. Henry Drury's teaching, he promoted the study of versification with enthusiasm. But perhaps his chief interest and power lay in his encouragement of oratory and elocution. For this he had himself a great natural gift, and he took immense pains to impart it to his pupils. In his day there were three Speech-days in the year, in May, June, and July and for each of these state occasions the speakers were most carefully trained by himself. " He varied," says Dean Merivale, " the ordinary routine of accidence and grammar with frequent illustrations from parallel passages in modem prose and verse ; and was remarkable for the readiness with which he supplied, day by day, the themes or topics which he expected us to expand in our own com- positions. . . . While he undertook the entire daily hearing of the Sixth Form, which might comprise ten monitors, six upper- and ten or twelve under-sixth, he made a point of requiring all the lower forms to ' say ' to him monthly or perhaps oftener; and this was a crisis to which the juniors looked with some apprehension." The beautiful collection of the portraits of old Harrovians which are kept in the Vaughan Library, and which were presented to him on his resignation, indicate the distinguished character of the school. Among his pupils we may select for especial mention the following names which afterwards became illus- trious : Lord Byron, the great Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Dalhousie, Sidney Herbert, the Duke of Abercorn, Sir Thomas Acland, Dean Merivale, Sir Henry Bulwer, and Fox Talbot, the last of whom he always considered the ablest of his pupils at Harrow. We may conclude this brief notice of his headmastership by quoting the significant letter written to him by the Governors on his retirement : — " We desire to express the deep sense which we entertain of that zeal, talent, and conscientiousness with which you have discharged the difficult duties of your office ; of the substantial improvements you have introduced into the discipline and instruc- tion of the school ; of the singular munificence which you have displayed on all 70 HARROW SCHOOL occasions, and especially in the enlargement of the public school and the master's residence. On all these grounds we are most anxious to convey to you the sincere and deliberate expression of our high respect, gratitude, and regard. (Signed) " Northwick. "J. W. Cunningham. " C. Hamilton. " John Roberts. " Joseph Neeld." E. W. HowsoN. CHAPTER IX SCHOOL LIFE UNDER DR. GEORGE BUTLER Pictures of boy-life at Harrow so far away as the beginning of this century will differ widely according to the material that is used ; and this material, though far from being as abundant in quantity as one could wish, is strangely different in quality. If we take Byron for our guide, we find him throwing himself with energy into games and the joint life of his fellows, as he describes himself, " always cricketing, rebelling, ' rowing,^ and in all manner of mischief.'" Rebellious, indeed. Dr. Butler found him, but this was owing to his loyalty to the late headmaster. Dr. Joseph Drury, and his disappointment that Mark Drury had not been chosen to succeed him. But he was not hostile to all authority. Of Dr. Drury he wrote : — The dear preceptor of my early days : Probus, the pride of science, and the boast. To Ida now, alas ! for ever lost. With him, for years. Me search'd the classic page, And fear'd the master, though we loved the sage. And if his early sentiments towards Dr. Butler were hostile, and he spoke somewhat bitterly of him, this was no more than boyish haste. In his later days he understood that he had been wrong, and withdrew his harsh criticisms. Exceptionally talented indeed, Byron in many respects was an ordinary boy- type, with all the love of activity, mischief, popularity among his fellows, which most boys possess. He saw the joys of school life as others see them. In scattei''d groups each favour'd haunt pursue ; Repeat old pastimes, and discover new ; Flush'd with his rays, beneath the noontide sun. In rival bands between the wickets run, Drive o'er the sward the ball with active force. Or chase with nimble feet its rapid course. But these with slower steps direct their way, Where Brent's cool waves in limpid currents stray. While yonder few search out some green retreat, And arbours shade them from the summer heat ; Others, again, a pert and lively crew, Some rough and thoughtless stranger placed in view. 72 HARROW SCHOOL With frolic quaint their antic jests expose^ And tease the grumbling rustic as he goes. This might serve well enough for a picture of boy-life now. Anthony Trollope, who was in the school near the end of Dr. Butler's reign, gives in his Autobiography a very different picture. To him Harrow was a place of torment, and he had ample opportunities of forming his opinion, for his school life lasted from April 1823 till Midsummer 1834. He was removed, indeed, in 1826, after being three years " lag " ^ of the school ; and spent five years, first at a private school and then in college at Winchester, returning to Harrow in 1831. He was equally unfortunate in his experiences everywhere ; it was just possible to obtain five scourgings on one day at Winchester, and he did it. His account of Harrow days is almost heartbreaking in its misery. He says of his first period : " I was only seven, and I think that boys of seven are now spared among their more considerate seniors. I was never spared ; and was not even allowed to run to and fro between our house and the school without a daily purgatory. No doubt my appearance was against me." And, again, of his later time : " I had not only no friends, but was despised by all my companions "" ; or, " The indignities I endured are not to be described. As I look back, it seems to me that all hands were turned against me — those of masters as well as boys. I was allowed to join in no plays. Nor did I learn anything, for I was taught nothing. . . . There were twelve years of tuition in which I do not remember that I ever knew a lesson. When I left Harrow, I was nearly at the top of the school, being a monitor, and, I think, the seventh boy. This position I achieved by gravitation upwards. I bear in mind well with how prodigal a hand prizes used to be showered about, but I never got a prize."" ^ But to set against all this, it must be remembered that Trollope was a victim of a bad system and hard circumstances. He was one of John Lyon's charity scholars. When his family were reduced by poverty to living in a farm- house at Harrow Weald, three miles from the school, Trollope's condition, after daily walking miles to and fro through the muddy lanes, must have been such as to inspire the ordinary boarder with a certain amount of prejudice. "I might," he says, " have been known among all the boys at a hundred yards' distance by my boots and trousers " ; and on his own showing, both at Hari'ow and in his early career at the Post-Office, his disposition — shy, blundering, resentful — was not such as to make him a popular boy anywhere. " I know that I skulked, and was odious to the eyes of those I admired and envied " ; and with all these disadvantages and boyish sullenness of character, he was acutely sensitive to every slight. No wonder that his picture of boy-life is a distressing one. An account of Harrow in 1822, quoted from Temple Bar by Mr. Thornton in Harrow School and its Surroundings^ gives an amusing sketch of that great feature of boy-life, namely, leaving school for home — "that joyous race to London on breaking-up morning. Gigs, carts, and every species of vehicle stood horsed around the school-gates and down the High Street, and such a rush of liberated and * The last boy. 2 The late Lord Bessborough pointed out that this was not true^ as Trollope had beaten him in a prize which he had hoped to win. SCHOOL LIFE UNDER DR. GEORGE BUTLER 75 expectant boys took place out of first school — that solemn farce on breaking-up morning. Black coats and ties were discarded with an alacrity unknown off the stage, and travelling garments of an approved type donned, for young Harrow was to hold its own in St. James Street that day. And then the race was fast and furious until, the second milestone being passed, the leaders settled down into more sober paces, and soon reached the wished-for haven of, even then, smoky London." A distinguished Harrovian ^ of Dr. Butler's time has described some of the conditions of school life as he knew them. In his early days the new wing of the schools had not been built, and the Fourth Form room — now merely the scene of prayers once a week, and of the exercise of the strong arm of discipline — was then in active daily use. The Sixth Form sat in the northern portion, the Third Form and lower Removes of the Fourth Form in the southern. It is hard to imagine teaching carried on under these distracting conditions, but so it was. In cold weather a faggot blazed for a few minutes in the great fireplace. Masters and boys alike took tapers to school. The upper rooms accommodated the Fifth and Upper Fourth Form masters, the two divisions of the Shell occupying the " cock-loft "" and its adjoining attic. In play hours when it was wet the Fourth Form room was the scene of a good deal of rough play. Cricket- and racket-balls flew about in plenty. The schoolyard was, until long after, the only racket-court and the ordinary foot- ball ground. " The greatest feat, but one not infrequently executed, was to kick the ball right over the school, from whence I have seen it descend even into the road beyond. Failing to clear the building, it often rebounded from the ledge to the parapet, and there fags were stationed to find it and cast it down. This service was cold in the wintry winds, and not a little dangerous."" ^ In the first chapter of Annals of my Early Life, Dr. Charles Wordsworth has set down some interesting recollections of his school-days imder Dr. George Butler. A letter written by him from Harrow to his brother Christopher at Winchester says : " It is now Saturday night, and I have come to the conclusion of as industrious a week as I have ever spent in my life, having done one hundred and twenty Latin hexameters, subject, 'Bull Baif; a Latin theme, fifty lines; a translation ; lyrics, nineteen stanzas ; besides thirty lines of Juvenal, construed and learnt by heart every day — only this very night, since six o"'clock, I have learnt one hundred and twenty lines. Fellows have taken it into their heads to sap terribly hard this quarter. Some do six or seven chapters of Thucydides, others of Herodotus, others Greek play — besides Juvenal, Livy, Tacitus, etc. — every day extra (that means beyond the ordinary school work). Some have soared so far into the clouds as to read Aristophanes; for the joke's sake, it must be the Ntibes.'''' Another source of information about boy-life at this time is found in letters from boys at school to their parents or friends. These rarely tell us much, except the commonplaces of school life ; but with the lapse of time it is the commonplaces that become interesting. Old customs may sometimes be found described in boys' 1 Charles Merivale, quoted in Thornton's Harrow School and its Surroundings. 2 Ibid. 76 HARROW SCHOOL letters. For example, in the extracts from the letters of G. M. Batten,^ who was at Harrow in 1822, we have a boy''s account of " rolling in," as practised in the Grove. This ordeal, which had to be gone through before a boy was free of the hall, is described as follows : — " Fancy to yourself, my head barely covered with a coat, and my arms to protect it at their own expense, projected over a table, from which at the distance of four yards four boys with a dozen of rolls apiece threw at me with all their might and will for a minute, which seemed terribly long. The sensation at the time was really more painful than I could have conceived, for the strokes on the brain came so close one upon another that one feels smashed to pieces. This went off after breakfast, but my poor noddle could not sustain the pressure of a hat for days. These miseries ceased after three days more, and I am now George Batten, and enjoy the comforts of the Hall company and a Fag very much." ^ Dr. George Butler did his best to suppress this and other brutal or unseemly customs, such as blanket- tossing and jack-a-lantem, a chase in the dark after a boy caiTying a lantern, who did his best to lead his pui'suers through sloughs of mud and thorny hedges ; but the headmaster"'s efforts were only partially successful, as many of the evils reappeared in Longley's day. How hard school life was then in comparison with our own day may be judged from the duties of fags, who had to clean their masters'* shoes and clothes, sometimes rising at five to do so, or at the call of fag-poker had to rush out into the cold to pull a hedge stake from the nearest fence or faggot stack. This illustrates also the slightness of the control imposed on boys by " lock-up "" ; so much so, that in 1826 the Governors gave notice to Dr. Butler that the scholars should be more closely confined to their houses after lock-up. Among the most interesting records of Dr. Butler's time we must place the MS. diary ^ of Walter Charles Trevelyan, kept regularly from 1812 to 1815. It is true that the entries are often meagre, sometimes running "nothing par- ticular," or " ditto " ; but a boy's school-life often appears to him as a process of doing " ditto " to " nothing particular." Further, the boy himself, as revealed by his diary, is a somewhat exceptional boy, with more interest in coins and botany than in cricket and football. None the less, the diary gives a great deal of curious information about his work and play hours, school habits, the relations between the headmaster and the boys in his house, and so forth. The first thing that strikes one is the entire dominance of classical study over any other. The only variation in the classical round which appears in Trevelyan's diary is the visit of Mr. Walker, described in The Endowed Schools of England and Wales * " as the Lecturer in Natural and Experimental Philosophy, who attends once ^ Minchin's Old Harrow Days. 2 The practice was not uniform. Probably it varied in different houses. Mr. Thornton, speaking of the headmaster's house, says : " One minute's bombardment was allowed, while the boy knelt down with his face to the wall. " In another case the victim sat, as Batten says, but with a breakfast-plate in front of his head. The severity of the punishment received then depended on whether the plate was speedily broken or not. ^ A series of extracts from this diary were published in the Harrovian, October, November, December 1897- * Published 1815. SCHOOL LIFE UNDER DR. GEORGE BUTLER 77 in two or three years." One of these angel's visits was paid by this Occasional Professor in 1814, when, in the course of the summer term, he gave one lecture on each of the following subjects — Properties of Matter, Mechanics, Chemistry, Pneu- matics, Chemical Properties of Air, Electricity, Galvanism and Fortification. Tre- velyan gives a curt summary of each, thus : " 9th June. Mr. W. gave lecture on galvanism and electricity, sheep, frog, at end fireworks, electrified twice." Mathe- matics are never mentioned in the diary. Trollope rather later bears the same testimony, though he says that he learned nothing even of classics. Merivale found " Euclid lightly glanced at by the Sixth Form once a week," arithmetic, like writing, taken for granted, algebra unknown. At one time the Fourth Form did Greek Testament with the headmaster on Sundays, but this after a time was dropped. Trevelyan's exercises were " Particle," ^ an occasional map, sometimes of a curious kind, such as "Pomponius Mela map"; or, "did armillary sphere — had mine torn over," and the next day, " did two armillary spheres," themes (in Latin) and verses. The verses were perfectly unending, even in the Fourth Form. Thus : " Whole holyday did 18 verses"; "did 20 verses and 2 stanzas of sense lyricks as we had to do nonsense " ; " did 44 verses, 26 more than my number." Between the 10th and 18th October he did 106 verses and 2 stanzas of lyricks; and later, when he reached the Fifth Form, the quantity increased — " 12 stanzas of lyricks " ; "did 78 verses — subject, ghosts . . . had my last ghostly verses sent up and read over. Dr. B. praised much." These exercises were, however, often excused, gener- ally for victories of English arms abroad, or for visits of distinguished strangers, e.g. " Whole holyday without exercise for good news from Spain." " 8th July 1813. Whole holyday for Lord Wellington's victory " (at Vittoria). " Lord Hill came here with star on — was cheered, bowed, etc., asked for Monday and verses." " Duke of Kent came here and got us a holyday to-morrow." In fact, the total number of holidays was such as to make a modern Harrovian's mouth water. Tuesdays were almost invariably whole holidays. Saints' days, and other semi- religious festivals, such as 29th May, 30th January, and 5th November, were holidays. The King's birthday and Accession Day were the same ; and, above and beyond all these, the summer term was a time of great relaxation. To begin with, there were three Speech-days and Governors' Speech-day, and then almost any distinguished person, or notable victory against Bonaparte (and victories came thick in the latter part of 1812 and the two following years), secured a holiday. For example, the fifteen days from 24th June to 8th July 1813 contained seven whole holidays and two half-holidays. Equally remarkable is the frequency with which boys absented themselves from school. In the summer term of 1814, between 27th May and Tuesday 21st June, our diarist was in London on four con- ^ Possibly taken from A New Dictionary of English Particles, and how to render them into Latine according to the Propriety and Elegancy of that Language ; with a Praxis upon the Same, by Win. Walker^ B.U., 1653. Printed by J. H. for Edward Pawlett^ at the Bible in Chancery Lane. The book was in use at Eton, Westminster, Winchester, and St. Paul's. The copy in my possession, an 11th edition, 1695, is signed "J. Ffenn, 1754." If this book was used at Harrow in 1815, it offers a strange contrast to the rapidity with which modern school-books go out of date. 78 HARROW SCHOOL secutive nights, from 27th May to 31st May, three more from 3rd June to 6th June, and four more from 17th June to 21st June. It does not seem as if any difficulty would then have been felt over finding a third day for the match against Eton. As it was, Trevelyan spent most of his time seeing processions of triumphant royalties. " Saw Duchess Oldenburg, Prince Regent, Emperor, King of Prussia, Blucher, PlatofF, Prince of Orange, . . . Russians smoking," and so forth. Just as verses and holidays were on the grand scale, so were punishments. " Sent up 4th school, because I could not construe my Turselline, and flogged by Dr. B. for the first time"; "Dr. B. gave me the fbrmatio temporum in the active, middle, and passive voices ; after breakfast Dr. B. excused me the active voice." " Mr. H. Drury set me 20 chapters of St. Matthew to write out " ; " Mr. H. Drury sent me up for not being able to say my Greek grammar, third school, and I was flogged " ; " Harry (Drury) gave me a pun, . . . did pun, 871 lines " — probably the fifth JEneid. " Dog set me 50 pages of Greek grammar, for not knowing something that was not in the lesson." Nowadays 200 lines is thought a big punishment. Times have softened for schoolboys in more ways than one. Trevelyan was clearly not a boy who took much interest in games ; but even allowing for this, the rarity of any mention of cricket and football is remarkable. He speaks of the cricket-ground occasionally as a place to walk to ; he never says that he played. His only amusement connected with it is, " fun with roller to crickett-ground." The roller was worked by Fourth Form boys as he records, "helped to pull up roller from crickett-ground." He also mentions, " fight on crickett-ground," probably one of those periodical rows between school and town boys consequent on the enclosing of the ground out of Roxeth Common, and the jealousy felt that the " foreigners " were monopolising Lyon''s foundation. Once only does any account of a cricket match appear — " Match between us and Rickmansworth ; we were licked." In 1813 cricket began on 23rd March, but it must have been a chilly business, as on 3rd April it snowed. Football appears once, also, as the occasion of a row. " After four, a row between monitors and Shell about stopping at football." Ducker, or, as it was then more ceremoniously called. Duck-puddle, is often mentioned, not so much as a bathing-place, but for sailing ships and letting off fireworks. " Went to Duck-puddle with Johnstone and sailed his ship " ; " went to Duck -puddle and fired my cannon, which carried shot almost the whole length of the bath." In fact, as each Guy Fawkes' Day approached his activity in fireworks was tiiily remarkable. " Bought 2 ounces of gunpowder and a squib to copy from. . . . After six Praed and I made 3 squibs, and tried one which did very well " ; " let off" 20 squibs of my making " ; " made a cracker and a blue light " ; " bought 3 Catherine wheels, 3 blue lights, 4 squibs, and 5 crackers." Fireworks were generally illegal. He records : " Almost found out letting off" gunpowder, by Stapleton telling monitors"; and again, "Went to let oif G.P., and thought we heard somebody behind the hedge, so we ran away as fast as we could." He was fortunate in escaping the consequences of other pranks also. " Gray told me that he would give me a penny every time I hit Dr. B.'s window with throwing a book at it ; I hit it 4 times, and the 5th broke it. Gray broke Dr. B.'s Pomade Divine bottle." But others were less skilled in avoiding detection. " Dr. B. SCHOOL LIFE UNDER DR. GEORGE BUTLER 79 had Nicholson's study opened, and found some squibs and about 200 or 300 old exercises which he had taken out of Dr. B.'s library"; and, as one would expect, the next day " Nicholson was flogged." Sometimes, however, fireworks were licensed ; thus, for example, " 4th Nov. 1813. Excellent news from Russia, fireworks to be allowed " ; and in consequence a few days later : " Had a Band about 12 or 13. Fireworks, and very fine Rockets and Bondfire, No. 6 or 8 Bell,^ came in about nine and had supper, cold veal and ham and Negus — clapped Butler." Like most of his class, our friend is much interested in eatables. Almost his first entry is, " Supped with Dr. Butler. Eat Mock -Turtle Soup, Hare, Partridge, Pye, Custard and Trifle — and 3 glasses of wine " ; and if, by degrees, he becomes less respectful — " Supped with B.," nay, almost patronising — "Supped with Dr. B. — good Madeira " ; yet he always showed an appreciation of good fare. The headmaster must have been a much less awe-inspiring ^nd inaccessible personage to Fourth Form boys than headmasters are nowadays ; for example, " Dr. Butler gave my cousins and me each a peach " ; " Dr. B. gave Gray and I a glass of wine " ; and finally, " Dr. B. told me to stay out for my cold, and I had some water-gruel with him." Who could fear a headmaster with whom he had supped water-gruel in this delightfully domestic style ? No cruel fate has preserved our diarisfs pastrycook''s bill for modern boys to make mock at. But such a bill ^ has come down to us from older days than his. It was presented in 1788 by " John Bernard, harrow " to Daniell Griffiths, and amounted in all to dfi'lO. The items were duly set out, six months' consumption in all. The boy had a healthy appetite, and the pastrycook was master of a quaint spelling, so that the result is amusing. It is not all sweets — " rooles, butar for 18 day, 9s. Od." ; " fool, bread, ham, small beer, 3s. & 6d." " Veal poy and muck turtle " are on the solid side ; but he had a sweet tooth, too — " almund, resine and shesnutt, lOd.," " march pin," " orange ships and limon peale," " Sherrys," succeed with bewildering rapidity. One week's consumption reads : — Jun 30. fool, breads sauce av bread Juloy 1. Shery torte, custard 2. pigon Poy, bread, limonad 3. 3 glace Ice, Naples bisket, royal hortes 4. ham, bread, pikles, limonad 5. 3 pund sugar, pigon poy . 7. potte rasbury Either 6th July 1788 was a Sunday, or the confectioner cooked something besides pastry. Eighty years have wi'ought strange changes. Modern Harrovians would look askance at the idea of walking the ten miles that sever Harrow from London, yet Trevelyan often did it. This entry, too, is of the old world : " After last church, as 1 This suggests the derivation of "bill" from "bell." The excellent news seems to have been about the battle of Leipzig, 16th, I7th, and 18th October. Leipzig is not in Russia, but then our diarist is not the first boy to make a mistake in geography. 2 " An old Bill," see the Harrovian, July 1894. s. d. 3 1 8 1 n 2 7 3 7 1 3 80 HARROW SCHOOL I was walking with Praed, we were chased by some footpads, but we got away from them." But it is not only customs that have changed, such as " sousing night," no memory of which survives. Localities, too, have passed beyond recognition, even when marked by curious names. " Walked to feet of Hercules," " walked to Know- nothing's Garden," and "went to Damnation Hill," are entries which remain enigmas. It were reasonable to think that a name like the last might have sur- vived from its picturesque profanity, but not a trace of it remains. In compiling this article I had hardly dared to hope to include a personal reminiscence of a headmaster, whose tenure ended no less than sixty -nine years ago ; but it has been forthcoming. Judge Bay lis, Q.C., who, if not actually the oldest living Harrovian, is at any rate one of the very few who were pupils of Dr. George Butler, has been good enough to send me a few words of personal recollection. " I entered the school," he says, " in 1825 at the age of eight, and left as a monitor at sixteen ; I was first a home-boarder, but afterwards went into Oxenham's house. While a home-boarder we lived at Greenhill Green, and Anthony Trollope, whom I remember well, used to call for me on his way to the school. I used to sit next him in the Sixth Form. I think he much exaggerated his Harrow sufferings ; they were less than other home-boarders who went young to the school : they were often sadly bullied and pursued with stones on their way home. Trollope was a strongly-built, powerful fellow, and could in a measure hold his own. He fought with a boy of the name of Lewis in the fighting-ground for nearly an hour, until separated by Mills the master. Lewis had to go home, so severely was he punished. I have a deep respect for Dr. Butler on account of his kindness to me ; he was a tender-hearted gentleman of the old type, and a good classic. When he took leave of the school in 1825 he gave to every boy a book with his name inscribed on a label, all in his own handwriting, stating that he had been headmaster for twenty-four years, and expressing a wish that each boy would continue to love him as he had done. Of the other masters I may mention Mark Drury, another Daniel Lambert, so stout that he had to have a huge chair fitted to his size. He had the Third Form in the pupil-room of his house. One day a boy put some cobbler's wax in his chair, but he detected it before sitting down and took the joke quite good-humouredly. Nutcombe Oxenham, a brother of the Rev. William Oxenham, was hurt badly by a frozen snowball in a contest between different houses. It was a practice to dip the snowballs in water, and freeze them to give them consistency. Marillier, the writing and mathematical master, to whose pronunciation of arithmetic was due his nickname 'Teek,' or 'Tique,' which became the slang name for all mathematics at Harrow, was the first person to use portable gas in school to supplement the feeble light of tapers. He used to have it sent down in cylinders from London for his private use. One duty which may seem curious to a younger generation of boys fell to me in turn with others when acting as doorkeeper in the Fomi;h Form room. This was to rush upstairs as soon as the Sixth Form lessons were over, to open the doors of all the other Forms and shout ' School over.' I think it was Dr. Longley who introduced the one-hour duration for schools." George Townsend Warner. CHARLES THOMAS LONCLEY, HEADMASTER 1829 - 1836. CHAPTER X DR. LONGLEY, 1829-1836 Immediately after the resignation of Dr. George Butler, at Easter 1829, the headmastership passed into the hands of Dr. C. T. Longley, who had been elected by the Governors on the 21st of March. It is worth noticing that out of the seven headmasters of Harrow who have flourished during the present century, Dr. Longley is the only instance of an Oxford man being appointed. The others are all from Cambridge. The following sketch of Dr. Longley's career at Harrow, and of the condition of things in the school during his tenure of office, is compiled from the writer''s own personal recollections of his boyish days, aided and strengthened by some valuable notes, most kindly placed at his disposal by one who was himself a Harrow boy during nearly the whole of Dr. Longley 's time. The subject may be conveniently treated under four heads : — 1. The headmaster himself. 2. The assistant-masters. 3. The subjects taught in the school. 4. The games and amusements in vogue. 1. First, as to the personality of Dr. Longley. The writer's memory recalls a man of some forty years, rather below the average height, with a singularly fine head, which, prematurely bald, was furnished, at the sides only, with quite black hair ; eyes of the deepest black ; mouth well formed, with, on occasion, a pleasant smile. On occasion, for the boys had but little experience of this side of Longley's manner, which, indeed, was seldom exhibited in the relations between a master and his boys at this period. There was no apparent sympathy between them ; no approach to kindly familiarity or confidence. And thus, one of the strongest agencies that a master possesses for developing the character of his boys was lost. From all one hears, things appear to be very different in this respect nowadays. It seems more than probable that the masters of recent years have been powerfully, if unconsciously, influenced by the example set at Rugby, under the auspices of Dr. Arnold, of the kind of rapport that should subsist between the boys of a public school and their masters. As regards attainments, though these were certainly respectable, — they could hardly be otherwise in the case of a man who had graduated in the first-class in Lit. Hum.., and had been tutor of Christ Church, and Classical Examiner in the schools, — it is impossible to claim for Dr. Longley anything like the profound erudition which distinguished his immediate predecessor, and at least two of his 82 HARROW SCHOOL assistants, not to mention those who succeeded him in the headmastership. Yet, painstaking and conscientious Dr. Longley unquestionably was, and the school, though it made no great advance in numbers during his time, held its own fairly, until shortly before his resignation. Then, indeed, a lamentable decline set in, which, lasting all through the succeeding reign, was only checked — but that most marvellously, and well-nigh instantaneously^ — on the advent of Dr. Vaughan {clarum et venerabile nomen) in 1845. On the whole. Dr. Longley was popular with the boys. It is true that he failed to inspire them with enthusiasm, but he certainly gained their respect. He possessed qualities which boys are always quick in discerning and appreciating; those, for instance, of a perfectly well-bred and courteous gentleman, who knew how to treat his boys as gentlemen. Although it may not be altogether due to Longley's personal influence, it has been remarked that the Harrovians of that period have always been among the most loyal and devoted sons of the school. Dr. Longley's career after he left Harrow was exceptionally remarkable. The headmastership was resigned in 1836, on his being appointed Bishop of the newly- constituted see of Ripon. In 1856 he was translated to Durham ; in I860 he became Archbishop of York ; and finally, in 1862, he was raised to the Primacy of all England — an exalted and arduous post, which he held until his death in 1868. During his tenure of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, Dr. Longley had the singular honour of inaugurating that series of " Lambeth Conferences," of which the fourth has recently been held, i.e. in July 1897. 2. We come now to the staff of assistant masters under Dr. Longley. With seven of these, including the French and mathematical .teachers, the present writer, in his quality of pupil, was personally acquainted, (i.) The Rev. Henry Joseph Thomas Drury ; (ii.) the Rev. William Oxenham ; (iii.) the Rev. William Whitmarsh Phelps; (iv.) the Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy ; (v.) the Rev. Thomas Henry Steel ; (vi.) Mr. Jacob Francis Marillier ; (vii.) Mr. Jacques Marillier. (i.) Mr. Drury, the lower master (lower, that is, than the head, for he held the highest rank among the assistants), was a large, portly man of commanding presence, and was equalled by few in fine and elegant scholarship. In the writer's time " Old Harry," as he was (no doubt affectionately) called by the boys, presided in the Fifth Form room, where he was, perhaps, fonder of hearing himself declaim — and he possessed a fine sonorous voice — the grand cadences of Homer, or of the Greek tragedians, than of listening to the more or less halting construing of his boys. He was, probably from his great bulk, constitutionally indolent, a fault by no means resented by the boys, since it was chiefly manifested in a reluctance to leave his bed in time for the first lesson of the day. The only difliculty was to ascertain in good time whether Mr. Drury was "going up" — i.e. from his house to the school buildings — or not. Hence, a regular system of inquiry was organised, under which a fag had to repair to the house every morning and find out whether Mr. Drury was stirring or likely to stir. Then the fag had to scamper back, and proclaim with a loud voice through passages of the house to which he belonged, " going up," or ^ The entries in 1842, 1843, and 1844, the last three years of Dr. Wordsworth's headmaster- ship, were 59. Those in 1845, Dr. Vaughan's first year, were 73 ; in 1846, his second year, 136. DR LONGLEY 83 " not going up,*" as the case might be ; with the result that the Fifth Form boys either turned out of bed and hurried to the school, or else turned round and went asleep again. This, at least, was the custom at the present writer's house, " The Grove "^ ; he does not remember whether it prevailed in other boarding-houses. (ii.) The Upper Shell, the division next below the Fifth Form, was taught by Mr. Oxenham, a good scholar and an amiable man, but by no means a success as a master. Easily irritated, and with a temper over which he had little control, the boys led him a terrible life in pupil-room and in school. " I can see," writes one who knew him well in later days, " dear old Billy dashing on horseback out of his stables (just where the new part of Moreton's now stands), a terror to unwary passers-by ; or else hastily rushing up to school, gown and cap awry ; or calling bill in the Fourth Form room, by the aid of one pair of spectacles, while two other pairs were resting at various elevations on his forehead ; or pausing in some boy's room, as he went his rounds at night, to read his own letters aloud, to the infinite amuse- ment of the supposed sleeper ; or nervously clutching the table-cloth at a dinner- party as some young wiseacre was laying down the law, until the gathering storm burst, sotto voce, upon his nearest neighbour, ' Little fool ! he doesn't understand a bit about it.' He was too honest to let the conceit pass, and yet too kindly to wound the speaker's feelings. ' Honesty and kindliness ' : there you have the man ! As a Latin scholar, he had the credit of being quite first-rate. Only those over whom he reigned, without governing, can describe the occupations and amusements of an ordinary Fourth Form school. The text on his tomb in the churchyard describes much that was good and winning in this warm-hearted friend. ' Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, for that shall bring a man peace at the last' (Ps. xxxvii. 38, P.B.V.). Outwardly, we have the chapel spire as his memorial ; but a better memorial, our love of the man, lies deep in many hearts," (iii.) An entirely different character was the teacher of the Under Shell, Mr. W. W. Phelps. Here was a man of a calm, equable, and perhaps rather cold tem- perament ; not wanting in firmness, but never roused to anything like anger. As a consequence, his class-room was invariably quiet and orderly. Mr. Phelps had, for a boarding-house, " The Park," one of the most charming residences in Harrow. (iv.) Next comes a master, Mr. B. H. Kennedy, who in point of classical, and especially Greek, scholarship, was a good head and shoulders above every other member of the teaching staff, except, perhaps, Mr. H. Drury. By a strange dis- pensation, unavoidable, no doubt, where the assignment of the various posts went by seniority, the charge of the Fourth Form, the lowest but one, fell to the lot of this distinguished man. And that humble position he continued to occupy until, in 1835, he was appointed to a post more worthy of his great attainments, the headmastership of the famous Shrewsbury school. Mr. Kennedy's weak point was his temper. This, at times, was quite unmanageable. It does not appear that in school, or even in pupil-room, advantage was {mwe puerorum) taken of this infirmity ; but among Mr. Kennedy's boarders there were not wanting spirits of mischief, who would utilise certain occasions, as, eg., Guy Fawkes' Day, for the purpose of a " Kennedy bait." The usual plan was to " draw " him by exploding fireworks of the noisiest possible description under his study windows, an annoyance which 84 HARROW SCHOOL never failed of its desired effect, which was to produce a tempest of wrath on poor Mr. Kennedy^s part. Yet, for all his defects of temper, he was not unpopular, and his house was one of the best and most comfortable of boarding-houses. From the position of " The Grove," almost at the very top of the hill, extensive views could be obtained ; and the writer well recollects watching the burning of the Houses of Parliament, on the night of the 16th October 1834, from his bedroom window in the uppermost story. (v.) Mr. Kennedy was succeeded by Mr. T. H. Steel, also a distinguished scholar, and a mathematician to boot. Of him it was commonly said that it was simply impossible to put " Tommy " out of temj^er. The experiment was, nevertheless, tried on the first 5th of November after his arrival at " The Grove." Result — an entire failure. Of the explosions — for there were several — Steel took no sort of notice at the time. But, next day, the outrage having been laid before the headmaster, a severe sentence was passed on the whole house. Every boy had a long punishment, the number of lines varying with his standing in the school and in the house. And this, to the best of the writer's belief, was the first and last attempt to " get a rise " out of " Tommy Steel." (vi., vii.) Towards the end of Dr. Longley's headship, it seems to have occurred to the authorities that it was about time that such subjects as mathematics and modern languages — French, at any rate — should find places in the school cur- riculum. Up to that time, it had been left to individual boys — or, rather, to their parents — to decide whether either subject should be learnt or not. The consequence was that, while some few boys resorted to Mr. Jacob Marillier for instruction in what he, naturally (being a Frenchman), called " les mathema^i^'?^'*," — whence he (and his brother also, with less justification) got to be called "Teek" — hardly any seem to have learnt French under Mr. Jacques Marillier. But in 1834 French was made compulsory, and, shortly afterwards, mathematics also, when the raison d'etre of the two brothers became more apparent than it had hitherto been. Besides teaching mathematics, Mr. Jacob Marillier was the school purveyor of stationery of all kinds. Both the brothers, being pleasant and genial, were general favourites with the boys. 3. With regard to what was included in the school-teaching, little need be said, since Harrow, in this respect, differed hardly at all from other public schools. Classics, of course, formed the piece de resistance. Everything else was subordinate. Up to a certain point this was well, and the writer is very far indeed from quarrel- ling with the supremacy so loyally accorded to Latin and Greek. At the same time, there is no question that the absence — already referred to — of all instruction in modem languages, and in mathematics, as parts of the school system, was a fatal mistake, and entailed serious after-disadvantages. The same may be said of history, which formed a very minute part of the teaching — not more than about one hour in the week being devoted to ancient history — English, and, indeed, all modern history, being altogether ignored. On Sundays an hour was given to " Divinity " — to wit, the Greek Testament, with or without the notes of Bloomfield, or some other recent commentator. The writer can recollect no other religious teaching. In those days, there being no school chapel, the boys had to resort, on Sunday morning and after- noon, to the parish church, where they were placed in the two huge galleries, which DR. LONGLEY 85 have now, happily, disappeared. As a rule, the pulpit was occupied by the vicar, the excellent Mr. J. W. Cunningham ; though not infrequently one of the masters of the school would preach. The service, though neither worse nor better than what was to be found in most parish churches during the " thirties," was dreary enough. 4. Though the " worship of athletics" was not carried to anything like the pitch that it has attained during the latter part of this nineteenth century, the attention paid to the various games was at least equal to that which the more serious pursuits received. Of these games, cricket, of course, held the supremacy which it still enjoys, not only at Harrow, but throughout England. The Hari'ow cricket-ground of the Long- leyan period would horrify a cricketer accustomed to the billiard-table pitches of the present day. The Sixth Form ground was just passable, but as for that used by the Fifth Form, what could be expected of a piece of turf on a sub-soil of London clay, on which football was constantly played in the winter months ? On holidays, in the cricket season, two games were formally made up — the Sixth and the Fifth Form games, the latter composed of the leavings of the other. The functions of cricket-tutor, so worthily discharged in after-years by the two devoted old Harrovians, " Bob Grimston "" and " Fred Ponsonby," devolved, in Dr. Longley's time, on Mr. Henry Anderson, also an old Harrovian ; and most zealously and unremittingly did he perform his labour of love. In the quarter preceding the Christmas holidays, football was played, of a rough-and-ready and rather unscientific kind, very different from the "Rugby" or "Association" game of the present time, though possessing certain peculiar features of its own. The writer's recollection is of a huge game, played by the whole school ! ^ In the lower forms football was, by a lex non scripta, compulsory. ' An old Harrovian of a slightly later date has told us that in these huge games it was the custom to line the bases with a row of smaller boys, too young to be of any use elsewhere, and that whenever a base was obtained, the small guardians of the base who had failed to protect it were sent flying on their way to the other base by a series of kicks administered by the players of their own side all down the ground. — Edd. West End op the Parish Chuboh. 86 HARROW SCHOOL Between Christmas and Easter hare-and-hounds came "in," a most popular amusement. And here may be mentioned a cognate sport, which, although in the highest degree unlawful — since it involved the getting out of the house after lock- ing-up time, which exit, however accomplished, was not hy the front door — was indulged in chiefly by the " Kennedyites of The Grove." This was called " Jack o*" Lantern ^ ; it was a kind of nocturnal hare-and-hounds, and, apart from its illegality, had great possibilities. The " hare " carried a dark lantern, and, displaying the light at intervals, led the "hounds'" over fields, hedges, ditches, etc. For this sport, the darker the night and the more formidable the obstacles the better. Eventually, the thing came to the ears of Dr. Longley ; and the indignant oration, in which he somewhat pompously announced his determination to " put a stop to this system of Jack o"* Lan-thorn,"" was long remembered. Then there was bathing in the historical " Duck-puddle," then a very inferior place compared with the greatly improved " Ducker " of to-day. At " The Grove " there was a pond in which bathing was allowed — to the boarders — in the early morning ; and at " The Park " there was a fine sheet of water in which boys used sometimes to bathe. It was here that the writer was, on one such occasion, all but drowned. One more game remains to be mentioned, and that a very favourite one, rackets, played in those days in the schoolyard. The writer believes that Harrow has generally, if not always, held a pre-eminence among public schools in this game of rackets, in spite of — or, it may be, in consequence of — the difficulties presented by the principal court of old days — that of the Sixth Form — where the game was played against the old Elizabethan front, with its many wire-covered windows, corbels, string-courses, and projections of all kinds. Henry Lascelles Jenner {Bishop). CHAPTER XI DR. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH — HARROW IN THE FORTIES Introductory It was not until I had put together the following reminiscences of Harrow in my time, 1841-46, that I came to realise the peculiar interest attaching to the period of Dr. Wordsworth's headmastership. It is sufficient to point out that Dr. Arnold began his work at Rugby in the year 1828, and that Dr. Wordsworth became headmaster of Han*ow eight years later, in the year 1836. It may be truthfully said that Dr. Wordsworth's term of office at Harrow represented the transition period of the English Public School ; that it witnessed at once the old regime in full operation, and the first dawn of the revolution which has so largely transformed the public schools as places of education — a revolution the full force of which even now is by no means spent. I. The Decline in Numbers in Dr. Wordsworth's Time When Dr. Wordsworth left Harrow in December 1844, I was one of 69 boys at the school. And yet in the two previous years we had won both matches (Win- chester and Eton) at Lord's in succession. The grass ^ may have grown in the streets of Harrow during that period, but the grass certainly did not grow under our feet ; few as we were, we knew how to uphold the honour and the traditions of the school. It is popularly supposed that Dr. Wordsworth was responsible for this falling off in the numbers. In my opinion, that is a hasty assumption, based upon a superficial view. The school, in fact, had begun to go down in the first Dr. Butler's time. It had continued to flourish fairly until the year 1835 ; but then, at the close of Dr. Longley's time, the numbers had fallen to 165. The causes of the decline, not only at Harrow, but also at other schools,^ ^ " The grass grew in the streets of Harrow during this period " (Mr. A. Haygarth). 2 " The decline in numbers was almost coincident with that at Westminster, where, when Goodenough was master in 1821, 300 scholars still attended. But, falling in 1824 to 260, numbers gradually dwindled until, in 1831, there were 202 Westminsters, all told, and in 1841, only 67" (Westminster School, Past and Present, by F. H. Forshall, p. 113; quoted by Mr. Percy M. Thornton). Similarly, at Rugby, the numbers which in 1821 were (as at Westminster) 300, gradually dwindled until in 1827, the year of the appointment of Dr. Arnold, they had fallen to 123. 88 HARROW SCHOOL probably lay deeper. The country was waking up from the long -continued stagnation of the Napoleonic wars; it was in the throes of a great political, religious, and moral struggle. Not to speak of other things, the Tractarian Movement at Oxford was in progress; Arnold had only just been elected to Rugby ; ^ a period of change was imminent ; public opinion was calling for a higher standard of conduct, a higher moral tone ^ in the public schools ; and, at the same time, the supremacy of the ancient classical learning as the sole instrument of education was being called in question. During this period of expectancy, Harrow was, to say the least, not in strong hands, discipline had been relaxed, and the school had lost favour accordingly. This was the state of things in the country at large, and in the public schools, ^ At the close of 1827. The Rev. Augustus Hare, writing on 26th March 1828 to the mother of Arthur Stanley, says : " Are you aware that the person of all others fitted to get on with boys is just elected master of Rugby .^ His name is Arnold. He is a Wykehamist and Fellow of Oriel ... a man calculated, beyond all others, to engraft modern scholarship and modern improvements on the old-fashioned stem of a public education." And again, in a letter a few months later, he says : " When Arnold has been there (at Rugby) ten years, he will have made it a good school, perhaps in some respects the very best in the island ; but a transition state is always one of doubt and delicacy" {Biographical Sketches, by Augustus J. C. Hare, pp. 19, 21). In a letter from the late Master of Balliol to Dr. Greenhill, dated 28th June 1842, Mr. Jowett said : ''It is pleasing indeed to remember that he was the first person who really conducted a public school on Christian principles" {Life of B. Jowett, i. 109). 2 Cardinal Manning, who was at Harrow in the years 1822-26, gives the following account of the state of the school in his day : " We had a liberty almost as great as at Oxford, but it was the liberty of boys ; and therefore not less dangerous, though of a different kind. We were literally without religious guidance, or formation. The services in the church were for most of the boys worse than useless. The public religious instruction was reading Waller's Catechism on Sunday morning for an hour in school ; and in private, at Evans', we read Paley's Evidences, or Leslie on Deism. . . . Harrow was cei-tainly the least religious time of my life. . . . On Sunday mornings Butler used to walk up and down in the great school, and call upon us to read. I only remember one thing he once said, but it did me good ; that, when we were laughed at for religion, angels were rejoicing over us. I liked the classics. . . . We had to write Latin and English essays, and Latin and Greek verse. . . . Harrow was a pleasant place, but I look back on it with sadness " (Purcell's Life of Cardinal Manning, vol. i. p. 18). This accords with the description given by C. Merivale, afterwards Dean of Ely, who was at Harrow at the same time : " Our deficiency in religious, and even, it must be added, in moral, training may cause more painful reflection. When I first came to Harrow, the Fourth Form 'did' Greek Testament on a Sunday morning to the headmaster. . . . WTien however Mr. Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow, became one of the Governors, he was not satisfied with the imposition of a lesson on the holy day, and the Sunday Greek Testament was dropped. Nor can I affirm, from my own recollection, that its place was taken by any other religious teaching in any of the Forms throughout the week, except that Dr. Butler had the Sixth Form for half an hour on Sundays to read The Evidences in his library " (Thornton's Harrow, p. 242). To quote one other authority ; in a letter addressed to the author of the Life of Dr. Arnold, Dr. Moberly, then headmaster of Winchester, referring to this period says : " The tone of young men at the University, whether they came fi*om Winchester, Eton, Rugby, Harrow, or wherever else, was universally irreligious. A religious undergraduate was very rare, very much laughed at when he appeared, and, I think I may confidently say, hardly to be found among public-school men ; or, if this be too strongly said, hardly to be found except in cases where private and domestic training, or good dispositions, had prevailed over school habits and tendencies." DR. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH 89 when, in 1836, Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, with a great Cambridge reputation, senior classic and senior classical medallist, was elected headmaster of Harrow. Dr. Wordsworth was not a born disciplinarian ; he may have erred, as undoubtedly he did err, in his efforts to restore discipline. But his error was on the right side ; he was no respecter of persons, he did not shrink from alienating the support of influential people, and he did his best in a trying time, and under inherited diffi- culties. He felt that there was a great work, in the way of pulling up discipline, to be done, and an unpopular one ; and that it needed a certain force. In later life, he had been heard to say : " I could not have done what I had to do, if I had been an older man." In fact, there was a singular parallelism between the spirit in which he entered upon his duties, and that of a man so different as Dr. Arnold. Of the latter it is said — " He knew that his task was a difficult one, . . . but he resolved that, rather than be foiled in the accomplishment of the design he had in view, he would resort to the last, though disagreeable, expedient of freeing the school of such characters as were insensible to reason . . . and pernicious in their example, by means of the last resource — expulsion. For, as he himself said to the boys who were assembled to witness the public dismissal of some whom he felt obliged to send away, " It is not necessary that this should be a school of 300, or 100, or of 50 boys ; but it is necessary that it should be a school of Christian gentlemen." ^ It is commonly said, with the incuria veri, the araAaiTrajpia rrj? dXrjOeias (to use the expressions of two of the great historians of antiquity), which vitiates most accepted historical traditions, that Dr. Wordsworth let down Harrow, that he found the school prosperous, but left it a howling wilderness. In justice to him, the true facts must be stated. There was little or no discipline in the school when he came to Harrow. There were masters of the old type, who not only did not help, but actually thwarted him in his effbrts for reform ; and of some of the boys it is said by Mr. Torre, the contemporary head of the school : " When Dr. Wordsworth first came to Harrow, he found some very bad specimens of school- boys." 2 Besides this, he had not the wisdom of the serpent. He did not follow the rule of the old Greek drama, according to which all murders were done off the stage. Dr. Wordsworth did his murders openly, before the eyes of his audience. He sent boys away in the light of day, and in the sight of all men. Everybody knew about them, influential persons were aggrieved, and the word went round London society that Harrow was a lawless place, without discipline or morals, and consequently the school was boycotted. For, morally as well as physically, Han'ow is set upon a hill, and, as Harrow Church is, according to the saying of Charles II., the true visible Church, so everything that goes on at Harrow, whether for weal or for woe, but especially for woe, is visible to the London world. Even his best acts told against him. The Evangelical vicar of Harrow, Mr. Cunningham, was vehemently opposed to the building of the school chapel, — that best act of his headmastership, — and to the removal of the school from the Parish Church. It was put about that Dr. Wordsworth looked with favour upon the new opinions, upon the Tractarian Movement, that he was an adherent of the new High ^ Recollections of Rugby, by an old Rugbeian, 1848, p. 90. 2 Recollections of School-days at Harrow more than Fifty Years Ago, by the Rev. H. J. Torre, p. 126. 90 HARROAV SCHOOL Church party,^ and that he was intending to make the boys Papists. This lost the school the support of the Evangelical party at the very time when, owing to his strong assertion of the paramount claims of discipline, the support of the political and social world was also being lost. Thus the truer version of the facts would be, that Dr. Wordsworth was a moral reformer, not wise perhaps in his generation ; and that he met the fate which uni- versally attends all efforts after reform, all attempts at doing good. Dr. Words- worth planted, but another watered and gained the increase. At the first Harrow dinner which Dr. Vaughan attended, after his election in Dr. Wordsworth's place, he said : " I came to Harrow, expecting to find a desert, and I found a garden." II. Harrow in the Forties The Harrow of Dr. Wordsworth's time was a very different place from the Harrow of the present day. When I first went there in 1841, the London and North-Western Railway had not long been finished. There were two Speech-days in June and July. Until Dr. Longley's time there had been even a third, in May. The Governors would drive down in their carriages-and-four — viri amplissimi (in the stereotyped phrase of the Concio), in senses of the epithet which do not apply to their degenerate successors. In those days we played rackets in the school- yard, the Sixth Form against the school building, with the wall of the milling- ground at the back, the Fifth Form on the wall opposite the school steps, the Shell in the comer to the right. The Sixth and Fifth Form games, owing to their different local conditions, differed much in character. In the Sixth Form game, it was compulsory to serve on the big chimney, back -banders from Leith's wall being also compulsory, and a principal feature of the game ; but a return back-hander from the milling-ground wall was not compulsory, but optional. Some of the happiest hours of my school life were spent on the Sixth Form ground, playing with W. Nicholson, Soames, or Woodhouse, and Sam Hoare. Those were games indeed, and worthy of the gods. Coming to cricket, we played Winchester as well as Eton at Lord's, at the end of the summer quarter ; Winchester on the Wednesday and Thursday, Eton on the Friday and Saturday, of the first week of the holidays. The cricket then was very different from what it is now. I am not sure but that it was not then better managed. House matches did not exist, or at any rate were not allowed to interfere with the regular school games. Thus the interest in cricket was not dissipated ; it was the cricket of the whole school. Nowadays, as a friend has said to me, " Harrow has become a conglomeration of houses, instead of being Harrow." In those times, too, we played our games, so to speak, off' our own bats, managing the games ourselves, without the assistance of any master. In the choice of the Eleven, the captain consulted the Sixth Form club-keepers, consisting of himself and the head of the school, ex officio, and of two other elected members. If the ^ It is interesting to note that the first persons proposed by him as Examiners for the scholar- ships were the Rev. Hugh J. Rose and. the Rev. John Keble (Letter to the Governors^ dated 26th November 1836). HARROW IN THE FORTIES 91 head of the school were not a cricketer, he did not interfere. In my time, there were only three club-keepers, I being head of the Eleven as well as head of the school. Also, from my time forwards, the captain was largely guided by Frederick Ponsonby and Robert Grimston ; but they only advised, never dictated ; and no one else ever sought to influence the decision of the captain of the Eleven. So, being thrown upon ourselves, we learned responsibility, and its useful lessons. I speak with knowledge, for I was captain for two years, in 1845 and 1846. The discipline in the Sixth Form game then was very strict. No one was allowed to talk ; and, if a member of the Eleven had the misfortune to miss a catch, he apologised to the captain. In the first school match that I ever played on the Harrow ground, the year before I was in the Eleven, I Avas long-stop. The captain of the Eleven, W. Nicholson, kept wicket. I well remember that I would sooner have lost a finger than let a bye — such was my awe of the captain. And the result of all this — to use Mr. Nicholson"'s own words to me — was, that " never was there such strict cricket, never was there such good cricket, never did the boys enjoy cricket more." There was no Philathletic Field in my time. The old cricket-ground, the ground of Palmerston and Byron, sufficed for us. There were the Sixth and Fifth Form games as they now are, but in far ruggeder, rougher, and more unlevel form ; and the Shell game was played on the hillside above the Fifth Form game. In those days we took things as we found them, we made the best of them, and we were not the worse cricketers. Then the dress was so different. When we played the town — the best match of the quarter — several of the town Eleven, even on the hottest day, would appear in black cloth trousers and a flaming red plush waistcoat. In particular, I remember George Dixon and Ben Page, the latter of whom, at one of these matches, distinguished himself by coining an epithet worthy of Homer — " Bless me, if here isn't jaw-me-dead Crawley coming in,"" referring to an excellent cricketer, who was powerful with the tongue as well as with the bat. The dress of the Eleven was different. We wore a pink silk jersey, a survival no doubt from the old archery dress, such as may be seen in Romney's portrait of Sayer in the Vaughan Library, and a high top-hat. The Winchester Eleven used to wear high white, or rather yellowish, beaver hats. It seems wonderful now how we played on the hottest days in these hats. But so it was, and that it was the general custom then may be seen from engravings of cricket matches of the period. The scene at Lord's during the school matches was also very different. We began to play at eleven o'clock, and the stumps were not drawn until eight o'clock. When we played Winchester there would be only a moderate sprinkling of spec- tators on the ground. In the match with Eton, Lord's would be fairly filled, but there was ample opportunity for seeing and enjoying the cricket, and there was no let to the ball being hit to the sides of the ground. It was, in fact, a real cricket match, for cricket's sake, and not an overgrown, fashionable London picnic. Then, as now, success at games counted more than success in the school work. When a boy who was in the Eleven, or, it might be, captain of the Eleven, got 92 HARROW SCHOOL prizes, he was cheered in the Speech-room, not for the honour of the thing, not for the literary honour in the work of the school, but for the credit which incidentally accrued to cricket. Still games were not made the fetish that they now are ; and people then held by the old-fashioned opinion that school was primarily a place for work. Having thus spoken of the cricket, I pause to pay a passing tribute of warm affection to my early instructor in cricket, the dearly-loved friend of my youth, the friend of numberless generations of Harrow men, the late Lord Bessborough. He taught me to play cricket ; and I was the first, or one of the earliest, heads of the Eleven who had the benefit of his judgment in choosing my Elevens. In my distant day he was as assiduous in his attendance on the cricket-ground as he was up to the last. His name will ever remain associated with Harrow cricket. But, even above his great service to Harrow cricket, must be reckoned his priceless service to the school in its highest and deepest interests. He was one who, above all men, bore, quietly and unostentatiously, but most truly, " the grand old name of gentleman." He was one of Nature''s gentlemen, a truly, honest, simple, unassuming, but strong and self-respecting man. In his presence no word, no thought, of evil could have been spoken or entertained. His was one of those rare natures, at once most masculine, and most tender and lovable, powerful to attract, and equally powerful to exert an imdefinable, but unmistakable, influence over all who came under the charm of his presence. He is the first and only Harrovian in memory of whom a service has been held in the chapel of the school which he loved so well, a service attended by the boys and by the friends who mourn his loss, as the loss of a friend to Harrow, such as Harrow will never see again. I was first of all at Mrs. Leith's, now the vicarage, the last of the dames' houses, a house which was closed at the end of my first year. Nothing, perhaps illustrates more vividly the downward course of the school in Dr. Wordsworth's last years than my own experience as a boarder. WTien Mrs. Leith's house was closed, I went to the Grove. After my first year there, Mr. Steel also went away, and was succeeded by Mr. Shilleto the well-known Cambridge scholar.^ After a year, he also left Harrow, the Grove was shut up, and I found refuge for the last time at the Park. In fact, after this time there were only three boarding-houses, viz. the Park (Mr. Harris's), Mr. Oxenham's, and Drury's. And, as the numbers in the school were about 80-70, that would give an average of less than 30 for each house. At the present time the number of boarding-houses, large and small, is 18. This spectacle of dwindling numbers ^ and closed houses was a melancholy one for ^ After his return to Cambridge, Mr. Shilleto used to speak of '' the blessings of unity upon which Dr. Wordsworth dwelt, at a time when the school was reduced to number one." He has been described as " one of the greatest modern Grecians, who gave up to his pupils what was meant for the world of letters, and left few published proofs of his remarkable attainments." ^ "Only 15 boys came to Harrow during football quarter in 1841 ; only 11 during racket quarter, 1842 ; only 5 during cricket quarter, 1842 ; only 10 during football quarter, 1842 ; only 3 during football quarter, 184.3; and only 3 during cricket quarter, 1843" (Mr. A. Haygarth, quoted by Mr. Thornton, Harrow School, p. 283 note). In fact, during the eight years of Dr. Wordsworth's headmastership only 287 boys were entered. Compare with this the fact that 4200 boys were entered during the headmastership of Dr. Montagu Butler. HARROW IN THE FORTIES 95 all connected with HaiTow at that time. But we boys never despaired of our commonwealth. " Old Harry " Drury died in my first quarter, a Harrow master of the old regime par excellence, and a connecting-link with Byron and Peel, with Aberdeen and Palmerston.^ The school chapel had then recently been built, an erection in the most debased style of architecture, a plain, hideous, red -brick building, something between a conventicle and a racket-court. Our seats sloped upwards from the east end. The present chapel was gradually evolved out of this primitive structure. At that time we went to the parish church in the morning, the vicar reserving the right of preaching once a quarter in the school chapel. The services at the church were purely formal. Mr. Cunningham preached long sermons of the good old-fashioned evangelical type. They may have been very good, but we boys in our gallery at the west end could not hear a word that he said. Dr. Wordsworth whiled away the time by reading his Bible in German, the rest of us as best we might. It is a curious fact, and illustrative of the dreamy, unpractical drift of Dr. Wordsworth's mind, that in the first sermon preached by him (29th September 1839) in the newly-consecrated school chapel, he used these words : " Let me, once for all, observe that, while we resort to this chapel, we do not, and I trust we never shall, forsake our parish church. On the Sunday morning we shall assemble there, in the afternoon here. Here, we are a congregation in ourselves ; there, we shall be a part of the parochial congregation. ... I need scarcely remind any one here present that the influences of a parish church, such as those which arise from the very nature of the place . . . from the venerable antiquity of the building, from the authoritative character of the minister . . . are too precious to be lost. Distant, far distant, be the day when we may be deprived of them ! And may it ever be one of the uses of this chapel, and one of the strongest desires of those who minister within its walls, to strengthen the attachment and reverence due from us all to the parish church ! " ^ There was then no headmaster''s boarding-house.^ None of the newer buildings then existed. The property of the school about the hill was limited in extent, and very different from what it has now become, owing to the munificence of successive old Harrovians, collectively and individually. The monitor's library was a small room on the first floor of the school, now used as a Form room. The Debating Society, which first met in the monitor's library, a select body of some five boys, did not come into existence before 1845, when the first motion proposed by myself, as head of the school, was : " That there is reason to believe in the existence of second sight.*" Even Duck -puddle (we called places then by their names, and not by the fantastic abbreviations which now prevail) had only recently (1836) come into use ; not the spacious expanse of limpid water which now gladdens the eye, but a confined pond of stagnant fluid, standing upon a bed of deep soft ooze, much frequented by water-snakes. There, however, we bathed, as well as in the " cut," ^ Mr. H. Drury became a Hari'ow master in 1800. ^ Sermons preached at Harrow School, 1841, p. 12. ^ In 1838 the headmaster's house had been burnt down. 96 HARROW SCHOOL as the canal was called. The old Speech-room, which was in use in my time, had not long been built. ^ The Crown and Anchor, a public-house next to the schoolyard, was then in full swing, kept by one Bliss. This inn was pulled down many years ago, and the site is now the property of the school. The Crown and Anchor, though so near, perhaps because so near, the school, was never in my time a nuisance in the way of drink. It was the custom, whenever a fight was on in the milling-ground, for two pots of water and a lemon to be procured from this public-house. By a rule of the school, fights always took place in public. This was a wholesome rule, ensuring impartiality and fair -play, which might have been jeopardised in the partial atmosphere of a boys' house. Perhaps the greatest change has taken place in the space opposite the school, between the headmaster's house and the site of the chapel. What is now a lawn, in front of the Vaughan Library, was occupied by two shops, kept by Rowe, a saddler, and Foster, a baker, which were bounded by a narrow road or lane leading down to Angelo's fencing-room^ — formerly Webb's dancing-room — in which the speeches were delivered previous to the erection, in 1819, of the old Speech- room. Half-way down that road was the entrance to Bliss's stables ; while on the other side of the same road was an old cottage occupied by old Gustos, the father of Sam Hoare, and reaching to the site of the present chapel. The head- master's stable was beyond the pond, now filled up, where Mr. Bushell's house now stands. The principal tuck-shops frequented by the boys were those kept by Mrs. Parsons, on the right (before coming to Woodbridge's) of the street leading down to the cricket-ground; Jim Winkley's, next the Crown and Anchor; and Mrs. Winkley's, just beyond the King's Head. But Mrs. Parsons' was the shop at which we sat down for breakfast or dinner. The bookseller ^ was Mrs. Baker. She also kept the post-office, and her shop was immediately opposite the headmaster's house. By a curious tradition, a shop on the left, nearly opposite Mrs. Parsons', but higher up, which had been put out of bounds (for cheating) in 1838, was never entered by the boys during the whole of my time at Harrow. The room in the school under the Fourth Form room was appropriated then, as now, to the school Custos, Sam Hoare, who succeeded his father in the same office during my time. By another curious tradition of my time, an unwritten law of the school pro- scribed the use of an umbrella, a greatcoat, or spectacles. No boy ever carried the one, or wore the others. Once, when a boy was carrying an umbrella, old Harry Drury took it away from him. You might not answer your name at a bill in a 1 Francis Trench, who with his brother, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, was at Harrow, writing to his mother in June 1820, says : " The new Speech-room is nearly finished, and looks very well." 2 In 1787 counsel's opinion was taken and given in the favour of the ownership by the Governors of the school dancing-room, erected by Anthony Tassoni on an orchard in Harrow belonging to the Governors {Records of Harrow School, by E. J. L. Scott, p. 122). 3 It was not until Dr. Vaughan's time that there was a bookseller to the school. HARROW IN THE FORTIES 97 greatcoat. " Go away, and put that disgraceful garment off," was once said to a boy on such an occasion by " Billy " Oxenham. In my time the monitors, ten in number, took it in turn to act as Sixth Form monitor. The office lasted for one week, and the monitor was excused all lessons ; in return for which concession he was expected to do a copy of Greek iambics. The intention of the custom was to allow time to the senior boys for their own reading. Then, also, Tuesday was a whole holiday, and Thursday and Saturday were half- holidays. At the end of the racket quarter, on the last Saturday, the election of club- keepers for the several games in the ensuing cricket quarter took place. The whole school assembled in the Fourth Form room, the head of the Eleven taking up his post in front of the desk. The boys came up in turn to vote. It was a regular satur- nalia, a fearful squash taking place as each boy came down from voting, his own side supporting him, but any personal unpopularity telling against him. In a letter, dated March or April 1847, the year after I had left, the following account of Squash-day, as it was always called, is given by Augustus J. C. Hare : " To-day was Election-day, commonly called Squash-day (oh, how glad I am it is over), the day most dreaded of all others by the little boys, when they get squashed black and blue, and almost turned inside out. But you won't understand this, so I will tell you. Piatt, horrid Piatt [head of the Eleven], stands at one side of Vaughan's desk in school and Hewlett at the other, and reads the names. As they are read, you go up and say who you vote for as cricket-keeper [club-keeper] ; and as you came out, the party you vote against squash you, while your party try to rescue you. Sometimes this lasts a whole hour (without exaggeration, it's no fun)." There was another form of saturnalia in those days. On the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes' Day, the whole school were privileged, according to an old custom, to let off fireworks in the evening on the cricket-ground. This practice was abolished by Dr. Vaughan in his first year (1845), a supper given to the monitors by the headmaster being substituted for it. The school-books which were in use were apparently much the same as those which were used in 1800, when Harry Drury first became a Han-ow master. The list of scholarships and prizes, in a Prolu^iones of my time, is a mere skeleton, as compared with those of the present day. At present there are fourteen scholar- ships and thirty-four prizes. But in 1844, when Dr. Wordsworth left Harrow, there were but four scholarships, viz. the Lyon, Sayer, Neeld, and Gregory ; and but five prizes, viz. the three Governors' Prizes for Greek iambics, Latin lyrics, and hexameters, the Peel Medal, and the Beresford-Hope Prize. The list of books given to the monitors' library, as appears from the Prolu^iones of 1846, is extremely meagre and limited in range. They relate almost exclusively to theology and ,classics, the exceptions being Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors and Arnold's History of Rome. And the books which formed the library were not inviting.^ Hope's AnastaMus was one of the few readable books at that time. 1 Francis Trench, in a letter to his mother in 1821, says : '' I have been there [in the library] a H 98 HARROW SCHOOL Even the number ^ of the then existing public schools, and the numbers at each of these schools, were in striking contrast to the schools and numbers of the present day. For instance, in 1844, the numbers at Eton were only 745. Mathematics were scarcely recognised ^ in the school curriculum. Among the papers and records now deposited in the Vaughan Library will be found a corre- spondence between Dr. Wordsworth and the Governors, soon after Dr. Wordsworth's accession to the headmastership, in which he memorialises the Governors for leave to make mathematics a substantive part of the school course.^ This strange fact at Harrow is corroborated by the equally strange fact that at Eton, a few years later, a distinguished banker and financier, now living, was never taught a single sum in arithmetic. The introduction of mathematics at Harrow was, indeed, looked upon with disfavour at Oxford. It was regarded as an innovation, and caused the school to be less popular in the University; the universities at that time being (according to a saying of Mr. Bright) places given over to the dead languages and to undying prejudices. Of science it must be said that in my time, both at the public schools and at the universities, it was a thing unknown. It is sad to look back and think how much valuable time, which might have been given to science, to history, to geography, to modern languages, in fact, to the cultivation of the faculties of an ordinarily educated man, was wasted upon the inanities of Latin verse composition. Mr. Augustus Hare, who went to Harrow in 1847, says : * " I may truly say that I never learnt anything useful at Harrow, and had little chance of learning anything. good while to-day, reading Clarke's Travels in Europe, etc. , and copying some prints of Roman ruins. I have also finished reading and taking some notes of Kenneth's Roman Antiquities, and have begun Potter's Grecian Antiquities in the same manner." ^ Cheltenham was founded in 1841, Marlborough in 1843, Rossall in 1844, Wellington in 1853. Mr. Nicholson informs me that, when in 1837 his brother went to Rugby, one coach sufficed, and more than sufficed, to take down all Rugby boys starting from London. ^ C. Merivale, Dean of Ely, says : " We were wholly prescientific ; mathematics were limited to a book of Euclid lightly glanced at by the Sixth Form once a week ; arithmetic, like writing, was taken for granted ; algebra was unknown " (Thornton's Harrow, p. 242). From a scheme of work, dated about the year 1839, it appears that at Sedbergh Grammar School "history, geography, English literature, and modern languages were not much accounted of" ^ Copy of Governors' Minutes, relating to the appointment of a mathematical master : — " May 8, 1837. This meeting has been convened for the purpose of taking into consideration a Letter addressed by Mr. Wordsworth to the Governors, referring to the expediency of appointing a mathematical master of greater attainments as an assistant master in the school, with a view of introducing mathematics as an essential part of the school education. "The Letters having been read, the Governors approved of the suggestion made by Mr. Wordsworth, and assented to the nomination of a master as proposed ; the Governors recom- mending that such a master should not receive boarders, nor take private pupils, which Mr. Young was directed to communicate to Mr. Wordsworth, and to enter his letter in the Minute- book of the Governors." The mathematical master thereupon appointed was Mr. Colenso, afterwards Bishop of Natal. He also acted as house-master in Dr. Wordsworth's house, until it was burned down ; Dr. Wordsworth holding the opinion (and wisely) that a headmaster ought not to have imposed upon him the burden and care of a boarding-house. * The Story of my Life, i. 242. DISCIPLINE AT HARROW IN THE FORTIES 99 Hours and hours were wasted daily on useless Latin verses with sickening monotony. A boy's school education at this time, except in the highest Forms, was hopelessly inane." Music again, which now occupies so prominent a place at Harrow, was then absolutely unknown. Dr. Wordsworth wished to introduce into the school chapel the practice of singing the hymns. One evening it was known throughout the school that the Fourth Form (a body of about twelve or fifteen boys) was to sing, led by Mrs. Wordsworth, whose seat was in a far corner of the gallery. In a tremulous voice Mrs. Wordsworth began one of Tate and Brady's Psalms,^ when all the rest of the school turned right about face to watch the Fourth Form. I can recall this scene vividly. It illustrates something more than the musical destitution of the school, for it illustrates not only our irreverent ways, but (what is more to the point) the earnest endeavour of a good man to make the services of the school chapel what they ought to be, what, in fact, they have since become. Another scene in the school chapel I remember ; indeed, I can never forget it. One Sunday evening Dr. Wordsworth, walking to his seat, said a few words to the school about the importance of a reverent saying of prayer before we took our seats; and then and there, where he stood, he knelt down and prayed. People may misunderstand Dr. Wordsworth if they will, but those who were under him will bear their testimony to his transparent goodness, the influence which goodness always exerts even upon the lawless. " When," Mr. Torre says,^ " Dr. Wordsworth first came as successor to Dr. Longley, I well remember his saying in his address to the boys : ' It will be my earnest endeavour to make you all, first. Christians ; secondly, gentlemen ; and thirdly, scholars.' " III. The State of Discipline at Harrow then It would be disingenuous, and, indeed, unveracious, if I were to omit all account of the state of manners and discipline at Harrow in that day. If, however, as was wittily said by Mr. Goldwin Smith, " the government of Harrow at that time was government in the form of a moderate anarchy," it must be remarked that the public schools of that day were, more or less, a mirror ^ of the prevalent state ot English society ; and also that the great educational reform of Dr. Arnold was only ^ Another mark of the times ; we had not then any hymn-book. '^ Recollections of School-days at Harrow more than Fifty Years Ago, p. 126. By a curious coincidence, in a similar book, published in 1848, called Recollections of Rugby, the writer, an old Rugbeian, says of Dr. Arnold : " How great, then, was the surprise of the boys when they were told by their new master that what had been hitherto considered of paramount importance was not so in reality, but that he looked for — ' first, religious and moral principles ; secondly, gentleman-like conduct ; and thirdly, intellectual ability. ' " 2 It was part of the current language of the day to describe public schools as " the seats and nurseries of vice. " The late Dean of Ely (Charles Merivale), who was at Harrow during the twenties, says : " Let me contend, however, for the undoubted fact that the low state of feeling at Harrow in my time was shared by the public schools generally throughout the land. Even the powerful, though fretful, pleading of Cowper's Tirocinium had done little to amend it ; and it corresponded only too faithfully with the feelings of the parents who were content to submit their children to it " (Thornton's Harrow School, p. 243). 100 HARROW SCHOOL then beginning to transform the English public school. In any case, we, the survivors of that prehistoric age, are to a certain extent witnesses, either to the fact that things cannot have been so very bad, or, at any rate, that we have emerged much the same as other reputable people — which, by the way, is a curious fact in the history of education. I could tell many tales of the Harrow of my time, things which (as Herodotus would say) ovx oo-lov Aeyetv. I content myself, however, with the narration of a few, which will throw light upon the general state of discipline and manners in the school. The great event of my first quarter was the " licking " of the head of our house, a Sixth Form boy and a monitor, who had made himself extremely obnoxious by abusing his powers. He was the only Sixth Form boy in the house ; and leave to "lick" him was formally sought and obtained from the other monitors, through Tom Conolly, one of the monitors up at the Grove. My own function, as a newly- arrived fag, was (like that of Colonel Gooch at Hougoumont) to hold the play -room door (the room appropriated to the Sixth Form) from the inside, when the head of the house should make a bolt for it. The "licking"" duly took place one evening, in the yard outside the play-room. I held the latch of the door within an inch of my life, knowing full well the consequences of letting go. Dr. Wordsworth appeared later on the scene, and the obnoxious head of the house left at the end of the quarter. About that same time, one whole school day, we locked out the masters by filling up the lock of the outside door of the school, so that they could not get into the school building. There was in the Sixth Form with me a monitor, a good scholar, but a scape- grace, and always getting into scrapes. One day he was playing the fool in the Sixth Form room, and was told by Dr. Wordsworth to stand up in a comer. Presently he attracted our attention, and there we beheld him with his hands to his sides and his body bent, as if in a spasm of sickness, emitting from his mouth a stream of torn-up paper. We all laughed. Dr. Wordsworth, half-amused, half- angry, with a characteristic toss of his head, rebuked him, and told him to quote something to show his folly. Equal to the occasion, the delinquent at once said, " dulce est desipere in loco."" Among the pranks played was the enticing down from London of some credulous young man by means of answering a matrimonial advertisement. The " lady *" in question was once a boy who has since become a Cabinet Minister. " She," dressed in woman''s clothes, gave the rendezvotis in the London Road ; and when the unfortunate suitor appeared, he was pelted with rotten eggs by a number of boys in ambush behind the hedge. On one of these occasions, a boy named Surtees being the lady, the gay Lothario took refuge, and was besieged, in a neighbouring farmhouse. It was only upon Dr. Wordsworth appearing, and setting him on his way to the station, himself standing in the middle of the road and forbidding the boys to follow, that the unfortunate dupe could make his escape. We were extremely expert at stone-throwing. No dog could live in the street. When Armstrong, the baker, came up the town, his dog would meet him at the top, having gone round by the church fields. Standing at the school gates, whilst DISCIPLINE AT HARROW IN THE FORTIES ' -* ^ '- : 101 waiting to answer our names at a bill, we could almost unerringly Kit th»^ ball: «t th^ top of the chapel. Day once, with a stone, struck the pipe out of Billy Warner's mouth, at a distance of about twenty yards. He could also throw over the church steeple.^ In my last summer quarter (1846) we completely destroyed every single tile on a shed adjoining the road, on our way down to the cricket-ground. In the summer quarter it was not unusual for a party of boys to go up to Lord's on a whole holiday for a great cricket match, " cutting " four bills, others answering for them. One Tuesday, when I was one of such a party, " Billy " Oxenham appeared at the railway station, and we all had to beat an ignominious retreat. As an instance of the strange differences of things in those days, I remember once being allowed to travel up to London on the top, outside, of one of the railway carriages. But in those early days of railway travelling the luggage, if I remember right, was carried on the tops of the caiTiages, as had been the case on the coaches. 2 In those days " Billy Warner " was the recognised " cad " of the school. He always wore a red coat, with an unfailing clay-pipe in his mouth. He made it a point of honour to get drunk at Lord's on the first day of the school matches, and fight Picky Powell, the corresponding Eton champion. A very different person, and one deservedly respected throughout the school, was Dick Chad, nicknamed " Old Pipes," the keeper of the cricket-ground. I can see him still, with no coat on, but only his jacket, in drab knee-breeches and white stockings, leaning upon his stick, considerably bent, and looking, like Lord Thurlow, very grave and very wise. One day, when the present Master of Trinity was in the school Eleven, he propounded to Chad some knotty question about cricket Chad's answer, slowly and oracularly given, was as follows : " Well, Mr. Butler, if you ask my opinion upon this question, I should say that, in my opinion, sir, it was not only doubtful, but doobious." Once, in 1845, when he was being chaffed at Lord's by the Eton representative, forgetting his " doobious " attitude, he said, " All I know is we've two gentlemen, whom I will back to get 100 runs between them." In point of ^ It would seem that stone-throwing was an old tradition of the school. Francis Trench, in 1824, writes : " People say we are always throwing stones, and some one has put this in print. . . . You may tell them that our fellows do it a little more than they ought from their ardent love of Homer, who is always talking of his heroes heaving the xf/'M'iStoj', or millstone, at one another " {A Few Notes from Past Life, 1818-32, by the Rev. Francis Trench). 2 Shortly before I went to Harrow a poor man named Port had been run over by a train near the Harrow Station. Every Harrow man will remember the epitaph on his tomb in Harrow churchyard. " Bright rose the morn, and vig'rous rose poor Port, Gay on the train he used his wonted sport. Ere noon arrived, his mangled form they bore. With pain distorted and o'erwhelmed with gore, WTien evening came to close the fatal day, A mutilated corpse the suflFerer lay." 1 am ashamed to confess that these dolorous lines were sung as a comic song in my time. Such is the topsy-turvydom of youth and spirits ! 10'^ :;"'"' HARROW SCHOOL Ifa^t, %Ke t-wb'fn ^juestion got 101 runs between them in the second innings of the Winchester match ; and when the head of the Eleven was got out, with a score of 75 to his own bat, leaving some 15 runs to be got, with five wickets to go down, the remaining inins were not got, and the match was lost. Such was the difficulty of playing with a brand new Eleven, consisting mainly of very young boys. About the same time, the story goes that, when fielding out on a hot afternoon in one of the school matches at Lord's, the nose of one of these young cricketers began to bleed ; that, between the overs, his anxious mother besought the captain of the Eleven to allow her son to retire for a while ; and that she was met with the brutal answer, " Not a Harrow boy shall leave the ground, so long as he has a drop of blood left in his veins.'' Of this story it may be said, se non e vero, e hen trovato. I feel that an apology is due for the intrusion of these somewhat questionable re- miniscences of a bygone past. But I know not how otherwise to bring home to present Harrovians, or explain the fact, that, when Dr. Vaughan stood as a candidate for the headmastership, and asked for a testimonial from Bishop Turton (then Dean of Peterborough), he was warned by him not to throw himself away at Harrow. These recitals of the state of things in the school at that time go towards explaining that fact. They also explain the notable advice which, as I shall presently show, was given to Dr. Vaughan on his appointment by the then Vicar of Harrow. Before I pass on, it may be well for me to say a word about the monitorial system ^ in my time. The Harrow monitor differed essentially from the Rugby praepostor in this respect, that at Harrow the boys' jurisdiction was entirely separate from that of the masters. A Harrow monitor has nothing primarily to do with morals ; that is the affair of the masters. Still less does he report to the masters, or set lines as a punishment. The Han-ow monitor interferes only in boys' matters, — in a case of bullying, or in the case of anything disgraceful being done, or in enforcement of the rules of the school as to attendance at cricket and football, or, generally, in upholding the customs and good credit of the school. That, at least, was the rule in my time ; and I have no reason to suppose that there has been any change since then. The head of the school might conceivably, in a doubtful case, in a case lying on the border-line of jurisdiction, consult the headmaster ; but he would make it a point of honour (unless the case proved to be one for the headmaster to deal with) not to mention any name, and the headmaster would respect his reticence. I am anxious to say this, because I alone can speak of the monitorial system as I found it, and as I, as head of the school, somewhat enlarged it. It was invested in my time with somewhat of a more moral tone ; with that, but only that. It was no longer a mere oligarchy of the ten highest boys. It became (especially in the person of the head of the school) a paternal despotism based upon moral responsibility. In a letter to Lord Palmerston, dated 1853, Dr. Vaughan thus lays down his conception of the monitorial system at Harrow : " I have taught the monitors to regard their authority as emanating indeed from mine, and responsible to ^ In Trollope's (the first Dr. Butler's) time fagging was not legalised, hence bullying pre- vailed. The monitorial system seems to have been introduced from Winchester, through Eton. Probably this change was brought about in Longley's time (an Eton man) and ^Vordsworth's (Winchester). The Rugby system was never imported into Harrow. ESTIMATE OF DR. WORDSWORTH'S HEADMASTERSHIP 103 mine, but yet (with the limitation naturally arising from these two considerations) independent and free in its ordinary exercise. They are charged with the enforce- ment of an internal discipline, the object of which is the good order, the honourable conduct, the gentleman-like tone of the houses and of the school. In these matters I desire that they should act for themselves. ... It is only on the discovery of grave and moral offences, such as would be poisonous to the whole society, and such as they may reasonably be expected to regard as discreditable and disgraceful even more than they are illegal, that I expect them to communicate to me officially the faults of which they may take notice." There was one characteristic observance introduced by Dr. Wordsworth, in connection with the monitorial office. When a Sixth Form boy first became a monitor, he was solemnly invested with a key of the monitors' library, as a badge of office, in the school chapel. Standing up at his desk in the north-east corner of the chapel. Dr. Wordsworth would hold out a common-looking door-key, and say in a grand, sonorous tone, " Sis tu Monitor Scholae Harroviensis.'" It was thus that he sought to invest the office with the attributes of a higher moral responsibility. IV. Estimate of Dr. Wordsworth's Headmastership Dr. Wordsworth did not succeed at Harrow, but he made success possible. If another planted and watered, he at least prepared and made ready the ground. Else how was it that, when Dr. Vaughan, on his election in December 1844, was advised by the then vicar, a Governor of the school, to expel the whole school, and to take the boys back again on his own conditions (a preposterous suggestion which Dr. Vaughan wisely scouted), he found in Dr. Wordsworth's Sixth Form the instru- ments to hand for the reorganisation of the school ? Mr. Torre, whom I have already quoted, who had stood in the same position as head of the school, with regard to Dr. Longley and Dr. Wordsworth, as that which I myself held with regard to Dr. Wordsworth and Dr. Vaughan, says in his Recollections : ^ " When Dr. Wordsworth first came to Harrow, he found some very bad specimens of school- boys ; but he rapidly improved the tone of those in the upper Forms, who became better and more truthful under his influence and management." His great achievement was the building of a chapel for the use of the school. The accommodation in the parish church provided for the school, he told the Governors, was of such a nature as " to render the maintenance of a devotional and reverent behaviour in the boys, when assembled there for divine service, a matter of great difficulty. The sittings in question are of such a kind as to encourage list- lessness and inattention, both by their structure and local arrangements. In some of them the boys can neither see, nor be seen ; and in none have they the power of kneeling during the prayers." Accordingly, in November 1836, that is to say, in his second quarter, he memorialised 2 the Governors for leave to erect a chapel, for the reasons subsequently set forth, such as — 1 Page 127. 2 The correspondence and facts above epitomised will be found among the records in the Muniment room. 104 HARROW SCHOOL "That the erection of a chapel would be a formal recognition of religious instruction as part of the school system ; " That it was highly advisable that the headmaster should take some part in the religious teaching of the school ; " That a chapel would give the headmaster an opportunity of directly addressing the boys collectively, and of giving preparation for confirmation : the experiment having been tried at Winchester and Rugby with great success ; " That the vicar should occasionally be asked to officiate."" The first stone of the chapel was laid on Wednesday, the 4th of July 1838, being the second Speech-day, by the Earl of Aberdeen, the inscription on the foundation-stone being as follows : — LAPIDEM AUSPICALEM STATUIT GEORGIUS COMES DE ABERDEEN IV NON. aUINTIL. A. S. CIOIOCCCXXXVITI FUSIS CIRCUMSTANTIUM PRECIBUS AD DEUM OPTIMUM MAXIMUM UTI COEPTA PROSPERARET SACELLI SCHOLAE HARROVIENSIS PIETATI FOVENDAE DESTINATI. Dr. Wordsworth was a man of good presence, with a striking head, and hand- some, intellectual features. He always wore a velvet academical cap and a silk gown. This was due not so much to vanity, or care for personal appearance, as to a certain grand, or grandiose, element in his character. He was a man of noble disposition, open, and utterly unselfish, liberal, or rather munificent, in money matters, and that at a time when, financially, HaiTow must have been a losing concern. He was not popular, — it is better perhaps for a headmaster not to be popular, — but when we got into the Sixth Form, and came under his personal influence, there was a certain charm, a certain distinction about him, — we respected and liked him, some of us much. The Bishop of Salisbury has told me that, writing just after his father"'s death. Dean Blakesley used some such words as these : " The three most magnanimous men I have known were your father, your grandfather, and his brother the poet."" His handwriting was peculiar — cursive, flowing, large ; characteristic of the man, but unlike that which we usually associate with the scholar. He sympathised with the boys in their games ; for he himself, when a boy at Winchester, had played in the school Eleven. In fact, he in the Winchester Eleven played against his brother Charles, afterwards Bishop of St. Andrews, in the Harrow Eleven. And the two brothers in after-life changed places. Christopher became headmaster of Harrow, Charles became under-master at Winchester. Dr. Christopher Words- worth, moreover, was a very fine skater, and was always ready to teach any boy to skate. He was a scholar and an ecclesiastic, but not a schoolmaster. Indeed, he was m ^ CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HEADMASTER 1836- !8 44 ESTIMATE OF DR. WORDSWORTH'S HEADMASTERSHIP 105 less a clergyman than an imperious Churchman. Nature never intended him to do the work of an Arnold. His sympathies were elsewhere, and he was impatient of the drudgery incident to the office of a schoolmaster. But, though a born ecclesi- astic, he was a man with wide and human sympathies. Had he lived in the days of Queen Mary, he would probably have had the will to burn a heretic, but the man within him would have restrained his hand from applying the torch. He once preached to us in the school chapel from a Greek text. His last sermon at Harrow rang the changes on o-w/^ia and 7rTa)//,a, the melancholy cadences of his voice rising and falling in harmony with the gloom of the winter evening. It cannot be said that his school sermons appealed powerfully to the boys, as did the preaching of Dr. Vaughan and his successors. But there was an indescribable tone of good- ness about them ; the man himself was transparently ^ a good man, and we forgot the preacher in the man. Shortly after leaving Harrow, Dr. Wordsworth, then a Canon of Westminster, was preaching in the Abbey. There was a considerable crowd. A schoolfellow of mine, J. D. Piatt, who could not get a seat, asked a verger how it was that there was such a crowd. " Dr. Wordsworth, sir, a-giving it to the Pope, sir, a-giving it to the Pope,"" was the answer. On a later occasion, he was preaching to a small rustic congregation at Rydal. He had been expatiating, as his manner was, on the beauties of Girgenti. He wound up an impassioned discourse with the words : " And so we may say that all Nature is one palimpsest, upon which are seen written the works of God.''"' In later years, in company with the late Dean Burgon — a kindred spirit, equally guileless and unpractical, with affections equally set upon the seventeenth rather than the nineteenth century — one day, from the top of the Radcliffe Library, he gazed down upon Oxford lying beneath him, and gave way to a lamentation upon the degeneracy of the times, which had then recently witnessed the abolition of the State Services in the Prayer-book. These things are on the lighter side. I would fain, however, give expression to the graver and deeper characteristics of his preaching. Here and there his sermons show a wealth of classical illustration, a breadth of scholarship, a reach of kindling eloquence, which in my judgment exceed anything that has been attained to even by any of the distinguished preachers who have been his successors in the chapel pulpit. The sermons, indeed, present a striking contrast to those of Dr. Arnold. The latter are interpenetrated with the modern spirit. Dr. Wordsworth breathes the atmosphere of the Council of Nicaea. His ideal for Harrow boys, for young Englishmen pulsating with the life, the hopes, the dreams, the errors of the nine- teenth century, is the catechetical school of Alexandria. But although his atmo- sphere was at times the grey, cold, limited atmosphere of the early Fathers, the horizon every now and then would be lighted up by the glowing rays of the sun of literature and scholarship. A perusal of his sermons leaves upon the mind the ineffaceable impression of a scholar, living in the world, but not of the world, of a truly simple, high-minded, good man. As in theology he was a theologian of the old school, so in classics he was a 1 AtaXd/iTet, rb xaXiv (Aristotle, Ethics). 106 HARROW SCHOOL scholar of the old school, as a list of his published works, classical and theological, will show. Two of his works well illustrate the two sides of his character, his Greece : Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical, published in 1839, a book which, in 1868, reached a fifth edition, and has been edited afresh in 1882 ; and his Theophilus Anglicanus : Instructions for the Young Student concerning the Church, published in 1844, a remarkably useful book, as it has been described, especially in its notes, which, in 1869, reached a tenth edition. The former book is an admirable work, and ought to be in the hands of every one travelling or interested in Greece. It is dedicated to George, Earl of Aberdeen, afterwards Prime Minister, one of the then Governors of the school ; and in the dedication its author states, that the work was written with the hope of cherishing love for the arts, antiquities, and geography of Greece in the school of which Lord Aberdeen was a Governor. Of this book its latest editor, Mr. Tozer, speaks with great respect. He speaks of the authority which it has assumed " with regard both to places which Dr. Words- worth explored, and to views on classical subjects which he advocated. A striking instance of the latter point,"" he says, " is to be found in his remarks on the site of Dodona, which he, almost alone among topogi-aphers, assigned to the locality in which, within a few years from the present time, that place has been discovered by excavation." He was thus a fine scholar, but more of the Oxford than the Cambridge type. Moreover, to the few of us who were capable of appreciating him, he was an inspir- ing teacher. In the Sixth Form, when we were doing Aristophanes, he would read out to us, with genuine relish and entire abandon, long passages from Hookham Frere's translation. I remember to this day the glee with which he devoured a splendid piece of Greek composition in the form of a chorus, which had been done for him by Percy Smythe, afterwards Viscount Strangford, one of the most distin- guished scholars (in the wider sense of the term), not only of Harrow, but of this or the last generation.^ Thus he was an enthusiast, with the strength and with the weaknesses which go along with that temperament. Therefore, to judge him by his success as a school- master, is to apply a wrong standard of judgment. In the wider and more congenial sphere of a Bishop of the Church, he was more in his element ; and, as I personally have reason to know, when, as Member for Grantham, I was visiting him at Riseholm, recognised by him as, in a sense, officially connected with his diocese, I had not to learn that profound diffisrences of opinion, political and theological, were no bar to the renewal, in fullest ties of sympathy, of the old relation of master and pupil, of friend and friend, of man and man. It was in 1844, Dr. Wordsworth"'s last year at Harrow, that Stanley's Life of Arnold was published. It is within my own knowledge — for I was immediately afterwards, in the first two years of Dr. Vaughan"'s mastership, head of the school ^ I suppose that, as Henry Smith was by far the most distinguished man at Balliol College, or (which is the same thing) at Oxford, in my time and since, so in the same period Percy Smythe was the most distinguished Harrovian. He has been recently described as being " one of the most accomplished of modern publicists, a consummate linguist, and a master of the Eastern Question in all its aspects" {Times, fSOth December 1897). ESTIMATE OF DR. WORDSWORTH'S HEADMASTERSHIP 107 — that Dr. Wordsworth's Sixth Form at once fell in with the spirit of that book, that we recognised the necessity for a change, and that, whilst jealously maintaining the distinctive character of the Harrow monitorial system, to which we were firmly attached, we gave his successor willing and ready help in carrying into effect at Harrow the spirit of Arnold's teaching. The machinery, in fact, was there in working order. All that was wanted was the practical hand to set it going. It is a curious fact that the moral reformation of the school, which had been begun in Dr. Wordsworth's time, was carried on by Dr. Vaughan, with the ready co-operation of two or three of Dr. Wordsworth's monitors, of whom I wish particularly to name the late Edward Harman (formerly Rector of Pickwell, Oak- ham) ; the late Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, " one of the keenest wits and shrewdest tongues and pens of his own generation " ; and Robert A. Darwin, a relative, I believe, of the great naturalist ; himself a boy of uncommon parts and marked character, who gained the first prize at Harrow for English verse (subject, Ignatius Loyola) — a poem first in order of time, and probably still first in literary power — and died prematurely the year after he left the school. This great reform, of unspeakable importance to Harrow School, was brought about thus simply and easily, and without — as far as I can recollect — any other contributing influence. It was also brought about at once. The change came, as vegetation in the tropics springs up after rain. Probably this single fact, of a long bygone day, is the best and most striking testimony to Dr. Wordsworth's real worth and personal influence. Let it also be remembered, to Dr. Wordsworth's credit, that it was he who, in those almost antediluvian, and certainly pre-architectural days, conceived the idea, and carried out the plan, of building a chapel for the school, thereby laying the foundation of the future moral reorganisation of Harrow. I conclude this retrospect by quoting the following estimate of the head- mastership of Dr. Wordsworth, with which I, who spent the first four years of my public school life under him, fully concur : — " Some have spoken glibly of Dr. Wordsworth's so-called failure at Harrow, as if numbers were the sole test of success in a task undertaken when the school was in the downward course, to arrest which, without removing the sources of distrust, was not so easy as some seem to suppose. . . . But, when ordinary means for restor- ing a spirit of order and obedience had failed. Dr. Wordsworth, who was no respecter of persons, caused several youths, sons of influential people, to leave Harrow, thereby, doubtless, giving increased stability to the body politic, but also adding for the moment to the dissatisfaction which an outside public felt with Harrow. . . . Nevertheless, we venture to believe that future generations will admit the good work done at Harrow by Christopher Wordsworth between 1836 and 1844."! Charles S. Roundell. 1 Thornton's Harrow School and its Surroundings, pp. 277, 284. CHAPTER XII DR. VAUGHAN Foil fifteen years, from 1844-59, Dr. Charles John Vaughan was headmaster of Hari'ow. Of the inner circle of Arnold's favourite pupils at Rugby, bracketed senior classic, and equal as Chancellor's medallist with the fourth Lord Lyttelton in 1838, he became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and, after a brief ex- perience of clerical life as vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester, a parish identified with his family for nearly a century. Dr. Vaughan succeeded Dr. Christopher Wordsworth at Harrow. On the death, in 1842, of Dr. Arnold he had been a candidate for the headmastership of Rugby ; but Tait, afterwards Bishop of London and Arch- bishop of Canterbury, was elected. It is evident, therefore, that his thoughts had been early turned towards school-life, previously to his election at Harrow. Dr. Vaughan was twenty-eight when he was elected headmaster. He found Harrow school at the lowest ebb as to numbers, with scarcely more than 60 boys ; and at the close of his fifteen years' headmastership he left it with 469. His own name and influence, combined with the rising distinction of the school, attracted men of high reputation to the ranks of the under-masters. Older men, whom he found at Harrow — Oxenham, Harris, Drury, Steel — owned his power, and rendered him a loyal co-operation ; while Pears (afterwards headmaster of Repton), Westcott (the present Bishop of Durham), Bradby, Farrar (Dean of Canterbury), and others that might be named, like Arthur Watson, H. E. Hutton, Edward Bowen, at the call of Dr. Vaughan brought their varied gifts to the service of the school. The traditions of Harrow were safe in the hands of Dr. Vaughan, but it was evident from the outset that a new and firm hand was at the wheel. He was a real ruler, and a quiet determination marked him. Dr. Butler has said of him : " We all knew that we had at our head a strong ruler, who could not be trifled with. His softness of voice and manner, at first almost startling, never left any illusion with boys or masters as to either his penetrating insight or his resolute will. But he was very gentle with us, more and more as his time of office drew to its close. At first (I speak from clear recollections) his bright wit and sense of the ludicrous were not always untinged with sarcasm. But he soon detected and conquered this temptation. No self-conquest was ever more rapid or more complete. Some, I imagine, who have watched him for as much as fifty years will scarcely believe that such a victory was ever needed. But the battle was fought, I saw it." CHARLES JOHN VAUCHAN HEADMASTER 1845 - 1859. DR. VAUGHAN 109 His personal demeanour helped him greatly. As the boys saw the headmaster walk up the hill to school, with a gracious dignity all his own, it was instinctively felt that he was supreme. It used to be said that he saw behind him, and I am disposed to think that nothing escaped his notice. He was sci-upulously careful to acknowledge the boys' salutes ; and, as has lately been pointed out by an old pupil, he appeared sometimes himself to anticipate the salute, by raising his hand to his college cap in expectation of a boy''s capping him, but with a gracious courtesy as well. Many who in successive years occupied the benches in the Sixth Form room must recall the graceful scholarship of Dr. Vaughan. It was not too much to say, in the words of his gifted successor, that " every lesson was a work of art.*" I may be permitted to quote what Mr. Kenelm Digby has said of the Sixth Form (as he knew it) from Easter 1852 till midsummer 1855 : " Vaughan himself was not a man of wide reading ; we were taught little or no history ; still less did he venture on anything approaching to philosophy ; we were not so much as intro- duced to Plato. The charm, I think, of his teaching was the perfect form and finish of his scholarship, the exactness of his verbal criticism, the spirit which he threw into the interpretation of the text of his favourite authors. Of these, Greek dramatists took the first place. The authors we read most thoroughly and con- stantly were Sophocles and Aristophanes. . . . He used to revel in the enjoyment of the fun of Aristophanes. . . . We must have read a good deal of Homer and Thucydides, but I did not appreciate these books with Vaughan."" While this is Mr. Digby"'s experience. Dr. Butler's is somewhat different, and is well worth quot- ing: "While I was in the Sixth Form (January 1848- July 1851) we read the Protagoras and the very difficult Phaedrus. This was in form. Also I read with him and D'Arcy privately, after prayers in his study, the Phcedo. These were, perhaps, the happiest of all my hours with him. I should certainly add Thucydides and Plato to Sophocles and Aristophanes, in a decidedly less degree ^schylus and Demosthenes. But he was clear on the Legal processes at Athens. We never read with him Pindar, Aristotle, or Theocritus, and very rarely Homer." I further quote Dr. Butler, who says : " I have known many of the finest classical scholars of the day — many with whom, in respect of mere learning, he would never have thought of comparing himself — but for the sheer scholar's instinct, the thinking and feeling in the great tongues of Greece and Rome, more especially the Greek, the exact perception of the force of words, whether separately or in their junction and their cadences, there are few, indeed, that could be placed by his side." Even those who were undistinguished in the Sixth Form were able to appreciate the grace of his style. He was very patient with lame construing up to a certain point, but at last he would say to some good scholar, usually the head of the school, " Will you finish it ? "" and then the unskilled performer would feel more relieved than snubbed, although, perhaps, a little ashamed of himself. Dr. Vaughan inherited from Arnold his belief in the monitorial system. He found the custom at Harrow, and he was determined that it should be a reality. Some abuse of monitorial authority in 1853 led to an outcry against the system, and a well-known letter of Dr. Vaughan's addressed to Lord Palmerston is a vigorous 110 HARROW SCHOOL defence of it. " I have taught,"" said he, " the monitors to regard their authority as emanating indeed from mine, and responsible to mine, but yet (with the Hmita- tions naturally arising from these two considerations) independent and free in its ordinary exercise. They are charged with the enforcement of an internal discipline, the object of which is the good order, the honourable conduct, the gentleman-like tone of the houses and of the school. ... It follows, as a matter of necessity, that the monitors should possess some means of exercising and asserting their authority.*" He compared with the monitorial system " the unceasing espionage of an increased staff of subordinate masters," and said : " The experiment may be tried ; I hope not at Harrow — certainly not by me." In contrast with such an alternative, which, for the moment, might be welcomed by some " who had trembled for their sons' safety under the present so-called reign of terror,"" he vindicated "the principle of graduated ranks and organised internal subordination, which, amidst some real and many imaginary defects, has been found to be inferior to no other system in the formation of the character of an English Christian gentleman."*"* It may be added that, while Dr. Wordsworth had introduced the custom of giving a monitor his keys in the (then) new chapel. Dr. Vaughan gave them publicly in school. Such was the delegated authority of the monitorial system. But there was authority of a very real kind that was not delegated to any one. There must be those who can recall the summonses of the whole school to the Speech-room (the Speech-room in the old school building), when the boys sat on raised tiers of seats, filling every corner, and the masters, with the headmaster in the middle, sat on a platform. Dr. Vaughan entered the room last of all, and as he reached his central chair the door was closed. The school assembled in this way to hear the result of prize contests, or at the close of the quarter to hear the result of the Sixth Form trials, and for the presentation of prizes or "leaving books."*"" At such times, especially when any prize-winners were leaving the school. Dr. Vaughan would say a few words to them, words that were memorable in a young life, and which fell on grateful ears of monitors, who, with whatever sense of weakness or of shortcoming, had tried to do their duty. But there were other occasions, when special offences may have been committed, and then the closing of the door and the headmaster"'s sitting down, with a manner that was quite awful in its calmness, and a solemnity of address which created the profoundest impression, are things to be remembered. One particular occasion can be recalled, when he alone, without the masters, met the school in this way, and had the great assemblage of boys, it is not too much to say, in the hollow of his hand. The stillness was phenomenal, and the impression produced by the words, addressed to the school generally, and to the culprit in particular, cannot be exaggerated. Dr. Vaughan had a way of pushing back his chair when the business was concluded, which seemed to say better than words that all was over. In 1850 Dr. Vaughan married Catherine, the younger daughter of Bishop Stanley of Norwich, and thus became connected by marriage with his Rugby school-fellow and lifelong friend, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. It was said of Mrs. Vaughan by a distinguished clerical pupil of Dr. Vaughan''s : " In her presence commonplaceness found it hard to live ; she loved the thoughts that young people love, and could express them in epigram and newness such as they delight to hear. DR. VAUGHAN 111 and yet she never ceased to be the standard of a good woman, and of a lady who reverenced her husband." Dr. Vaughan was a member of the Cambridge University Commission appointed in 1856 by Act of Parliament, and had as his colleagues Bishop Lonsdale of Lichfield, Bishop Graham of Chester, Lord Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby), Sir W. Page Wood (afterwards Lord Hatherley), Dean Peacock of Ely, and others. A few publications on subjects agitating public opinion emanated from his pen in the years 1849-54, but his attendance to school duties was singularly close and constant; and the boys learnt from the newspapers the cause of the occasional weekday absence, or saw that a sermon at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, as Chaplain-in-Ordinary, accounted for his vacant stall in chapel on a Sunday morning. The older school chapel, built in Dr. Wordsworth''s time, gave place under Dr. Vaughan's headmastership to the present beautiful chapel designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. The first stage of the change was reached on Founder's Day 1855, when the school chapel was reopened after the addition of a new chancel, the gift of Dr. Vaughan himself, and of the north aisle. On Speech-day 1856 the foundation- stone of the south aisle, erected as a memorial to Harrow men who fell in the Crimea, was laid by Sir W. Fenwick Williams of Kars. The walls of the new nave and aisle rose gradually around the old fabric till, in June 1857, the use of the chapel was suspended till its completion, and the school services were temporarily held in the parish church. On All Saints' Day 1857 the chapel was consecrated by the then Bishop of London (Tait). The school chapel was the centre of Dr. Vaughan's influence for good. Several volumes of sermons, especially his Memorials of' Harrow Sundays, published at the close of his headmastership, convey to outsiders an idea of his teaching from the school pulpit. The volume so named contains some specially characteristic sermons — " The House and its Builder " (a Founder's Day sermon), " Ambition," "Excuses," "Amen," "Silence," "Intercession," "Yet Once More." The parish clerk of St. Martin's, Leicester, was on a visit to Harrow when the sermon entitled " Amen " was preached, and it was said that he took it as a personal compliment to himself! But only those who listened and worshipped in the chapel can realise the pathos and interest of Dr. Vaughan's persuasive eloquence. The sermons were of almost uniform excellence, — the opening and closing sermons of the school terra being specially telling, — but there were occasions when such sermons as " A Nation watching for Tidings," in November 1854, in the dark days of the Crimean War, or " The Indian Sorrow, and its Lessons for the Young," preached at a school service in the parish church, just before the consecration of the new chapel, in October 1857, on the day of national humiliation for the Indian Mutiny, made the deepest im- pression, of which the lapse of forty years has not dimmed the recollection. Mention ought to be made of the careful and earnest preparation for confirma- tion, which was a special feature of Dr. Vaughan's work, and which was highly valued by those who had the advantage of his teaching at such a time. His Notes for lectures on confirmation, delivered in the school chapel, have had a wide circulation. To those Harrow years belong sermons of Dr. Vaughan's preached to school 112 HARROW SCHOOL audiences at Marlborough or at Repton, a Radcliffe sermon at Oxford, sermons at St. Paul's Cathedral or at Westminster Abbey, when those great sanctuaries were first thrown open for evening services, and a sermon in the Abbey, preached at the consecration of his friend, Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, which some of his Sixth Form pupils were, through his kindness, permitted to hear, and are not likely to forget. Such sermons (as it was remarked long afterwards) are marked by the same " refined and winning earnestness,"" and by the "intensely human sympathy*" which gave Dr. Vaughan his peculiar charm and power as a preacher. Nor was his gift of sympathy limited to any particular class of the community, for the sermon at Bishop Cotton's consecration on Ascension Day 1858 illustrated aptly his power of realising circumstances of which he could have little or no personal experi- ence, when he •».i'i««^w>. .^,7 School Chapel from the Tebbace. spoke of the special features of Indian life, and pointed out its religious disadvantages and privations. The relations of older pupils with Dr. Vaughan were singularly pleasant. Those who went to him to have composition looked over, learnt much from him in the short interviews in his study, and went back from the little conversations of which the time admitted with renewed interest and spirit to their work. DR. VAUGHAN 113 Many will recollect Dr. Vaughan''s singularly beautiful handwriting, and the beauty of it continued till the close of his life. He was a great letter- writer, and the graceful and flowing penmanship was the counterpart of the pointed and effective language. A very large measure of his influence, far beyond the sphere of school life, must undoubtedly have been owing to his skill in letter- writing. Marked successes at the Universities were one result of Dr. Vaughan's head- mastership. In March 1854 a young Scotchman at Trinity College, Cambridge, wrote : " Calverley, who has got the Craven, is another of those talented men whom Dr. Vaughan is now sending out from Harrow. Hawkins, whose name is expected to appear in about a fortnight as senior classic of the year ; Butler, Monro (another scholar of Butler's year and a very clever fellow), are all Harrow men." Oxford, too, had its Harrovian triumphs of that period to show. Dr. Arnold was understood to have said that fifteen years was a long enough time for a headmastership ; but whether Dr. Vaughan acted on this theory or not, the announcement of his resignation in the end of the summer of 1859 took most people by surprise. He had the gratification of seeing his beloved and brilliant pupil, Montagu Butler, chosen to succeed him ; and the retiring headmaster and his successor officiated together in the school chapel on the farewell Sunday of the term, in December 1859. A few days later he was entertained at a dinner in London by a large company of Harrow men. Vaughan was, in every sense, the restorer of Harrow. He re-created the school, and he ranks among the great headmasters of the century. It is the best proof of the thoroughness of his work at Harrow that (to quote the present headmaster, Mr. Welldon) the school is now, after almost forty years, practically what Dr. Vaughan made it. It is difficult to convey to those who did not know him, what manner of man he was. The beautiful picture by Richmond in the library which bears his name at Harrow, erected partly by subscription, and completed by the munificence of his successor, gives a somewhat young representation of him at the time that he left the school. He used to say, with some amusement, that Richmond described the style of the picture as " half-Bishop's length " ; and he had great enjoyment of his sittings to the genial and accomplished artist. His warm sympathy, his happy humour, his delicate superiority in every company, can readily be recalled by those who knew and loved him. If he seemed somewhat formidable at first to boys from the quiet calmness of his manner, he won their confidence by his fairness, by his reliance on their word, by the gentleness of his glance. The boys of his own house had special opportunities of knowing him, and one of their number (Mr. S. Hoare, M.P.) has said: "We enjoyed a very great privilege in our constant intercourse with Dr. Vaughan as our house-master. I consider that we had many special opportunities ■of experiencing that wonderful sympathy which we shall ever associate with his memory, and which other boys in the school, except the Sixth Form, could less often enjoy."" Lest the idea should anywhere prevail that Dr. Vaughan did not concern himself with school games, because he did not appear on the cricket-field, Mr. Hoare mentions that " he was very keen over the success of his house in school I 114 HARROW SCHOOL games, and he was especially pleased when, in 1859, we were 'cock-house' at cricket, and brought the three Ebrington cricket cups into the house." Long years have passed since Dr. Vaughan's retirement from Harrow, but his headmastership is unforgotten. His love of the school and his interest in its fortunes, as well as in the careers and successes of old pupils, continued unabated to the close of his life. He was present in later years on rare occasions on Speech- day, and he made an eloquent speech at the great banquet in honour of the Tercentenary of the school. He preached at least twice in the school chapel during the headmastership of his successor, once on the Founder's Day. He was present, possibly more than once, at the triennial Harrow dinner, the last occasion being that at which Lord Shaftesbury was chairman. During his grave illness at the Temple in 1894, he enjoyed the ministrations of at least one old Harrow pupil ; and he desired another, if he met any of his old pupils, to assure them that he " was not unmindful of them." The same old pupil last mentioned, when visiting Dean Vaughan at LlandafF, early in 1897, was charged to convey a message to a former Harrow pupil holding high office in the State : " Tell him that I watch his career with interest, and that I am mindful of him, alike in joy and in sorrow." At the Harrow dinner of 1897 the feelings of the large gathering of Hari'ovians were deeply stirred by a letter from Dr. Vaughan, read by Dr. Butler, the Master of Trinity, expressing his undying love for the school, and his regret (for which truly there was little cause) that he had not been kind enough to the boys. Dr. Vaughan's work as a great religious teacher, " distinctive " rather than distinguished, as he preferred to call it, has its praise in " all the churches " ; and his death in October 1897 was described as a bereavement to the Christian world. Archbishop Benson said of him to the writer of these notes some years ago : " No living man has laid the Church of England under greater obligations." Charles Dalrymple. HENRY MONTAGU BUTLER. HEADMASTER I860 - 1885 CHAPTER XIII DR. H. MONTAGU BUTLER On the 23rd of September 1885, the headmaster, the organist, and the school Custos met at the chapel door, for the purpose of making the usual arrangements for the term. They were strange to their new duties, and strangers to each other ; a " fourth party " was obliged to intervene. It was evident that one chapter in the history of the school had closed, and that this meeting was the beginning of another. It is with the old chapter, not the new, that the present article is concerned. It deals with the head mastership of the Rev. H. M. Butler, D.D., — that is to say, with the twenty -six years from January 1860 to July 1885, during which the son governed, with hereditary vigour, the school over which his father had presided for twenty-four years, more than half a century before. It is difficult for those who, in respect of work or affection, or both, were closely connected with the life of the school during the autumn of 1859, to realise now, in the light of later experience, the anxiety they felt when Dr. Vaughan's retirement was announced. Would the school, which under him had risen from 69 to 469, continue to increase ? Would the loyalty of old Harrovians be unshaken ? Would the scholarship of the school suffer ? Would the games be as vigorous as they had been ? Would the religious teaching be as earnest, and sympathetic, and attractive, as before ? How would the masters, how would the Sixth Form, get on with a new chief ? One and all seemed to find a satisfactory answer to such questionings in the news of the appointment of a most distinguished old Harrovian, the Rev. Henry Montagu Butler, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. It was felt that the new headmaster would bring back rare personal qualities for the service of his old school, and that such changes as might from time to time be necessary, would be made in full view of, and in thorough sympathy with, the best traditions of the past. This notice is not a sketch of Dr. Butler's life, nor is it a detailed account of his headmastership ; and it would obviously be impossible, within the narrow limits of a single chapter, to describe otherwise than in barest outline this fortunate period of twenty-six years. It was a period during which many boys entered the school, and at the close of which, with happy continuity, scores of sons were enjoying the same delightful traditions which their fathers, at its opening, had received, and had in their turn handed down. It was a period during which at Harrow, as well as at our other public schools, boys were being successfully trained, both for the next 116 HARROW SCHOOL stages in education, with their rewards at the Universities and elsewhere, and also "for those higher honours, which are the achievement of a later age, and the award of the State in whose service they are won." As some of the institutions and events connected with Dr. Butler*'s headmaster- ship are dealt with in other parts of this volume, it will be convenient to group the subjects of this article round the Tercentenaiy of the school. During the years 1870-71, while France and Germany were in the agony of a memorable war, the interest of Harrovians was peacefully centred in the three- hundredth birthday of the school. Before dealing with the Tercentenary Festival, it may be well to remind those Harrovians, whose school-days date from 1885, that even after all Dr. Vaughan's material additions to the school buildings (and they were both generous and extensive), we were but ill equipped. The only library in 1859 was a small room in the old school ; there was no covered racket-court ; the chapel had not received its spire ; the sanatorium did not exist ; the gymnasium and workshops were un- dreamt of; there were no natural science class-rooms; fives-courts had been faintly, and only faintly, suggested ; the old pavilion sufficed for the four games which were then played on the old ground ; and a narrow strip of field on the other side of the road, rented by the Philathletic Club (and therefore called "The Phil- athletic "), accommodated those whose scholarship was better than their cricket, and who could find no place in the other school games. The old speech-room had to serve all public purposes, and was also used as a class-room ; Duck-puddle (not yet reduced to "Ducker""), the admirable work of Mr. Harris, was one half as large as it became under Mr. A. G. Watson ; the museum buildings, with their luxurious schoolrooms, were not even looming in the future — the architect, in fact, was still at school — ;and where the pleasant terraces and gardens slope eastward from the chapel, the headmaster picked his pears and apples, and the school Custos, " Sam," his gooseberries and plums. As to other institutions, — the rifle corps, born in 1859, and fostered by Mr. G. F. Harris, the senior assistant-master, and Mr. J. C, Templer, the first captain of the Harrow Town volunteers, was hardly steady in the goose-step, and just learning to " form fours." The " Praesides Ornatissimi " were still genial " governors," and not yet stiffened by Act of Parliament into a " governing body." The " lower school of John Lyon" — then known as "the English form" — still enjoyed the smoke and draughts and broken windows of the " Public-room." The nearest station was, and was for another twenty years to be, a mile and a half away. The " piggeries and potteries " of Notting Hill had no idea of the Harrow mission under the Rev. W. Law and his energetic staff. The Rev. L. Sanderson had not begun the long roll of Elstree Scholarships. The masters when off duty were never seen without their " toppers," and the boys were still wearing straw hats with an appreciable depth of crown. Verse composition reigned with undisputed sway ; and if classical scholars ever thought of a Modern Side, it was, at best, an apparition in a very ugly dream. The wants and shortcomings indicated above were all supplied during Dr. Butler's term of office, and mainly by his generous exertions ; and as many of them were View fbom Grove Hill. DR. H. MONTAGU BUTLER 119 closely connected with the " Lyon Memorial Fund," it may be well to give some account of the Tercentenary of the school, which led to the creation of that fund. The commemoration of the Tercentenary began to take shape at a meeting of old Harrovians, held at Willis's Rooms, on 30th March 1871 ; the Hon. F. Ponsonby occupied the chair. At this meeting a General Committee was appointed, consisting, eventually, of some 200 old Harrovians ; various sub-committees were also formed for raising and administering a fund to be called the " Lyon Memorial Fund." In the course of his speech at this meeting. Dr. Butler, after mentioning the most pressing wants of the school, sent a shiver through the room by an appeal for no less a sum than dP30,000 ! It may be well to remark here, that of this sum d£'13,000 were collected within two months of the meeting, and that the fund eventually rose to ^38,000. The resolution adopted at the meeting, on which all subsequent proceedings tui'ned, was " that a fund be raised, to be called the ' Lyon Memorial Fund,' for the purpose of acquiring land, and erecting buildings for school purposes, the first object being the erection of a speech- room." The objects indicated by this resolution were afterwards more exactly specified by circular as — 1. A speech-room, which could also be used as a concert-room. 2. The purchase of land to check building beyond the control of the school. 3. The erection of other buildings connected with different branches of education, including schoolrooms, a museum, a laboratory, a room for drawing, a gym- nasium, and lecture-rooms for the study of natural science. The course of festival committees is usually more or less tempestuous, and in consequence of some difference of opinion expressed by Harrovians, as to the purposes for which a new speech-room should be used, the original members of the Building Sub-Committee found it expedient to resign. The immediate occasion of their resig- nation was this, that, at an influential meeting of the General Committee, held in one of the committee rooms of the House of Commons, the nomination of Mr. W. Burges as architect for the speech-room was only confirmed by a majority of one, and his plans, as laid before the Building Committee and submitted by them to the General Committee, were, by a large majority, condemned. It is important to mention this, that it may be understood that the present speech-room is the result of a compromise, and that the reorganised Committee, in adopting so far as possible the main features of the earlier design, were thus to a certain extent working with tied hands. The building, as originally drawn by Mr. Burges, was in some respects (especially as to the interior) a beautiful design, but it was unsuitable to the site, presented great engineering difficulties, and failed to provide for some of the principal objects which had been specified in the instructions. The foundation-stone of the new speech-room was laid on the second day of July 1874 by His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, K.G., and Speeches were held there for the first time on 5th July 1877. Of the other works contemplated by the original resolution, the laboratories and science schools were finished in 1874, and the gymnasium and workshops in the same year. The soil excavated during the progress of the speech-room was deposited in the orchard and garden below the chapel terrace ; these, gradually shaped and laid 120 HARROW SCHOOL out as ornamental grounds, were completed in their present form and extent when the Butler Museum and Schools were built in 1886. These operations, including the purchase of land thus rendered necessary, suffi- ciently account for the exhaustion of the Lyon Memorial Fund. Since 1885 large additional sums have been raised, buildings erected, and land bought, but with these, subsequent to Dr. Butlers headmastership, we are not now concerned. To return to the Commemoration Festival in 1871. Founder's Day was observed for that year on 15th June instead of, as usually, in October. The chief inci- dents in the day were an early celebration of the Holy Communion at 8 ; the Com- memoration Service at 11.15; luncheon, under canvas, in the schoolyard for some 200 old Harrovians, and in the milling-ground for the whole school ; and in the evening a display of fireworks on the cricket-ground. The weather was deplorable, and spoilt the enjoyment of the afternoon ; but, after all, what mattered it ? ^^ Intonuit laevum'''' was the happy omen which, after luncheon, the Archbishop of Dublin drew from a raging thunderstorm, and so inaugurated the second three hundred years of the school's life. Writing now, in the thirteenth year of the Rev. J. E. C. Welldon's headmastership, we thankfully acknowledge that the first quarter of a century has not belied the augury. At the Commemoration Service the headmaster was the preacher. It was felt even by those who, in the " Memorials of Harrow Sundays," still caught the echoes of Another's Voice, that no one could better gather up the past, appreciate the present, and suggest (if not forecast) the future, than Dr. Butler himself. Nor were his hearers disappointed : as he presented — in the light of Christian duty — the various influences of a famous school, in forming intellectual taste, in cementing happy friendships, in giving the first lessons in public spirit, and in supplying the battle- field for moral struggles, nay, more than all this, in stirring the first consciousness of a divine call in many a human soul, the question may well have been asked by each one of some 800 listeners : " Am I — as the happy subject of such influences — a profitable member of the Church and Commonwealth ? *" We cross the road to the schoolyard. It was roofed in for the occasion with canvas, and tables were laid for some 200 old Harrovians. The Duke of Abercorn, K.G., was in the chair. The principal speakers, besides the chairman, were the Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Trench), the Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Wordsworth), the Earl of Verulam, Lord George Hamilton, M.P., the Master of the Temple (Dr. Vaughan), the Hon. F. Ponsonby, the Hon. R. Grimston, Mr. Beresford-Hope, M.P., the senior assistant-master (Rev. R. Middlemist), the Vice-President of Caius College, Cambridge (Rev. B. H. Drury), the Master of Marlborough College (Rev. F. W. Farrar), — they all gave happy expression to loyal thoughts and memories and hopes ; while other Harrow masters, past and present. Professor Westcott, Rev. E. H. Bradby, Rev. E. M. Young, E. E. Bowen, G. H. Hallam, and Gustave Masson, by pleasant verse or song in Latin, English, Greek, and French, brought out the best features of the day's commemoration. The speeches were pleasantly varied by school-songs, sung by some 350 boys, under the direction of John Farmer, ranged tier above tier behind the chairman. How many of the company then present, full of recollections of the past, and anticipations of the future, must have applied to DR. H. MONTAGU BUTLER 121 some old school-fellow''s career, or to their own, the words of W. J. Hope Edwardes"" poem on Harrow ? — And hath that early hope been blessed with Truth ? Hath he fulfilled the promise of his youth. And borne unscathed through danger's stormy field Virtue's white wreath and Honour's stainless shield ? One more word about the Festival. A few days after the commemoration, with their usual thoughtfulness and courtesy. Dr. and Mrs. Butler entertained at supper, in the schoolyard, upwards of 200 tradesmen and farmers of Harrow, with their wives. The post of honour at the chairman's right hand was occupied by Mr. Sneezum, of John Lyon's farm at Preston. This pleasant entertainment materially strengthened the good understanding, as well as the close connection, which Dr. Butler was always anxious to establish between the school and the town. And what is the upshot of it all.? Do "Faith, Zeal, and Progress," the conditions of permanence laid down by Dr. Vaughan in his speech on the Tercentenary Day, still endure, and animate and characterise our boys ? Do the " faith and daring " of Dr. Butler's school-hymn still " haunt our ancient Hill " ? Was the Festival to be merely a day of mutual congratulation, or was it to be a fresh starting-point for loyal and enthusiastic effort "^ Was " Stet Fortuna Domus " only an aspiration spring- ing from University prizes, military honours, political distinctions, and athletic victories ? or was it the prayer of those who, for the time being, were the guardians of that " house " .'' Did it merely express a desire that later generations might have the same pleasant social intercourse which their fathers had enjoyed " when they were boys together " ? Or did it deliberately challenge posterity to stamp " Donorum Dei Dispensatio Fidelis "" upon its achievements, with no less emphasis, and with still clearer lines than their predecessors had stamped it upon theirs ? No, as we think of future generations of Harrovians building up the walls of the next three hundred years of the school's life, Harrovians, who, we trust, will be "stronger than we, and better and completer," we would offer them, with kindliest hope, a warning which we would at the same time apply much more severely to ourselves, " Strenue conten- dant ut ne suo forte vitio, sua incuria, bona Harroviensium existimatio dehonestari videatur." So spoke H. Montagu Butler, the head of the school in 1857, and we find an unconscious echo of his words in Hastings Rashdall's Contio of 1877, when the Lyon Memorial Fund had done most of its material work : " Crescunt mirifice ludendi adiumenta, crescunt incitamenta diligentiae. Saepius autem cum populis tum Academiis accidit, ut quae virtutem vigoremque confirmare deberent, ea ignaviam potius, iactationem, socordiam attulerint. Nos quidem monet vetus ilia domus nostrae simplicitas, monent limen, scamna, parietes, non aedificiorum magnificentiam, non patronorum liberalitatem Almae Matri gloriam parere, sed viros." The Tercentenary commemoration, in its record of the past, and its schemes for the future, gathers up most that is memorable in Dr. Butler's wise and successful administration ; but it is evident that even the most summary account of a head- mastership must deal, to a certain extent, with the headmaster's teaching, and must draw inferences as to its character from some of its results. We may do so without 122 HARROW SCHOOL attempting to review the whole field covered by that very wide and comprehensive word " instruction." It may be said — and we have the highest authority for saying it — that a teacher, if he is to be called successful, must fulfil the following conditions : " He must be an example to his pupils, he must know his subject well, he must be always reading and hearing more and more about it, he must always be learning some- thing else, and he must enjoy greatly what he teaches." Now, so far as boys can appreciate their teachers — and boys are very shrewd — those who had the privilege of being in the Sixth Form during Dr. Butler"'s head- mastership will, from first to last, admit that the teaching which they enjoyed stood these somewhat severe tests. Without stopping to support this by special illustrations, the recollections of a long line of pupils — many of them very dis- tinguished — are those of the variety and thoroughness of Dr. Butler's teaching, of its brightness and accuracy, of his illustrations, drawn from all available sources which would lend a passing charm, as well as of the reiteration of typical examples which it might be necessary in the interests of sound scholarship to impress. We still hear the friendly warning not to say "what you know to be wrong," and the permission gladly, but never indiscriminately, given to write our better exer- cises in " the Book." There were some of us, perhaps, for whom " Context morning" was not without its terrors, others to whom Greek and Roman mytho- logy was somewhat of a jumble, others for whom Cicero and ^schylus borrowed an interpretation, if not a literary charm, from Bohn, others whose views on the Greek particles were hardly orthodox, others who even felt that Horace repetition spoilt the taste for Horace ; but, however dim the classical eyesight of some of the weaker scholars, and however dull our literary taste, all could appreciate — and did appreciate — the earnestness and force and vigour of this prince of teachers, and could readily believe him when he said, that his happiest hours at Harrow were those spent in teaching the Sixth Form. And there was the teaching of the school chapel, as well as of the class-room. In this respect (as in many others) Harrow has been fortunate in her headmasters ; and the " Lessons of Life and Godliness " associated, between 1844 and 1859, with the sermons of Dr. Vaughan, were enforced and illustrated, Sunday after Sunday, with remarkable variety by his successor. Whatever the subject, it was sure to be handled in an attractive way ; and while in ordinary sermons it was invariably felt that the preacher had the highest interests of the school at heart, on extraordinary occasions, such as some special local incident, or some national event, some royal marriage, or some hero's death, the right thing was always said by the headmaster, and in the best way. But the teaching, whether secular or religious, is, after all, only one of the features of a successful headmastership. We must look a little more closely at some of the secret springs of the machinery. A public school is not a society organised for the benefit of its chief, and rising or falling at his will. In addition to certain personal qualities on the part of the headmaster which are indispensable, such as learning, justice, sympathy, courtesy, zeal, and a reverent attitude towards matters of religion, his success must depend on his skilful adaptation of such special DR. H. MONTAGU BUTLER 123 energies as he has within his reach, and the sympathetic control of such special influences as he can appropriate. We look for such energies and such influences at Harrow during Dr. Butler's administration ; and we are not disappointed. They give vigour and texture and colour to this period. Of course there are some kinds of energy and influence which we take for granted : the influence of good boys (and how few are really bad !), of capable masters (and how few are quite incompetent !), and that general admixture of concession and restraint, of trust and discipline, of freedom and order, which is the happy atmosphere of our best public schools. These are all general kinds of influence which (and with good reason) we take for granted in the course of public-school life. But more than these, there were some peculiar threads of influence ready to Dr. Butler's hand at Han'ow, and skilfully employed by him, which may be traced through the whole or nearly the whole of our period (we select them on that account), and which give that period a character of its own. We may briefly indicate them as follows : — (1) Shortly before the end of Dr. Vaughan's headmastership, an unknown visitor was observed one Sunday evening at the chapel service — "the new master," we were told. He had (so rumour said) walked over from Cambridge ; probably to save time, as it was in the unreformed days of the Great Eastern Railway. Edward Bowen was soon at work amongst us, from the very first a bright, humanising influence, — the house and school games, enlivened by his playful interest; the Shakespeare readings, organised and fostered under his control ; the form teaching, with its variety, truthfulness, vivacity, and charm, — master, playmate, poet, friend ! We know what " we think of it "" now nearly " forty years on " ! (2) Through the same period runs another influence. Music was first recognised in the school in 1857, when half-a-dozen boy enthusiasts, headed and stimulated by Capel Henry Berger, then one of the Sixth Form, obtained the headmaster's leave to form a musical society. With the early struggles, quaint performances, unusual instruments, and audacious enterprise of the original members we are not now concerned. Their thanks, and the thanks of the school, were due to those masters and others who, in- stead of snubbing their crude efforts, gave them kind encouragement. They did their best, and really were the first to break ground in this direction ; but it was not until John Farmer came amongst us that music began to take possession of the school. The details of his work will be found elsewhere ; the work itself was new, original, and permanent. Whether presiding at the house harmonium, or at the chapel organ ; whether enlisting the Eleven as musicians by virtue of their office, or en- couraging the humblest fiddler to play some modest yet special part in the orchestra, the influence of John Farmer during this period was unique. " lo triumphe " was the happy introduction to that long series of school-songs which we believe to be unparalleled at other schools. (3) It is one delightful feature of public-school life that the charm and interest of one occupation does not necessarily depress another ; and the cricketers, fathers and sons, during these twenty-six years, who obeyed John Farmer's baton in the speech-room, were the happy subjects of a " dual control " elsewhere. Generation after generation rallied with traditional deference, personal attachment, and con- 124 HARROW SCHOOL tinuous respect round the two true, single-hearted Harrovians who, as "Ponsonby and Grimston," were " familiar in our mouths as household words." " Our games," said Mr, Grimston at the Tercentenary Festival, " require patience, good temper, per- severance, good pluck, and, above all, implicit obedience." What description of Mr. Grimston''s own influence could be more exact ! " Bis dat qui cito dat," said Mr. Ponsonby on the same occasion, asking for subscriptions as chairman of the Lyon Memorial Fund ; and if not only guineas, but also loyal service, resolute endeavour, and unstained example, may be called " gifts," it was not " bis " he gave them, but over and over again, with unfailing generosity and unconscious tact, for more than fifty years. (4) Yet once more. On the 16th of December 1893, the last Saturday of the Christmas term, in the full sunshine of a summer-like day, with church-bells pealing, and amidst the bright signs and cheery sounds of boyish merriment — just as the dear friend would have loved to have it — probably few noticed a solemn, yet not sorrowful, procession, as it made its way first to the church, and then to the cemetery, with the mortal remains of the Rev. John Smith. During the last few years of his life he had been withdrawn from active work by ill-health ; but it was the privilege of those who visited him, first in his retirement at Roehampton, and afterwards at St. Luke's Hospital, to see how the clouds, which from time to time swept across his mind, hardly veiled his character. Even when the strain of bodily suffering became more severe, his friends still recognised the same tender sympathy and joyous optimism, the same Christian humility and loving toleration, which had endeared him for twenty-five years not only to his own happy subjects in the Upper Fourth Form, but to boys in all parts of the school ; not only, through his sermons, to all who listened to him in the chapel, but in times alike of joy and sorrow to the whole Harrovian world. (5) Pause for a moment at the Shaftesbury Memorial on the walls of the old school. " Here," you say, " was the beginning of the Harrow Mission to the Poor." Still, it was to the honour of Dr. Butler"'s head mastership, and due to his practical sympathy, that the independent efforts of old Harrovians in the way of philan- thropic and spiritual work were combined in one forcible expression of " our duty to our neighbour." It was in the year 1882 that the idea of entering into friendly rivalry with other public schools took the definite shape of the " Harrow Mission Association." The late Dr. Walsham How, then Suffragan Bishop of Bedford, interested himself at once in the proposal ; and, in an address given in the speech- room on the spiritual and temporal needs of the London poor, he invited the co-operation of the school. The locality of the mission (eventually established at Notting Hill) was felt to be a secondary question ; the matter of prime importance was the choice of the first missioner. Accordingly, the charge of the mission was entrusted to the Rev. William Law,^ then assistant curate at St. Mary Abbott's, Kensington. A better choice could not have been made. With tact, bonhomie, vigour, and devotion, with true manliness and " pure religion," Mr. Law gathered round him, both from Harrow and Kensington, many friends, old and new, thus drawn together, to their mutual advantage, in one happy undertaking. A sum of 1 A small pavilion has been erected on the Nicholson Ground in memory of Mr. Law. DR. H. MONTAGU BUTLER 125 ^33,000 has already been raised among past and present Harrovians, and devoted to the purposes of the mission. A church has been built. There are men's, boys'", and girls' clubs, and recently a hostel has been added for the reception of old Harrovians and others who may like to work in the parish. Visits are paid to the mission every term by parties of boys from the school, and once or twice a year the school has the opportunity of meeting the missioner in the speech-room, and hearing from his own lips an account of his stewardship. Such were some characteristic threads of personal and peculiar influence which ran through the whole of Dr. Butler's long administration. In mentioning these, we do not ignore others ; the versatility, for instance, of Dean Farrar, the learning of Bishop Westcott, the sincerity of Dr. Bradby, the faultless polish of Rev. E. M. Young, the literary skill of Mr. Bosworth Smith, the exact scholarship of Mr. G. H. Hallam, the strength and tenderness combined of the Rev. J. Robertson. And personal affection on the part of old Harrovians will readily supply reminiscences of other names, both of those who had the happiness of working under Dr. Butler during the whole of his headmastership, and of those who, for shorter or longer periods, from Eton, Winchester, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Marlborough, and elsewhere, lavished upon Harrow the best gifts which they had received from their own schools. Nor do we fail to recognise how these threads of influence, gladly appropriated, and wisely worked into the fabric of the school life, were entwined (and was it not a golden strand ?) with the gracious presence and the generous hospitality, the daily devotion and the practical ability, the personal charm and the Christian sympathy, of Mrs. Butler. " The precious things of life " (if we may quote Dr. Butler's words) " are rever- ence, and truthfulness, and love of knowledge, and strength of purpose, and self- control, and delicate sympathy, and unworldliness, and scorn of luxury, and dread of that peculiar phase of dishonesty, or un thoroughness, which the apostle calls ' eye-service.' " As we read such memorials of Dr. Butler's headmastership as are exhibited in the public and private lives of his pupils, whether more or less dis- tinguished, do we not find those memorials characterised by such precious things as these ? J. A. Cruikshank. CHAPTER XIV HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL It is not so much the object of this paper to give a historical account of the chapel or chapels of Harrow School, as to indicate the nature of the influence that the chapel, as an element of the school life, has exercised upon generations of Harrovians. And the influence of a school chapel depends upon considerations not peculiar to ' Harrow, but affecting the great majority of public schools in England. For the character of the English public boarding-schools is determined by certain widely acknowledged principles. These principles may, or may not, be the best ideally or even practically, but they exist, they make the schools what they are ; and if these principles, or any one of them, were surrendered, the character of the schools would be changed. Of these principles the most evident, perhaps, as it is the most important, is the supremacy assigned to religion. The religious tone of the public schools is essential to them. A school in which religion does not play the highest part would not be in the present sense a public school ; a school in which the religious teaching was not given principally by the headmaster would not be in that sense a public school. In every great public boarding-school the chapel is the centre of the school life. The holiest and most enduring associations of the school life belong to the chapel. It seems necessary to emphasise this especial character of the English public boarding-schools, because it has been sometimes misunderstood. Like so much else that is now accepted in the public schools, it was the conception, and in some sense the creation, of Dr. Arnold. The readers of Dean Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold will recollect the letter which he addressed to the Trustees of Rugby School in the year 1831, when the chaplaincy of the school had fallen vacant. " Whoever is chaplain," he said, "I must ever feel myself, as headmaster, the real and proper religious instructor of the boys. No one else can feel the same interest in them, and no one else (I am not speaking of myself personally, but merely by virtue of my situation) can speak to them with so much influence. In fact, it seems to me the natural and fitting thing, and the great advantage of having a separate chapel for the school, that the master of the boys should be officially as well as really their pastor, and that he should not devolve on another, however well qualified, one of his own most peculiar and solemn duties." This is the religious principle of English public-school life as defined by Dr. Arnold. It is the principle, as has HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL 127 been said, which has been recognised since his time in most schools. No doubt circumstances may in the future make it impossible. Dr. Arnold expected his colleagues to be in holy orders. No headmaster to-day can entertain that expecta- tion. The tendency to separate the educational from the clerical profession is a growing tendency. It is upon the whole a just tendency ; for men ought not to be led by accidental motives to seek ordination, unless they are inwardly moved to it, and the educational profession is strong enough and honourable enough to stand by itself. But so long as public boarding-schools exist, and so long as they give a supreme place to religion, nothing can compensate the inevitable loss which will occur whenever the headmaster of a school is not the person primarily charged with the duty of speaking to his pupils, as a minister of souls, in the school chapel. Nor could anything so surely tend to depreciate religion in the eyes of public schoolboys, as that the headmaster should speak to them with authority upon all secular subjects aifecting their school life, but that in the chapel, or when religious teaching is given, he should be silent and another should occupy his place. The educational tradition of Dr. Arnold passed in a sense — not, of course, exclusively — from Rugby to Harrow. " In Dr. Vaughan," says the historian of Harrow School, Mr. P. M. Thornton, " Arnold seemed in the eyes of many almost to live again." It was for Harrow a happy circumstance that Dr. Vaughan, Arnold's beloved and distinguished pupil, the inheritor of his spirit, was elected two years after his master's death to the headmastership of the school. It was all the happier, if the story be true, that Dr. Vaughan had failed by only a single vote of succeeding his own master at Rugby. For Dr. Vaughan was recognised, especially after the publication of Dean Stanley's Life^ as bringing to Harrow the strength and enlightenment of the great school in which he had received his own education. It is said that, when he was a candidate for the headmastership of Harrow, the Bishop of Ely urged him not to " throw himself away "" upon such a school. If it were so, Dr. Vaughan's headmastership is a witness that it is always in the power of a good master to make a good school. He found but 70 boys at Harrow; he left nearly 470. He enjoyed the opportunity — not often given to a headmaster — of creating a new school upon the foundation of a school already ancient and honourable. The Harrow of to-day is still essentially Dr. Vaughan's Harrow. Everywhere it still retains the impress of his spirit, his character, his authority. But in no respect is his influence still so unmistakable as in the place which the services of the school chapel hold in the recollection and affection of Harrovians. It is true that Dr. Vaughan did not build the first school chapel. The school owed its first chapel to Dr. Wordsworth. Before his time the boys had worshipped in the parish church ; for Harrow was not originally a public but a local school, it was a part of the parish of Harrow, and therefore it was natural, and indeed inevit- able, that the school should attend the services of the parish church. But Dr. Wordsworth resolved that the school should possess its own chapel. Among the Harrovians of his time there was a good deal of feeling against the separation of the school from the parish church. It was argued that the school would lose a valuable characteristic, if it lost its association with the church. But Dr. Wordsworth had 128 HARROW SCHOOL no wish to take his pupils altogether away from the church. In his sermon, preached in the school chapel on the 28th of September 1839, the Sunday after its consecration, he used these words : " Let me observe that, while we resort to this chapel, we do not, and, I trust, we never shall, forsake our parish church. On the Sunday morning we shall assemble there, in the afternoon here. Here, we are a congregation in ourselves ; there, we shall be a part of the parochial congregation. Both these conditions have their special advantages, and it is no small blessing that, by our ffainins: the one, we do not lose the other." The old square red-brick chapel of Dr. Wordsworth's time, following in its slope from west to east the decline of the hill, is a familiar object in pictures and drawings of Harrow. It was not beautiful ; it was not permanent. It exhibited few or no traces of decorative art. Its services were not enriched by much music ; for nothing was sung except a hymn, and even that is said to have been sung as a solo by Mrs. Wordsworth, who was seated in the western gallery. Perhaps the chief interest of that old chapel is its association with the brief and not entirely fortunate regime of one who may not unfairly be described as the most learned and the most saintly of schoolmasters. But no Harrovian can forget that to Dr. Wordsworth, as his memorial in the chapel relates, belongs the merit of having been the first to conceive and execute the project of giving to the school a centre of unity and of sanctity in its own chapel. Dr. Vaughan acted, it is known, with due regard to the interests of the town as a growing place, no less than of the school, in withdrawing the boys altogether from the parish church. When the number of the boys rose to 300 and 400, it was difficult or impossible to find room for them in the church. No doubt Dr. Vaughan's intention was to bring the school, after Dr. Arnold's manner, under the direct and exclusive religious infliuence of the headmaster. Still the consciousness of an allegiance to the parish church has at no time been wholly absent in the school. It was long acknowledged, when early celebrations of the Holy Communion were unknown to the chapel, in the habit of devout boys attending the celebration in the parish church. And it was visibly asserted a few years ago, at the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the parish church by St. Anselm, when the school was permitted, through the kindness of the vicar, to attend a special service there, and the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, was the preacher. Still the separate, absolute existence of the school chapel dates from Dr. Vaughan's time. The chapel itself is the architectural work of Sir Gilbert Scott. It was built around the old Wordsworthian chapel. The chancel and the north aisle were finished in 1855. The south aisle was added two years later as a memorial of the Harrovians who died in the Crimean War. The chapel, as a whole, was consecrated by the Bishop of London on All Saints' Day, 1857. Such has been the history of the chapel ; and when it is told, all that remains is to speak of the services held within it in their relation to the life of the school. The services of a public-school chapel are not altogether like other services. They possess a special character of their own. The worship is not a mere daily or weekly event in life ; it is the crown of a common life. He who speaks there, and they who listen, are knit together by ties so intimate that their community of hfe The School Chapel — Part op the North Aisle. HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL 131 cannot but be felt as intensely real. They are not like men and women who meet once in a way and, except for their meeting in the sanctuary, have little in common. Their union is so close that whatever interest touches any one touches them all, and whatever touches all touches every one. The building itself is to them a shrine of sacred memories. In it have knelt the generations of the young, many of them the parents and kinsmen of those who now kneel there. The walls are covered with the monuments of the past. In one place, perhaps, are the names of the friends and benefactors of the school, in another the names of the school's most noble sons, in another the names of those who laid down their lives for their country, in another the names of boys who have died during school life. The various parts of the building — the reredos, the stalls, the pillars, the stained windows — recall the events and achievements of the past. It is impossible that any worshipper in a school chapel, above all, he whose office it is to preach there, should be dead to its inspiring associations. Not unfairly was it that a great preacher ^ used these words : " Believe me, believe one who tells you, from his own recollection, that if there be any time or place in which he may seem to have met the angels of God on his pilgrimage through life, it was in the midst of a congregation, and in the walls of a chapel such as this." And if anywhere an attempt has been made to impress upon public schoolboys the continuity and the sanctity of school life, by the memorials of which the chapel is the shrine, it is so at Harrow. For the chapel is the gift of old Harrovians to their school. Dr. Vaughan himself gave the chancel ; and in it a memorial of his headmastership will soon be placed by the grateful generosity of his pupils. The tablets with which the walls of the chapel are now nearly covered possess every one its special interest. In the north aisle are the memorials of the masters, and of such friends of the school as have won for themselves an intimate, personal association with its life. Every Harrovian, as he stands here, reads with a full heart the inscriptions commemorative of the two great benefactors of Harrow, the friends and comrades of many years, the late Lord Bessborough, better known perhaps as Fred Ponsonby, and the Hon. Robert Grimston. But no inscription can be more pathetic in its beauty, at least to those who know all that its touching words imply, than the tribute paid by the Master of Trinity to his saintly colleague, Mr. John Smith : — TO THE YOUNG A FATHER, TO FRIENDS IN JOY OR GRIEF A BROTHER, TO THE POOR, THE SUFFERING, AND THE TEMPTED A MINISTER OF HOPE AND STRENGTH. TRIED BY MORE THAN COMMON SORROWS, AND UPBORNE BY MORE THAN COMMON FAITH, HIS HOLY LIFE INTERPRETED TO MANY THE MIND WHICH WAS IN CHRIST JESUS, THE PROMISE OF THE COMFORTER, AND THE VISION GRANTED TO THE PURE IN HEART. Above the memorials of the masters and the life-long friends of the school are ' The late Dean Stanley. 132 HARROW SCHOOL a few conspicuous monuments — as many as the space will allow — erected in honour of distinguished Harrovians by their contemporaries. To one of these, which bears the name of the late Mr, J. R. Godley, Mr. Gladstone was a contributor ; and his name, among others, appears upon it. But the most interesting, perhaps, is the monument to the late Lord Strangford, in whose memory the Strangford Geography Prizes were founded by his widow, with an inscription expressing the lesson of his noble life in the following words : — THIS MEMORIAL IS PLACED IN THE SCHOOL WHERE HE PASSED THREE HAPPY YEARS, TO REMIND THOSE WHO COME AFTER HIM THAT FEEBLE HEALTH AND EVEN CONTINUAL SUFFERING ARE NO BAR TO PROFOUND AND FRUITFUL STUDY, WHEN CONQUERED BY A STRONG WILL AND INSPIRED BY A LOFTY PURPOSE. As the north aisle of the chapel is devoted to the commemoration of long service and great affection for the school, in the south aisle the Harrovians who have laid down their lives for their country in war find a just and solemn commemoration. The aisle itself was built, as has been said, in memory of the Harrovians who fell in the Crimean War ; their names and ages are recorded — many of them were little more than boys — on the brass which runs along its full length. At their head, above the western door, is the monument to the Hon. C. W. H. Agar, whose name, engraven upon another monument, is the first or almost the first that meets the eye of one who enters the English cemetery at Sebastopol. To Harrovian hearts no name is dearer than that of Captain George Lockwood, the hero of Mr. Bowen's stirring poem. But every war enriches Harrow with memorials of noble deaths, every war augments the monuments in the school chapel ; and he must be dull of heart who can look without emotion upon the names of the three distinguished Harrovian soldiers — General Earle, Lord St. Vincent, and Colonel Burnaby — who fell together in the Soudan, or of that young Harrovian, who died but the other day upon the height of Pentepigadia, and is now commemorated by the latest addition to the tablets in the chapel, Clement Harris. All these are interesting and touching memorials, and yet they yield, it may be truly said, in interest and pathos to the memorials of boys who have died at HaiTOW during their school lives. It is impossible to enumerate these memorials. But what a tale they tell of bright hopes darkened and loving hearts left desolate and sad ! Among all these the tablets commemorating the two sons of Matthew Arnold, who died within four years of one another ; of Cottrell, who was killed in a moment upon the cricket- field but a few days before he would have played in the great match at Lord's ; and of one other boy, of whose parents it is written, " Beside him they had neither son nor daughter," suffice to reveal the wealth of son-ow that lies, amidst much that is radiant and happy, in the nature of public-school life. But let me come to the chapel services themselves. At Harrow it has never been thought well to multiply services. Dr. Arnold felt a dread of holding many services for boys, and the headmasters of Harrow have felt it. They have thought HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL 133 that, if they should err in this matter, it were better to err on the side of too httle than of too much. For all school life is preparatory for the future, and it is little good to compel boys to attend services at school, if they leave school with a feeling of dislike and disgust for religious worship. I remember meeting in a foreign land a young man who told me, not knowing who I was, that he had been made to go to chapel fifteen times a week for five years at an English public school, and that, when he left school, he resolved not to enter a church for five years. In religion, as in other things, it is not familiarity which excites reverence. Speaking for my- self, I cannot doubt it should be the object of one who is responsible for the spiritual welfare of the young that they may be attentive and devout in the house of God, and may feel a prepossession for divine worship, and when they leave school may own to themselves that, among the many happy hours they have spent there, not the least happy — not the least delightful — were spent in the chapel. At Harrow, too, it has been the effort to make the services, as far as possible, such that all the boys may take part in them. There are, it seems to me, only two ways in which a school chapel service can be made deeply impressive and influential upon boys'* minds. One is when the service is conducted with much of the artistic elaboration that is felt to be appropriate to a cathedral ; but this is impossible, except in some few schools. The other is when it appeals by its simplicity to the co-operation of all the boys. An intermediate service between these seems to fail. The congregational character of the service at Harrow has often struck visitors. The chants are simple. The hymns are familiar. The singing is in unison. The responding is left to the congregation as a whole. It cannot be justly said that the effect is artistic. But it will not be regarded as unsuccessful, if it induces the largest number of boys to feel themselves partners in the devotions and supplica- tions of public worship. And I do not know any school chapel in which divine service is so general, so heartfelt, so inspiring. But no account of Harrow School chapel would be adequate if it did not try to estimate the influence of the sermons preached there. When I came to Harrow, I was greatly struck by the feeling of the boys for the weekly sermon ; they looked for it as an element in their lives, they attended to it, and passed judgment upon it. They seemed to feel, as I have often felt, that the headmaster's opportunity of speaking to them on holy ground, and of getting, as it were, in touch with them, and coming to be understood by them, and, above all, of laying before them his concep- tion of duty and truth and religion, was something that neither he nor they could well afford to lose. The Harrow of the past has indeed been fortunate in preachers. Three successive headmasters, Dr. Wordsworth, Dr. Vaughan, and Dr. Butler, and other masters, such as Bishop Westcott, Dean Farrar, Dr. Pears, Dr. Bradby, Mr. John Smith, and Mr. Robertson, have created a noble tradition of Christian eloquence and piety. It would ill become me to criticise or compare the sermons of these preachers, though I cannot, at this time especially, forget the lucidity, the perfect grace of thought and expression, and the penetrating insight into human nature, which are the unmistakable characteristics of Dr. Vaughan''s. It is enough that in the reverent regard of Harrow boys for the word spoken to them from the pulpit — a regard so conspicuous that it cannot be mistaken even by strangers — I 134 HARROW SCHOOL recognise gladly and gratefully the strong influence of those who have gone before me at Harrow. But influence, especially the influence of the pulpit, is a secret, as it is a sacred, thing. The preacher casts his bread upon the waters ; he knows not if he shall find it again. He hopes, sometimes even against hope, that the words spoken in his Master's name may bear some fruit. It may be that the boys who have worshipped with him in the school chapel will some day, at home or in far-distant lands, recall some memory of his teaching. It may be ; he cannot feel sure that it will be. But that the services of the chapel at Harrow have been dear to some young hearts, this I believe — this indeed I may even claim to know. J. E. C. Welldon. CHAPTER XV HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS In writing this paper I have been helped partly by documents once in , my father's possession, partly by the trust-deeds of the various benefactors, partly by friends, like Lord Spencer, Mr. C. S. Roundell, and the Rev. B. H. Drury, and largely, of course, by my own memory of facts and persons. For nearly two hundred and fifty years, i.e. from 1571 to about 1818, Harrow would appear to have had no benefactor beyond its generous Founder, John Lyon. No considerable gift,^ that I am aware of, was ever made to the school in lands, in money, in buildings, or even in books, till towards the close of the second decade of this century. The Harrow of our mythical and post-mythical heroes ; the Harrow of Sir William Jones, Dr. Parr, and R. B. Sheridan ; the Harrow of our five Prime Ministers, Perceval, Goderich, Peel, Aberdeen, Palmerston ; the Harrow of our first generation of Poets, Byron and Procter — knew nothing of Chapel, or Speech-Room, or Library, or separate Schoolrooms, or Laboratories, or Music- School, or Museum, or Art -School, or Sanatorium, or Gymnasium, or Carpenter's shop, or Football-field, or Racket-courts, or Fives-courts. They grew up, these scholars and statesmen and poets, without prizes, without scholarships, without Prolusiones. One cricket-ground of some seven acres, secured to them by an Act of Parliament, this and the old schoolyard at the top of the hill appear to have sufficed them for bodily exercise and even for the good fellowship in which games play so large a part. Sic Jhrtis Etruria crevit. Masters were planning, scholars and students were somehow growing, boy -life was blossoming out into many a vigorous and patriotic career, but the time of " benefactors "" was not yet. The nineteenth century must always figure in the history of Harrow as pre- eminently the " age of benefactors," a " golden age " in this sense, at least, if not in higher senses also. In this respect it is hard to believe that any future century can compete with it. The spirit of benefactors will, no doubt, live on year after year, but the field has been preoccupied in so many directions that it will not be very easy to find fresh lines of beneficence. It will be the object of the following pages to show how the first race of bene- ^ See, however, pp. 30, 57, from which it appears that in 1628 Mr. John Page bequeathed £20 to the school, and in 1680 a piece of land adjoining the schoolyard was purchased, presumably by the Governors, ''for the schollers' recreation." 136 HARROW SCHOOL factors began. I wish I could in all cases reveal the inner as well as the outer history of their benefactions— the thoughts, the hopes, the feelings, the affections which prompted or accompanied their gifts. These would be found very various, sometimes the death of a wife, or husband, or son, or memory of a dear friend ; sometimes the successes of a the simple wish to encourage some pursuit, intellectual sufficiently domesticated at Harrow. By all these kind-hearted benefactors have been drawn. If this human side of them is too often '^^ forgotten, if a happy boy who wins the J i^ "Jones," or the " Strangford,'' or the " Bourchier," or the "Greg- ory,"' or the "Clayton," or the " Macna- mara," knows or thinks but little of pathetic inci dents to which those several benefactions owe their birth. father; sometimes the gifted son ; sometimes or physical, not yet " cords of a man " our the ^r";3}i The Old Schools. it is but the common destiny. The benefactor dies, and becomes a gray shadow of the past. His energy, his enlightenment, his affection, perhaps his sorrows and bereavements, are forgotten, but the benefit and the beneficiaries live on. It must have been about 1818 that Dr. George Butler, who had become head- master at Easter 1805, began the effort which occupied him till his resignation at HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 137 Easter 1829. The object of this effort was to provide, by the "voluntary sub- scriptions of old Harrovians and connections of the school, an addition to the school buildings, for the joint purposes of instruction and public speaking." The building was to be in direct contact with the old school of John Lyon, and to " comprise a handsome speech-room and libraiy on the first floor, and, above these, five spacious apartments, available for the purposes of instruction." These last words are quoted from a notice issued officially 1st January 1828. It also states that on Speech-day, 3rd June 1819, the first stone of the new building was laid by the Earl of Clarendon, the senior Governor, "in presence of a very numerous assemblage of visitors." How long the design, which was then so auspiciously carried into effect, had been growing in the mind either of the headmaster or of other friends of the school, there is, so far as I am aware, no record. To judge from the names of the com- mittee and from the subscription list, it must have been well received. Among the donors, besides the headmaster, who gave d^500, and some eight of his colleagues, who gave between them 200 guineas, we find the names of the Dukes of Devonshire and Grafton, the Marquess of Hastings, K.G. (Governor-General of India), the Earls of Aberdeen, K.T., Clarendon, De la Warr, Euston, Gower, Grosvenor, Hardwicke, Harrowby, Ossory, Pembroke, Plymouth, Rawdon, Spencer, Verulam, Winchilsea, Winterton, Viscounts Acheson, Ashley, Boyle, Cole, Dalmeny, Folke- stone, Goderich, Loftus, Normanby, Palmerston, the Bishops of Clogher, Cloyne, Lichfield, Peterborough, Lords Arden, Calthorpe, Churchill, Cranstoun, A. Hamilton, H. M. Howard, Kenyon, Charles L. Kerr, Lilford, Lyttelton, Macdonald, Newport, Northwick, Ossulston, Ramsay, St. John, the Right Hon. Robert Peel, M.P. ; Hon. W. I. Ponsonby, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bart., M.P. ; Sir Harry Calvert, Bart., G.C.B. ; Sir J. Ramsay, Bart. ; Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Rev. Dr. Parr, Spencer Perceval, Esq., M.P. ; Lieut. -Col. Wildman of Newstead Abbey. The inscription on the portico of the new building, above the school steps, ran as follows : — lOANNES LYON SCHOLAM CONDIDIT A. S. MDLXXII. GUBERNATORES VETUSTATE CORRUITAM AUCTO CULTU EEFECERUNT A. S. MDCCCXIX. Dr. Butler''s circular, stating the full objects in view and inviting subscriptions, was issued from time to time till he left in 1829, and always bore the motto : — Si quantum cuperem, possem quoque. The total sum subscribed for this first benefaction amounted to about ,£8000. Gifts of books to the new library, which were earnestly solicited, came in rapidly, and from many illustrious donors. Most of them were very handsomely bound. The Harrovian might provide not a few interesting articles by recording the names of some of these donors, the titles of their gifts, and the gradual growth of the library up to 1863, when the books and pictures, and all the treasures that had accumulated in the monitors' library during some forty years, were removed reverently to the new " Vaughan Library," which was henceforward to be their home. 138 HARROW SCHOOL The next benefaction in point of time is explained in a note, still extant, in the writing of Dr. George Butler : — 1820. " Three prizes were proposed by Dr. Butler, headmaster, at his own expense, each five guineas, for the best Greek Sapphics, Latin Hexameters, English verse. The English verses did not seem to him sufficiently good for a prize. He therefore gave two prizes for Latin Hexameters. In the year 1821 or 1822 the Governors determined to give these prizes at the expense of the school funds. Thus originated the Governors'" prizes." On this note it may be observed, first, that all the prize exercises of 1820, 1821, 1822 are preserved in MS. in the Vaughan Library ; secondly, that in 1820, when no English poem was thought worthy of a prize, the gifted poet, Isaac Williams, gained the second prize for Hexameters ; thirdly, that in 1821 Latin Alcaics took the place of English verse ; fourthly, that in 1823 Greek Iambics were substituted for the Greek Sapphic ode in the ^Eolic dialect. The original institution of the Sapphic ode was probably in imitation of the customs of Cambridge, where, during Dr. Butler"'s youthful life at Sidney Sussex College, Sir William Browne's medal for the Greek ode had been won by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1792, and by Samuel Butler, the future headmaster of Shrewsbury, in 1794. The subsequent substitution of Iambics may have been due to the fact that the « Porson Prize," founded in 1817, was won in 1820 by W. H. Fox Talbot, the inventor of the famous Talbot-type, to whom my father often referred as the ablest of all his long list of pupils, remarkable even then for his attainments both in literature and in mathematics. The first boy to win all the three new prizes in one year — or, as the phrase afterwards ran, to " get his name across the board " — was Edward Kent Karslake, in 1837. The next benefaction is one of the most interesting of all. In 1825 the Right Hon. Robert Peel, M.P., then Home Secretary, informed Dr. George Butler of his wish to give annually a gold medal for an original oration or essay in Latin prose. The correspondence between the donor and the headmaster has been pre- served, and may be read in the Vaughan Library. It gives a very pleasing picture of PeeFs scholarship, good sense, attachment to Harrow, and simplicity of character. The first letter in the series, dated Whitehall, 18th July 1825, discusses the title and description of the proposed prize : — " I know not," he says to Dr. Butler, " that any terms could be better chosen for the record of my intentions than those which you have made use of in speaking of my proposal, an annual Gold Medal for the encouragement of prose composi- tion in Latin at Harrow School. " This leaves an unlimited discretion to the headmaster as to the choice of topics, and it might be very useful, in my opinion, that full power should be given to vary the subjects of composition — that in one year such discoveries in modern science as can be discussed in tolerably pure Latinity should be selected as the theme, in HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 139 another a strictly classical inquiry, in a third year that the medal should be awarded to the best speech framed for some illustrious character under known circumstances of his history." In a later letter, dated 4th October 1825, Mr. Peel officially communicates his intention to the Governors of the school : — " My Lords and Gentlemen, — Having been educated at Han'ow School, and feeling a warm interest in its welfare, I am induced to submit for your considera- tion a proposal calculated, I hope, to promote the sound learning, by exciting the honourable emulation, of the scholars.*" During more than another year further discussion followed as to the design and inscription of the medal, and as to the designation of the founder in correct Latin. On all these points Sir Robert expresses himself characteristically : — " I prefer the head of Cicero to anything which has occurred to me. Should there be on the reverse a very simple Latin inscription ? " (1st July 1826). Again, " I believe no single word could be found conveying what we mean so correctly as Eloquentia. ... I prefer it to dissertatio or declamatio. . . . Would it not be more appropriate to the occasion (if any addition be made to my name) to add simply Harroviensis instead of Senator^ etc. .''... I wish, in some way or other, to commemorate that I was at Harrow School, that circumstance being more connected with the institution of the medal than the circumstance of my being a Member of Parliament or a Secretary of State " (29th July 1826). Once more, " I prefer your first suggestion, Eloquentia^ to Stylus^ notwithstand- ing the authority for the latter word. It seems odd that Styhis, which would satisfy perfectly a Roman ear, should in any way grate upon mine. The only reason can be that it is too like the English derivative, and that it offends for the same reason that very good Latin, if it chance to be a literal translation of a common English phrase, pleases less than that which is purely Latin and not English. I think I have read somewhere that either Cicero or Quintilian uses the phrase oi ponere picturam in bono lumine,^ which not you, but the half-learned like myself, would probably strike out of a boy's theme as a very bald translation of English" (10th January 1827). The inscription finally agreed upon is familiar now to many generations of Harrovians : — ELOQUENTIAE LATINAE PllAEMIUM ANNUUM ROBERTUS PEEL HARROVIENSIS HARROVIENSIBUS PROPOSUIT. A. S. MDCCCXXVI. It must have been a great satisfaction to the founder when the first Peel ^ Mr. Peel is probably referring to Cicero, De Claris Oratoribus, cap. 75, sect. 261 : — "Turn videtur tamquam tabulas bene pictas collocare in bono lumine." 140 HARROW SCHOOL Medal was won by Thomas Dyke Acland, eldest son of his old school-fellow, Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, and still more when it fell to his own son Frederick in 1841. The medal, it may be added, was also won in 1885 and 1886 by his two grandsons, W. R. W. Peel and A. G. V. Peel, sons of the famous Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Viscount Peel and a Governor of Harrow School. The exercises which gained the Peel Medal were at first printed separately, and recited, in part, on Speech-day. They have been bound together, and can be read in the library. Their length, their good Latinity, and the range of thought and read- ing which they display are a gratifying proof of the serious and even enthusiastic spirit with which Mr. Peel's foundation was welcomed. In 1838 they were bound up with the other Prolusiones. In 1827 the Governors instituted scholarships of £30 for four years from the Founder's estate. These were long known as the " Governors'," or the " Lyon," Scholarships. They lasted till 1874. The first Lyon scholars were Nutcombe Oxenham (brother of the Rev. William Oxenham, afterwards lower master) and F. Ley bourne Popham. The two last Lyon scholars were Viscount Ebrington, 1872, and, in 1874, G. W. Tallents, then head of the school. On 5th February 1829 John Sayer, Esq., of Wick House, near Worcester, and formerly one of the Senior Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, who had delivered the Contio as head of the school in 1770, founded two scholarships of fifty guineas each for four years, "for the promotion of classical learning and taste." Each Sayer scholar was to become a member of Gonville and Caius College. It is known that both Dr. Butler and Mr. Henry Drury did what could be done with propriety to induce Mr. Sayer to give the scholarship without any restriction as to University or College, but he adhered to his original purpose. He was deeply attached both to his school and to his College, as may be gathered from the Deed of Gift : " out of regard towards the said school of Harrow, at which he commenced his education, and likewise towards the said College of Gonville and Caius in the University of Cambridge, at which he finished his education." The first Sayer Scholarship was won in 1830 by Henry Drury, eldest son of the lower master, afterwards editor of the Arundines Cami, chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, vicar of Bemerton, etc. In 1835 it was won again by his brother, Benjamin Heath Drury, for many years an assistant master at Harrow, and now (1897) Senior Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. This was the last benefaction during Dr. George Butler's headmastership. It should perhaps be added that, during his twenty-four years of office, he himself spent d£'l 2,000 on the improvement of the headmaster's house, the house which was burned down in 1838. The headmastership of Dr. Christopher Wordsworth lasted from 1836 to the end of 1844. During these eight years there were not a few important additions to the resources of the school. In 1838 the first school chapel was built, by a general subscription. Of this enterprise Dr. Wordsworth was himself the life and soul. It was, in truth, a brave " venture of faith," as the numbers of the school at that time were not large, and the project, in the then state of public opinion, HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 141 was not likely to receive very general or very eager support. But Dr. Words- worth persevered, and himself contributed very handsomely. Dr. Longley also, the new Bishop of Ripon, gave a liberal subscription. The site was a gift from Dr. George Butler, who offered as much land as was needed, and specially advised that the west front of the building should be set back at some distance from the road ; but it was found that this would add seriously to the cost of the foundations, which in any case was formidable. The first stone of the chapel was laid on the Speech-day 4th July, a day which has been the witness of many leading incidents in the history of Harrow. At the close of the speeches a very large body of guests went down to the site selected. A special form of prayer was read by the headmaster, after which the Earl of Aberdeen, one of the Governors, the future Prime Minister of 1853, " with due masonic precision " laid the first stone, on which was inlaid a gilt brass plate with the inscription : — GEORGIUS COMES DE ABERDEEN IV NOK. QUINTIL. A. S. CIOIOCCCXXXVIII FUSIS CIRCUMSTANTIUM PRECIBUS AD DEUM OPTIMUM MAXIMUM UTI COEPl'A PROSPERARET SACELLI SCHOLAE HARROVIENSIS PIETATI FOVENDAE DESTINATI LAPIDEM AUSPICALEM STATUIT. Lord Aberdeen afterwards spoke impressively to the assembly, particularly to the boys of the school. Later on followed a luncheon in a pavilion, at which more than three hundred guests were present. The day was a very happy one, one of the " red-letter " days of Harrow. But the year 1838, hitherto so full of hope and promise, was not to end without a great disaster. Within less than four months from this brilliant Speech-day, on 22nd October, the house of the headmaster and of all his boarders was burnt to the ground. To return to special benefactions. In that same year, 1838, just after leaving the school, Mr. Alexander James Beresford-Hope founded his prize for translation into Greek prose, out of the proceeds of the Lyon Scholarship which he had won the year before. His warm affection for the school was a marked feature in his chivalrous and kindly nature. He supported munificently every movement for the welfare of Harrow, and in the last months of his life was chairman of a small committee for erecting a Harrow memorial to his beloved friend and former master. Dr. Wordsworth. A later generation may be reminded that Mr. Beresford-Hope, who married Lady Mildred Cecil, sister of the present Marquess of Salisbury, repre- sented the University of Cambridge in Parliament from 1868 to his death in 142 HARROW SCHOOL 1887. In 1885 he was made a Privy Councillor. His name will be gratefully re- membered in connexion with many good and pious works, among them the restoration of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, and of the Master's Lodge at Trinity College, Cambridge. His two sons were educated at Harrow. In the year 1839 two scholarships were founded by Mr. Joseph Neeld, M.P., of Grittleton. They were limited to Oxford and to classics, the latter limitation being suggested by Mr. Henry Drury. The value of each was £S0 a year for three years. Twelve years afterwards, in 1851, the same Mr. Neeld founded a gold medal for the special encouragement of mathematics. In November 1838 Mr. Richard Gregory made a will containing two important bequests out of regard to the memory of his first wife, Isabella, and to the free grammar school of John Lyon. First, " for the promotion of science and literature," he desired to found " a Harrow exhibition, to be called Isabella Gregory's Exhibi- tion, for the benefit of" Harrow boys going to Cambridge or Oxford. The value of this exhibition was to be i?100 a year. The duration of the tenure became the subject of lengthy litigation. It was first fixed at three years, then at six years, and finally at four years. Besides the exhibition, Mr. Gregory, also out of regard for the memory of his wife, founded an annual gold medal of the value of ^10, to be called the Isabella Gregory Medal, " for the encouragement of Latin composition in prose." Some of the language of the trust-deed is interesting, as being largely based on Mr. Peel's letter ^ to Dr. Butler, 18th July 1825. "The choice," it says, "of successive topics for the above-mentioned Latin composition in prose shall be left to the sole discretion of the headmaster, . . . whether he shall prefer a strictly classical inquiry, an historical disquisition, a speech from some illustrious character under known circumstances of his history, a moral essay, such discoveries in modern science as can be discussed in pure Latinity, or whatever else may appear to him more eligible." The first Gregory Exhibition, or Scholarship, was won in 1840 by Mr. Henry Musgrave Wilkins, afterwards Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. The first Gregory Medal was won in 1846 by Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, son of the Rev. William Oxenham, lower master. In the same year Mr. H. Oxenham obtained a Balliol Scholarship at Oxford. Mr. R. Gregory further bequeathed to the Governors his copy of Valpy's Delphin Classics, very handsomely bound, with variorum notes, consisting of 141 volumes, called the Regent's Edition, with a direction that it should be placed in the school library. During the headmastership of Dr. Vaughan, 1844-59, many benefactions of great importance were added. A new house was built for the headmaster at a cost of .£'4000, to which Mr. Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, M.P. for Northumberland, contributed ^1000. His three sons were members of the school as home boarders, under the special care of a tutor, Mr. Botcherby. Dr. Vaughan himself, in 1845, instituted two annual prizes for an English essay and an English poem, and this time the attempt to encourage English poetry did not, as in 1820, prove a failure. On the contrary, the poem of Robert Alvey 1 Vide p. 138. HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 143 Darwin, who died early, is one of the best that has ever adorned the Harrow Prolusiones. Its subject was IgTiatkcs Loyola. That of Henry Oxenham, two years later, on " Cologne Cathedral," was deservedly much admired. In 1856 Dr. Vaughan instituted prizes for proficiency in Natural Science, hitherto a stranger to Harrow's regular studies ; and, further, for several years before his resignation, he gave a scholarship of £^0 for three years on the same footing as the other scholar- ships. Also, he gave four prizes yearly for the encouragement of Latin prose and Latin verse translation in the Fifth Form. In 1851 he enlarged and greatly improved the school bathing -place — originally "Duck-puddle," and of late years abbreviated into "Ducker" — at a heavy cost. But the principal visible achievement of his time was the entire rebuilding of the school chapel, 1854-57, the beautiful chancel, which cost ,^£'2500, being his own personal gift. The building, apart from the chancel, was raised by a general subscription, to which the masters largely contributed. The south aisle was a memorial aisle, in honom- of those Harrovian officers who died in the Crimean War of 1854-56. The foundation-stone of this part of the chapel was laid on Speech-day, 26th June 1856, by Sir William Fen wick Williams of Kars, soon after his gallant defence of that fortress in Trans-Caucasia and his subsequent release from imprisonment in Russia. The occasion was most moving, and in every way memorable. The architect of the new chapel was Mr., afterwards Sir Gilbert, Scott, R.A. About the same time the new school buildings were erected, to the north of the chapel, by a general subscription among the masters, and by annual payments from the parents of boys then in the school. It is impossible to record these material benefactions of Dr. Vaughan's time with- out recalling, however briefly and inadequately, the unique position which he must for ever hold among Harrow Benefactors. In 1844 he found the numbers of the school below 70. When he left at the end of 1859, they were nearer 500 than 400. He resigned, it may be truly said, amid the grateful plaudits of the whole Harrow world, leaving behind him memories of benefits, intellectual and spiritual, which few men in any generation have at once the opportunity and the capacity to bestow. In 1851 Frederick, fourth Earl Spencer, K.G., founded a scholarship of £^0 for three years. In the trust-deed it was provided that mathematics should always form part of the examination. Lord Spencer's father,^ elder brother,^ and two sons ^ were all members of the school. He had himself commanded H.M.S. Talbot at the battle of Navarino in 1827. In 1852 Viscount Ebrington, M.P., an old Harrovian and an intimate friend of Dr. Vaughan at Trinity College, Cambridge, founded prizes for proficiency in French and German. He also, in 1857, instituted annual challenge cups for 1 John George, second Earl, First Lord of the Admiralty and Home Secretary in Mr. Pitt's Administration. 2 John Charles, third Earl, leader in the House of Commons, as Lord Althorp, of the Government which carried the Reform Bill, 1832. 3 The present Earl Spencer, K.G., Chairman of the Governors of Harrow; Right Hon. C. Robert Spencer, 1897. 144 HARROW SCHOOL athletics in various departments, including swimming. These prizes after 1869 became known as the Fortescue Prizes, the donor having succeeded his father as Earl Fortescue. Five sons of Lord Fortescue were educated at Harrow. The eldest, Viscount Ebrington, won the Lyon Scholarship in 1872. In 1852 Mr. Beriah Botfield, F.R.S., well known as a collector of books, and an active member of the Roxburghe Society, founded an annual gold medal, out of regard towards the school at Harrow, and for the promotion of the study of modern languages and literature. Here again, as in the case of the Gregory Medal, the language of the Deed shows careful thought on the part of the founder. " The choice of language," he prescribes, "whether French, German, Italian, or other modern lanffuaffe other than English ... shall be left to the sole discretion of the headmaster, . . . But, the object of the founder of the medal being to encourage general proficiency in modern languages, the course of examination shall always include a translation from some English classic author into the selected foreign language, and a translation from some classic writer of that language into English, and grammatical, philological, and general questions relating to the language and subject-matter of the work, or works, specially selected for study ; and, if the head- master shall think it desirable, an original essay on a historical, political, or moral subject." To this medal Mr. Botfield added by bequest, in 1863, a scholarship of £60 a year for three years. " His best known literary work," as I gather from the Rev. B, H. Drury, " is the collection of the prefaces of the Editiones Principes of the classics." During the long period of Dr. H. Montagu Butler''s headmastership, from January 1860 to August 1885, benefactions of all kinds — in land, in buildings, in scholarships, in prizes — flowed in freely and almost without interruption. In 1861 came the " Vaughan Library," in memory of the distinguished and beloved headmaster. It was erected on a site which belonged in part to the Governors, in part, on the side next to the chapel, to Mr. Clutterbuck, the owner of the Crown and Anchor public-house. In order to secure this northern part of the site, it was necessary to buy out Mr. Clutterbuck, by giving him another public-house at the top of the hill going down to the cricket-ground. Not till then was it possible to pull down the Crown and Anchor stables which adjoined the chapel. This preliminary operation involved an expenditure of nearly d£'3500. Other small houses, which fronted the street near the headmaster's house, were also cleared away, and on Speech-day, 4th July 1861, the first stone of the Vaughan Library was laid by Viscount Palmerston, K.G., then Prime Minister. The long-expected function took place under torrents of rain, which the veteran statesman, trowel in hand, described gaily as " fertilising showers," to which he was pleased to compare the educational influences of the Harrow masters. After the ceremony, declining to take any refreshment, he rode back through the rain to London, and appeared a few hours afterwards in the House of Commons. He was then nearly seventy -seven years of age. The Vaughan Library was opened on Speech-day, 2nd July 1863. This beautiful building, designed, like the chapel, by Mr. Gilbert Scott, R.A., cost in all about <£1 2,000, to which Mr. W^. H. Stone, Fellow of Trinity College, HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 145 Cambridge, and afterwards a Governor of the school, contributed <£*1000. This munificent gift, coming at a critical moment when the nature of the memorial to Dr. Vaughan was a little uncertain, materially helped towards the decision in favour of a library. About 1850 a sum of £600 had been raised by subscription in memory of the great Sir Robert Peel, who died on 2nd July that year. The interest from this fund was devoted to the purchase of books bearing mainly on oratory, history, political memoirs, political economy, and art. In 1865 the new Vaughan Library was for the first time largely augmented by books purchased by the " Peel Memorial Fund." In the same year Sir Gardner Wilkinson, F.R.S., presented to the school a very valuable collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities ; to which, in the year 1873, he added a collection of coins and medals. He has been known to say more than once that he dated his interest in art and archasology from remarks that fell from Dr. George Butler in school hours at Harrow. TLTie next work taken in hand was a Sanatorium for the reception of boys in sickness, especially in cases of infectious sickness. During the Lent term of 1861, in consequence of an epidemic of scarlatina, in which one of the boys had died, the school broke up, hurriedly and almost in a panic, a fortnight before the regular time. In order to guard against such panics in future, and to do all that was possible for the health of the boys, the Sanatorium was begun in 1862. The expense, more than =£'5000, was defrayed by large voluntary subscriptions from masters and old Harrovians, as well as by a capitation tax paid voluntarily by the parents of the boys. The architect was Mr. C. F. Hayward. In 1866 it was resolved to purchase a new cricket-ground near the pond at Roxeth. This ground had been rented and used by the school for something less than twenty years. It was now necessary either to buy it, or to let it pass for ever into other hands for building purposes. The price asked for some seven acres was ^£"5000. Towards this sum nearly d£'3000 was contributed by the head- master, twelve of the assistant-masters, and an accumulation of school funds just then available. A sum of ^£'4000, further, was subscribed by old friends of the school, very largely through the energy of the Hon. Robert Grimston. Something like d£'2000 went to the legal expenses and towards fencing, levelling, and generally preparing the ground for cricket purposes. Shortly before 1871, the three -hundredth year from the date of the Charter given by Queen Elizabeth to John Lyon, there was much private consultation as to the best way of commemorating so marked an occasion in the history of the school. At last it was determined to raise, if possible, by subscription, a sum of not less than ,£'30,000, and to build with it first a large new Speech-room, and then, if the money subscribed was sufficient, rooms for the teaching of Natural Science and a Gymnasium. All these works were carried out. The Lyon Memorial Fund, including large gifts from the masters, as well as from old Harrovians and friends of the school, amounted in 1885 to upwards of ,£'38,000. Mr. W. Burges was selected as the architect for the Speech-room, mainly on the recommendation of Mr. Beresford-Hope. The first stone was laid by the first Duke of Abercorn, the Senior Governor, on Speech-day, 2nd July 1874, and L 146 HARROW SCHOOL the new building was opened just three years after on Speech-day, 5th July 1877. The site was purchased for <£*3000 from Mrs. Russell Gurney, wife of the Recorder of London, and nearly £4>000 had to be expended on making sure the foundations before a single brick appeared above the surface. An organ, costing some <£'1600, was placed in the eastern part of the building, which had been specially designed for that purpose. For the purchase of this fine instrument a special fund was formed. The Science Schools and Laboratories were opened in 1874. They cost about £6000. The cost of the Gymnasium was about .£4000. It was opened in 1873. The architect of both these buildings was Mr. C. F. Hayward. The garden below the chapel terrace was the first purchase made from the Lyon Memorial Fund. It was bought from the family of Dr. George Butler. It may be well to add here that the large building to the east of the science schools, consisting of schoolrooms below and a Museum above, was erected not, like all other buildings previously, by subscription, but by school funds administered by the Governors. It cost d£*10,000, and was opened on Speech-day, 1st July 1886. The architect was Mr. Basil Champneys. In 1883 a new Pavilion was erected on the old school cricket-ground. It was the gift of some former scholars and other friends of the school. In 1884 a large addition was made to the cricket-ground on the farther side of the Roxeth road. The cost was defrayed by many friends, as a mark of respect and regard to the memory of the Hon. Robert Grimston, a younger brother of the fourth Earl of Verulam who for many years was Chairman of the Governors. Any remark on the personality of Mr. Grimston and Lord Bessborough is, in this generation, super- fluous and almost impertinent. Should these few lines be read by Harrovians thirty or fifty years hence, let them serve to confirm the tradition, which will doubtless by that time have gathered form and colour, that for half a century these two friends held quite a unique place in the affections of Harrow men, both yoiuig and old, as almost daily visitors in the summer, as promoters of every im- portant Harrow enterprise, and as devoted advisers in all that concerned the favourite game of cricket. Meanwhile numerous scholarships and prizes had been founded. In 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Charles James Leaf came to reside at Harrow for the education of their two sons, Walter and Herbert. Their presence, at the same time as that of Lord Charles Russell and Mr. Matthew Arnold, added gi-eatly to the interest of Harrow society. Mr. Leaf, besides giving £100 in 1866 to the new cricket-ground, was among the first to subscribe to our great Tercentenary effort in 1871, by paying down £1000. In 1870 he had founded a scholarship, without any restrictions, of £70 for three years, " out of the regard and attachment which he and his wife, Isabella Ellen Leaf, have for the school of Harrow ; and in commemoration of the successful career of their son, Walter Leaf, at the said school, and from a desire to advance sound learning and education." In the examination for this scholarship the founder did not care that Greek verse or Latin verse composition should count. He did not insist on the omission of these subjects as a condition, but if ever it should be thought expedient to omit them from the examination, the desire of the founder would be fulfilled rather than contravened. HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 147 Mr. Leaf, on leaving Harrow, settled for a time at Pains Hill, Weybridge, Mr. Matthew Arnold becoming his tenant at Pains Hill Cottage just below. His elder son Walter left Harrow at sixteen as the most advanced scholar in the school, winning a Major Scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became Craven Scholar, Senior Classic, and Fellow of his College. Some years after, he was made a Governor of Han'ow School, and is famous among classical scholars as the editor of Homer. His younger brother Herbert shares with Mr. C. S. Roundell the unique distinction, since the almost mythical precedent of the three Lloyds in 1805, 1808, 1812, of having been at the same time head of the school and captain of the cricket Eleven. In this latter capacity he had the delight of making the winning hit at Lord's in the match against Eton, 1873, by a fourer to the boundary. In 1879 Mrs. Anna Maria Anderson founded a scholarship, unrestricted, of the value of d£^50 for three years, in memory of her son, Douglas Edward Anderson, who died on 5th March 1871, at the early age of twenty. In so doing, she carried out the expressed desire of her son as a mark of his affection for the school. He was a boy of unusual promise. His graceful figure, engaging maimers, and oratorical power, all seemed to mark him out for distinction. In 1869 the "Modern Side" was founded, under the special management of Mr. E. E. Bowen, This step soon led to the institution of " Modern " scholarships and prizes. In 1878 a scholarship, "for the encouragement of modern studies," was founded by subscription, on the part of the friends of Captain William Clayton Clayton, 9th Royal Lancers, who was killed while playing at polo on Christmas Day 1876, at Delhi, in India. He was greatly beloved at Harrow and in his regiment, and had taken an active part, a few years before, in putting up the monumental pillars in the chapel in memory of his dear friend Henry Arkwright, who was overwhelmed by an avalanche on Mont Blanc. In 1881 a second scholarship was founded, " for the encouragement of a liberal course of modern study at the school," by Mr. William Roundell, as a mark of regard for his old school, at which his father, three brothers, and two sons were educated. His father was the Rev. Danson Richardson Roundell, of Screven and Gledstone, Skipton in Craven, Yorkshire ; his brothers were John Richardson Roundell, who was drowned accidentally at Oxford in 1840 ; Richard Roundell, who died a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 75th Regiment; and Mr. Charles Savile Roundell, who was head of the school and captain of the cricket Eleven in 1845 and 1846, and in 1869 was chosen by the masters to be one of the Governors of the school. Mr. C. S. Roundell was for many years a member of Parliament. In 1882 a third " Modern " scholarship of d^30 for three years, " special regard being had to modern languages, mathematics, and natural science," was founded by Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, sixth Earl of Bessborough. This remarkable man, the most widely beloved in his time of all old Harrovians, will chiefly, no doubt, be remembered, with his friend Robert Grimston, for his devotion, during more than fifty years, to the cricket of the boys. But he was also very desirous that they should give themselves earnestly to literary and scientific studies, and for many years — from 1865 to the time of his death — he used to give a prize of books 148 HARROW SCHOOL to the member of the cricket Eleven who for general good conduct and school work, including trials, was considered to be the most deserving. This prize was much valued by the members of the Eleven, largely because of their love for the man. We pass now from scholarships to prizes. From 1861 to 1884 Walter Beaumont, Esq., moved by affection towards the late headmaster. Dr. Vaughan, gave yearly thirty guineas, to be laid out in prizes for knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. These prizes were so distributed as to cover all the three main divisions of the school. Mr. Beaumont was the second son of Mr. Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, M.P. for Northumberland. In 1863 Joseph Jones, Esq., founded a prize of a gold medal for Latin Elegiac verse in memory of his son, Joseph Jones, who was head of the school for one week. He was an able and energetic boy, full of intellectual ambition, and eager to do his duty as head in succession to the two brothers Ridley,^ who had been in the same house, " The Park," 1861 and 1862. He had spent part of the summer holidays of 1862 in special reading for the Balliol Scholarship. A few days before the close of the holidays he had felt unwell, but insisted on returning to his post on the proper day. He read the lesson in chapel at the morning service on the Thursday after the reassembling of the school, then took to his bed, and died early on the following Thursday, 25th September, of a complaint which had been recognised in his childhood sixteen years before, but was supposed to have been long since cured. His parents had no other child. They were broken-hearted by the calamity, and the founding of the " Jones Medal " was a result. The inscription tells the sad story : — HOC PRAEMIO JOSEPHI JONES NOMEN ET EXEMPLUM HARllOVIENSIBUS COMMENDAT NON SINE LACRIMIS PATER SUPERSTES. At the end of 1863 the Rev. William Oxenham, lower master, founded by bequest, just before his death, two annual prizes of £3 each, for Greek and Latin Epigrams. He would have preferred Latin Elegiacs, with which branch of com- position his name had long been connected, but the ground had just been pre- occupied by Mr. Jones. To Mr. Oxenham's bequest the sum of dfi'lOO was added, in 1896, by the will of his son, Mr. Edward Lavington Oxenham. The spire of the chapel, erected by subscription in 1865, was a monument to Mr. Oxenham, a man singularly beloved by his generation. In 1866 John Edward Bourchier bequeathed to the school ^£"1000, to be laid out in four prizes for the encouragement of the study of modern history and English literature. His career at Harrow had been peculiar and pathetic. He ^ Right Hon. Sir Matthew White Ridley, M. P. , Secretary of State for the Home Department, 1897. Hon. Mr. Justice (Edward) Ridley, translator of Lucan's Pharsalia into English blank verse. HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 149 lived for some years as a home-boarder with his mother, Lady Bourchier, the widow of a naval officer of distinction, daughter of Sir Edward Codrington, of Navarino, whose Life she wrote, and sister of General Sir William Codrington, Commander-in-Chief at the close of the Crimean war, and of Admiral Sir Henry Codrington, who fought as a midshipman on board his father's ship at Navarino, at the age of sixteen, and was severely wounded. Lady Bourchier had inherited to the full the courage and high spirit of her race. " Johnny " was her only child, and her life was bound up in him. He was a boy of the purest character, most conscientious and dutiful, a fair classical scholar, and of cultivated tastes. He had no special interest in games, and his health was somewhat delicate. After much deliberation, it was decided that he should enter the headmaster''s house in 1862, and become its head after the summer holidays. This post, sufficiently arduous in itself for a recent home-boarder, was made incomparably more exact- ing by the immediate death of Joseph Jones. Young Bourchier became, in con- sequence, head of the school as well as head of the headmaster''s house, and a hard time he had of it. This burthen he bore with much courage for a whole year, when he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. Soon after this, he showed symptoms of consumption. A visit to Madeira was tried, but proved vain. He died at Bournemouth after much suffering, to the inexpressible grief of his mother ; but before he died, he bequeathed to the school, after much careful thought, the sum of ,£'1000 for the encouragement of the studies which had soothed and delighted him during many months of pain and languor. A portrait of him was placed by his mother in the Vaughan Library, together with a short history of his benefaction. Both mother and son are commemorated by tablets in the chapel. In 1878 the same Lady Bourchier founded four prizes for the encouragement of good reading in English in the various departments of the school. She was par- ticularly desirous that boys should be early accustomed to read the Bible with clearness, intelligence, reverence, and simplicity. For several years she always attended the competitive reading in the Speech-room, coming over for that purpose from Hampton Court, where the Queen had granted her a suite of rooms in recog- nition of the services of her father and brothers. In 1869 Lord Charles James Fox Russell, Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, and brother of Earl Russell, the Prime Minister, founded a gold medal for the encouragement of the study of Shakespeare. The motto, partly a quotation from Francis Bacon, was chosen by himself : " Charles J. Fox Russell to the Boys of Harrow School, that Shakespeare may be to them 'for Delight, Ornament, and Ability."' " On the other side of the medal was the head of the poet, copied from the Chandos portrait, and surrounded by the words of Hamlet, " How noble in Reason ! How infinite in Faculty ! " Lord Charles, with his wife and daughter, lived for several years at Harrow for the education of his son, Mr. George W. E. Russell, who has since attained dis- tinction in Parliament and in literature, and held the offices of Under Secretary of State for India and for the Home Department in Mr. Gladstone's last Administra- tion. Lord Charles was much loved at Harrow, and used often to take up masters of the school and other friends to witness the debates of the House of Commons. 150 HARROW SCHOOL As Serjeant-at-Arms he had several seats in the Speaker"'s Gallery at his disposal. It was as an occupant of one of these that I heard Mr. Gladstone's wonderful speech of more than three hours, introducing the Bill for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. Lord Charles was a warm friend of Lord Bessborough, was, like him, devoted to cricket, and was constantly seen on the school cricket-ground. In 1873 Mr. Cyril Flower, M.P., afterwards Lord Battersea and Overstrand, founded two prizes for the best translation into French and German respectively. In 1876 Emily Anne, daughter of Admiral Beaufort, and Viscountess Strangford, founded, in memory of her late husband, Percy Smythe, eighth Viscount Strangford, three prizes for the encouragement of the study of Geography. Lord Strangford won the Gregory scholarship in 1843, taught himself Hebrew and Arabic while a boy at Harrow, and became highly distinguished as Student Attache at Con- stantinople, and as an extraordinary linguist in the dialects of the Levant. The Deed of Gift describes him as "a scholar at Harrow School in 1841, 1842, 1843, and throughout his life an earnest student of political and physical geography. ... In the belief held by Viscount Strangford that this study of geography is the indis- pensable companion to the study of philology, and that in the combination of these two sciences is to be found the true key to the history of the ancient world . . . these prizes are founded, to commemorate . . . and for the encouragement of others to follow his example." The Selected Writings of Lord Strangford, edited by the Viscountess Strangford, are an important contribution to the study of the "Eastern Question." In 1877 Mr. George Edward Briscoe Eyre founded two prizes for the encourage- ment of Music, the study of which had lately made much advance under Mr. John Farmer. Mr. Eyre, a partner in the firm of Eyre and Spottiswoode, was a boy at " The Grove " boarding-house in Dr. Vaughan's time. In 1879 Mr. Edward Henry Pember, Q.C., founded three annual prizes for the encouragement of Greek and Latin grammar and classical philology, or, in the exact words of the Deed of Gift, " for promoting the knowledge of the structure of the Greek and Latin languages, and of the relation of those languages to other languages, ancient and modern, by students at Harrow School." Mr. Pember was a boy at Harrow in the early part of Dr. Vaughan's mastership, and afterwards obtained a First-Class at Christ Church in Literis Humanioribus, 1854. He subsequently rose to the very highest distinction at the Parliamentary Bar, but continued, during one of the busiest of professional lives, to retain and exhibit a rare mastery of classical literature, both as a skilled translator and as an original poet. His two sons played an important part at Harrow towards the close of Dr. Butler's head mastership. The elder, Francis W. Pember, was head of the school in 1880, and passed a most brilliant career both at Harrow and at Oxford, where he was Balliol, Ireland, and Eldon scholar. His brother, Howard E, Pember, after showing much promise at Oxford, died early in his twenty-sixth year, 29th November 1891. In 1885 the Honourable Ion Grant Neville Keith-Falconer instituted, in memory of his father, Francis Alexander Keith-Falconer, eighth Earl of Kintore, four annual prizes for the study of the Holy Scriptures. After his lamented death at Aden in HARROW BENEFACTORS AND BENEFACTIONS 151 1887, his widow expressed a desire to continue these prizes in his memory. It had been his wish to carry on permanently, in the same manner and on the same scale, viz. some thirty guineas a year, the benefaction which Mr. Walter Beaumont had conferred from 1861 to 1884. Mr. Keith-Falconer was a young man of very rare worth. Had he lived, he could hardly have failed to be eminent. At Harrow he was an entrance scholar, and was educated mainly on the recently instituted " Modern Side " under Mr. E. E. Bowen. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he showed a marked zeal for Oriental languages and for theology. In 1878 he obtained a First-Class in the Theological Tripos, together with the prize for Hebrew. In 1880 he obtained a First-Class in the Semitic Languages Tripos. In 1886 and 1887 he held the Lord Almoner"'s Professorship of Arabic. Armed with this knowledge, and having added to it a knowledge of colloquial Arabic, he went with his recently-wedded wife to Aden, intending to spend there some months of every year as a missionary to the Mahometan Arabs. From his early boyhood in Scotland he had been keenly interested in foreign Christian missions. After a few weeks' residence at Aden, he died of a fever. His Life has been written by his Cambridge friend, Dr. Sinker, Librarian of Trinity College. He was a man of splendid presence, very tall, and with an air of genuine distinction. He was in a rare degree original, daring, intrepid, chivalrous, devout, humble, modest. Charles Gordon, of China and the Soudan, recognised in him a kindred spirit, and tried to secure him as his companion in Palestine in 1884, but this was not possible. It should be added that Mr. Keith-Falconer had an eminent position among the athletes of his day. He was for a time the champion bicyclist, and made ^ the journey from the Land's End to John o' Groat's in thirteen days. During this run, he telegraphed daily to Mr. Bowen at the Grove the places which he had reached. In the same year, 1885, Mr. Frederick Lucas Cook presented to the school chapel a valuable Organ, at a cost of some <£*1100, as a mark of his affection for the school, and also of his respect and regard for Mr. John Farmer, who from 1862 to 1885 had been school organist and instructor in music. In August 1885, on the departure of Dr. Butler, Mr. Farmer, at the invitation of the Rev. Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, transferred his great powers from Harrow to Balliol. Mr. Cook's generous gift of the organ was felt at the time to be a well-deserved tribute to his admirable services and vigorous personality. At this point I ought, I imagine, to conclude my part of this history ; but a glance at the Harrow Almanac of 1897 is enough to show that the series of benefactions, so continuous and so splendid, is far indeed from showing any sign of being exhausted. On the contrary, since August 1885, when the present Head- master entered on his office, it would appear that from d£'50,000 to df 60,000 have already been added from private sources to the estate of the school. And the century is not yet closed. It is, I feel certain, no exaggeration to say that from 1818 onwards not less than H. Montagu Butler. THE SCHOOL ESTATE IN HARROW The most obvious of gifts from a loyal donor to his old school is a prize, or a building. As the growing numbers of Harrow School called for the one, or the newer studies of a wider education for the other, there has never been a lack of response. But during the last twenty years a new difficulty confronted the school which did not so naturally, or at least so strikingly, appeal to the generosity of old Harrovians. The proximity of Harrow to London has threatened the Hill with encroachment, and augmented the value of the land surrounding the school. The danger, long visible to men like Lord Bessborough, became acute when, in 1884, the lease of the Park ran out, and the terms offered for renewal showed clearly that the market value of the land for building would raise the rent far beyond what a house-master could affbrd to pay. The property had been bought for ^£"8000 in 1830 ; when the lease was renewed in 1863, half the land was separated and sold for building, the rent standing at the same amount. Now the same process seemed likely to be repeated, and it was time to interfere. The Governors had no funds from which to purchase, and they have always been unable to raise money by mortgaging their scanty lands elsewhere. The sum needed was too large for such donations and subscriptions as could be raised in the short available time. The difficulty was met by the formation, by old members of the house and masters and friends of the school, of the Harrow Park Estate Trust, to purchase the property and keep it unspoiled. The interest on the subscriptions was limited to 4 per cent, and a right was given to the Governors of the school to purchase on fair terms at any time. The purchase cost =£'16,000, and the decision to form the Trust was one of the last taken by Dr. Butler, though the responsibility for its success, the actual purchase of the property, and the drafting of the articles of the trust- THE SCHOOL ESTATE IN HARROW 153 deed fell to his successor. By this means, the main features of the old Park property were secured for ever. The Trust subsequently acquired " Druries,*" which it considerably enlarged and improved, and the house now occupied by the school Gustos. Its capital now amounts to upwards of ^£'30,000. The rescue of the Park was followed closely by the purchase of the Football field as the Butler Memorial, which probably took that form largely owing to the View from the Pabk. apprehensions aroused by the financial difficulty of the Park purchase. The 49 acres were finally bought in 1891 for ,£'17,650, Mr. T. C. Baring's generous donation of dfi'l 0,000 having secured 20 acres of it as early as 1886. The land, when purchased, was conveyed to " The Harrow School Football-field Trust," which was created for the purpose. The ground being now school property, it was possible to devote some money to its permanent improvement, and a large sum was expended, in 1893, in draining and planting, to the great benefit of the playing-fields. But as no drainage can make it possible to maintain a good sward from year to year on 154 HARROW SCHOOL the Harrow clay, where grounds are used daily for football, the adjoining fields, now known as the Reserve fields, were leased in 1896 for a period of fourteen years. When these successful efforts had been made, and the Park and Football field bought, it became evident that our position was still insecure on the side on which Harrow is approached from the railway station. The land lying to the left of the Peterborough Hill, and to the right of the Grove Hill, as the visitor climbs it, was still exposed to invasion. No sooner was the danger recognised than it was met. In 1895 the headmaster, by a bold and successful appeal, raised <£1 0,000, and purchased the land marked on the map as the Northwick Walk Fields and the Butler Field. The cost was more than i?21,000, but the mortgage debt will, it is hoped, be paid off within a reasonable time. In 1897 the fields below the Grove, including the green slope above which the Grove trees and the church spire combine to form probably the most familiar, and certainly the most picturesque, of the approaches to the Hill, came into the market. They have now been purchased, and are held for the present by a small syndicate of which the headmaster is a member ; it may be regarded as certain that they are saved from desecration, and no doubt they will eventually be added to the school property. On the other side of the Hill, at an earlier date than the last two purchases, the generosity of an old Harrovian, than whom none has the interest of Harrow cricket more at heart, secured the Sixth Form ground from the risk of being over- looked at its northern end by a continuation of the West Street houses. He bought up the old Brewery premises, known to Harrovians of an earlier date as the " Haunted House," and by clearing away trees and buildings has provided for the school a new and excellent cricket-ground. Apart from what has been levelled for cricket, the upper slopes of the Nicholson Field double the previous extent of the church fields ; and the value of the addition may be best appreciated by one looking from the foot of the Philathletic Field, whence the eye can wander over games intermixed, and players seemingly innumerable, from one wide cricket-ground to another, and thence uninteiTuptedly over green slopes to the church on the summit. Nor must the last addition to the Philathletic Field itself be left unrecorded; the two acres, where, in addition to the gambols of a game in which diminutive batsmen can enjoy the pleasure of hitting the ball out of the ground more often than they probably ever will elsewhere, cricket-bill is called with special appro- priateness, were the generous gift of Mr. Bowen. Apart from the addition to its space, the Philathletic Field has by this gift been enriched by a line of elms which pleasantly break the prairie -like monotony which the orthodox cricketer desires. This brief account of the extension of the lands held by the school, or by friends of the school, may serve to show what has been done of late years. Since 1885, 220 acres have been added, and the cost has been ^£^90,000. The figures will convey an idea of the amount that has been acquired, but, large as they are, they do not over-represent the value to the school. The HaiTow of the past, the Harrow of old memories, was a land of meadows and hedgerows. On whichever side it was approached it presented a delightful view of green slopes and red-roofed buildings, THE SCHOOL ESTATE IN HARROW 156 and above, the clustering trees of the Grove, the church spire, and the old schools. Save for the houses on the western side, the eye looked straight upon a scene that was wholly rural. The romantic affection which gathers round an ancient public school is largely the outcome of local associations, and is worth preserving at any cost. This is pre-eminently the case at places like Eton and Harrow. Both are national posses- sions. Both are inseparably bound up with the beauty and dignity of their surroundings. Both have recently felt the pressure of encroachment, and heavy Map showing the School Estate in Habrow. The portion shaded with vertical lines shows the land held in 1884. That enclosed by dotted lines has been added since 1884, and is held either by the school or by friends of the school. School buildings and boys' houses are in black. would have been the responsibility of the authorities if they had not promptly repelled the threatened intrusion of their precincts. Happily for both, the danger has been realised in time, and has now been averted once and for all. A glance at the accompanying map will show how successfully this object has been achieved at Harrow. A solid rampart has now been reared against attack on the London side. The Park, the Football fields, and the Northwick estate keep us safe there. The securing of the Grove Fields completes the assurance that old Harrovians returning to Harrow, even after many years, will henceforward find it as they remember it. Change will go on towards Roxeth and Mount Park and Wealdstone, no doubt, but they are out of sight. Buildings may line the London Road down Sudbury Hill and beyond it, but this, after all, is no longer the approach to Harrow as it was 156 HARROW SCHOOL in the coaching days before the railway came. But whatever happens, the school cannot now see the fate overtake it which has overtaken more than one school near London. For this incalculable benefit we have to thank the many old Harrovians and friends to whom appeals have never been made in vain, and whose gifts form the last and greatest of the benefactions in the history of the school. C. COLBECK. EDITORS' NOTE In pursuance of our design of not giving a history of the present headmastership, we have not included in the preceding article any detailed account of Benefactions conferred since 1885, except those which are concerned with the additions to the land held for the school. Lest it should be thought from this silence that the stream of Benefactions has ceased, we subjoin the following list of the more recent gifts : — 1888. Samuel Henry Beddington, Esq., founded two prizes for Natural Science, in memory of his son, George Stuai*t Beddington, formerly a member of the school. A friend of the school gave anonymously the sum of £1000 to found a Scholarship for the Fifth Form. 1891. John Macnamara, Esq., gave to the school in memory of his son, Arthur Macnamara, formerly scholar, £800, which has been spent, in accordance with his wish, upon building new fives-courts. Thomas Keay Tapling, Esq., M.P., left £1000 to be spent upon the improvement of the cricket of the school. 1893. New pavilions were erected on the cricket fields, in memory of two much -loved Harrovians, the Rev. William Law and Cyril Digby Buxton, Esq. Mrs. Watkins founded, in memory of her son, Frederick Bower Watkins, formerly scholar, who died at Harrow during his school life, the Fred Watkins Prizes for Latin Prose in the Fifth Form. 1894. Alexander Astell Hadow, Esq., bequeathed the sum of £200 for the Harrow Mission, and the sum of £100 for the encouragement of the cricket. 1895. Mrs. Stanhope founded an Entrance Scholarship of £50 a year in memory of her late husband, the Right Honourable Edward Stanhope, M. P. A School of Art was presented to the school at a cost of £3000 by an old Harrovian, Henry Yates Thompson, Esq. ; who also established in the year 1896 two Annual Prizes for proficiency in Di'awing. The Earl of Bessborough left £200 to be spent upon the improvement of the cricket. 1896. Colonel George M'Call founded a Scholarship of the value of £40 a year for proficiency in Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Natural Science. Rear-Admiral Colomb founded an Annual Prize for an English Essay upon a naval subject. 1897. Pandely Mavrogordato, Esq., founded an Annual Prize for the best translation into Greek Iambic Verse. A Panel in the Fourth Form Room. Facing page 158. CHAPTER XVI STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL John Lyon's dream — if so indeed he dreamed — of Harrow, as a training-ground for public life and a nursery of statesmen, was long in achieving realisation. The slender resources of the foundation, its local character, doubts as to its intended objects, the absence of influential patronage, all tended to discourage any pro- gramme more ambitious than that of satisfying the needs of a neighbourhood which the religious changes of the time had left without means of education. More than a century had passed away before the Grammar School, to which in 1572 Queen Elizabeth granted a Charter, began to recognise its wider mission as a national institution. At the opening of the eighteenth century the governorship of John Brydges, once paymaster of Queen Anne's army, afterwards Duke of Chandos, gave a forward impulse to the school, by placing its financial administration on a sounder footing. He built a fine mansion. Canons, at Stanmore, famous for Pope's satire on its elaborate magnificence, and, living there in quasi-regal splendour, carried the fame of Harrow into a wider circle than it had hitherto reached. Eton at this time was agitated by an enthusiasm for the Chevalier St. George. Its headmaster, ruler of 400 boys, was a champion of the exiled House: the loyalty of the school became suspect. On the other hand, the devotion of the Duke of Chandos to the House of Hanover was conspicuous, and the brilliant circle which gathered at Canons learnt, no doubt, to regard Harrow as a better place than Eton for the inculcation of a wholesome political creed. The Duke himself set the fashion by making his ward, George Brydges Rodney, a Harrovian — for a short time, however, for Rodney went away to sea when he was twelve years old, little dreaming that, sixty years later, in a dark hour of British history, he would, by his great victory in the West Indies over Count de Grasse, crush the fleets of France and Spain, avenge the share of the French Government in abetting our rebel colonies, and establish England, just then despairing of her destiny, as mistress of the seas. In 1746 the headmastership of Dr. Thackeray, great-grandfather of the famous novelist and a warm opponent of the Jacobite tendencies then prevalent at Eton, assured the fortunes of the rising school. Several of his pupils achieved celebrity : Parr, a name famous in the world of letters; Sir William Jones, the renowned Orientalist, whom Dr. Johnson pronounced " the most accomplished of the sons of 158 STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL men " ; Bennet, who became famous as the learned Bishop of Cloyne. These three precocious lads, so runs the legend, were wont to amuse themselves by dividing the meadows round the hill into rival States, and making them the arena of imaginary campaigns. After Harrow and Oxford Sir William Jones became tutor to another distinguished Harrovian, the second Earl Spencer. He subsequently was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Bengal ; and by a lifetime of research threw open the mysteries of Brahminical literature to the scholars of the West. He founded, and was first President of the Royal Asiatic Society. Dr. Sumner''s headmastership witnessed another stride forwards. The numbers of the school rose to 250. Parr, Jones, and Bennet remained in the school. Another Harrovian of this period was Mee, maternal grandfather of Lord Palmerston, who, in the archery contest of 1764, won the silver arrow, now in the possession of Mr. Evelyn Ashley at Broadlands. One of Dr. Sumner''s notable pupils was Richard Warburton Lytton, who became, as testified by Dr. Parr, one of the most finished scholars of the day. His life of erudite seclusion and his eccentric habits gave rise to some domestic friction. His daughter Elizabeth married General William Earle Bulwer, and was the mother of Lord Dalling, and grand- mother of Robert, first Earl of Lytton, Viceroy of India in 1876 — two distinguished Harrovians. The roll of Harrovian statesmen begins with Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He was at Harrow in 1762. Parr had by this time become one of the assistant masters. Dr. Sumner and Parr alike recognised Sheridan's capacity, and entered into a friendly conspiracy to force the wayward genius into diligence. Parr found him, he writes, " slovenly in construing, and unusually defective in Greek grammar. Knowing him to be a clever fellow, I did not fail to probe and tease him." It was agreed, accordingly, that " Richard " should be called up oftener and worked more severely, and summoned to take his station by the master's table, where the voice of no prompter could reach him. " In this defenceless condition he was so harassed, that he at last gathered up some grammatical rules and prepared himself for his lessons. While this tormenting process was inflicted, I now and then upbraided him. His eye, his countenance, his general manner was striking. We know the esteem and admiration which, somehow or other, all his school-fellows felt for him. He was mischievous enough, but his pranks were accompanied by a sort of vivacity and cheerfulness which delighted Sumner and myself." Sheridan's school-fellows were equally impressed. " I succeeded Sheridan within a few years at Harrow," the Duke of Grafton told Moore, " and found his memory preserved very affectionately there, his poems repeated, and a room called after his name." Sheridan's later career is familiar history. His extraordinary ability — his youth of adventure — the romantic incidents of his marriage — his enchanting wife — the memorable events amid which his Parliamentary life was passed — the group of illustrious statesmen of which he formed not the least striking figure — the admir- able comedies with which he enriched our stage — the vicissitudes which befell his closing years — impress and fascinate our generation as they did his own. " No man," says his distinguished great-grandson — worthy inheritor of Sheridan and STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 159 Linley blood — " ever lived in more worlds than Sheridan, or ever shone with such brilliancy in all. In the world of fashion, in the company of wits, among authors, painters, and poets, in the House of Commons, at the Court of the Prince Regent, — whatever society he frequented, he moved a star. His charming manners, his handsome person, his gaiety, above all, his good -nature, which was one of his principal characteristics, rendered him universally popular." Sheridan entered Parliament at the same moment as Pitt, when Lord North's long-lived Administration was tottering to its fall. The Parliamentary stage was occupied by statesmen of the highest rank. Pitt was rising — a splendid luminary — on a scene of darkness and disaster. Burke was pouring out his wealth of intellect and passion in orations which are still the chief ornament of our political literature ; the charm and the genius of Fox were fascinating all who fell under the magician's spell. Among such compeers Sheridan at once took a distinguished position. His services were too valuable to be spared, and no member of a party was ever more hardly worked. His dramatic successes had already made him famous, but he finally abandoned play- writing for politics. An occasion presented itself which gave the fullest scope to his dramatic and rhetorical gifts, the arraignment of a great official for crimes against an oppressed and helpless race. The theme was congenial. Sheridan rose splendidly to the occasion. His speech in the House of Commons in support of the impeachment of Warren Hastings impressed his hearers to a degree scarcely credible to a less impassioned generation. Burke pronounced it " the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument, and wit combined of which there is any record or tradition." Pitt and Fox were equally lavish in their praise. Sheridan's speech in Westminster Hall on the same subject — worthily depicted by Macaulay — was no less signal a triumph of rhetoric, as we now know, over prosaic truth and the real merits of the case. Throughout his thirty years of Parliamentary life, however, Sheridan's sympathies and advocacy were ever on the side of liberty, humanity, and justice. To this sacred cause he sacrificed repeated opportunities of emolument and honour. The extraordinary versatility, which enabled him to combine the management of a great theatre with a busy Parliamentary life, exposed him to the temptations of a convivial, and not too strait-laced society. But the faro-table — where so many of his contemporaries wasted life and fortune — had no charms for Sheridan ; and, though often embarrassed, he left a substantial fortune to his family. None of our great dramatists has left a brighter, none a more unsullied page. Cares, sorrows, and misfortunes gathered about his closing days — tragic contrasts to the success, the gaiety, the brilliant achievement of early life. Harrovians will remember with interest that Sheridan came back to Harrow with his lovely wife in the days of Dr. Heath, and resided for a time at the " Grove," where his own gaiety and Mrs. Sheridan's exquisite singing speedily attracted a circle of congenial friends. Dr. Joseph Drury, the future headmaster, has recorded how he would sometimes labour far into the night to atone for hours too quickly passed in this pleasant companionship. In the school list of August 1770, in the Fifth Form, appears the name of Hamilton. This was John James, ninth Earl, and, subsequently, first Marquess of 160 HARROW SCHOOL Abercorn, a distinguished figure in the politics and society of his day. Wraxall, who heard him move the Address of Thanks for the Speech from the Throne in 1784, describes him as he then appeared — tall, erect, and muscular, with an air of grace and dignity, dark complexion, more like a Spaniard than an Englishman, His arrogant solemnity of manner, augmented by the peculiarities of his demeanour, obtained for him from Sheridan the name of Don Whiskerandos, the lover of Tilburina in his own Critic. On several occasions Mr. Hamilton came forward in defence of Warren Hastings in the House of Commons, whom he described, much to Sheridan's indignation, as " an accused and persecuted individual."" Pitt, who had known him at college, had a high opinion of his abilities, and said of him to Wilberforce, " Had he chosen to take to public life, he could, as a speaker, have beaten us all." His career in the House of Commons was ended by his succession to his uncle's title in 1789. Henceforward he was chiefly known to society as a magnificent nobleman, living in the pomp which became a descendant of the Kings of Scotland, and the representative in the male line of the Dukes of Hamilton. His strong sense of personal dignity showed itself in some amusing traits. It is recorded, for instance, that, having formed an attachment to his relative. Miss Cecil Hamilton, he thought it necessary, before marrying her, to induce Pitt to obtain for her the rank and precedence of an earl's daughter, a concession to which, not unnaturally, the king assented with a very ill grace. His intimacy with Pitt gave rise to the suggestion that the Minister's embarrassed finances were aided by his opulent friend — a calumny which Lord Aberdeen denounced as, on the face of it, absurd. Lord Abercorn's influence with Pitt was, however, remark- able. W^ith reference to it, a friend, at the time of the death of the Emperor Joseph, observed that " it was lucky that he did not wish to be Emperor of Germany, as Pitt would certainly have done his best to make him so." Bentley Priory, Lord Abercorn's residence at Stanmore, became a great resort of literary and political celebrities, amongst others, Pitt, Wellington, Canning, Liverpool, Sidmouth, Wordsworth, Moore, Rogers, John Kemble, and Mrs. Siddons. Here Rogers wrote the Pleasures of Memory, and Scott a portion oi Marmion, One couplet in the Introduction to the First Canto, on Fox's death — For talents mourn, untimely lost. When best employed and wanted most — is said to have been added by Lord Abercorn himself. He became a Governor of Harrow School in 1810. One of Hamilton's comrades in the Fifth Form was Lord Rawdon, better known to fame as Lord Moira and Marquess of Hastings. Powerful connec- tions, the favour of the Regent, considerable ability, and a self-confidence which frequently glowed into complacency, conspired to fit him for a grand career. As Governor-General of India (1813-22) he carried out, on a splen- did scale, the Imperial policy which Wellesley — himself, for a short time, a Han'ow boy — had, ten years before, initiated. He enlarged the Himalayan frontier, tamed the marauding hordes of the Pindaris, and crushed the last desperate struggle of the Mahratta States. The limits of the British dominion. STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 161 as drawn by him, remained practically unchanged till, twenty-five years later, another Harrovian Governor-General — Dalhousie — stretched his country's sceptre over still wider bounds, and invested its supremacy with a still deeper significance. Grateful tradition records that the magnificent proconsul, after his return from India, attended the Speeches of 1824 and signalised the occasion, in his own mag- nificent fashion, by presenting every boy with a couple of sovereigns — a precedent to be commended to posterity. James Ramsay, afterwards Marquess of Dalhousie, must have been among the recipients. A few places below Lord Rawdon in the school -bill of 1770 appears the name of Shore, afterwards Sir John Shore and first Baron Teignmouth. He entered the service of the East India Company as a writer, and won the good- will of Warren Hastings, by whom he was promoted, and in whose company he returned to England in 1785. Two years later he was appointed to a seat in the Supreme Council, and aided in carrying out the reforms instituted by Lord Cornwallis. He drew up the famous scheme of land administration, which Lord Cornwallis, against his advice, proceeded to ratify as the permanent settlement. In 1793 he succeeded Lord Cornwallis as Governor-General. The moment was one when the policy of the East India Company was in favour of non-intervention in the affairs of native states. Lord Teignmouth''s reign took a corresponding hue. He acquiesced in an invasion of an ally by the Mahrattas, and in the growth of French influence at several native courts, and gave no support to the attempts of the Governor of Madras to enlarge the sphere of British influence. Events speedily proved a policy of pacific abstention to be impossible, and the masterful hand of the succeeding Governor-General, the Marquess Wellesley, replaced it by an Imperial programme, bolder and more magnificent than any hitherto conceived. Sir John Shore left India in 1798, was created a Baron for his services, and thenceforth took a leading part in the religious movement of the day, joining with Venn, Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay to form the " Clapham Sect." In 1804, he was elected first President of the " Bible Society." He was an intimate friend of Sir W. Jones, whose Life he wrote, and whom he succeeded as President of the Asiatic Society. In the Third Form in this same year (1770) appears the name of Viscount Althorp. This was John George, afterwards second Earl Spencer, who was sent to Harrow when he was eight years old. His mother, a woman of rare ability, had a high opinion of Sir William Jones, and confided her son to his care, with the complimentary exhortation, "Make him like yourself." Five years later Lord Althorp stands, as a monitor, third from the top. After Cambridge, he forthwith entered Parliament, and was a Junior Lord of the Treasury under Lord Rocking- ham. His Whig proclivities were strengthened by the marriages of his two sisters — one, Georgina, to the fifth Duke of Devonshire, the other to the Earl of Bessborough. He succeeded as second Earl in 1783. After the outbreak of the French Revolution and the declaration of war against France, Earl Spencer joined Pitt, and remained his warm supporter. He was Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1794, and was sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna. On his return he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, a post in which his vigorous and able administration M 162 HARROW SCHOOL contributed to many splendid successes. The victories of St. Vincent and Campei*- down were won ; the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore were suppressed ; Nelson was singled out and sent to the Mediterranean, where he won the battle of the Nile, and, subsequently, another victory in the Baltic. Dr. Sumner's successor began his reign in storm. Local feeling espoused the candidature of Parr for the headmastership, and exploded in a riot when Heath (1771-85) — a third Etonian headmaster in succession — was selected. In that riot, as, a century later, the Earl of Verulam related at the Tercentenary Festival, the can'iage of one of his ancestors, Mr. Bucknall, a Governor of the school, was wrecked by Parr's too zealous partisans. The enieute lost to Harrow one who would have been amongst her brightest ornaments. A little Harrovian, eleven and a half years old, who had shared in the sacrilegious act, arrived at the house of his guardian, Arch- bishop Cornwallis, waving one of the tassels of Mr. BucknalPs carriage, and shouting " Victory " — a costly victory, for it resulted in the little rebel. Viscount Wellesley, son of the Earl of Mornington, and future Marquess Wellesley, being transferred to Eton, where he became a polished scholar, and prepared himself to figure on a grander stage as one of the greatest of the Governors-General of India (1798-1805); to settle for ever by a few masterly strokes the question of French supremacy in the East ; to deal the Mahratta confederacy, then our most serious antagonist, two crushing blows ; and to lay down inefFaceably the lines of the Imperial policy which England was henceforward to follow in the East. Utinam noster esset ! He was an Harrovian, at any rate, for eighteen months. In Dr. Heath's headmastership a change of some importance to Harrow took place, in the abolition of the archery meeting, which had been for many years held on the first Thursday in July, and was regarded as an annual occasion of festivity. Its place was taken by the "Speech-day," of which there were three annually till Dr. Longley's day. The first occurred in 1772. May we believe that the new incentive to oratory quickened the zeal of two Harrovians of that period, who certainly, in after-days, owed much to their conspicuous excellence as public speakers ? In the school list of 1774 there stands, in the Fourth Form the name of Ryder, in the Third that of Perceval. Each of them was destined to fill a high place in the political world. Dudley Ryder, afterwards the first Earl of Harrowby, entered Parliament in 1784, and, a few years later, became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and for a part of Pitt's second Administration (1804) was Secretary of State for the same department. He held office in the Duke of Portland's Ministry (1807) and in Mr. Spencer Perceval's (1809). In Lord Liverpool's Govern- ment (1812) Lord Han'owby was President of the Council, having among his col- leagues three Harrovians — Palmerston, Goderich, and Peel. He was among those of Canning's followers who, on his becoming Prime Minister, stood by him. In the troubles which followed on Canning's death and led to Lord Goderich's resigna- tion. Lord Harrowby was offered the Premiership, but was compelled by failing health to decline it. During the stormy times to which the Reform question gave rise. Lord HaiTowby played a prominent and influential part. His speech in 1831, on the conflict between the two branches of the Legislature, made a profound STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 163 impression on the House. His policy of accepting a compromise between the Lords and the Commons as to the Reform Bill, and so obviating the resort to the dangerous expedient of a creation of new peers, earned for him and his party the sobriquet of " the Waverers."" His temperament, however, was essentially that of a reformer. He joined with Pitt, Fox, and Wilberforce in attacking the Slave Trade. He sup- ported the cause of Catholic Emancipation and the repeal of the Test and Cor- poration Acts, and was an early advocate of Parliamentary reform. It was in Lord Harrowby's house in Grosvenor Square that the Cato Street conspiracy for the assassination of all the members of the Government at a " Ministers' dinner *" was to have been carried out, and Lord Harrowby was one of the two persons to whom the warning was given which led to its defeat. Spencer Perceval, second son of John, Lord Egmont, was the first Harrovian Prime Minister. His character as a statesman has suffered from his association with the narrow Tory creed, of which he was the official spokesman. Perceval's abilities, however, carried him to the top of his profession, and made him the friend of Pitt, and a successful leader of the House of Commons. Pitt highly valued his services, offered him the Chief Secretaryship of Ireland, and suggested him as his successor, in case of a fatal termination to his duel with Tierney. During the latter part of the Addington Administration it was Perceval's onerous task, as Attorney-General, to defend the Government against the attacks of Pitt, Fox, and Windham. On Pitt's return to power in 1804, he secured Perceval as Attorney- General, leaving him free to oppose Catholic Emancipation. On the Duke of Portland's accession to office in 1807, Perceval became Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and, on the Duke's retirement in 1809, Perceval's claim to the Premiership was recognised against a no less distinguished competitor than Canning. He held the post with increasing success and ascendency till his assassination in 1812. The secret of his influence lay in the fact that he was the embodiment of feelings and convictions dear to the average Englishman of his day, — devotion to his country, hatred of Napoleon, distrust of the Revolutionary movement, loyalty to Church and King, dislike to Popery. His prejudices were of his epoch ; but a lasting title to fame will be found in the consistent opposition which, from first to last, he offered to the claim of France to dominate Europe, in his unwavering resolution to continue the struggle against that claim, and his emphatic condemna- tion of every proposal to abandon it. By him the policy of confronting Napoleon by land as well as by sea was initiated, and the prosecution of hostilities in the Peninsula maintained. He stuck to this programme through difficulties in Parliament hardly less formidable than those which Wellington was confronting in the field. The Opposition continually urged the abandonment of the struggle. Perceval was always ready with an effective reply. The services so rendered to his country will always secure for him an honoured place among English statesmen. An affecting scene occurred at the Speeches of 1813, when Lord Harrowby, then President of the Council, was much overcome by the recitation of Wolsey's Farewell to Greatness, by the son of his friend, Spencer Perceval, whose assassina- tion by Bellingham had occurred in the previous year. In the school list of 1775, in the class entitled " Ovid," appears the name of 164 HARROW SCHOOL Lord Elgin, whose enthusiasm for Greek art was instrumental in securing for the nation some priceless treasures of the ancient world — the collection of bronzes and sculptures known to Englishmen by his name. He was Ambassador to the Porte in 1799, and, resolving to utilise the occasion for the study of Greek art, employed various draughtsmen and modellers in making drawings of the ancient buildings at Athens. A firman from the Porte enlarged his opportunities by enabling him to put a scaffolding round the Parthenon to mould the sculptures, and to take away pieces of stone with the inscriptions and figures thereon. The injuries which these invaluable relics were sustaining at the hands of the Turks suggested, and justified, their removal, which, however, provoked animadversion, and was severely handled by Byron in the Curse of Minerva. The "Elgin Marbles," comprising part of the frieze and pedimental sculpture of the Parthenon and Temple of Nike Apteros, found their way to London, and were in 1816 purchased for the nation. Dr. Drury's twenty-years' reign was distinguished by many names which became famous in the political world. He had the training of no less than five future Prime Ministers. Spencer Perceval was his private pupil ; and under his head- mastership came Lord Goderich, Sir Robert Peel, the Earl of Aberdeen, and Viscount Palmerston. To this, period, too, belongs Lord Althorp, third Earl Spencer, who, though never Prime Minister — he declined it when urged upon him by Lord Grey — exercised an ascendency as leader of the House of Commons, such as few English Ministers have ever achieved. The fame of Dr. Drury's pupil-room had already travelled far, and the school became greatly in vogue. Its numbers largely increased. Dr. Drury was very impressive as master, friend, and almost father of his pupils. Amongst the most impressed was Byron. " I believe," he wrote, " that no one could be, or can be, more attached to Harrow than I always have been, and with good reason. A part of the time passed there was the happiest of my life, and my preceptor, the Rev. Joseph Drury, was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed." At the Speeches of 14th June 1798 the following were among the performers : — Lord Royston West WiLMOT LOBD DuNCANNON LoBD Althobp Hon. F. Robinson . "Medea" . " Catalina ad sues ' "Darius ad suos" " Caesar " " Cato " , . " Galgacus " . Ovid Sallust Quintus Curtius Sallust Sallust Tacitus Of these, the Hon. F. Robinson was second son of the second Lord Grantham, who had been Home Secretary in Lord Shelburne's Ministry in 1782. He made a reputation at Harrow as a studious and accomplished scholar, and was noted by his contemporaries as destined for future distinction. At Cambridge, in 1801, he won Sir William Browne's medal for the Latin Ode. He entered public life, before he was of age, as Private Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in Addington's Administration. In Perceval's Ministry he became Under-Secretary for the Colonies and a Lord of the Admiralty ; under Lord Liverpool, Vice- President of the Board of Trade ; in 1823, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; in 1827, Secretary of State for the Colonies ; and, a few months later. Prime Minister. STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 165 This last dignity, however, was dearly purchased. The post had been refused by Lord Harrowby, and the condition of parties consequent on Canning's death made it one of exceptional difficulty. With colleagues of opposite views and opposite interests, exasperated by years of party warfare, the dissolution of his " tessellated Cabinet" was inevitable. Lord Goderich had been an acceptable speaker in the House, but his reputation as a statesman was not sufficiently commanding for the Premiership. His too cheerful view of his country's finances, which affiarded just then little ground for cheerfulness, was satirised in the sobriquet of " Prosperity Robinson." His difficulties as Premier were more than he had nerve or capacity to confront, and he thankfully accepted the King's permission to retire. The Duke of Wellington, who succeeded to his post, did not offer him a place in his Ministry ; but in 1830 Lord Goderich accepted the Colonial Office under Lord Grey, a post in which he was confronted by the difficult question of Negro Emancipation, and which he resigned in favour of Lord Stanley, receiving, instead, the Privy Seal, with the Earldom of Ripon. Lord Ripon quitted the Grey Government along with Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, and the Duke of Richmond, in protest against the proposed Commission on the Irish Church, This defection led to the break-up of Lord Grey's Ministry and the succession of Lord Melbourne to the Premiership. In 1841, Lord Ripon accepted the post of President of the Board of Trade in Sir R. Peel's second Administration. Next above the Hon. F. Robinson in the Speech-list comes Lord Althorp. This was the third Earl Spencer, "that most frank, true, and stout-hearted of God's creatures," as Jeffrey, a contemporary, described him. No finer or manlier character is to be found in the whole range of our political history. He went to Harrow, as did his father before him, at a very early age, and stayed there for ten years. His exercises, tradition tells us, were much in request among the idlers, who preferred copying their comrade's verses to composing their own. To school he carried a taste for the sporting interests amid which his childhood had been passed. " How many brace of partridges," he writes to his father, " did you kill when you was out a -shooting? Duncannon has got three skylarks, two titlarks, and two sparrows, I went after a bird's nest with him yesterday. The birds had flown, and we got wet into the bargain. We have eaten a gooseberry pie out of the garden." In another letter we find him sailing cork-boats in Duck -puddle; in another, getting sand for blotting from the archery " butts " ; in another, stopped by a highwayman on the journey from London in charge of his tutor's wife, and greeting his assailant with shouts of laughter. In the Georgics he found a congenial topic ; and there is reason to believe that his classical studies were supplemented by an occasional object-lesson from professors of the noble art of self-defence no less redoubtable than Jackson and Crabb. Althorp went to Cambridge, where, at his mother's instigation, he won a college prize, almost the only honour within his reach, as the custom of that day excluded noblemen from the honour schools. He then relapsed into the field sports, which were in early life his greatest amusement. He speedily entered Parliament. He was, as were his father and grandfather, and as was his nephew, the fifth Earl, in 166 HARROW SCHOOL later years, Master of the Pytchley Hunt, and would sometimes, after a debate in the House, gallop through the night on relays of horses to Northamptonshire, in order to be at the covert-side next morning. In Lord Grenville's "All the Talents" Ministry (1806), Lord Althorp"'s father, the second Earl Spencer, was a Secretary of State, and the son became a Lord of the Treasury. He had begun life as an ardent follower of Pitt, but gradually inclined to the broader phase of Toryism, and the reforming section of the Whigs. When Whitbread's death in 1815 left the party without a leader. Lord Althorp found himself, perforce, its head ; and during the Duke of Wellington's Ministry he became the recognised leader of a strong Opposition. On the Duke's resignation, in November 1830, Lord Grey formed a Ministry out of the old Whigs and the followers of Canning and Grenville. In this Lord Althorp was Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House, Palmerston Foreign Secretary, and Goderich Secretary for War and the Colonies. In the struggle over the Reform Bill, Althorp rendered invaluable services to his party and the country. " It was Althorp who carried the Bill," Lord Hardinge said ; " his fine temper did it." In 1834 Al thorp's retirement from Lord Grey's Government was the signal for its fall, but Liberals of every phase were unanimous in desiring Althorp's continu- ance in office. Two hundred and six members addressed to him a letter deploring his retirement. Touched by such a demonstration of feeling, Althorp consented to take office as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Melbourne's Government. His succession to his father's peerage in 1834 was followed by Lord Melbourne's sudden dismissal by the King, and Peel's first short-lived Premiership. Lord Spencer refused to return to Lord Melbourne's second Administration, betook himself to the country interests which were his real delight, and scarcely again emerged into public life, except on one occasion, in 1843, when he made a great speech at North- ampton in favour of Free Trade. His political history was remarkable. He began his Ministerial career as leader of an unreformed, he ended it as leader of a reformed House of Commons. In both alike he obtained an unrivalled ascendency, due neither to genius, nor to eloquence, nor to successful finance, but to transparent honesty, simplicity of purpose, and the entire confidence which friend and foe alike felt in his disinterested loyalty. " He exercised," writes Charles Greville, " in the House of Commons an influence, and even a dominion, greater than any leader either after him or before him. Neither Pitt the father nor Pitt the son, in the plenitude of their magnificent dictatorships, nor Canning, in the days of his most brilliant displays of oratory and wit, nor Castle- reagh, returning in all the glory of an ovation from the overthrow of Napoleon, could govern with the same sway the most unruly and fastidious assembly that the world ever knew. His friends followed this plain and simple man with enthusiastic devotion, and he possessed the faculty of disarming his political antagonists of all bitterness and animosity towards him. He was regarded in the House of Commons with sentiments akin to those of personal affection, with a boundless confidence and an universal esteem. Such was the irresistible ascendency of truth, sincerity, and honour, of a probity free from every taint of interest, of mere character unaided by the arts which captivate or subjugate mankind." STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 167 Althorp took a prominent part in various great measures of the first session of the Reformed Parliament — the Abolition of Slavery, for which, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had to provide twenty millions — the regulation of child-labour in factories — the reduction of the abuses of the Irish Church — the making landed property liable for debt — the reform of Game Laws — the renewal of the Charters of the East India Company and of the Bank of England. In the second year of the Reformed Parliament, Althorp had charge of the Poor Law Bill. The existing law — that of 1796 — had given indiscriminate relief to able-bodied paupers ; the expenditure, which had grown to seven millions, was sapping the strength of the agricultural class, subsidising improvidence, dragging down alike the labourer and the class by whom this extravagant expenditure had to be defrayed. Lord Althorp"'s Poor Law provided a remedy for this calamitous state of things, and efficient machinery for carrying it out. The confidence universally felt in his judgment and integrity enabled him to carry a measure, distasteful to many powerful interests, which it needed no ordinary courage to confront. Its good results speedily became apparent, and the Act has remained ever since the basis of our system of poor relief. Lord Althorp was the first President of the Royal Agricultural Society, a post which his nephew, the present Earl, has also occupied. Next above Lord Althorp in the Speech-list comes Lord Duncannon, fourth Earl of Bessborough, Althorp's cousin and intimate friend. He entered Parliament in 1805 in the Whig interest, and for twenty-five years was whip of that party and the trusted depositary of its secrets. Lord Melbourne's negotiations with the Irish Catholics passed through his hands. In 1829 Lord Duncannon and Lord Ebrington, father of the present Earl Fortescue, introduced Daniel O'Connell when he applied to be sworn in after the Clare election. Duncannon was one of the Committee appointed by Lord Grey — Sir James Graham, the Earl of Durham, and Lord John Russell being the other three members — to draw up the first Reform Bill. Lord Melbourne, on his accession to office in 1834, appointed Duncannon to the Home Office, He retired with his colleagues on PeePs coming into office, but, in Lord Melbourne's second Ministry, became First Commissioner of Public Works and Lord Privy Seal.^ In 1844 he succeeded to the earldom. On the advent of the Whigs to power, in 1846, Lord John Russell sent Cottenham to the Woolsack, Palmerston to the Foreign Office, and Bessborough to the Irish Viceroyalty — the first resident Irish landlord for a generation who held that post. His reputation, says Charles Greville, is an " instance of the success which may be obtained by qualities of a superior description, without great talents, without knowledge and information, and without any power of speaking in Parliament. He took office and became a Cabinet Minister, and continued to do a vast deal of Parliamentary business, especially in the House of Lords, and carry through Bills, without making the semblance of a speech."" 1 Lord Duncannon's two brothers were also Harrovians — William Ponsonby, afterwards Lord de Mauley, and Frederick Ponsonby, who accompanied the Duke of Wellington from the beginning of the Peninsular War to A\^aterloo. 168 HARROW SCHOOL His calm temper, good sense, and kindliness made him the confidant of a large circle of friends. He was consulted by every one. " At length nothing could be done without Duncannon." Everybody liked him, even the King, who hated the rest of the Whigs. Even with O'Connell, Lord Bessborough found it possible to keep on friendly terms. His Irish blood and genial temperament, his firmness, industry, and knowledge of the people commended his administration to popular good-will. The Irish famine imposed on him labours which shortened his life. His death at Dublin in 1847, in the midst of his efforts to alleviate the general misery, excited a profound popular interest. "No man," says Charles Greville, "ever quitted the world more surrounded by sympathy, approbation, respect, and affection," — great demonstrations of which attended him to the grave. Another of Althorp''s school-fellows — in after-life a political associate — was a plain, thick-set boy, with dark, searching eyes and beetling brow, of blunt speech and cold disposition, making few friends and possessing none of the graces which his father — who figures in Lord Lyttelton's and Miss Burney's pages as a poet, wit, and man of culture — hoped to secure for his sons by a Harrow education. Young Pepys — for this was Charles Christopher, the future Lord Cottenham — did not take the polish as well as did his brothers, whom he afterwards helped to places of distinction. He soon, however, showed his sturdy qualities. On one occasion there was a question as to whether the ice on a certain pond would bear. Althorp volunteered to go across if any one would join him. Pepys came forward, and the two reached the opposite side amid the plaudits of the onlookers. In 1831 Pepys entered Parliament. In 1834 he succeeded Sir John Campbell as Solicitor-General ; and, on the death of Sir John Leach, Brougham, just before quitting office, made him Master of the Rolls, an appointment which he regarded as his best title to the gi'atitude of the profession. On the return of the Whigs to office, the Great Seal was put into Commission, Pepys being one of the Commissioners, and the following year he became Lord Chancellor. His position in the House of Lords was not made more agi-eeable by learning that it would be part of his duties to reply to the onslaughts of Lord Brougham. In 1846 he again became Lord Chancellor in Lord John Russell's Administration. Cottenham, however, shone less in Parliament than in the Courts, where his mastery of the law made him perfectly at home, and where he was dealing with a subject about which he really cared. " He considers the system which he administers the perfection of wisdom. Phlegmatic in everything else, here he shows considerable enthusiasm." His knowledge and skill were of especial importance in two new provinces of judicial exposition — the reformed municipal bodies, and the law of rail- way and other companies. To Cottenham belongs the honour of having been one of the three Law Lords who in 1844, against Lyndhurst and Broughajn, set aside the conviction of O'Connell, obtained from a jury whose impanelment had been in flagrant violation of the rules of fair play. "The decision did more," says Sir Spencer Walpole, " than all the troops in Ireland to terminate the agitation for Repeal." In Peel and Palmerston the political glories of Harrow reach their culminating point. No two Harrovian statesmen ever brought more admirable gifts to the STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 169 service of their country, or filled a grander space in her history. At PeePs birth his father, it is recorded, fell on his knees and dedicated the infant to the service of his country. Well was that vow redeemed. From childhood he was trained to statesmanship. The boy was preparing for the politician. When, in 1801, he was entered at Harrow, he could scarcely unbend to the boyish pleasures of the place. He was too studious, too grave, too much in earnest for general companionship. His father was at a loss to know what to do with the boy, who was always repeating Pitt's speeches and lived in a world of his own. Lord Byron was his contemporary, felt his worth, and foretold his greatness. "Peel," he wrote, in later years, " the orator and statesman that is, or is to be, was my form-fellow, and we both were at the top of our remove. We were on good terms, but his brother was my intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel amongst us all, scholars and masters, and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar he was greatly my superior, as a declaimer and actor I was reckoned at least his equal ; as a schoolboy, out of school, I was always in scrapes, he never." At the Speeches of 1804 the two boys recited together, Byron taking the part of Latinus, Peel that of Turnus in the famous Virgilian scene. That year Peel left Harrow. One of his school-fellows describes him as "a light-haired, blue-eyed, fair-complexioned, smiling, good-natured boy — indolent, somewhat, as to physical exertion, but overflowing with mental energy." After achieving a double-first at Oxford — a feat which the new system had just rendered possible — Peel at once entered Parliamentary life, a Tory by birth, training, and temperament. The Tories were at the height of their long ascendency, and work was soon found for so valuable a recruit. In Perceval's Ministry of 1809 Peel became an Under-Secretary of State, and, on that Minister's assassination in 1812, he was appointed by Lord Liverpool, the new Premier, Chief Secretary in Ireland. The position was one of dangerous honour, for Canning and Brougham were advocating the Catholic claims, and O'Connell was beginning to display his extraordinary powers as demagogue and orator. In 1818 Peel resigned his Irish appointment ; but in 1822 returned to office as Home Secretary, a post which he held till Lord Liverpool's retirement, five years later. On Canning's death, in the following year. Peel returned to the Home Office, now Leader of the House. Then came the first of the great changes of policy — tragic, eventful episodes of our political history — which invest Peel's career with its especial character. The opponent of Catholic claims had to announce that the hour had arrived when they could no longer be resisted — as, later on, the slow, resistless process of conviction forced Peel to unwelcome change, and it became his fate to lead his countrymen to Reform and Free Trade. It was inevitable that such a career should not lack its sombre shades — its struggles and pangs, the execration of disappointed followers, the severance from angered friends. Nor was Peel's a nature to endure such an ordeal without ex- quisite suffering. Disraeli, spokesman of an infuriated party, poured on him the vitriol of epigrammatic invective. Peel felt the blow to the quick ; but, amidst all, he stood undaunted and magnanimous. " I will act, unchanged by the malig- nity of abuse, by the expression of opposite opinions, however vehement, or however general ; unchanged by the depreciation of political confidence, or by the heavier 170 HARROW SCHOOL loss of private friendship and affection. Looking back upon the past, surveying the present, and forejudging the future, I declare that the time has come when the question must be adjusted. As Minister of the Crown, I reserve to myself dis- tinctly and unequivocally the right of adapting my conduct to the exigency of the moment and the wants of the country." His fall from office at the very moment of his triumph was dignified by the assurance of the gratitude of his countrymen and the solidity of the blessings which he brought within their reach. " It may be that I shall leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of good-will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labour and to earn their daily bread with the sweat of their brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter, because it is no longer leavened with a sense of injustice,"" " When I was at Harrow in 1797," wrote Sir Augustus Clifford to Lord Dalling, " the late Lord Palmerston was reckoned the best-tempered and most plucky boy in the school, as well as a young man of great promise. We were in the same house, which was Dr. Bromley's, by whom we were often called, when idle, young men of wit and pleasure. The late Lord de Mauley (then William Ponsonby), Powlett (a son of Lord Powlett), and myself were fags to Althorp, Duncannon, and Temple, who messed together, and the latter was by far the most merciful and indulgent. I can remember well Temple fighting behind the school a great boy, called Salisbury, twice his size, and he would not give in, but was brought home with black eyes and a bloody nose, and mother Bromley taking care of him." Such as he was at school, Palmerston continued through life, till he died, in 1865, the foremost man in England, always the same genial, daring, magnanimous nature ; his very fault of too confident assertion of his country's rights endearing him to his fellow-countrymen. In his long span of life "he summed up," says his biographer, " the political honours of several generations ; for he was a member of every Government from 1807 to 1865, except those of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Derby. He sat in sixteen Parliaments, and was elected to a seat in a seventeenth." For twenty years he held the Secretaryship at War (1809-28), a post in which his untiring assiduity and perfect mastery of the department rendered him invaluable to a long series of Ministers. Under Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston was Foreign Secretary ; under Lord Aberdeen he was Home Secretary. From 1855 to 1858, and again, after a short interval during Lord Derby's second Administration, till 1865, Palmei-ston was Prime Minister. In every post alike he showed the qualities that Englishmen love — pluck, good-humour, unflinching care for England's greatness, untiring zeal in the service of the State. His unexhausted, apparently inexhaustible spirits, his splendid physique, his un- tiring activity of mind and body, seemed proof against the inroads of old age. Harrovians will treasure the recollection of how, in his eightieth year, Lord Palmerston rode down to the Speeches, timing himself to do the twelve miles from Cambridge House to the headmaster's in an hour. The last scene of Peel's political life, the most splendid perhaps of Palmerston's, will be remembered as among the most striking episodes of our Parliamentary history. In 1850, Lord Palmerston's high-handed assertion of the rights of two STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 171 British subjects against the Greek Government had been the subject of a vote of censure in the Lords, A counter-resolution was proposed in the Commons by Mr. Roebuck, generally vindicating the foreign policy of the Government. Palmerston, "from the dusk of one day to the dawn of another,"" defended himself with a skill, courage, and lofty spirit which filled his audience, friend and foe alike, with admiration and delight. Peel addressed a measured and dignified reproof to the Ministry. He declined to concur in approval of Lord Palmerston's action, but he described his defence as " that most able and temperate speech which made us proud of the man who delivered it, vindicating with becoming spirit, and with an ability worthy of his name, the policy and conduct he pursued." As Peel walked homeward in the bright summer morning, he said to his com- panion that he " felt at peace with all the world." It was well that it should be so, for the angel of death was even now hovering about him, and that forenoon the fatal accident occurred which cost England one of the noblest of her sons. Pos- terity will, no doubt, endorse Lord Beaconsfield's admission that, if not the greatest Minister that this country ever produced, or the greatest party leader, or the most consummate orator. Peel was " the greatest Member of Parliament that ever lived." At the Harrow Speeches of 1800, H. Temple, afterwards Lord Palmerston, was one of the performers, and recited Gray's Bard. On the same occasion. Lord Haddo, afterwards Earl of Aberdeen, played the part of Dido, deploring her faithless admirer. Tradition tells us also of an encounter, waged with bolsters, between Haddo and Temple, which resulted in one of the antagonists effecting a masterly retreat to his study. Destined as the two men were to become leaders of widely different schools of foreign policy, their early careers bore a curious resemblance. Both were born in 1784 ; both were at Harrow and Cambridge ; both entered public life in 1807 ; both supported the Duke of Portland's Govern- ment ; both were statesmen of the school of Pitt. On Canning's death, Palmerston approached the Whigs. Aberdeen, having in 1835 supported Peel, found himself in 1850, on Peel's death, head of a distinguished party, whom the Tories, electing to march under Lord Derby and Disraeli in support of Protection, had rejected — the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cardwell, and two Harrovians, Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Sidney Herbert. At Harrow Lord Haddo was a serious student, not only of Greek, but of modern European literature, especially Italian poetry. His travels on the Continent a few years later, and the researches to which they conduced, earned him from Byron the well-known sobriquet, " The travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen." In 1813 he was sent by Lord Castlereagh to the Austrian Court to secure its co-operation against Napoleon, and acquired a remarkable influence with the Emperor Francis, whom he accompanied on the march of the allied armies to Paris. In 1828 he became Foreign Secretary in the Duke of Wellington's Administration. Serious, refined, sincere, unselfish. Lord Aberdeen had neither the tastes nor the aptitudes of a popular leader. But his character, in whatever circle he was moving, enforced respect. Connected in early life with the High Tory party, he afterwards marched boldly with reform, accepted frankly the great constitutional 172 HARROW SCHOOL changes of 1832, supported Peel through the famous measures which broke up his party, and, after PeePs death, became the unflinching champion of religious tolera- tion. Free Trade, and peace. In Sir R. Peel's first Ministry, 1834, Lord Aberdeen was Secretary for War and Colonies ; in Peel's second Ministry, he had the Foreign Office. On the fall of Lord Derby's Government, in December 1852, Lord Aberdeen became Premier. While he was forming his Cabinet, he called on Lord Palmerston with the offer of the Admiralty. The two old school-fellows met with cordiality, and talked over their life at Harrow sixty years before. Palmerston was appointed to the Home Office. It was the most brilliant Government since Lord Grenville's " All the Talents " Ministry in 1806. The war with Russia was its doom. Lord Aberdeen's known repugnance to war, his friendship with the Czar Nicholas, and the Quakerism of the " Peace at any price Party," led to the belief that war on England's part was impossible. That illusion was soon dispelled ; but forty years of peace had rendered the organisation of the English army obsolete and inefficient. A winter before Sebastopol brought its shortcomings to light. National indignation drove the Ministry from office ; Aberdeen made way for a Minister, the thorough- ness of whose war-policy was not open to suspicion. But Lord Aberdeen's rare gifts and qualities transcend the accidents of popular displeasure. His mental calmness, which, as Mr. Gladstone has testified, no storm of indignation could disturb, his love of exact justice, his thorough toleration, the absence of suspicion, an unstudied oratory, which, nevertheless, by an occasional phrase — " brief utterances, conveying the sense of the matter" — created an extraordinary impression on his hearers, gave him a great position in the high politics of his day, and place him among the statesmen of whom his country and his school will long cherish a respectful and affectionate remembrance. Lord Aberdeen was bound to Harrow by another tie. In 1823, having become the occupant of Bentley Priory, in the immediate neighbourhood of Harrow, he was elected a Governor of the school, a post which he retained even while he held office, many Governors' meetings taking place at Argyll House. To Dr. George Butler's reign belong the names of several boys destined to occupy a distinguished part in the political history of their country. Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, afterwards Lord Dalling and Bulwer, came to Harrow in 1815. At Cambridge he became the intimate friend of Alexander Cockburn, subsequently Chief-Justice. He began public life on the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, by taking out ,£'80,000, on behalf of the Greek Committee in London, to the insurgents. After some years of military life, he entered Parliament as a Radical reformer. He next entered diplomacy, and was employed in various important positions at Constantinople, Paris, Madrid, and Washington, in which capital his personal popularity was great. At the close of the Crimean War he was chosen to succeed Lord Stratford de Redcliffe as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Porte. In 1868 he returned to politics, and sat for Tamworth. His brilliant speeches, high-bred manners, his clever political sketches, and his keen observation, veiled under an air of languid indifference, made him an observed personage in whatever sphere he moved. The " Calvert minimus," who appears in the school list of 1813, succeeded to STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 173 his father''s baronetcy in 1826, and in the following year to the estates and name of Mary Verney, Baroness Fermanagh. After a brief diplomatic employment, Sir Harry Verney entered the army and ultimately joined the Grenadier Guards, In the new Parliament of 1832 he became the representative of the Liberal interest at Buckingham, and continued for more than fifty years the warm supporter, in and out of Parliament, of a liberal and progressive policy, and of measures of economic and philanthropic reform. His long Parliamentary services, his charm of manner and striking appearance, his assiduous discharge of a country gentleman's duties, the manly and unaffected piety which was the ruling influence of his life, earned for him general esteem, and endeared him to a wide circle of friends alike in politics and society. He died in his ninety-third year, a most loyal Harrovian to the end. James Hamilton, second Marquess and first Duke of Abercorn, became an Harrovian in 1823. He was known as a good speaker, his maiden speech in the House being regarded as of exceptional promise. He showed himself a wise and conciliatory Irish landlord, and in 1866, in Lord Derby's third Ministry, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland — a post which Fenian agitation was rendering no sinecure. He resigned it on Mr. Disraeli's retirement in 1868, and was then made a duke. On Mr. Disraeli's return to office in 1874, the Duke of Abercorn again became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He took a leading part in measures the object of which was to extend to Irish Catholics the advantages of intermediate and University education, and in the discussion of the Irish Land Bill of 1880. He was a Governor of the school, and, in 1874, laid the first stone of the new Speech-room, gracing the occasion by a brilliant and effective address. James Ramsay, afterwards Marquess of Dalhousie, came to Harrow in 1824, and was there for seven years. He and his elder brother, Lord Ramsay, were both private pupils of the headmaster. An intimacy resulted, which lasted throughout Lord Dalhousie's life. The death of his brother made a great change in James Ramsay's prospects, and launched him at once into public life. He entered Parliament in 1837, but his experience of the House of Commons was cut short by his father's death in the following year. In 1843 he became Vice- President, and, two years later. President of the Board of Trade. Here he was confronted with the huge task of shaping the whole railway system of Great Britain, then at the moment of its birth, and acquired precious official experience, soon to be turned to account on a still wider stage. Lord John Russell, on his accession to office in 1846, invited Dalhousie to his Cabinet, and in the following year he became Governor-General of India. When he landed at Calcutta, 12th January 1848, Lord Hardinge, the departing Governor-General, promised him seven years of peace. But it was not peace which lay in the lap of the gods for Dalhousie's splendid and eventful Proconsulship. Eight years of toil, of achieve- ment, of conquests and annexations, of administrative projects, grandly conceived and indefatigably carried out, of eager untiring enthusiasm in the performance of his noble task sent him home a dying man. He left behind him a name, which stands in our annals as an almost ideal embodiment of English statesmanship in the East. Dominion, but dominion of the best order — conscientious, beneficent, un- selfish — was his inspiring idea. To this he sacrificed all that common natures hold 174 HARROW SCHOOL dear — the pleasures of existence, health, and life itself. In India, shattered by war, rapine, internecine strife, his dominating spirit found a boundless field of action. With dying hand he traced, on his homeward journey, a list of triumphs — triumphs over open foes or the silent antagonism of ignorance and barbarism — such as it has seldom been the lot of mortal to achieve. If his reign was followed by a great con- vulsion, the life-and-death struggle which its suppression involved was, it must be remembered, largely due to the neglect of precautions upon the necessity of which he had solemnly insisted. The experience of that crisis revealed unsuspected dangers and defects in our administrative system ; but Dalhousie's genius, devotion to duty, and capacity for rule must, while the British Empire endures, secure him a foremost place among the great public servants, who are remembered for their invaluable contributions to their country's greatness. A joyless home and the miseries of a cruel school had given Ashley ""s youth a sombre hue. The counsels of a pious servant had sunk deep in a congenial soil. In 1813 he was sent to Harrow, where pleasant local surroundings and companion- ship relieved his melancholy by a gayer mood. One day — as, nearly seventy years later, he told the tale — he came upon a shocking scene of projfligacy and degradation. A party of drunken bearers were carrying a pauper's coffin to the grave with brutal and ribald indecency. Horrified at the sight, young Ashley resolved to make the cause of the poor his own.^ Many millions of sufferers — factory women and children, agricultural labourers, chimney-sweeps, costermongers, flower-girls, " the fatherless and he that had none to help him," he " who was ready to perish" in the fierce struggle of modem life, he who had fallen in the race, he who had been overtaken by misfortune or had lapsed into crime, — all had reason to bless that pious resolution. England had emerged from the great Continental war, triumphant indeed, but bearing in every part of her social system the marks of the sacrifice which that dreadful conflict had entailed. There had been no time to care for the wrongs of individuals or classes while national existence was at stake. With peace came the discovery that much was terribly amiss, that the maladies of the body-politic were deep-seated, wide-spreading, disastrous to great sections of the community. A manufacturing system had sprung into existence, without a single precaution for the well-being of the human units, whose necessities rendered them defenceless against competition, oppression or greed. In the mines there were scenes of degradation almost too shocking for belief. In the fields gangs of unsexed women were working like brute beasts. In the factories, children were condemned to a slavery to which the kindly hand of Death too often came as a relief. The laws were cruelly severe. Prisons, poor-houses, lunatic asylums, all were at a level which, so soon as it was realised, struck the national conscience with horror. Many noble natures, fired with the enthusiasm of humanity, devoted themselves to the task, often wearisome and unpopular, of reform, remedy, or alleviation. Foremost among them, alike for wide scope of benevolence, untiring assiduity, and unquenchable zeal, stands the honoured name of Shaftesbury. In the Duke of Wellington's Ministry in 1828 he accepted a seat on the Board of Control, but no subsequent offer ever tempted him from exclusive devotion to his ^ A mural tablet, recently erected near the School-gates, commemorates this incident. STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 175 self-imposed task of benevolence. In 1832 an accident threw into his hands the conduct of a Bill for shortening the hours of labour in factories, and from that date onward till his death Lord Shaftesbury"'s thoughts and strength were devoted to one scheme or another for improving the condition of the labouring poor. Asked on one occasion, When he meant to stop ? he answered, " Never, so long as any portion of this mighty evil remains to be removed.*" Such an announcement was regarded as a declaration of war by all who imagined their interests endangered by State interference between employers and employed. For years the theories of economists, the alarms of capitalists — selfishness, ignorance, and indifference — offered a barrier to the progress of reform. But neither disappointment, nor difficulty, nor domestic sorrow, nor the enfeeblement of old age could tame Lord Shaftesbury's indefatigable energy in a sacred cause. " My Lords," the Duke of Argyll said on one occasion, "the social reforms of the last half-century have not been mainly due to the Liberal party. They have been due mainly to the influence, character and perseverance of one man — Lord Shaftesbury."" In the north transept of Westminster Abbey stands the bust of an Harrovian of this period, whose career, full of brilliant promise, was prematurely closed while yet in its prime. Charles Buller, a joyous lad, with spirits too mercurial for the staid regime of school life, left Harrow in 1821, and was for a time under the tutorship of Thomas Carlyle at Edinburgh. A few years later he was at Cambridge, speaking at the Union in debates in which Cockburn — the future Chief- Justice — Macaulay, and Praed took part. In 1830 he succeeded to his father's seat in Parliament, supported the Reform Bill, and voted for the suppression of his own borough. In 1832 he was elected for Liskeard, a seat which he retained for the rest of his life. He formed one of a group of distinguished Liberals — Roebuck, Mill, Molesworth, and Grote. In 1838 he went as Chief Secretary with Lord Durham to Canada, and is credited with the despatch which made Lord Durham's fame. In 1841 he became Secretary to the Board of Control, a post which he resigned on Sir R. Peel's accession to office. In 1847 he was appointed Chief Poor-Law Commissioner, and devoted himself to the conduct of various Bills for the amendment of the Poor Law. He was of a goodly presence, 6 feet 3 inches high, and a yard in breadth. Carlyle described him as " the genialest Radical I ever knew " ; and Bulwer Lytton apostro- phised him in St. Stephen's : — Farewellj fine humorist, finer reasoner still. Lively as Luttrell, logical as Mill. AJeu (Tesprit, composed by C. Buller and R. Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton, professing to describe a debate in the French Chamber on a fancy dress ball given by the Queen, was one of the literary successes of its day. It quite imposed on Sir James Graham, who went off in a fluiry to consult Sir Robert Peel. Another of C. Buller's amusing squibs was a letter, purporting to be addressed by the Vice -Chancellor of the University of Cambridge to members of the Senate, urging them to vote for the abrogation of the statute passed in 1836 against Hampden. The dog-Latin is excellent — "Si subvertimus Peelum, mortuae cer- titudini habebimus Johannulum. Haec est res non singulo momento contemplanda. 176 HARROW SCHOOL Necesse est, igitur, ut faciamus quodcunque vult Peelus. Peelus vult pretendere esse liberalis. Necesse est igitur ut nos etiam liberales esse pretenderemus." Sidney Herbert, afterwards first Lord Herbert of Lea, second son of the eleventh Earl of Pembroke, is among the memorable Harrovians of this period. He came to Harrow in 1823. At Oxford, where he matriculated in 1828, he shone at the Union in debates, in which Gladstone and Roundell Palmer, afterwards first Earl of Selbome, made their first essays in public speaking. He was returned for the Southern Division of Wiltshire in the first reformed Parliament, a seat which he held till he quitted the House of Commons. Sir R. Peel made him Secretary to the Board of Control in his first Administration. Sidney Herbert returned to office with Peel in 1841 as Secretary to the Admiralty. He was now a strong Protectionist. In 1845 he became Secretary at War, with a seat in the Cabinet. He followed Peel in his conversion to Free Trade, and defended him warmly in the House. In 1852 he became again Secretary at War under Lord Aberdeen, and shared in the discomfiture in which the collapse of the military administration involved. Mr. Roebuck, in bringing up the Report of his Committee, bore a generous and well-deserved tribute to the self-devotion and zeal with which Sidney Herbert had laboured for the improvement of the army. To him must be at- tributed the mission of Miss Nightingale to the Crimea, and the initiation of numerous reforms which have in recent times improved the soldiers' lot. He was the moving spirit of the Royal Commission on military sanitation. In Lord Palmerston's first Administration Sidney Herbert was Colonial Secre- tary. On Lord Palmerston's return to office in 1859, he returned to his old post of Secretary at War, and devoted himself to the task of reorganising the War Office, carrying out the transfer of the Indian army to the Crown, and the development of the Volunteer movement. By this time, his unwearying devotion to his official duties was beginning to tell severely on his health. It was hoped that relief might be found in the quieter atmosphere of the House of Lords ; but the relief came too late. His death, in 1861, closed a career which, with much achieved, had in it the promise of still greater distinction. Fortune had lavished on him all the ingredients of political success — birth, wealth, ability, cultivation, a generous temper, a rare charm of person and manner. He was, as Lord Beaconsfield pro- nounced, just the man to govern England ; and might have done so, had he not sacrificed health and life to remedying, in his second administration of the War Office, the shortcomings which he had realised by the bitter experience of his first. Mr. Gladstone spoke all men's feelings in saying of him : — A sweeter or a lovelier gentleman. Framed in the prodigality of Nature^ The spacious earth cannot again afford. Another Harrovian of this period, who played a distinguished part in public life, was Richard Chevenix Trench, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin. He went to Harrow in 1819, " a grave, gay little person," as his mother described him, " with an intense feeling of wit, humour and pleasantry ; a total freedom from vanity, except, perhaps, a little on the subject of dress, and a deep love of reading, or STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 177 rather, a besoin — he is wretched without the certainty of this enjoyment.'" At Cambridge Trench Kved in a cultivated circle, formed a strong friendship with John Sterling, took part in debates at the Union along with F. D. Maurice, John Kemble, George Venables, Charles Buller, and R. Monckton Milnes, and gave evidence of the varied tastes and powers by which the literature of his country was subsequently so much enriched. In the Deanery of Westminster (1856-63) he found a congenial opportunity for the laborious leisure of the scholar and poet ; and in 1863, as Archbishop of Dublin, he stood forth the capable and courageous guardian of an endangered Church. At the Tercentenary Festival, in 1871, the Archbishop recalled some old and interesting memories. "I can remember," he said, " when Dr. Parr, forty -five years ago, after his secession to Stanmore, returned to us in his old age, and was present at one of our Speech-days. ... I can well remember his grotesque figure and his scratch-wig. I can remember, too, others. Who of us does not remember the venerable and stately form of the then Earl of Clarendon — his green coat and silver buttons, and his constant zeal and affection for Harrow, as witnessed by his unvarying attendance on our Speech-day ? " Herman Merivale, a grandson of Dr. Joseph Drury, was at Harrow (1817-23), and showed, as a boy, a precocity which bespoke him " not in the roll of common men."" His uncle, Harry Drury, found the little lad of ten far beyond his years in taste and understanding, and, two years later, his father was astonished at his " persevering fondness for Dante," and the enthusiasm with which he plunged into Gibbon and discussed the merits of early Christian controversy. Having swept the board of such honom-s as Harrow and Oxford could confer on him, he became a tutor, and had among his pupils Henry Manning, whom not even a cardinal's purple relieved entirely from the respectful fear which his teacher inspired. He became Professor of Political Economy, and joined the Western Circuit. In 1847 he accepted Lord Grey's offer of the Under-Secretaryship for the Colonies, a post which, a few years later, he exchanged for the corresponding office at the India Office, then presided over by Sir Charles Wood, the first Viscount Halifax. In these two appointments Herman Merivale, though somewhat withdrawn from the public eye, exercised all the influence due to his splendid intellectual gifts and forcible character ; and, probably, did more than many who figured in more prominent positions to guide the policy and strengthen the administration of his country. Can a Cardinal find a place among statesmen ? Henry Manning had, at any rate, many of the faculties, some, perhaps, of the infirmities, which belong to statesmanship — high aims, a settled purpose, the prickings of ambition, the power and the will to dominate, the eye to perceive the means by which domination must be achieved. Did his dreams wander so far when he played in the Harrow Eleven in 1825 ? At Oxford he gained a double First-Class in 1830. Twenty-one years later he passed over to the ranks of the great Church to which his tastes and convictions had for long gravitated. In 1865 he became an Archbishop, ten years later a Cardinal. His administrative ability, his deep interest in the various questions affecting the welfare of the working-classes, his zealous and unremitting philanthropy, his efforts 178 HARROW SCHOOL in the cause of temperance, and his active exertions in adjusting trade disputes, no less than his theological eminence and striking ascetic appearance, made him a great figure in modern English life. He was followed to his grave by mourning crowds. Another Harrow boy of Dr. George Butler's time became in later years one of the Governors of the school. Thomas Henry Sotheron Estcourt was son of a Gloucestershire squire, a Tory member of the strictest order, well known during the first half of the century as an uncompromising opponent of every attempt at reform in politics or religion. He entered the school in 1813, and was at its head in 1819. In 1822 he won a First-Class at Oxford along with Lord Ashley, afterwards seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, and George Howard, afterwards Earl of Carlisle. He was in Parliament for many years, but inherited his father's dislike of office, and was with difficulty persuaded by Lord Derby in 1858 to become President of the Poor Law Board. In 1859 he succeeded Mr. Spencer Walpole as Home Secretary. As a Governor, he did much to grace his office. His charm of manner, liberality, and devotion to the school rendered him deservedly popular. An accomplished classical scholar, he presided on Governors' Speech-day, with dignity and success ; and was able, in addressing the speaker of the Contio, to recall the pleasure he had experienced, as a Sixth Form boy, in the composition of a Greek choral ode. He let no day pass, he used to say, without the perusal of some fine passage from the classics. Dr. Charles Thomas Longley, the benign prelate whom a later generation admired as a worthy occupant of the See of Canterbury, was Headmaster of Harrow from 1829 to 1836. Among the Harrovians of his day was Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, afterwards sixth Earl of Bessborough. His most important public service was as Chairman of the famous Bessborough Commission on Irish rents, a post for which his experience as the successful and popular agent of Lord Fitzwilliam's estates at Coolattin had rendered him exceptionally qualified. Of the services, which earned him the eternal gratitude of Harrovian cricketers, it is for others to speak. Another title to affectionate remembrance is the Scholarship which, in 1882, he founded for the encouragement of modern studies. Another Harrovian of this period who obtained distinction in public life was Sir William Gregory. He was at Harrow from 1831 to 1836. His tutor, Mr. Kennedy, afterwards Headmaster of Shrewsbury, inspired him with classical tastes, which were turned to good account. In 1833 Gregory won the prize for Latin lyrics, and in 1835 that for Latin hexameters, the Peel Medal, and the John Lyon's Scholarship. These successes led incidentally to the bequest of the Gregory Scholarship by his great-uncle, Richard Gregory, an Harrovian, as also was Sir William's grandfather William, who was Under-Secretary for Ireland. Sir William Gregory entered the House of Commons as Conservative member for Dublin, but lost his seat at the General Election of 1847, and remained out of Parliament for ten years. In 1857 he was returned as a Liberal-Conservative for Galway, and acquired general popularity by his good speaking and genial manners. In 1862 he attracted attention by a speech strongly urging the Government to recognise the Southern States of the American Union, and declaring the blockade to be in- effectual and illegal. It was in reply to this argument that Mr. W. E. Forster STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 179 delivered his maiden speech. In 1866 Sir W. Gregory raised an important debate on the exemption of private goods from capture at sea. He was subsequently returned as Liberal member for Galway, a seat which he retained till 1872, when he was appointed Governor of Ceylon. Here he speedily made his ability and energy felt, restoring the ruined temples of the Kandian kings, and extending irrigation by the repair of the reservoirs on which the agriculture of many parts of the islands depends. He was a familiar figure at the Athenaeum and other haunts of light and learning, where Layard, Kinglake, Hayward, and other kindred spirits welcomed him to an agreeable and cultivated coterie. To this period belongs an Harrovian Attorney-General, Sir John Burgess Karslake, who was at Harrow from 1830 to 1836. He joined the Western Circuit, and became thenceforth a formidable rival of Lord Coleridge at each stage of his career. In 1861 he became a Queen's Counsel, and in 1866 was appointed Solicitor- General, but had no seat till the following year, when, having meantime been promoted to be Attorney-General, he was returned for Andover. He retained his office and seat till the fall of the Conservative Ministry at the close of 1868. In a political contest with Sir John Duke Coleridge for Exeter he was defeated. He resumed office in Mr. Disraeli's Administration of 1874, but was compelled in the following year by failing eyesight to abandon Parliamentary life. He was a much- admired advocate at the Bar, and acquired no mean reputation as a debater in the House of Commons. The intellectual and bodily strain, however, of a successful professional career had been too great even for his splendid physique, and his over- taxed health completely gave way. His brother Edward, who was at Harrow at the same time, was one of the finest scholars that the school has ever produced ; he won the Ireland and Eldon Scholarships, and became a Fellow of Balliol. He represented Colchester in 1867-68. Thomas Hope, scion of a wealthy house of Amsterdam merchants, and distinguished in his generation as owner of Deepdene, was a magnificent Art patron, and the author of Anastasius, a novel which earned the praise of Sydney Smith and the envy of Byron. His third son, Alexander James Beresford-Hope, was sent in 1 833 to Harrow, where he acquired distinction, winning a scholarship and the Peel Medal in 1837. Further honours attended him at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained prizes for Latin declamation and Latin verse. He entered Parliament in 1841, and in 1868 he became the representative of Cambridge University, a post which he retained till his death in 1887. An independent Conservative in politics, an unflinching champion of the Church, he used the rich man's privilege of pouring out money with a lavish hand in support of the cause he loved. He built a splendid church in London, and converted the ancient buildings of St. Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury into a missionary college. In the Morning' Chronicle he found a costly instrument of propagandism, but succeeded in 1855 in establishing a journal, The Saturday Review^ which for some years exercised a marked influence on the class which it addressed. In 1838 he founded a prize at Harrow for the best translation into Greek prose. In replying at the Tercentenary Festival to Archbishop Trench's toast, " Our Benefactors," Mr. Beresford-Hope called attention to the large extent to which the wealth of Harrow in prizes and 180 HARROW SCHOOL foundations was due to the generosity of recent times, and said that Baron Heath, one of the guests of the day, had been at Harrow when not a single prize was known or thought of. Mr. Beresford-Hope was made a Privy Councillor in 1885. Sir Thomas Francis Wade, " one of the most delightful, fresh -minded, and loyal of Harrovians," came to Harrow in 1832. Five years later he graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge. The son of a distinguished Peninsular soldier, he began life as a soldier, and remained a thorough soldier, as well as scholar and diplomatist, to the end. His knowledge of Chinese led to his employment in various capacities in China, He was attached as interpreter to the Earl of Elgin's mission in 1857-59, the Hon. F. Bruce"'s mission in 1859, and accompanied Lord Elgin"'s mission to Pekin in 1860. He subsequently became Charge (T Affaires at that capital, 1864-65 and 1869-71, and in 1871-82 was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. On retiring from official life, he was appointed Professor of Chinese at Cambridge. He had been one of Harry Drury's pupils, and was to the last a devoted Harrovian. " I never," he told a friend, " pass Harrow in the train without taking my hat off." Another of Dr. Longley's pupils was Robert Peel, eldest son of the great Sir Robert. He succeeded his father as third Baronet in 1850. He came to Harrow in 1835, and played in the Eleven in 1838. From Harrow he passed to Christ Church, after which he entered the diplomatic service, and served at Madrid and Berne. He represented Tamworth 1850-80, Huntingdon in 1884, and Blackburn in 1885. His imposing personality, magnificent voice, and innate faculty of ready and forcible speech, together with the prestige of an illustrious name, seemed to promise greater parliamentary success than he ultimately achieved. He was a Lord of the Admiralty in 1853-57, and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1861-65. In 1841, under the headmastership of Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, there came to Harrow a very gifted boy, whose rare promise was unhappily prevented by failing health and too early death from achieving the fulfilment for which his contemporaries hoped. Julian Fane was a man of many gifts ; a poet, a wit, a musician, splendidly handsome, and a charming member of society. From his mother, a lovely and richly-endowed woman, Priscilla Wellesley, daughter of the third Earl of Mornington, he inherited the fascination which he exercised on all who came within his reach. His devotion to her remained throughout life one of its constraining influences. His father. Lord Burghersh, afterwards eleventh Earl of Westmoreland, himself also an Harrovian, served on Sir Arthur Wellesley's staff in the Peninsular war, was in 1814 appointed British Minister to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and in 1844 was Minister at Berlin. Here Julian Fane joined him. He found at the Legation a highly-cultivated circle, — Felix Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer amongst others, — and in these congenial surroundings he remained for five years. In 1847 he went to Cambridge, where he was a member of the society known as " The Apostles " ; and in 1850 won the Chancellor's Medal for English verse, with a monody on the death of Queen Adelaide, in imitation of Milton's Lycidas. In 1851 Julian Fane became attache at Vienna. There, amid the pleasures of society, he found time for literature, and in 1855 an article by him on Heinrich STATESMEN OF HARROW SCHOOL 181 Heine appeared in the first copy of the Saturday Review. He was attached to Lord Clarendon's Special Mission at the Congress of Paris in 1856. Robert, first Earl of Lytton, who came to Hari'ow in 1846, presented, in a degree seldom seen in modern politics, a combination of literary tastes and aspira- tions with the practical interests of an official career. Bred in a lettered home, he gave to literature, throughout a busy life, his deepest affection and his most serious efforts. No amount of official drudgery could eradicate the poet, or the dreamy, meditative mood, the play of fancy, the touch of pathos, which are the poet's prescriptive attributes. Hurried, while yet scarcely beyond boyhood, into the distractions of diplomatic life and occupying in later years various posts of absorbing duties and interests, he never abandoned his belief in poetry as the most adequate instrument for depicting the deepest, subtlest, and most passionate phases of human thought, and never relaxed the effort to turn his own remarkable poetical faculty to good account. His poems have taken an honourable place in his country's literature. He began his official life under his uncle. Lord Dalling, then Minister at Washington. His abilities secured rapid advance in his profession. Several missions of special difficulty and importance proved the energy and purpose which lay beneath the gaiety and insouciance of his social demeanour. Lord Beaconsfield recognised his aptitude for a great political sphere, and in 1876 made him Viceroy of India. Lord Lytton's Viceroy alty was eventful. It began with the Proclamation of the Queen as Empress of India, a ceremonial, the impressive magnificence of which appealed strongly to the popular imagination. Delicate questions as to relations to be maintained with bordering States became more acute and perplexing as the two great Powers of the East became practically conterminous. An intrigue at Cabul brought matters to a crisis, and precipitated a long and costly war. An outburst of treachery and fanaticism, resulting in a terrible episode, enhanced the difficulties of the situation. The settlement, which closed hostilities, resulted in a lasting peace, and has placed our relations with Afghanistan on an intelligible, and, so far as experience has gone, satisfactory footing. A famine of exceptional severity added to the anxieties of Lord Lytton's reign, and it is to the completer information then obtained, and the more systematic arrangements thus rendered possible, that the present efficiency of the Government in dealing with the terrible visitation is largely due. Many important reforms — such, for instance, as the break-up of a vicious system of financial centralisation, the more general admission of natives to Government employ, and the abolition of the great customs-line which stretched across the entire country, a hindrance to trade and constant source of oppression — were either accomplished or advanced a stage towards completion during Lord Lytton's term of office. Among the unofficial functions of his Viceroyalty, Harrovian members of the Indian Service remember with pleasure the " Harrow Dinners " in 1878, 1879, and 1880, which Lord Lytton inaugurated, and which he enlivened by speeches of the original and humorous order, for which he had a fortunate aptitude. In 1887 the Earl of Lytton was appointed Ambassador at Paris, where, four years later, he died — as, probably, he would have wished to die — pen in hand. 182 HARROW SCHOOL Another career of promise, prematurely closed, was that of the Hon. Edward Stanhope, son of the fifth Earl Stanhope, who was at Harrow from 1852 to 1859. He played in the Eleven in 1859. At Oxford, in 1862, he became a Fellow of All Souls. He entered the House of Commons as member for West Lincolnshire in 1874, and represented the Homcastle Division 1885-93. In 1875 he was ap- pointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, and in 1878, Secretary of State for India. In 1885 he became Vice-President of the Council, and President of the Board of Trade. He was appointed Secretary for War in Lord Salisbury's second Ministry (1886-92) in succession to Mr. William Henry Smith. Few Harrovians have enjoyed a more general, or a better -deserved popularity. A singular charm of manner made all menu's hearts his own, and the manner bespoke the man — a worthy school-fellow of Lord Herbert of Lea. Here my task ends. Of the Harrovians who have taken a prominent part in politics and who are still, happily, amongst us, it must be for another pen to write. The list begins with Earl Fortescue, who was at Harrow under Dr. Longley in 1831. Viscount Knutsford's Harrow days date from 1838. Sir Frederic Peel won his father's medal in 1841. The Earl of Harrowby was among the earliest subjects of Dr. Vaughan in 1845. Earl Cowper became an Harrovian in 1847, Earl Spencer in 1848, Anthony Evelyn Ashley in 1850, George Otto Trevelyan and William Hart Dyke in 1851, H. Chaplin "^in 1854. Matthew White Ridley, who was head of the school in 1860-62, ended his Harrow career under Dr. H. M. Butler, as did Lord George Hamilton, who left in 1865. George Erskine Russell, twice a prize-winner for English essay and Latin epigram, went to Harrow in 1868, as did Walter Hume Long ; Earl Crewe, youngest of Harrovian politicians, belongs to the year 1870. To him, as to all, every Harrovian will breathe a hearty macte esto virtute! The foregoing sketch — fragmentary and inadequate as its conditions prescribe — may, it is hoped, prove interesting to Harrovians, past and present, as exhibiting in a concise form the public services of men who grew up under the same system, in the same local surroundings, with the same customs and associations as those amidst which their own school life was, or is being, passed. The achievements of these distinguished men belong, in a very special sense, to the community, in which their boyhood was shaped to the purposes of after-life, in which its aims and aspirations took a solid form, and the habits and tastes, which led them to eminence and usefulness, were engendered or confirmed. The fellowship of a common school, a common past, common traditions and memories, is an inspiring and stimulating sentiment. May it never cease to inspire and stimulate, to en- courage to strenuous endeavour, to serious thought, to the subordination of ease and amusement to higher interests and pleasures, and to that best and noblest ambition which merges personal advantage in the service of the State and the well-being of society. jj_ g^ Cunningham. CHAPTER XVII HARROW MEN OF LETTERS A SCHOOL of any antiquity, like a nation, has a character of its own. The educa- tional principle associated with its origin, modified from generation to generation by the character of its rulers and by influences from the larger world outside, generally runs as a tradition through the whole course of its history, and leaves some trace of itself in the minds of the individual scholars it produces. I imagine that in a sketch of the men of letters educated at Harrow, what is wanted is less an estimate of their literary merits, as such, than a view of their literary relation to the genius loci. In the eighteenth century, the period at which Harrow begins to have a distinct history of its own, all the great public schools in England, starting from a common educational source, had practically reached a stage of development which is de- scribed in Gibbon's Autobiography. " I shall always be ready," says the historian, "to join in the common opinion that our public schools, which have produced so many eminent characters, are the best adapted to the genius and constitution of the English people. A boy of spirit may obtain a previous and practical experience of the world ; and his playfellows may be the future friends of his heart or his interest. In a free intercourse with his equals the habits of truth, fortitude, and prudence will insensibly be matured. Birth and riches are measured by the standard of personal merit ; and the mimic scene of a rebellion has displayed in their true colours the ministers and patriots of a rising generation. Our seminaries of learn- ing do not exactly correspond with the precept of a Spartan king, that the child should be instructed in the arts which will be useful to the man ; since a finished scholar may emerge from the head of Westminster or Eton in total ignorance of the business and conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth century. But these schools may assume the merit of teaching all that they pretend to teach ; they deposit in the hands of a disciple the keys of two valuable chests, nor can we complain if they are afterwards lost or neglected b} his own fault."" A little state within a state, the young citizen of which was to receive a moral and quasi-political training in a society reflecting the manners of the larger world, and an intellectual training based on the study of the Greek and Latin classics ; such was the educational ideal of the eighteenth century, and in no English school was it 184 HARROW SCHOOL more enthusiastically adopted than at Harrow. From 1746, the date of the appoint- ment of Dr. Thackeray, till 1805, the year of the accession of Dr. George Butler, the Whig principle may be said to have determined the character of the school. The headmasters, with zeal and ardour, indoctrinated the boys in the theory of constitutional liberty, and in the spirit of the Greek and Latin orators and poets. Sumner, above all the rest, sought to embody these ideas in action. " He possessed,"" says his famous pupil. Sir William Jones, "all the great qualities of an orator, if not in their full perfection, yet in a very high degree. His voice was powerful and melodious, his style was polished, his wit sportive, his memory wonderfully retentive. His eye, his look, his action, were not those of an ordinary speaker, but rather those of another Demosthenes.*" We can imagine what the study of the ancient orators and poets must have been under a man like this, and how he must have aroused the ardent genius of his pupils at their most impressionable age. We may also infer that discipline in those ages was a word not to be understood in the modem sense. The grave biographer of Dr. Pari' informs us that the demo- cratic spirit was rife at Harrow under Sumner. No wonder. Conceive the head- master with his assistants rushing up to London after school hours to spend a convivial night in the house of Henry Fielding ; rushing back again in the morning to declaim to his pupils a passage from the De Corona ; the boys alternately adoring and rebelling against their teachers ; dictating to the Governors their choice of a ruler ; seceding to Stanmore when their representations were disregarded ; playfully breaking each other's heads with stout bludgeons ; or, armed with guns and pistols, engaging in heroic combat with tribes of the native barbarians : — these and similar events, recorded by the faithful historian, suggest to the reflective mind that, as a nursery of learning, Harrow in the last century must have been a place of singular vivacity. We must admit that it was open to the censures passed on such institutions by Cowper in his Tirocinium. It was not the school for the timid ; the delicate, the sensitive withered in the severe climate ; but the fittest, who survived, emerged from the ordeal with strong brains and characters. Bryan Procter (" Barry Cornwall ■") gives an interesting sketch of its component elements in the early years of this century. " It was very large, and comprehended a great variety of boys. Apart from their mere moral and physical distinctions, which of course were numerous, they came to us from all places and ranks in life. Some from ancient heights (lordly, even ducal), some from agricultural eminences — county families, or humbler gentry ; and a few were of the plebeian order from the plain. These last, never- theless, were quite capable of maintaining their equality (for all boys are pre- sumptively on a level) with those who were socially above them."" Out of this fiery and turbulent republic arose rulers of men, scholars, wits, and poets. The great race of Harrovian Prime Ministers, the Peels and the Palmerstons, were the intellectual offspring of the school in the reign of Joseph Drury ; while, for men of letters, it would be difficult to produce more brilliant and characteristic types of genius than are indicated by the names of Jones, Parr, Sheridan, Byron, and Theodore Hook. Sir William Jones (1746-94), the prince of oriental scholars, seems to have entered heart and soul into the life of the school and the spirit of classical study. HARROW MEN OF LE^FTERS 185 Of him Thackeray, his first master, said, " That he was a boy of so active a mind, that, if left naked and friendless on Salisbury Plain, he would yet find the way to fame and riches.*" The future master of languages innumerable is said, even while at school, to have known more Greek than Sumner himself, and the very sports in which he was a leader assumed a classical colour. With Parr and Bennet, after- wards Bishop of Cloyne, he divided the meadows at the foot of the school hill into separate provinces, over which the rivals reigned, administering each his own, and invading his neighbour''s kingdom. He is recorded on one occasion to have shared in an assault made by the boys of the headmaster's house on the house of an assistant-master for the purpose of carrying off some fireworks, and the battle — a really bloody one — which ensued is celebrated in heroic verse by the future Bishop of Cloyne. Samuel Parr (1747-1825) was an equally characteristic product of the Whig passion for liberty prevailing at Harrow under Sumner. It was in his behalf that the youthful and aristocratic " plebs "" of the school seceded to the neighbouring Mons Sacer of Stanmore, because they were not allowed to appoint their own headmaster. Over this rival republic of learning Parr presided for some years with his enormous wig and pipe, sometimes teaching his scholars to act Greek plays, and sometimes defending the cause of Wilkes and Liberty. He was a Whig miniature of Dr. Johnson, with the same enthusiasm for the classics, and something of the same style. Of a certain statesman"'s oratory Parr said : " It is at best but a plausible and popular eloquence, which glitters with puerile points, which swells with tumid insignificance, which carries its bombast almost to frenzy, and mis- takes the rash for the sublime." But, like Johnson, he could, when he chose, use the most idiomatic Saxon. "Sir," said he, speaking of another windy orator, "his speeches are froth — sometimes sugared froth, sometimes peppered froth, but froth always." William Bennet, Bishop of Cork and afterwards of Cloyne (1746-1820), was, according to the general testimony of his contemporaries, an admirable scholar and a delightful character. Parr says of him : " From habits not only of close intimacy, but of early and uninterrupted friendship, I can say that there is scarcely one Greek or Roman author of eminence, in verse or prose, whose writings are not familiar to him. He is equally successful in combating the difficulties of the most obscure, and catching at a glance the beauties of the most elegant. Though I could mention two or three persons who have made a greater proficiency than my friend in philosophical learning, yet after surveying all the intellectual endowments of all my literary acquaintance, I cannot name the man whose taste seems to me more correct and more pure, or whose judgment upon any composition, in Greek, Latin, or English, would carry with it higher authority to my mind. . . . Sweet is the refreshment afforded to my soul by the remembrance of such a scholar, such a man, and such a friend as Dr. William Bennet, Bishop of Cork" (Nichol's Literary Illustrations^ vol. iv. pp. 704, 705). Another of Sumner's brilliant, if irregular, pupils was Nathaniel Halhed (1751- 1830). He was a great friend of his school-fellow Sheridan, in whose company he not only translated into verse the prose Epistles attributed to the Greek sophist. 186 HARROW SCHOOL Aristaenetus, — a symptom of the decadence of the classical spirit in English Litera- ture, — but also fell in love — an early example of the rising romantic spirit — with the beautiful and fascinating Sophia Linley. Halhed did not conceal his feelings, but Sheridan was silent, and the other discovered too late that his mistress's affections were given to his friend. The last of his translations from Aristaenetus contains some original verses on the subject which are inspired by real feeling : — My life has lost its aim ! that fatal fair Was all its object^ all its hope oi* care. She was the goal to which my course was bent^ Where every wish, where every thought was sent ; A secret influence darted from her eyes, Each look attraction, and herself the prize. Concentred there, I lived for her alone ; To make her glad, and to be blest, was one. Adieu, my friend ! nor blame this sad adieu. Though sorrow guides my pen it blames not you. Forget me, — 'tis my prayer, nor seek to know The fate of him whose portion must be woe ; Till the cold earth outstretch her friendly arms. And Death convince me that he can have charms. After this disappointment Halhed left England, and entered the service of the East India Company in Bengal. While at Oxford, at the instigation of his former school-fellow. Sir William Jones, he had studied Arabic, and, during his residence in India, added to the philological reputation of his old school by publishing the first Bengali Grammar. He also, at the suggestion of Warren Hastings, translated the Gentoo Code, a digest of Sanskrit law-books ; and was the first to call attention to the affinity between Sanskrit words and " those of Persian, Arabic, and even of Latin and Greek.'" Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was not equally distinguished as a classical scholar. Parr describes him as an idle boy, though one whose ability was generally recognised by his masters and school-fellows. " In the latter period of his life,"" he says, " Richard did not cast behind him his classical reading. He spoke copiously and powerfully about Cicero. He had read and he had understood the four orations of Demosthenes, read and taught in our public schools."" But the spirit and character of the Latin and Greek authors never influenced Sheridan"'s taste in oratory as it influenced that of Pitt, Fox, and Canning. His style of speaking was florid and Asiatic ; and perhaps he never quite got the better of his admiration for the tricks of Aristaenetus. Yet Harrow may surely claim its full share in the nurture of his dramatic genius. He was devoted to the place, and after his marriage with Miss Linley came back to live at "The Grove."" Something of the delightful wit in his comedies must have been the reflection of the high spirits, the fun, the social complications, and the exhibitions of character, which made up the ethical atmo- sphere of school life under Sumner. Parr tells us that, while at Harrow, Sheridan was a great reader of English poetry, which, together with his experience of the r ,^^/ ^'^^ ^^^^ - '^as^w i^y^L ^fi£^C^ ^y^ Facing page 186. Facsimile op a Note by Byron in his Copy of the "^ Phausalia. " HARROW MEN OF LETTERS 187 society about him, doubtless helped to form his style. Certainly no dialogue more vivacious, more brilliant, more replete with the best conversational idiom, can be found in any English comedy, than in The School Jbr Scandal, The Rivals, and The Critic. But one name, after all, stands pre-eminent as the representative of the Whig period of Harrow School history. There are many features in the genius of Byron (1788-1824) which are peculiar to himself, but in his rebelliousness, his turbulence, his ardent passion for political liberty, he seems to be an embodiment of the traditional spirit, which for fifty years before his entrance into the school had characterised the life of the place. His letters and poems are full of expressions of attachment to Harrow, of memories of his companions, of conflicting feelings about his different masters. Something, too, of the school Tjdo^ is manifest in his style. Whatever be the place finally assigned to Byron among the poets of his period, I imagine that in two points, at least, he ^taxid^Jacile princeps : first, in his choice of subject-matter from those emotions which are widely and strongly ex- perienced by large bodies of men ; and, secondly, in his power of expressing these in direct and vigorous language. His style is frequently tawdry, slipshod, con- ventional. He never moves on those heights of austere philosophy where the muse of Wordsworth found an abode, nor in the pure ethereal regions in which the lyrics of Shelley are heard like the song of his own skylark ; but in the oratorical sphere, where the passions of humanity are conceived and expressed, he is without a rival among his contemporaries. None of them knew so well what could or could not be fitly expressed in metre, or what were the limits that separated prose from verse ; and though this faculty of idiomatic diction in either form was partly, as he himself supposed, the accident of birth and social surroundings, part of it must certainly be ascribed to the influences of school training. On the other hand, among Byron's contemporaries, neither Bryan Procter ("Barry Cornwall") (1787-1874) nor Theodore Hook (1788-1841), can be said to reflect much of the genius of their school. The former was once popular as a song-writer, but his compositions of this kind, though manly and vigorous, are now scarcely current coin. He lived much with Leigh Hunt, Lamb, Hazlitt, and their friends, and has left interesting reminiscences of men of letters distinguished in the early part of the century. His best poems are those which are least known. In one of these, called The Journal of the Sun, there is a rhythm which, more or less imitated from Shelley, seems to be a forecast, and may have been the germ, of the anapaestic movement, afterwards so largely developed by Mr. Swinburne. Here are some fine lines describing sunset : — Still swift — like the eagle pursuing The falcon in flight — He rusheth adown the deep azure, Now followed by Night. Shapes rise from the Ocean to greet him They curtain his bed. Gold-tinged, like the eye of the topaz, Blush-coloured ; blood-red ; 188 HARROW SCHOOL Such blue as the amethyst hides In the depths of her breast ; Aiid thus — in the bosom of beauty — He sinks to his rest. Procter describes himself as no very apt scholar, and he was apparently little affected by the life of the school. His recollection of Byron as a schoolboy is in- teresting. He says : " I had not seen him since about 1800, when he was a scholar in Dr. Drury"'s house, with an iron cramp on one of his feet, with loose corduroy trousers, plentifully relieved by ink, and with finger-nails bitten to the quick." Theodore Hook also makes mention of Byron at school. He says that, on his own arrival, the poet persuaded him — quite in the spirit of the time — to throw a stone at the window of a room where an elderly lady was dressing. Byron after- wards satirised his old school-fellow in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and the other retaliated by a savage attack on Don Juan in John Bull, Hook, evidently referring to his own experience in his novel Gilbert GurTiey, says : " My school life was not a happy one. I was idle and careless of my tasks. I had no aptitude for learning languages. I hated Greek, and absolutely shuddered at Hebrew.^ I fancied myself a genius, and anything that could be done in a hurry and with little trouble I did tolerably well, but application I had not." The " Lucian Gay " of Coningshy and the "Wagg" of Vanity Fair developed in his own fashion. He had no poetic invention. " Give me a story to tell," he said of himself, " and I can tell it, but I cannot create." Yet he had a vast vitality, and the rapidity of his improvisations, the vigour of his lampoons, and the unscrupulousness of his practical jokes, perhaps reflect something of the lawlessness of the Harrow saturnalia in the early years of the nineteenth century. The roll of men of letters educated at Harrow during this period of the school's history may be fitly closed with the name of another novelist, who partook, in some degree, alike of the Oriental learning of Sir William Jones and the animal spirits of Theodore Hook. James Morier (bom about 1780, died in 1849), had from his child- hood been connected with the East (he was the second son of Isaac Morier, Consul- General of the Levant Company at Constantinople), and after the completion of his education seems to have rejoined his family in those parts. In 1812 he published A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor to Constantinople in the years 1808 and 1809, giving an account of regions then almost unknown to Europeans. In 1810 he was made Secretary to Sir Gore Ouseley, Ambassador to Persia, and remained in that capacity at Teheran till 1815. The fruits of his study of Oriental manners will always survive in his Adventures ofHqjji Baha of Ispahan, published in 1824. In this delightful work the humour of Smollett is combined with the grave decorum of the Arabian Nights ; and the beneficial results of Morier's classical training at Harrow are plainly seen in the good - breeding, the naturalness and polish of his style. So vivid was his satire, so life-like his repre- sentation of manners, that the Persian Ambassador is said to have complained of the book to the English Government. Those who are not acquainted with this ^ Hook's emotions can hardly have been aroused by anything Semitic that he had to learn at Harrow. HARROW MEN OF LETTERS 189 literary masterpiece may be tempted to read it by the following extract, which contains, as in a kernel, the spirit of the whole work : — " How is it possible," said I, " that a being so ignorant and unexperienced as I am can at once attain to all the learning requisite for a dervish ? I know how to read and write, 'tis true ; I have gone through the Koran, and have my Hafiz and Saadi nearly by heart ; besides which I have read a great part of the Shah Nameh of Ferdusi, but beyond that I am totally ignorant." " Ah, my friend," said Dervish Sefer, " little do you know of dervishes, and still less of human kind. It is not great learning that is required to make a dervish : assiu-ance is the first ingredient. With one-fiftieth part of the accomplishments that you have mentioned, and with only a common share of effrontery, I promise you that you may command not only the purses, but even the lives of your hearers. By impudence I have been a prophet, by impudence I have wrought miracles, by impudence I have restored the dying to health, by impudence, in short, I lead a life of great ease, and am feared and respected by those who, like you, do not know what dervishes are. If I chose to give myself the trouble, and incur the risks which Mahomed himself did, I might even now become as great a prophet as he. It would be as easy for me to cut the moon in two with my finger as it was for him, provided I once made my hearers have confidence in me ; and impudence will do that, and more, if exerted in a proper manner." In the headmastership of Dr. George Butler a new era opens, and the character of Harrovian men of letters alters at the same time. While the school is far from having lost its old moral and intellectual traditions, the spirit of license has — at all events in the closing years of the regime — been greatly modified. Discipline assumes a distinct form ; manners are softer. Instead of the battles with bludgeons, cricket is beginning to exercise its social influence. The oratorical declamations from the classics are replaced, and the ambition of the boys stimulated, by prizes offered for compositions in Latin and Greek. Faint glimpses of religious instruction appear, in anticipation of the time when there will be a separate school chapel. The latter half of Butler's reign covers the period in our national life between the battle of Waterloo and Catholic emancipation, when the two movements of democratic reform and ecclesiastical revival daily acquired fresh force ; and his pupils had, in their full manhood, to deal with the new set of social conditions thereby created. They were well prepared for it. The representative men of letters educated at Harrow during this epoch were for the most part divines, equally distinguished as scholars and athletes. The constant habit of composing in Latin and Greek had, of course, a gi*eat influence on their minds ; and Isaac Williams (1802-65), the eldest of the group, was so imbued with the classical spirit that, he tells us in his Autohio^aphy, " When I had to write an English theme, which was very rarely, I had to translate my ideas, which ran in Latin, into English." But he, like so many of his eminent school-fellows, was also distinguished for skill in games, and those who followed in the next school generation kept up the tradition. " One distinction at least " writes the late Dean Merivale (1808-93), " I may claim for the Sixth-Form game of 1823-24, in which I took part myself, namely, that it comprised amongst its players two Archbishops that were to 190 HARROW SCHOOL be, three Bishops, and one Dean, and I venture to challenge the cricketers of any other school to produce such a list."*' Of the cricketers referred to, Henry Manning, Richard Trench, and Charles Wordsworth, may all be described as ecclesiastical statesmen, while the two latter were certainly also distinguished for their literary gifts. Bishop Wordswoi-th (1806-92), in his genial Annals^ describes pleasantly his prowess while at school : " As a boy, I was a greater man than I have been at any subsequent period of my life." The training in Latin and Greek verse composi- tion which he received bore good fruit, as may be seen in the many admirable specimens he has preserved in his Recollections; the most exquisite of which is the pathetic epitaph on his young wife, who died while he Avas assistant-master at Winchester : — I iiimium dilecta, vocat Deus ; i bona nostrae Pars animae ; maerens altera disce sequi. The late Bishop of St. Andrews had a fight with his school-fellow, Richard Chenevix Trench, over a game of quoits. "Who would have supposed," says Wordsworth, " that such an encounter would ever have taken place between the future sedate and amiable Archbishop, and the future advocate of reconciliation among Christians ? " Trench (1807-86), a charming though not an original poet, owed most of the taste and refinement which characterise equally his verse compositions and his Study qf Words to the classical discipline of Harrow, which also helped the late Dean of Ely to an admirable style of narrative in his History of' the Ramans under the Empire. Charles Merivale was so carried away, while at school, by his enthusiasm for Latin verse composition, that he planned an epic poem on The Invasion qf the Gauls, of which he actually completed two books. His elder brother Herman (1806-74) was a school prodigy; and if his energies had not been absorbed in the service of the State as Under-Secretary for the Colonies, and afterwards of the India Office, his remaining works show that he would have taken a high place in English literature. But in the group of cricketing divines mentioned by the Dean of Ely, by far the most interesting figure is the man whose destiny carried him further than any of his contemporaries away from the Harrow tradition. The Roman Catholic biographer of Cardinal Manning (1808-92) grows enthusiastic over the great part played by his hero in the Vatican Council, and contrasts it with the comparatively restricted career which would have been open to him had he remained a member of the Anglican Church. To the Harrovian other reflections present themselves. Manning was a born statesman ; he was naturally ambitious. He himself, indeed, is constantly telling us, in his latter-day reminiscences, that for the last forty years of his life he was " taken out of the world." Yet through the whole of this period, his acts, words, and recorded feelings show that he never ceased to follow the irresistible bent of his nature, and to play — doubtless with a lofty and spiritual aim — the statesman, within the sphere of what he considered the only Catholic Church. "I remember saying," he writes, "that I had given up working for the people of England to work for the Irish occupation in England. But that occupation is a part of the Church throughout the world, qf an Empire greater than the British."" Or again : " The last six-and- thirty years I have worked for the HARROW MEN OF LETl^ERS 191 building up again of Catholic, and even of Christian truth, which was wrecked in the great revolt." In his autobiographical notes, he is perpetually measur- ing his own success with that attained by his friends and contemporaries in other spheres. We can understand the tone of disappointment which invariably accompanies these reflections in the Cardinal's private records. Manning was intensely influenced by the traditions of his education. He imbibed fully the public spirit of Harrow. "The public-school life at Harrow," he says, in his account of the formation of his political opinions, " in which all are equal, and dukes are fags, is a great leveller, not in a bad sense, but in teaching human equality, and the inequality of merit rather than of rank." In the English Church there was at least full scope — as Manning proved while Archdeacon of Chichester — for the exercise of those qualities which he possessed by nature, and which had been nourished by his school training, conciliation, high-breeding, practical sense, humour, and sagacity. But in him the faculty of logic largely predominated over the faculty of imagination. He failed to find in the Church of England a logical basis of absolute religious authority ; he hoped to find it in the Church of Rome ; he might possibly have found it there, had he been prepared, like Newman, to make a complete surrender of self. But he carried into his new sphere of action all his natural instincts, all his Whig tendencies ; and the record of his feelings in his closing years breathes many a pathetic note of suppressed patriotism, many a half-sigh over unfulfilled hopes and insuperable obstacles to practical statesman- ship. Granted that he had become a member of an empire in one sense " greater than the British," imagination, had he possessed it in a higher degree, would have shown him how vast were the spiritual capacities of the society he abandoned, and what prospects were opened in that new world of Imperium et Libertas, as described in the striking sonnet of his school-fellow, Richard Trench : — England, we love thee better than we know ; And this I learned, when after wanderings long 'Mid people of another stock and tongue, 1 heard again thy martial music blow. And saw thy gallant children to and fro Pace, keeping ward at one of those huge gates. Twin giants watching the Herculean Straits. When first 1 came in sight of that brave show. It made my very heart within me dance To think that thou thy proud foot shouldst advance Forward so far into the mighty sea ; Joy was it and exultation to behold Thine ancient Standard's rich emblazonry, A glorious picture, to the wind unfold. From the last few years of Dr. George Butler's headmastership to the beginning of Dr. Vaughan's, there is observable a decline in the fortunes of Harrow. It may have been partly this internal decay, and partly the course of events in the larger world, which affected the HaiTovian imagination during the same period. In the case of those who had left the school, of course, the latter influence alone can have been at work. Then was beginning the age of the great Oxford Movement in the 192 HARROW SCHOOL Church, which culminated in Tracts for the Times; and the age of the great Liberal movement in the State, initiated by the first Reform Bill. Both move- ments were, in their effects, anti-Whig (in so far as the Whigs were essentially the aristocratic party) and anti- Classical (in so far as there was, both among the democratic and ecclesiastical Reformers, an element strongly opposed to the humanistic teaching of the Renaissance) ; so that the ancient traditions of Harrow were no longer in sympathy with the tide of current popular opinion. On the other hand, the religious movement revived instincts and feelings in individuals which had been in a state of suspended animation during the Whig regime. A vein of historic sentimentalism, half-monarchical, half-monastic, runs, for example, through the poems of Aubrey de Vere (1788-1846), and the reaction against the classical spirit of the eighteenth century finds its utterance in sonnets of which the following is a fine specimen : — Let those who will hang rapturously o'er The flowing eloquence of Plato's page ; Repeat^ with flashing eye, the sounds that pour From Homer's verse as with a torrent's rage ; Let those who list ask Tully to assuage Wild hearts with high-wrought periods, and restore The reign of rhetoric, or maxims sage Winnow from Seneca's sententious lore. Not these but Juda's hallowed bards to me Are dear : Isaiah's noble energy ; The temperate grief of Job ; the artless strain Of Ruth and pastoral Amos ; the high songs Of David ; and the tale of Joseph's wrongs. Simply pathetic, eloquently plain. Isaac Williams, whom I have mentioned before as being steeped in the classical style, was in his Oxford days carried on the full tide of the ecclesiastical revival, and wrote, under the medieval influence, a poem called The Cathedral, in which each part of the sacred building was treated as typifying some religious truth. In connection with this poem, he relates an incident illustrative of the influence of Newman''s master mind. " I remember Newman," he says in his Autobiography, " even so late as my publishing the sonnet now in The Cathedral on Charles I., made an alteration which I have never quite liked, inserting the line ' Flouted his name, unpardoned e'en in death,' for one of mine which expressed more strongly my own feelings, but which I have never since remembered." The spirit of romance and nature-worship associated with the religious move- ment made its way into the school, and caught the imagination of the more reflective boys, among whom was Frederick Faber (1814-63). Sentimentalism is, on the whole, the prevailing note in Faber's poetry ; but he had evidently a genuine feeling for Nature, partly instinctive, partly derived from the study of Wordsworth, and his Vale on leaving Harrow contained the lines — Nature hath been my mother ; all her moods, On the gray mountains or the sullen floods, Have charmed my soul. HARROW MEN OF LETTERS 193 His best poems are certainly those describing the country about Oxford, and the spires and domes of the University under the various aspects of the seasons. His sentimentalism shows itself in his Newdigate Prize poem on The Knights of St. John. Whether he was the originator of the phrase, " loved so well," dear to all young prize poets of a certain period, I cannot say, but certainly it occurs almost as inevitably in his verse as krjKvOtov aTrwAeo-ev (according to the Aristophanic vEschylus) in the rhythms of Euripides.^ Faber seems, while at Harrow, to have taken little part in the school games, but he was a good rider and swimmer. His poetical diction shows no trace of the classical influence ; it is facile and fluent, but wanting in distinctive character. Perhaps (apart from his hymns) his best- known lines are : — Small things are best : Gi-ief and unrest To rank and wealth are given : But little things On little wings Bear little souls to heaven. Another Harrow poet of the decadent period, who was carried over to the Church of Rome on the tide of the Oxford Movement, was Henry Oxenham (1829-88). The dominant note in his verse, as in Faber's, is sentimentalism. One of his Vales (for he wrote two) contains some reflections on Byron, showing how great was the influence exerted by that poet over those who followed him in his old school. Oxenham also wrote on another theme which had a great fascination for minds influenced by the Oxford Movement, " The Idea of Regenerated Chivalry." Unlike Faber, he seems never to have completely surrendered his liberty to the Church which he joined as a convert. To the end of his life he retained an affection for the Church of England, and he assailed with bitterness and ability the decrees of the Vatican Council. Anthony Trollope (1815-82), whose novels are full of sketches of the English clergy, was entirely unaffected by the medieval influences which overpowered so many of his contemporaries, and one at least of his school-fellows. The type of clergyman with whom he apparently had most sympathy was of the " high-and-dry '* school, portrayed in the character of Archdeacon Grantley. But Trollope was equally insensible to the genius loci at Harrow. He was a monitor before he left. ^ Here are a few instances culled at random : — The " white city " in Malta, he says, Wraps old memories round her like a spell Of shipwrecked Paul who loved her land so well. — Knights of St. John. Here in thy choice, old city, do I dwell At thy dread feet most honoured Clarendon, Catching the precious words that one by one Fall from thy lips, because 1 love full well Thy good and stately sadness. Favourite Books. The sylvan peace that suits so well The spirit of the local spell. — The Cherwell. Thou art too good to see or know Tlie ills that in me dwell. It is most right to keep our faults From those we love so well. — Haifa Heart. Albeit we fondly hoped when we were men To leave the lore our parents loved so well. Childhood. And sad whene'er St. Stephen's curfew bell Warned me to leave the spots I loved so weU. — On revisiting the River Eden. 194 HARROW SCHOOL yet he tells us, in his Autobiography, that it was late in his life before he began to read Latin authors with pleasure ; indeed, the style of his work would have borne testimony to this fact, even if we had wanted his own confession. His novels are, like the man himself, honest, manly, and thoroughly English ; but it may be doubted whether they will receive a place among the national classics. It might have been otherwise. Artistic truths that writers of genius like Shakespeare and Jane Austen recognised intuitively, a novelist who could create characters so admirable in their own way as those of Bishop and Mrs. Proudie, might surely have learned by study and reflection, had his mind been imbued at the most receptive age with the spirit of what he read at school. As he himself tells us, he aimed above all things at being " natural " ; but he did not sufficiently distinguish between what is " natural " for the purposes of art, and " natural "" in connnon life and conversation. An acute observer of manners, he yet made no attempt to select for his imaginary situations those circumstances of conduct and character which are permanent and representa- tive. He was content with reproducing everyday experience, in words correct but not choice or distinctive — the language proper to good journalism. Hence his pictures of contemporary life and character, imitating the mere surface of things, are already beginning to appear a little old-fashioned; they are in the art of fiction what Frith's Derby Day and Railway Station are in the art of painting. Trollope speaks without affection or enthusiasm of his school-days, dwelling with satisfaction on only a single incident — his victory in a fight. The sullenness of his recollections may, however, be accounted for by the somewhat sordid circumstances of his home life, which clouded the natural happiness of boyhood. When Harrow, under the headmastership of the late Dean of Llandaff*, sprang into new prosperity, it regained also its character of a self-contained society, and I think that those of my own contemporaries, who remember the school during the last few years of Dr. Vaughan's reign and the opening years of his successor, will agree with me in thinking that, in all essential points, it had preserved its ancient genius. Socially, it was composed of the same mixed elements as in Barry Cornwall's time, and perhaps its strong aristocratic leaven had helped to main- tain the continuity of its history by keeping up a kind of family tradition. The same political spirit that Gibbon describes still prevailed, though the arrogant Whig ij^os was toned down into a milder Liberal-Conservatism, more in harmony with the circumstances of the time. I think that in 1859, for example, most of the boys in the Sixth Form were in sympathy with the cause of Italian unity, a monu- ment of which feeling still remains in a spirited poetical declamation by the present Home Secretary in celebration of Victor Emmanuel's entry into Florence. In the cricket-field and the racket-court the school did something more than keep up its old athletic fame. But Sumner would have been pleased, above all, with the manner in which Dr. Vaughan and his eminent successor employed the classical writers as instruments alike of ethical and literary education. Under their tuition, boys were taught to regard the Latin and Greek authors not only as grammatical text-books, but as masterpieces of literattire ; Dr. Vaughan perhaps using them specially as instruments for teaching the right use of language, and Dr. Butler dwelling besides with enthusiasm on the beauties of their thought. Hence the minds of their pupils HARROW MEN OF LETTERS 195 naturally expanded, and began to seek eagerly for the same kind of qualities in their own and other literatures. The value of this truly liberal mental training may be tested by contrasting the literary work of those Harrovians who most fully imbibed the spirit of Dr. Vaughan's teaching with that of those who, for one reason or another, failed to experience the discipline in its full extent. Among the latter was Robert, Earl of Lytton (1831-92), who, as a boy, showed a singular literary precocity, but who remained at Harrow for a very short time, and, consequently, as he once owned to the writer of these words, only acquired late in life a perception of the true meaning of the classical style. No man of letters in his generation possessed a mind more brilliant, more animated, more richly stored Avith imaginative and even poetical conceptions, or with more abund- ant resources for expressing them. But he Avas never obliged by his training to judge thought against thought, to select what was necessary, and reject what was unfitted for his artistic purpose. He gave the full reins to every caprice, and his long poems like Glenaveril and King Poppy, while full of admirable cleverness, want that distinctness of form and proportion which is needed to impress the imagination of the general reader. Here, for example, is a description of Poetry taken from King Poppy : — Hence all these floating' migratoiy films Of freshest music, filled with fairy youth, That hover round us, haunt the world's old age, Hide in our hearts, and to our memories hang ; Woo us we know not whither ; come to us We know not whence ; move us we know not why. In vain we wonder who the singers were That sung the first. The world's first singers found These songs already floating here and there Before them. Long before old Homer's birth, And older far than he, the Iliad lived. The tired wayfarer 'mid the windy hills. When red with menace on some morning moor The large moon rises late, and finds him lost ; The strayed and doubting huntsman by his dogs Deserted, whose wild horn at nightfall wakes The wailing echo from the haunted woods, — To these the mighty silence sometimes makes A phantom music, such as faint sea winds Wake from forgotten harps in mouldering halls ; A music that with mystic sadness moves Men's spirits, like a memory of the lives They never lived, in days that never were. Yet are for ever what they ne'er have been. Fairer than any that the sun brings forth. All this is brilliant and imaginative, yet it may be summed up in two lines of Wordsworth, which will live for ever : — The light that never was on sea or land. The consecration and the poet's dream. 196 HARROW SCHOOL The same incapacity for centralising thought and condensing language may be observed in the Hon. Roden Noel (1834-94), though he had far less native genius than Lord Lytton. He remained but a very short time at Harrow, and — at least in so far as his poetical education was concerned — was drawn into abstract philo- sophy at too early an age. He was not wanting in imaginative power, as may be seen from the following meditations on Westminster Bridge at midnight : — WTien England bathes in shadow, the tall tower Of that great palace of the people shines, Shines to the midnight like a midnight sun. While crowned, inherited incompetence, And while law-making men laborious, Through long night-watches, in their golden chamber. Wage wordy wars of faction, help the State, The dreadful river rolls in darkness under. Whirling our human lights to wild witch-gleam ! See yellow lamps in formidable gloom Of both the shores, night-hearted haunts of men ; Terrible water heaped about great piers Of arches, gliding, gurgling, ominous ! But on the vasty parapet above Those Titan tunnels, ghastlier for the glare Of our electric mockery of moons. Appears a moment a fate-hunted face. Wan Desolation plunging to the Void. Then swirls a form dishonoured among gleams Which eddy as light-headed ; what was man With other offal flotsam, flounders, rolls. The meaning of the " classical style "" may be understood by example, if these lines be compared with Wordsworth^'s sonnet on Westminster Bridge, " Earth has not anything to show more fair."" Noel would have learned many truths valuable to him as a poet if he had remained to become a monitor at Harrow. On the other hand, all that it was possible to learn from the classics, regarded solely as models of poetical diction, was learned by Charles Stuart Calverley, or, as he was called while at Harrow, Blayds (1831-84). He seems to have drunk in with silent enjoyment, and without effort, all the influences of the place; and there is something singularly attractive in the records of his prodigious jumps, his cool impudence, his imperturbable good-humour, and his beautiful scholarship. All these contrary qualities seem to combine harmoniously in the curiosa Jhlicitas of his style. Within his own sphere, doubtless a very limited one, I question whether any English poet ever excelled Calverley in the adaptation of means to ends. In his conscious mixture of kindly cynicism with sentiment, and in his choice of words for his favourite effect, — a prosaic climax to a beautiful and melodious period, — the nature of the man himself seems to shine through all his verse. What can be better than the rhythmical roll of cautious calculation in the last line of the lOllOWmg . Q jjjjy. Q^n^ jny beautiful, my blue-eyed ! To be young once more, and bite my thumb At the world and all its cares with you, I'd Give no inconsiderable sum. HARROW MEN OF LETTERS 197 What more gravely, pathetically, musically absurd than the address to the organ-grinder ? — Far from England in the sunny South, where Anio leaps in foam, Tliou wast reared, till lack of money Drew thee from thy vine-clad home. And thy mate, the sinewy Jocko, From Brazil or Afric came, Land of simoom and sirocco — And he seems extremely tame. There he quaffed the undefiled Spring, or hung with ape-like glee. By his teeth, or tail, or eyelid. To the slippery mango tree. There he wooed and won a dusky Bride, of instincts like his own ; Talked of love till he was husky In a tongue to us unknown. Side by side 'twas theirs to ravage The potato-ground, or cut Down the unsuspecting savage. With the well-aimed cocoa-nut. Best of all, perhaps, is the air of innocent doubt in " Forever " : — Forever ! 'Tis a single word ! Our rude forefathers deemed it two : Can you imagine so absurd A view ? Forever ! what abysms of woe The word reveals, what frenzy, what Despair ! For ever (printed so) Did not. It looks, ah me ! how trite and tame. It fails to sadden or appal Or solace — it is not the same At all. Forever ! passion-fraught, it throws O'er the dim page a gloom, a glamour ! It's sweet, it's strange ; and I suppose It's grammar. Forever ! 'Tis a single word ! And yet our fathers deemed it two : Nor am I confident they erred ; Are you } No greater contrast can be imagined than that which existed between Calverley and John Addington Symonds (1840-92), the last distinguished man of letters who left Harrow under the headmastership of Dr. Vaughan. Calverley was 198 HARROW SCHOOL evidently completely happy while at school. Symonds was far otherwise, partly, as he frankly confesses, from his own fault. " I shrank,"" he says, " from games of every sort, being constitutionally unfit for violent exercise and disliking competition. I had no inclination for cricket, football, racquets, and I even disliked fencing. ... In this way, I did not come into salutary contact with my school-fellows. It would assuredly have been far better for me had I been cast more freely upon their society. . . . Fagging, again, would have brought me into practical relation with the elder boys, and have rubbed off some of my fastidious reserve." Calverley, within his own artistic limits, did all that he tried to do to perfection ; Symonds, as we see from his Autobiographic, suffered martyrdom from a consciousness of poetic impotence. Calverley, perhaps culpably wanting in ambition, accommodated him- self readily to his surroundings ; Symonds was always haunted by a desire to realise ideals impossible in English society as actually constituted. The more admirable was his heroic struggle, crowned with a large amount of success, in the midst of disease and mental suffering, to accomplish a positive and practicable task. In the performance of this he owed much to his Harrow training. He gained from his school life public spirit, good social traditions, mental discipline ; and many of those who knew him best will regret that, even if it were necessary to reveal to the world the painful conflicts of his inner life, it was not at the same time found possible in his Biography to leave on the mind a more vivid impression of his cheerfulness, his humour, his powers of enjoyment, and all the qualities that made him a delightful companion and a sympathising friend. Harrow, besides, did much more for Symonds than he is ready to allow, by awakening his intellectual faculties. His classical studies taught him how to direct his critical powers — and when he is at his best he is an excellent critic — to a definite end ; they enabled him, too, to hold in check, though not always to overcome, the intellectual temptations to which he was peculiarly liable. The Renaissance in Italy — more especially when the difficulties under which it was written are remembered — must be pronounced a most remarkable work, and Harrow may justly take to herself credit for having educated its author. In the foregoing sketch I have endeavoured to exhibit a variety of literary Harrovians in their relation to the genius of their school. Though that genius has of late years been greatly expanded by the increased importance assigned in the curriculum to the study of physical science and modern languages, and by the general growth of the Modern Side, there lias been no change in its organic principle, and its continuity has never been broken. I should be happy if this brief survey helped to reveal to some of those who are now receiving their instruction at Harrow the value of the two chests, the keys of which, as Gibbon says, are deposited in their hands. Stet Fortuna Dormis. W. J. COURTHOPE. CHAPTER XVIII SPEECH-DAY Although Speech-day is the historical successor of the far older archery competition, there is so vast a difference between the two institutions that it is only in a very limited sense that the one can claim to have developed from the other. But as institutions seldom spring full-blown into being, we may well doubt if the Speech- days of last century were an absolutely new invention. In fact, there are scattered pieces of evidence which go to show that public (or semi-public) declamation was practised in the school before the institution took its present form. As the annual public festival of the school, the arrow-shooting (as it was called) preceded Speech-day by many years ; how many, it is impossible to say, as very few records have been preserved. The earliest public notice with which I am acquainted is as late as 1731, and consists of a paragraph in the Daily Gazetteer announcing the date of the competition. It is probable that the festival was of a much older date, but was now beginning to attract that public interest which brought about its suppression forty years later. Apart from the annual festival, there is no doubt about the origin of the practice of archery in the school. It was specially ordained by our founder that parents should allow their children, in addition to paper and pens, " bowshafts, bowstrings, and a bracer, to exercise shooting," from which command arose in after- years the annual archery contest, and indirectly Speech-day. According to Dr. George Butler's MS. history of the origin of Speech-day, compiled in 1848 and preserved in the Vaughan Library, the competition took place at the Butts, which were situated on what was then part of Roxeth Common, immediately to the west of the London Road and north of Roxeth Hill.^ These butts are marked on a map of Harrow Manor dated 1759, in the possession of Lady North wick. This is the received tradition, and it may have been the case in early times, but it seems very probable that the butts here mentioned were for the general use of the inhabitants of Harrow, and that in later times the school instituted a shoot- ing-ground on its own land. The chief evidence for this view is the etching which forms part of the "correct card" for the contest of 1769. Here is shown the railed-in ground with its two butts (at surprisingly short range, but this is prob- 1 A house facing the spot^ on the south side of Roxeth Hill, is still known as the Butts. 200 HARROW SCHOOL ably the fault of the artist), the ground sloping upwards in the background, with the church on the top ; all pointing to a site on the side of the hill, below the west end of the church. A rare print (published in 1791) of the hill and church from the west, shows a party of boys shooting with bows at an improvised target, pointing to the survival at that date of a tradition connecting the church fields with archery ; but we will leave local antiquaries to settle the question as best they may. In early times, the first Thursday in August was the date. This was changed in 1761 to the first Thursday in July, a day very close to our present date for Speech- day. The competitors, originally six, later twelve, arrayed in fancy dresses of satin, and wearing satin caps with enormous peaks, shot ten arrows each. A " bull " was greeted by a concert of French horns. The victor marched back to the town at the head of a procession of boys, carrying his prize, the silver arrow. The entertainments of the day were concluded by a ball, given by the winner, to which all the neighbouring families were invited. The last contest was in 1771. In that year the headmaster, Dr. Sumner, died, and Dr. Heath reigned in his stead. One of his first acts was to abolish the arrow- shooting, and to institute speeches in its place.^ The silver arrow made for the year 1772 (Dr. Heath's first summer term) was never competed for. It passed into the possession of the Rev. B. H. Drury, and was by him presented to the Vaughan Library, where it is preserved, together with many other relics of this bygone festival. Whether the first official Speech-day was held in 1772 is a matter for conjecture. It is certainly probable that it was, but it is quite possible that there may have been a gap between the old order and the new. On this point we have absolutely no records ; curiously enough even the Governors'* Minutes make no mention either of the abolition of the arrow-shooting or the institution of speeches. The school collection of Speech bills does not commence until 1785. The motives which impelled Dr. Heath to make so drastic a change are thus set forth by Dr. G. Butler. " The reasons which induced him to abandon this ancient custom were dignified and just. They are stated to have been the frequent exemp- tions from the regular business of the school — which they who practised as competi- tors for the prize claimed as a privilege not to be infringed upon — as well as the band of profligate and disorderly persons whom this exhibition brought down into the village by reason of its vicinity to the metropolis. These encroachments and annoy- ances had at length become so injurious to discipline and morals, as, after some vain attempts at the correction of the evil, to call for the total abolition of the usage.'" ^ An archery tradition lingered at Harrow into the present century. The Gentleman's Magazine for August 181G records that '^^ according to annual custom, the silver arrow was shot for at the Butts, Harrow-on-the-Hill, by twelve young gentlemen, educated at the school," and a lithogi*aphed portrait of C. E. Long, after a painting by Cosway, taken when in the school (about 1815), shows him in a fancy dress with a bow and horn : the school and church appear in the background. As no record has come to light between 1771 and 1816, it is prob- able that the " annual custom " and the costume in the portrait refer to a revival rather than a survival of the practice. Throughout England, and especially near London, there was a strong revival of archery about 1790. Archery Dress morn at Harrow. Facing page 200. SPEECH-DAY 201 The legend current in Dr. G. Butler's time that the accidental shooting of a spectator was one of the causes of the change may have had a foundation in fact, but the tradition that the incident is shown in the etching mentioned above is an entire mistake, as any one will see who examines the print. In 1772 (or perhaps a year or two later) the first public speeches were held at Harrow. It seems that Dr. Heath had some slight respect for the privilege of frequent exemptions from the regular work of the school, as he instituted three Speech-days in the place of the single contest. On the first Thursdays in May, June, and July, the ten monitors made their speeches, with the aid of a few per- formers chosen out of the Sixth Form, The programme was varied at each performance, so each actor played three parts in the course of the summer term. The pieces were in Latin, Greek, and English, nearly all monologues, rarely dia- logues, and never scenes with more than two characters. Prize compositions did not take their place in the programme until 1820. Such were the arrangements from the foundation of speeches until 1829, when the performances were reduced to two. Later, in 1844, one of these was abolished, and from that day we have had but one Speech-day.^ Did these three Speech-days spring full-grown out of the head of Dr. Heath, or did he take up and develop a practice which he found already existing in the school ? The little evidence which exists points to the latter supposition. Two passages in Lord Teignmouth''s Life of Sir William Jones are important. He mentions that in 1757 (about), the boys proposed to act the Tempest. They would hardly embark on so large an undertaking if they were not sure of an audience to match. He quotes a letter of Jones to his sister (1760) : " I am to speak Antony's speech in Shakespeare, . . . and am this week to make a declamation.'" Would that Jones had written his letter after the performance, and left us a picture of this rudi- mentary Speech-day which took place eleven years before Dr. Heath's advent ! We may here quote a story told by P. Fitzgerald in his Lives of the Sheridans. Speaking of R. B. Sheridan's life at Harrow he says : " Having on Speech-day to deliver a Greek oration in the character of a military chief, he ordered for himself an English general's uniform in which he spoke it, and which was duly charged to his uncle's account." " Speech-day" is here an obvious anachronism, as Sheridan left the school in 1768 (about), but there was evidently some sort of public performance. We could wish that the author had given his authority for the story. One cannot help wondering whether there is not a possible connection between young Sheridan's glorious idea of a Greek chief (coupled with a few remarks of his uncle on receipt of the bill), and the stern banishment of dresses and properties (except on rare occasions) from the Speech-day stage. Where were these early speeches held, and where was the scene of the yet earlier annual ball given by the victor in the archery contest ? Obviously the Fourth Form room, with its fixed seats, was quite unsuited either for a ball-room or a ^ ''Town speeches" were instituted by Dr. Vaughan in 1859. The Prince of Wales was present on the Speech-day of that year. 202 HARROW SCHOOL theatre, and the old Speech-room was not built for more than half a century later. Dr. G. Butler's account says the ball was given " in the schoolroom." This would naturally mean the Fourth Form room, but it is difficult to believe that the room was cleared of its seats annually, to be replaced during the next day or so ; if this were indeed the case, we understand something of interruption to work which the arrow-shooting entailed. For it must be remem- bered that at this time the school possessed no other building. It seems much more probable that the ball was given at some public room, such as was sure to exist in a town of the dimensions of Har- row. After the official institution of speeches, we have no doubt where they were spoken ; and this brings before us a long -forgotten part of early Harrow life. In the last century, dancing occupied an important place in the education of a gentle- man. At Harrow it was taught as an extra, presum- ably out of school hours, and so great was the demand for lessons that in 1770 the danc- ing master (Anthony Tassoni) thought it worth his while to lease a piece of ground from the Governors and build (at his own cost) a dancing school, on the site of the present schools to the north of the chapel, and here dancing was taught by a succession of masters until as late as 1840. Here the speeches were performed, and it is interesting to note that in its latter days (it was pulled down about 1854) it was known indifferently as the Dancing School or the old Speech-room. The (present) old Speech-room was completed in 1820, but the rapid growth of the school, both in numbers and importance, during the next half-century, necessitated the construction of a much larger hall. Accordingly, on the Ter- centenary of the granting of the charter to John Lyon (1871) a fund was started -^'PPlro ^ 5 W^^wm» ^lmnT^5J^lal ^^^g»l ^ w ^l ^^ Gateway of the New Speech-room. SPEECH-DAY 203 for the building of the present Speech-room, which was opened on Speech-day 1877, by Dr. H. Montagu Butler, the son and successor (thrice removed) of the builder of the old room. In compiling these records we have frequently had to complain of the dearth of materials : contemporaries naturally never thought of writing down and preserv- ing details of events perfectly familiar to themselves. Living as we do in an age of development, it may be well to place on record the present order of procedure, against the time when Speech-day, as we know it, will have become as much a thing of the past as the arrow-shooting is to us. The past century has witnessed a gradual expansion and change in the character of the speeches themselves. The recitation of prize compositions was an innovation of 1820. The French scenes, now so important a part of the performance, were introduced in 1854, while the Latin scenes or dialogues have fallen into disuse. The number of performers in a scene has increased from the original tAvo to anything short of twenty, the present number of the monitors ; but dress clothes are still the only wear, except where some sort of costume is absolutely necessary, and even then it is more symbolical than actual. There is no scenery, save that of the imagination, and " one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person of Moonshine." For example, a part is made to stand for the whole : a lady will have a shawl and a bonnet, and looks well when sitting, though when she walks the illusion is shattered by a glimpse of the monitorial dress trousers. The possession of a fencing- foil denotes a Shakespearian soldier ; a modern Tommy Atkins, or Dumanet, is disguised in a blue coat buttoned up, and a helmet borrowed from the rifle corps, or a kepi, according to nationality. A blind man leads on a dog, which always joins in the applause that greets him by barking. An indiarubber hot-water bottle does duty for a Greek wine-skin ; Allantopoles pulls sausages like a clown from the pockets of his dress clothes ; Heracles wears on his shoulders a skin which strongly resembles a hearthrug, and so on till truth doth " make all things plain," even to gentles who " wonder at this show." But in spite of this simplicity of setting, the Speech-room stage has witnessed some admirable performances. It is no light task to make a dead speech live, but the brilliant manner in which D. Plunket Barton, now Solicitor-General for Ireland, delivered SheiPs famous peroration against Lord Lyndhurst, from the speech on the Irish Municipal Bill, is still remembered, and those who were present when A. G. V. Peel delivered one of his grandfather's orations will recall how powerfully he swayed his audience. Among the actors we specially remember the PufF of H. A. Cohen, who came to so tragic an end in the Alps in 1895, and the masterly per- formances of R. Geikie in " les Deux Aveugles " and " Champignol malgre lui." Neither is the Malvolio of J. W. S. Tomlin or the Falstaff of A. Page easily forgotten. To return to the " order of the day." Of course Speech-day is a holiday, that scarcely needs to be recorded. No first school, but many turn out earlier than would be expected to seize the first chance of a dip in Ducker, for, like the rest of the place on this one day of the year, Ducker is thrown open for most of the day to 204 HARROW SCHOOL the wandering parent, so that the bather has to bathe early, or wait till evening. From ten onwards, the band of the school corps discourses on the lawn in front of the library, not always an easy matter, as the situation is an exposed one, and cakes of soap gently tossed from neighbouring windows so that they may alight in the temptingly open mouths of the brass instruments are disconcerting to a musician.^ About eleven the advance-guard of parents and guests arrives. Half an hour later they are on us in force. At that hour the Speech-room doors open and the guests are marshalled to their proper doors according to the colour of their tickets. For half an hour the masters who have charge of the various doors have a lively time, heading off green guests from blue doors, insisting on the exhibition of tickets which are in envelopes in (female) pockets difficult of access, refusing admis- sion on the strength of visiting-cards, and settling the cases of those who have left their tickets at home. AVe have seen ambassadors and Oriental turbaned dignitaries in this plight vainly seeking admission at door after door until they, as a last resource, revealed their identity. By twelve every seat is filled, and the speeches begin before an audience a thousand strong, but as there is always room for a few more, some dozens of boys who have not been able to secure tickets are sifted in until every available inch of sitting or standing room is occupied. Of the speeches themselves little need be said. Monologues in many tongues, samples of prize compositions, and dramatic scenes in Greek, English, French, or German follow in quick succession, interspersed with the presentation of prizes and medals to the prizemen of the year. Then follows the time-honoured practice of " cheering on the steps." As the guests file down the steps from the Speech-room, the head of the school, standing (on a box) in the open space overlooking the street, calls to the crowd of boys and guests assembled below for " three cheers for the Pannonian Ambassador "" when His Excellency is descending the steps. The celebrity lifts his hat in response to the cheers. It is needless to say that the head of the school is prompted by some one who " knows who*'s who," and some slight diplomacy has to be exercised in delaying the exit of celebrity number two until the cheers for celebrity number one have died away. Then lunch for boys and guests in the houses. Salmon and claret cup are essential. In the afternoon a military band (not the school corps this time, but a band of the regulars) perform on the terrace, which, to quote one or other of the next day^s papers, " offers an animated appearance." At half-past four a house-singing in the Speech-room, a concert composed entirely of school songs, accompanied by the school orchestra • a performance as popular as speeches itself. Six bill concludes the programme, and Speech-day is over until next year, leaving behind it a certain disinclination for first school next morning. B. P. Lascelles. ^ Experience shows that a hard-boiled egg dropped into the gaping bell of a brass trumpet is sure to fit the conical tube somewhei'e. It can be removed by means of a rifle-cleaner. CHAPTER XIX SCHOOL SONGS AND MR. FARMER The volume of Harrow School songs is dedicated to the late headmaster, " under whose encouragement singing has become a part of our school life."''' To the present generation of Harrovians, school life without school songs would seem utterly incomplete. They could hardly realise such an uncivilised existence; so true is it that a work once accomplished is taken as a matter of course. Still, the admission implied in the dedication above quoted is not less true. We doubt whether there were any schools in the kingdom five-and-thirty years ago which recognised singing as one of their institutions. Certainly there was nothing of the kind at Harrow, Yet in the literature of school songs Harrow has taken the lead, and supplied not only the example, but in many cases the songs, to schools and colleges which may now be reckoned by the hundred. To explain this we must briefly glance at the origin and development of our School Musical Society, and especially of its work in connection with songs. In the year 1857 the idea occurred to a handful of musical enthusiasts among the boys to start such a Society. Of the original founders the best-known names are those of Capel Berger (to whose memory the organ-loft in the school chapel was erected), and the Rev. J. A. Cruikshank, who, from 1857 to his retirement in 1891, was ever an ardent supporter of music at Han'ow. There was no precedent here or elsewhere for such a new departure in school life : and so great was the suspicion entertained as to its possible development in the future, that the musical boys were at once informed that they might have a Society, hut no concert. True, the restriction was waived as soon as the authorities were convinced that the musicians were concocting no conspiracy against law and order ; but for five years the Society remained as a tolerated freak on the part of the enthusiasts. The change began with the arrival at Harrow of that magician Mr. John Farmer. He came in 1862, invited by the boys of the Society at such a nominal salary as boys could afford, to direct their practice, and conduct their orchestral performances. He had no recognition from the school, the posts of chapel organist and musical instructor being otherwise filled. There was nothing to attract him to the field, there was nothing to sustain him in the struggle for a livelihood, but his own invincible faith in the possibilities of music in a school, acting on the better side of boys' nature, civilising, humanising, repressing the evil and bringing out the good. 71 C^r^ ^ u/>Uv «. - 4*^ "^ "^ - •^<'^-- duyi r^'2 ir r 1 t ^ ^f- 6c/irfe »m) yru/i- /i^M ~ ^w/* it Oncuf U fim. tJJkj irj-it^ ttry^u. 6 e^ <^iru/ tpAwiiii o1 Ouc^jlo ^ ^^ "^ ^ P^=^ - - < y ZTLZTZ: t '91 -6- * 3 ± g -f^ -± ^W 123 L r j-)1i >> i ^ , >,„ M L e :^: ^ IZ^ f ■^ t ^w ^ i s e^ I . J I,'?!*; Facsimile of the Music op the Fibst Verse of ** Forty Years on " in the Composer's MS. r f f ; :> fc ^ ^ ^ i * J'J'f^^f ^1^ s (^w rtUv <: - b^<^ %ily^^i^ 'yi ■ 9rU^ <^ ' / Ul tL y^'i r-7 ^ I g j j J 7.pr ^^ I -AA s ■^ — l%^trUZ 6-T-i^ e-c^i^ ^ :?e^ f- fe i^ g^^ > J^ J fe^ 2^ (L^c^a OLA^ ±^ r/ev^ (jjoil lA^ -JTo/hJi. 0( lix- -151/ -8-1^ —-1^ ^p I r J -^^-^ r=^ "^^ ^S ^ ^ 'tT- ^^ S S J v r V ^ -Oho/i^ TTZ!^-^ 'TiT-^i-''^ 1 /^ s £ (a^ ^=v^ :2^ T^ 208 HARROW SCHOOL For something like two years Mr. Farmer remained in a nondescript position, with no official post and no social recognition, tolerated rather as something like a musical fanatic. But he was winning his way, and by urging the faith that was in him, in season and out of season, he succeeded in convincing Dr. Butler himself, and such pillars of the state as the Rev. G. F. Harris and the Rev. B. F. Westcott (now Bishop of Durham), of the soundness of his views and the value of his personal influence. Once convinced, they con- tinued Mr. Farmer's firmest friends and allies, and the first victory was won. In 1864 he conducted, as musical instructor, the first concert ever given by boys in a building belonging to the School. But with Mr. Farmer to gain one point was only an incentive to the next departure. Music was not to be the exclusive property of the cultured few ; it was to be brought home to every boy of the five hun- dred. To enlist the sympathy of every boy, and make him take his part in music, Mr. Farmer saw that he must carry it with him into the houses. With this object he ob- tained leave, sometimes with no small difficulty, to visit every house, once a week or fortnight, in the winter terms. The boys were gathered in the house halls, and there entertained for an hour by the singing in unison of good national songs. Mr. Farmer faced them at the piano (or in older days generally the harmonium), his whole face a-twinkle with contagious enjoyment. They began as a rule with "Follow my Leader,'' which meant that Mr. P'armer struck a few notes of some well-known national, or school, song ; and the boys plunged after him in chorus. One verse only, and another air was started ; and long before the pages of the book could be turned over, the chorus followed. It was a training in memory for words and music, and was designed to clear the throat and make everybody " feel jolly." Then followed some solos from those who could sing, and those who could not — it made no difference ! The latter class were called " talkers," and every boy was encouraged to stand up and " talk it out." The accompaniment in this case consisted of a sort of trickle down the piano, with two fingers on consecutive notes ; but the " talker " seldom noticed that anything was wrong. The boy who produced no audible sound came in for much harmless chaff, and was compared to a " bogey in a water-butt " or a " weasel in a band-box." This is only one specimen of Mr. Farmer's word-coinages to express a type. There were many others. " The us'd " boy was one who in his own blase estimation was v^ed to every experience of life; there was the boy with "intellect, John Farmer. SCHOOL SONGS AND MR. FARMER 209 but no mind " ; there was the " ripe scholar " ; the entomological collector was dubbed a " beetle- Joseph " ; the painstaking boy, devoid of genius, was a " beaver"; and the dandy promenaders of the High Street were said to be " post-officing."'"' But this is by the way. From solos the house returned to more songs in unison, and the hour closed with " Forty Years on " and " God Save the Queen," as it does to this day. For " House-singing " was always regarded by Mr. Farmer as the founda- tion-stone of his structure ; it was bequeathed by him in 1885 to his successor, and has ever since been loyally preserved. The story of Mr. Farmer''s difficulties in storming the last two strongholds of large houses, which resented his entry and his new-fangled songs, has been told before ; but it will bear repetition. The Grove in those barbarous days was not a peaceful, or even a safe, resort for strangers. When Mr. Farmer, in spite of warnings from his friends, presented himself there, he got a characteristic reception. A large basket of dirty boots, dropped " accidentally " from the top story, narrowly missed his head ; and the boots are said to have been followed by a descending footman, who thus paid the penalty for admitting a stranger. This was a bad start ; but even the Grove could not long resist his appeal ; and ten minutes later, he had the whole house seated round the _ tables "in Hall," and joining, after some reluctance, in the selected songs which he had brought in his pockets. The last house of all to " hear the voice of the charmer " was Mr. Middlemist's ; and Mr. Farmer would often tell how the first few gatherings, so tardily conceded, were awed by the presence of that dreaded dominie ; and how he finally thawed the good old Tory's face into a smile by getting up a " conspiracy " among the boys to sing " Awa"*, Whigs, awa' ! " at or about the time of a general election. The next step was to give the boys something of their own to sing. Patriotic songs of the " Bay of Biscay " type were well enough to start with, but they would not appeal to Harrovians with an interest all their own. So the idea came of getting Harrow Songs. The Rev. B. F. Westcott was the first to comply with Mr. Farmer's request for words ; and it is his " lo Triumphe " which appropriately heads the list. It is of course written in Latin, as the dignity of a great school devoted to the study of classical languages was then supposed to require. But it was a Harrow song, written and composed by a Harrow master for Harrow boys ; and, if we except the Wykehamist Dulce Domum, it was probably the first school song ever penned. Here is the first verse : — lo ! Triumphe ! Stet domus — lo ! Fortuna nostrae ! Floreat — lo ! Absentium praesentium Invicta laus Hergensium ! lo ! lo ! lo ! This was published in 1864, and was followed shortly by the Rev. E. H. Bradby's " Herga," and five other songs in Latin from the scholarly pen of the Rev. B. F. Westcott. Mr. Farmer, in one of those good stories at his own expense, used to tell us how he was once persuaded by a pupil of Mr. Westcott to 210 HARROW SCHOOL return one of these lyrics to its author with the remark that it contained a false quantity ! The present Bishop of Durham may perhaps remember now with a smile the incident which must at the time have roused the indignation of so " ripe " a scholar. But it may well be doubted whether songs would have become an integral part of school life, and a potent bond of brotherhood, had they continued to be written in Latin, however elegant. It remained for Mr. E. E. Bowen, the poet par excellence of Harrow, and of school life in general, to originate those English songs which have made Hai'row music famous. They have now become a goodly literature, the new edition of the Song Book (1896) containing a list of nearly fifty English songs. At the head of this list stands " Underneath the Briny Sea," published in 1869, and sung by Mr. Spencer W. Gore at the midsummer concert of that year. It strikes the keynote of so many other songs to follow from the same and other pens in its bold topsy-turvydom, and its serious moral concealed under delicate humour. It has the kernel of a school sennon in the shell of a joke. Enthusiastically received on its first hearing, it has remained a favourite ever since. Oh, what a life there, down below the wave. All among the sand-heaps, merry fishes have ! Lessons get the full mark, whether bad or good. Fishes never guess wrong — couldn't if they would ; Greek turns to English by the rule of thumb ; Sums have the answer written on the sum ; Repetition learns itself, never need to try— Every one has prizes, generally. Underneath the briny sea. Where be the fishes and the mermaids three. There lies Harrow as it ought for to be ! It would be impossible, within the scope of this article, to go through the whole list of our songs. But there followed within the next few years other songs which seem to be typical of ideas to be worked out in subsequent series. To interpret the poets is often a slippery and thankless task ; but we seem to find in the collec- tion of songs three leading ideas. The first presents a comic history of Harrow, with detached glimpses into the darker ages of the school. " Lyon of Preston " (published in 1869) was the first of this series ; but chronologically we should start with the granting of the Charter in « Queen Elizabeth " (1875). Queen Elizabeth sat one day. Watching her mariners rich and gay. And there were the Tilbury guns at play. And there was the bold sea rover ; Up comes Lyon, so brisk and free. Makes his bow, and he says, says he, " Gracious Queen of the land and sea. From Tilbury Fort to Dovei*." " St. Joles " takes us into the next century of Harrow's history. SCHOOL SONGS AND MR. FARMER 211 When time was youngs and the school was new (King James had painted it bright and blue). In sport or study, in grief or joy, St. Joles was the friend of the lazy boy. Again, " She was a Shepherdess "''' is a highly idyllic picture of Harrow, when Merry King Charles came down to play. And the Latiner went With satchel and ciphering books at side. " Grandpapa''s Grandpapa " carries us forward a century to the days when Rodney and Bruce were boys on the Hill : — And Rodney, the sailor boy, was one. And Bruce, who travelled far, was the third. And lastly, "Byron lay" gives us a similar glimpse of the feelings with which our greatest poet and our most distinguished Prime Minister may have been regarded by their contemporaries at Harrow : — Peel could never, you needs must own. Have rhymed one rhyme on the Peachey stone ; Byron never his task have said Under the panel where PEEL is read. Even a goose's brain has uses — Cricketing comrades answered thus — " Will they ever be, ever be, ever be. Will they ever be boys like us ? " But we must pass to the second series, which consists of songs written in honour of healthy games. Of these " Willow the King " (wrongly dated 1867 in the new edition) is the earliest example. It was dedicated to those life-long Harrow comrades, the Hon. F. Ponsonby (Lord Bessborough) and the Hon. R. Grimston, "than whom, even among Harrovians, King Willow has no more loyal friends."" It strikes a first note, to be taken up in many later songs, such as "October," " Down the Hill," " Larry," " The Niner," " Three Yards," and of course " Forty Years on." Jog, jog, tramp, tramp, down the hill we run, When the summer games come with the summer sun ; On the grass dreaming a lazy grassy dream. List to the merry click, willow tapping seam ; Bells ring, throats sing, to a gallant tune ; Cheerily, cheerily goes the afternoon. Down the hill, down the hill, after dinner drop. Sulky boys, sulky boys, stay upon the top. "The Voice of the Bell" (1870) is the earliest of yet another series, which takes the common incidents of Harrow life, draws out their morals, and " cradles them in the amber " of a song. Every day, in the early misty morning. Hark how the bell is ringing, ding-a-ding, ding ; 212 HARROW SCHOOL First for a waking, second for a warning. Hark how the bell is ringing, ding-a-ding, ding. Oh, what a voice to terrify the lazy. Never a moment, never stops or stays he. On till the ears of the listeners grow crazy. Ding, ding-a-ding. Under the same heading will fall, unless we make a fanciful classification, " Five Hundred Faces," the experience of the timid new boy among strange surroundings ; " Boy,"" which reveals the dreams deep in the heart of the youthful fag, dreams to be realised in " Jerry," who develops from a fag into a swell. Jerry's a monitor bold. Champion at rackets and fives ; Cricketers youthful and old Worship his cuts and his drives. And so, with some necessary omissions, we come to 1872, the year of the com- position of " Forty Years on." This is the national anthem of Harrow ; for does it not bring every house-singing and every school concert to a close, and does not every Harrovian, past or present, stand to do it honour ? There are two stories about its composition which are of interest. The words, or one verse of the words, copied out in the author's unusual " large round hand," were given to Mr. Farmer as he emerged from chapel after the early service of a Saint's Day, as it then existed. He inquired blandly if "any one had a piano in his waistcoat pocket." Failing such a convenient article, the nearest instrument available was found in the Facsimile of ''Forty Years on" in the Author's Handwriting. .^^ ' ^ • . Facsimile of « Forty Years on" in the Author's Handwriting. 214 HARROW SCHOOL rooms of Mr. F. E. Marshall in " Ivy House,'" which then stood on the site of the new wing of Mr. Moss's house : thither a select few adjourned. The author gave the idea of the chorus " Follow up," and in less than ten minutes the tune which has become familiar to schools from Land's End to John o' Groat's was evolved and fitted to the words. The second story relates to a line of daring boldness which occurs in the last stanza : — God give us bases, to guard or beleaguer. Some doubt was at first expressed about the expediency of introducing a religious sentiment into a football song. The question was referred to Matthew Arnold, then residing at Byron House. He unhesitatingly decided for the line as it stood ; and his decision has been justified by the generally devout acceptance of the spirit of the verse. From 1874 there followed from Mr. Bo wen, Mr. Robertson, Mr. Howson, and others a prolific stream of songs, covering every feature and every incident of school life. There has been nothing, however trivial, from which a lesson might not be drawn, a picture idealised, or a memory enhanced, by true poetry wedded to good and simple melody. What delightful sermons are presented playfully against laudatio temporis acti in " Giants " : — But I think all this is a lie, you know, I think all this is a lie ; For the hero-race may come and go, But it doesn't exactly die ! For the match we lose and win it again, And a Balliol comes to us now and then. And if we are dwarfing in bat and pen Down to the last of the Harrow men. We will know the reason why ! or against the exclusive spirit of scholarship and athleticism in " Jack and Joe " : — Can't you settle it, Joe and Jack, Settle it, books and play ? Dunce is white^ and pedant is black, Haven't you room for gray ? or against guessing in " St. Joles," or against the tendency to dispute the umpire's decision in " Cats and Dogs." What encouragement under the small hardships of work and routine is conveyed in " Euclid " : — Oh, have you, with Euclid before you, Full often despairingly sat. The Fifth Proposition to floor you. Your mind getting blank as your hat ? in "Good-night" Wit acuter — Guesses free and fast — Tyrant tutor Placable at last — SCHOOL SONGS AND MR. FARMER 215 or in " Five Hundred Faces," or in " Awake, boys, Awake."" What lessons from the great heritage of the past are drawn in "Byron lay," "Raleigh," or "Stet Fortuna Domus " : — To-night we praise the former days In patriotic chorus. And celebrate the good and great. Who trod the hill before us. And so we might continue ; but this article would be most unduly extended if we quoted more from lyrics which are so eminently quotable. The year 1885 severed the connection of Dr. Butler and Mr. Farmer with Harrow and its music ; and Mr. Bowen took the opportunity to express in " Songs " the ideal which he had aimed at in this unique literature. The wholesome origin of school songs, their apparent slumber in forgetfulness, their recurrence to the memory in after-years, are the subjects of three stanzas, which Mr. Farmer has clothed in appropriate melody, dying away to return upon itself. When droops the boldest, WTien hope flies. When hearts are coldest. Dead songs rise : Young voices sound still, Bright thoughts thrive. Friends press around still, — So songs live. And so the first chapter closes. But the spring is not dry. The subjects which the poet's hand can adopt for the purpose of a school song seem never to be exhausted ; and two of the poets, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Howson, are still among us. Harrow has been inexpressibly fortunate also in finding in Mr. Faning, who took up Mr. Farmer's work in 1885, a composer of the first merit for these lyrics. The task is not easy to write melodies which shall be good and yet popular ; varied, yet within the small compass of voices freshly broken. But Mr. Faning's twelve songs are on as high a level, and are as popular with his generation of Harrovians, as were Mr. Farmer's with their predecessors. It must not be supposed that school songs and house-singing are the be-all and end-all of Harrow music. But it does not fall within the scope of this article to deal with the other sides of our varied school music, such as its orchestra, its instrumental training, choral class, glee and madrigal competitions, or brass band. These also have all sprung into life within the last thirty or forty years ; have widened and civilised our school curriculum. In one or other of these directions we have been distanced by other schools ; but in our songs we may fairly claim to have held a torch to the world. And what a bond of brotherhood they have been, and are ! What a lever to honest effort ; what a protest against sham and trickery ; what a halo round the memory of school days ! How often, in the stress and tiu-moil of " the wider life to be," the words of a school song rise in the heart, with some encouragement appropriate to the immediate difficulty. And not words alone. 216 HARROW SCHOOL but words wedded to melody, and redolent of the Hill where we learnt to sing them together in self-forgetfulness. All men must learn its minstrelsy, and lift Their hearts above the ground on wings of song. For Song it is that spans the mighty world. Brings the far near, lends light where all is dark, Gives sorrow sweetness, and helps men to live And die more nobly ! E. GllAHAM. mms^siammmm imimi]ii\i\iimminwfrmfmm''''''''mmrffmrmfmtw m .....i.i...»..t...u..,...u^,;. uiatauu»iyi».u.uuuati;u.tktiiiii.>.aa»iutv>awittiki,.hirt,itto,rtkirfi.ilii, |i?5^ H CHAPTER XX CRICKET AT HARROW At Harrow we are intensely conservative in our cricket, as in all other things, but the veriest Socialist would not desire to see more radical change in a constitution than we have seen in the cricket ground and arrangements at Harrow in the last forty years. Do not let me be misunderstood ; we are as conservative as ever, we have conserved everything that was worth conserving, but the addition and altera- tions to our grounds and accessories have been so rapid, and so numerous, that a veteran, visiting the school for the first time after an interval of twenty-five years, would hardly know the old ground to be the same that he remembered in his school days. In that period we have more than trebled the size of the original freehold cricket-field, we have diverted a public road, acquired a club for old Harrovians, built four new pavilions, and excavated and levelled land which former volcanic conditions obviously never intended for cricket purposes. And the whole expense has been borne by voluntary contributions ; a record of which any school may be justly proud ! But we have done more than this. Thirty years ago all but the Sixth and sometimes the Fifth Form Grounds were so difficult, if not dangerous, as to give no encouragement to the youthful cricketer ; balls would pass rapidly over the heads of the batsmen and lose themselves, meteor-like, in one, if not two other games which were being played simultaneously in too close proximity to them, and cover-point of one game would not infrequently be fielding with his back not ten yards distant from the batsman of another game. In place of this state of chaos we see now ample space for twenty games ; and, although some of the grounds are capable of improvement, the worst ground of to-day is immeasurably better than the best (excepting only the Sixth Form Ground) of forty years ago. About the year 1803, the enclosure of Roxeth Common took place, and the Governors were allotted, in lieu of their common rights, the present Sixth Form ground and site of the lower school of John Lyon, in all about eight acres. Prior to that date the school playing-field was the church field, now the site of the racket- court and gymnasium. It must have been, at any rate according to modem ideas of the game, a curious kind of cricket that was played on this field on the side of a hill which is too steep to run up, and the game so played would be worthy of a 218 HARROW SCHOOL special " prehistoric peep " illustration if the talented old Harrovian artist in Punch could be persuaded to give us one. There are records between 1803 and 1850 of gradual improvements to the ground, although at somewhat distant intervals. In 1810 the ground was enclosed with railings. A sum of £4^5 was spent in drainage in 1823. In 1845 the captain of the Cricket Eleven requested the Governors to refund a sum of £Q9> : 9 : 2 expended in drainage, and, ever com- placent, they acceded to his request. In 1846 a brick drain was made across the ground, which, I believe, still exists. In 1849 a lease of six acres of the present Philathletic Ground was taken as an addition to the growing wants of school cricket. It is, of course, very easy to be wise after any event, but, in looking back, it does appear to have been more than ordinarily short-sighted of the school authorities in those early days to have been blind to the fact that it was essential to a school of the size of Harrow to have permanent land for recreation purposes. In those days land could have been acquired at little more than agricultural price ; yet it was left for posterity to pay for this short-sightedness, and posterity truly has paid through the nose for it. In 1866, through the energy of Messrs. Ponsonby and Grimston, and the kind responsiveness of old Harrovians, a portion of the Philathletic Field was purchased for the school. In 1885 a further portion of the same field was bought in memory of Mr. Grimston, and the road was diverted with a portion of the money subscribed. In 1892 the Nicholson Field was purchased by Mr. Nicholson, who has given the school the use of it. In 1893 the two acres to the south of the Philathletic were presented by Mr. Bowen. The old pavilion was, in 1883, superseded by the present one, the principal subscriber being Mr. R. Grimston, in whose honour a dinner was given in the pavilion by Mr. Bowen, at which some most interesting speeches were made. It was at this dinner that Lord Bessborough nominated "Walker and Webbe"" as successors to " Ponsonby and Grimston." In 1884 the Field House was purchased by Messrs. Nicholson and Ponsonby, and conveyed to the school for cricket purposes, and part of it has since been used as an Old Harrovian Club. In 1884 the road was diverted, thereby giving additional width to the Sixth Form Ground. In the same year a smaller pavilion was erected on the Philathletic Field. The cost of these two improvements was borne by the surplus money of the Grimston Memorial Fund. In 1893 a pavilion was built on the Nicholson land in memory of the Rev. W. Law, and in 1894 another one on the Philathletic Field in memory of C. D. Buxton. In 1896 some oak seats were erected by Lord Duncannon on the Nicholson Ground in memory of his uncle. Lord Bessborough, from which both the Fifth and Sixth Form games can be viewed. The levelling of the Nicholson Ground, on the site of which was an old manor-house, has proved to be a difficult and expensive matter. It was commenced in 1894, Mr. F. D. Leyland being a large subscriber ; but since then immense care and trouble, as well as money, have been expended on it by Mr. I. D. Walker, that never-failing friend to Harrow. At various times, and by degrees, the slope of the hill from the Field House palings to where the wickets are pitched has been levelled, until now it is, at any rate, fairly good fielding ground, where, in 1863, it was extremely rugged and precipitous. CRICKET AT HARROW 219 It will be seen from the foregoing that, in the last thirty-three years, by volun- tary contribution, the cricket-ground has, from being almost a disgrace to the school as far as regards size, quality, and accommodation, grown to be one quite worthy of the cricket traditions of the school. The history of cricket instruction at Harrow may be said to begin with Ponsonby and Grimston. It can safely be said that the idea of old boys constantly coming down to the school for the purpose of teaching cricket entirely originated with The Pavilion — Sixth Form Ground. them, and from this original idea the whole system of Harrow cricket instruction has sprung. Mr. R. Grimston, speaking at the Tercentenary Festival, said, " I claim for our cricket-ground e2 CRICKET AT HARROW 223 One reason for this may be found in the fact that the growth of athletics in general, and cricket in particular, together with the striking improvement in the cricket- grounds all over the country, has spread to the preparatory schools, and the new boys who come to Harrow in these days are, possibly, too highly educated in cricket, and have too formed a style, to please the cricket instructor, who would probably prefer that the raw material should be given him in the shape of boys who watch the ball, open their shoulders, and hit. It is difficult to know where to draw the line in cricket instruction in private schools, but it is, I believe, the rule that the prodigy of thirteen summers seldom becomes a shining light in after-years. It has been asserted that Eton has produced more good individual players than Harrow, but with this I can hardly agree. An assertion of this kind is easily made, but most difficult to prove, and it is only by comparing name with name that any final settlement could be arrived at. It would be an exhaustive list indeed on both sides, but, taking the past forty years, I should be prepared with a list of names to argue the case before an impartial tribunal with little fear of defeat. Seeing that in the last match played in this country between England and Australia, we had two representatives selected to represent England, Harrow has abundant reason for congratulation. It may be said, however, that Harrow, at any rate, has been taught to value the united eleven rather than the one brilliant player. The interest taken in the games by the masters of the present day, as compared with those of former times, must not be overlooked, a nd at Ha rrow it has had a special influence over the gradual growth of crickei^r^^^-'^^Baj^l, who, though not a Harrow boy himself, may be said to have long ago had the " freedom " of the school presented to him, was the pioneer of. this chang e. From the first he identified himself with the sports of the school, and, amongst many other things, was the originator of " four bill " being called on the ground. This was probably the greatest concession from a cricket point of view that was ever made at Harrow by master to boy. In former days the Sixth Form game alone were exempt, the rest of the cricketers, after playing for an hour and a half, " toiled up the hill and then toiled down again," at least as many of them as could be enticed down again by the club-keepers, but the game often fell to the ground owing to the superior attractions of "Ducker" or the "tuck shop." Now, the entire interruption of " bill " occupies about five minutes. The method in which 500 boys or thereabouts are called over thus rapidly is worthy of the ingenuity of its inventor. It is this : doAvn the south side of the Philathletic Field is a paling, and on each post a number is painted, and in front of each post a boy takes his stand ; these boys are "shepherds"; each has a "flock" of four others, whose presence or absence he has to report. When four o'clock draws near all take their allotted places. Ironical applause gi*eets the late comers, who come careering across the ground. The clock strikes, a bell is rung, and Mr. Bowen, having previously taken a good start, darts off", and the bill begins. Each shepherd in turn touches his hat and reports : " 1 all here," " 2 all here," " 3 one absent," " 4 all here," and so on, quick enough to catch up Mr. Bowen and put him into his fastest walk down the long row in order to keep pace, in spite of his start, his cutting off^ corners, and the strategic advantage, which he appreciates so well, of an interior line. When u 224 HARROW SCHOOL " one absent "" is reported, a hasty tick is entered on the bill list, without a pause in the stride. Stammerers make bad shepherds, and muddle-headed or nervous persons who have carefully coached themselves up to say " 72 all here,"" are some- times upset by 71 unexpectedly reporting " one absent,"" and bring down the contempt of their flock by proclaiming " 72 all absent " ; this is always answered by a retort of " 72 all stop," and the luckless shepherd has to make his apologies later. Mr. Bowen is often timed in his race. In old days he used to be less than a minute, but that was before cricket bill became so popular and large. Now anything between a minute and a quarter to a minute and a half is the usual time. Immediately it is over the shepherds dash at Mr. Bowen and report the names of their absentees : in three minutes or so all the games are going on again. Mr. M. C. Kemp of Harrow and Oxford fame was appointed a master in 1888, and has the games of the school under his immediate superintendence. His energy is un- bounded, and his great cricket experience has been of immense benefit to Harrow. The number of games played on a half-holiday afternoon has increased in the last thirty years from four regular school games to twelve, in addition to which there are second-eleven matches between the various houses, making up a total of about twenty. In 1863 the four school games were the Sixth Form game, played on the present ground ; the Fifth Form game, played on part of the same ground ; the Shell game, played on the site of the present pavilion ; and the Philathletic game, played on any ground in that field which happened to be vacant. The Fifth Form game was removed to the Philathletic Field soon after the purchase of the latter, and was taken in hand by Mr. R. Grimston, who took great interest in it, and often prepared and rolled the wickets himself in the morning. He used to stand umpire in this game and give instructions all the time, taking particular care that the young bowlers should not over-exert themselves. The second Fifth Form game was instituted about this time and taken under the special charge of Lord Bessborough. And, as the ground was extended, the games became more numerous, and now, as before mentioned, number twelve, consisting of : — Sixth Form Game. First Fifth Game. Second Fifth Game (A). Second Fifth Game (B). Third Fifth Game. Remove Game. Shell Game. Fourth Form Game. Trustees' Game. Nondescripts' Game. Professors' Game. Duffers' Game. With this extension of the grounds to accommodate twenty games, it is even now only possible for two-thirds of the boys to play cricket at the same time. It may easily be imagined, therefore, the temptation there was for loafing in the old days. The system by which these games are worked is by appointing two or three club-keepers to each game, who are responsible to the captain of the eleven for the game being properly carried on. I regret to say that, soon after the middle of the summer term, the interest in some of these games dwindles away, and the number of players becomes less and less, until, as "Lord's" approaches, the boys prefer to watch the school matches, to playing themselves. CRICKET AT HARROW 225 The feature of cricket -teaching at Harrow, as I have tried to show, has been, and is, the patriotism of old boys volunteering their instruction, but professiona l aid of course there always has been. The ground-man, Gilby, who was a faitiiful servant of the school till 1871, was the only regular man employed on the ground, although he had occasional assistance ; and yet he found time to bowl to the boys. Other bowlers, and there was always one, sometimes two others who came to the school during those years, were, I believe, paid for by Messrs. Ponsonby and Grimston. Although now the ground staff is considerably larger, I am afraid that for profes- sionals Harrow is still chiefly dependent on voluntary contributions. The f^xtpnsinn to HarrouL of tViP Mptropnlil-fln Rijilway haR made a Considerable difference in the attendance at the trial matches throughout the summer term, and the jcricket -ground is now at times almost the fashionable lounge for used-up Londoners. But from time to time the accommodation for spectators has been in- creased, and, with the widening of the ground, they rarely interfere with the cricket, though at times they aggravate the batsman by crossing the line behind the bowler's arm. The number of matches played during the term has increased of late years, and this, perhaps, has not been an altogether unmixed blessing. Some of the Elevens which come down year after year are not nearly strong enough to make anything of a match with an average school Eleven, and the result is the waste of a day which might be much better employed in a good Sixth Form game, in which more of the " choices " would be playing. The selection of the Eleven rests solely with the captain, and a terribly difficult task he often has, more especially when the number of vacancies is small. It is easy to call to mind a long list of names of aspirants to Eleven honours whose after- performances have proved that they should have been chosen, but who, from nervousness or ill luck, have failed perhaps in the very last match, when two, or even three, were trying for the last place. Again, a long list could be compiled of those who were chosen early in the term, and, from carelessness or other causes, ultimately proved that their selection was wrong. Truly, although a much-coveted honour, the captain's life is not always a happy one. One of the great features of Harrow cricket are the house matches. The first ties are played off before " Lord's," and, after " Lord's," until the last week of the term, they are in full swing, the enthusiasm of the spectators being apparent to the onlookers, and audible at the Metropolitan Railway. The house which wins Cock House Match is entitled to keep the Challenge Cup presented by Lord Bessborough. " Cock House Match" is played, as a rule, on the last Saturday of the term. Harrow is, I believe, one of the few schools where cricket is played in the Michaelmas term, when the traditional " goose " match is played. This was started on the 22nd September 1849 by Mr. C. O. Eaton, who continued to get up the match until the year 1895. . In 1865 it was played for the first time in October, as Messrs. Eaton, Ponsonby, and Grimston thought that the later it was played the longer cricket would go on, and, therefore, the better it would be for Harrow cricket. In the days when the midsummer holidays extended over a period of only six weeks, and the school reassembled about the 12th of September, there were often three weeks' cricket in the football term, and the " goose match " excited much Q. 226 HARROW SCHOOL more interest in the school generally than it does at present, at least half the boys being on the ground to watch it. Amongst many interesting items belonging to Harrow cricket the HaiTow Wanderers Club must not be omitted. This was originally started by boys then in the school to play matches during the first week of the holidays. The first match was played on the first day of the midsummer holidays, 1865, at Putney Park against Mr. Albert Hutton'*s eleven. It was worthy of note that, with one exception, the Eleven was entirely composed of present Harrovians, and no member of the school Eleven was playing, the latter being engaged in the annual match at Moor Park. The Wanderers were, however, easily victorious in their first match. In 1870 the Wanderers took their first northern tour under the generalship of Mr. I. D. Walker, and have continued to do so under the same leader ever since. The record of their doings is worthy of a separate volume, and would tell a curious history of how strong batting, and admirable fielding, with comparatively little bowling, have overcome some most powerful Elevens. The reports of the Harrow Wanderers' matches are always eagerly watched by their Harrow friends. I will only briefly touch on the subject which is really the be-all and end-all of Harrow cricket, namely, the annual match against Eton. This is dealt with in another chapter, but I may be pardoned for introducing here one or two remarks. Considerable changes have come about in the annual function within a comparatively short time. I believe I am right in saying that boundary hits were first counted in 1864. At any rate, there is a tradition that in or about 1861 a ball, hit by one of the players, was hidden behind a partisan's carriage- wheels whilst runs were being made by the batsmen. And then the "chaff" was loud and furious, and often horribly personal. On one occasion Harrow possessed a fast underhand bowler, who was greeted with shouts of " Sneaks, Sneaks " whenever he bowled. One Etonian spectator shouted out, " Try a full pitch ! " The bowler happened to do so, and the batsman got caught at cover-point from the same full pitch. When the boundary was first introduced it counted only three runs, and continued to do so up to 1870, when it was altered to four. At present the number of matches won by each school is, Harrow 29, Eton 27 ; but two of the matches have always been the cause of dispute, namely the matches of 1805, when Byron played, and that of 1857, called Etonians and Harrovians under twenty. The former was won by Eton and the latter by Harrow, but both apparently were played under the same conditions. The secretary of M.C.C. was asked to decide the question, and wrote as follows : " I decided to erase both the 1805 and 1857 matches "" ; and further, " I forgot to mention that the 1805 match is not recorded either in the M.C.C. scores nor in Bentley's." From a cricket point of view, the principal objection to these functions has been the number of times the match has been drawn from rain or other causes. Since 1860 no fewer than fifteen have ended in this unsatisfactory way. But by way of compensation we have had some really close matches, and one (that in 1885) has become almost historical. In 1870 the match was won by Eton by 21 runs after Harrow had been about that number of runs ahead on the first innings. This match was probably won by a tour de force. Harris, the Eton captain, when the CRICKET AT HARROW match looked a certainty for Harrow, noticed that Wallroth, who was well set, was backing up too eagerly. He put himself on to bowl (quite rightly, to my mind), and, pretending to bowl, caught Wallroth tripping, and he paid the penalty. In this year both sides were very strong, and the number of those who afterwards made their mark in the cricket world unusually large. In 1878 the match was won by Harrow by about the same number of runs. In this match, when the Eton wickets were falling fast in the last innings, some well-meaning old Han'ovian thought fit to send for Mr. Grimston, who always left a telegraphic address, although he never came to see the match. He responded to the call, but, instead of finding it the easy win he expected, he found a neck-and-neck race. It was curious to watch the faces of two men during that last hour of the match. On the balcony was Mr. Mitchell, watching his pupils with great anxiety ; on one of the lower benches was Mr. Grimston, equally anxious for the other side. Now one face was radiant and the other depressed, and vice versa^ according to how the match was going. When all was over and Harrow had won, Mr. Grimston wiped his massive forehead and murmured, " Well, I think they might have spared me that last hour's agony." In 1885 was the historical match before alluded to, which was won by Harrow by three wickets and one minute. Probably the best Elevens on both sides opposed each other in 1863 and 1873. And perhaps the best Eleven that Harrow ever produced was in 1866. Of the nine members of this Eleven who went to the University, no less than seven represented their University at Lord's, and one, Montgomery (now Bishop of Tasmania), played in all but the final match. Spencer W. Gore. CHAPTER XXI THE ETON AND HARROW MATCH Considering how great is the interest taken in the Eton and Harrow match, it is curious that there should be so httle known of its origin. The earhest record of any match is preserved on the margin of an MS. collection of Eton verses and translations, now in the Vaughan Library, and runs thus : " Note by the Rev. B. Drury on the death of Tom Lloyd, Feb. 1801. ' In a cricket match between the Eton and Harrow boys, Tom Lloyd beat the Harrow boys off his own bat in one innings ; on that occasion he caught a cold which caused his death.' " The match in question must have been played in 1800. Indeed, Eton seems to have been first in the field by a long way. Bentley's Correct Account gives the scores of several matches in which " Eton " (Old Etonians), generally with the aid of two or three "given men," played against "Mary Le Bone" before the beginning of this century ; whereas his first mention of HaiTOw is the match of 1822. Mr. Percy Thornton, in his most interesting book, Harrow School and its Surroundings, tells us that the earliest score extant is that of a match played on 2nd August 1805, which seems to have been what is called a "pick-up" contest; that is to say, the Elevens were composed accidentally, and not in the serious and orthodox manner so familiar to members of either school to-day.^ In this match Lord Byron took part, scoring 7 and 2 ; but it seems that his claims to be called a good cricketer were not based on such firm foundations as was his fame as a poet. The question arose whether this match could be considered a repre- sentative one, and Mr. Thornton tells us that Eton sent the following epigram to Harrow : — Adventurous " boys " of Harrow School, of cricket you've no knowledge. Ye played not cricket, but the fool, with " men " of Eton College. To which they received the following reply : — Ye Eton wits, to play the fool Is not the boast of Harrow School ; No wonder, then, at our defeat. Folly like yours could ne'er be beat. ^ The match was played in the old ground where Dorset Square now stands, and ended in a victory for Eton. THE ETON AND HARROW MATCH 229 It is not till the year 1818 that the next record is available, when Harrow won by 13 runs ; and from that time the results of the matches have mostly been preserved, though occasionally circumstances have made it impossible for the annual contest to take place. No match was played in 1856, and in the next year the game was of an irregular nature, only eight of the Harrow and seven of the Eton Elevens of the year taking part in it. For some years, from 1825 to 1854, the three schools, Eton, Winchester, and Harrow, played each other ; but, though Eton and Winchester have continued to play at each school alternately, Harrow has for some time only played Eton. There are many of us who would welcome a revival of the older practice, and would be glad to see Harrow and Winchester renew their old contests. Though each school has had ups and downs, the general record of wins and losses has kept very level. In the matches against Eton since 1818, Eton held at first a strong lead, winning six matches off the reel between 1823 and 1832 (the scores of 1826, 1829, 1830, and 1831 have perished, or else the match was not played in these years), and by 1841 had won twelve matches to Harrow's five. The turn of the tide came in 1848, that year of revolution, when Harrow won her eighth victory as against Eton's sixteenth. From then till 1868 Eton only added two victories to her list, and by that time Harrow stood two matches ahead (twenty to eighteen). 1869 opened a sequence of Etonian successes, Harrow only taking one match out of the next nine, two being drawn, and consequently in 1877 Eton was again three ahead. Since 1878 Eton has again fallen upon a somewhat barren twenty years ; three matches have gone to her players, and eight to Harrovians : no less than nine matches have ended in a draw, such being the unsatisfactory finish of the last four years. The result has been that the schools were level, twenty-five wins each in 1886, and again twenty-six wins each in 1888, and at present Harrow holds a lead of two.^ In the contest with Winchester, Han-ow also started disastrously by losing six matches straight off, but made up lost ground by degrees, and in 1854, when the Winchester match was dropped, held the same lead which she does against Eton at present. The names associated with the Eton and Harrow match are too numerous to be given here, and we can only mention a few of them. The Lubbocks, the Lytteltons, and the Studds at Eton, the Walkers, the Hadows, the Kemps, and the Crawleys at Harrow, represent families to whom connection with the Eleven of their respective schools seems to come, as a matter of course, to each successive member. Family divisions, however, occur sometimes. In 1878 two de Paravicini's played, one for Eton and one for Harrow. The name of C. R. Hornby in the Eton Eleven of 1859 seems on the wrong side, although he was not a member of the same family as the famous Harrovian cricketer who, for so many years, captained the Lancashire Eleven. Similarly the recent appearance of a Studd in the Harrow ranks would lead an Etonian spectator at Lord's to say with Truthful James : — ^ This excludes from the reckoning the matches of 1805 and 1857, for the reasons stated on p. 226. 230 HARROW SCHOOL Do I sleep ? Do I dream ? Do I wonder and doubt ? Are things what they seem ? Or is visions about ? Perhaps the most picturesque instance of relatives in different camps occurred in the Harrow and Winchester match of 1825. Charles Wordsworth gives this account of it : " The match was memorable because the names of two brothers were to be seen placarded in the printed bills opposite each other at the head of their respective Elevens, both being C. Wordsworth — ' C "" in the one case standing for Charles,! ^nd in the other for Christopher. ^ In the latter case, however, Christopher was not actually captain, nor was he one of their best batsmen, though excellent in the field ; but his name was placed at the top as being senior in the school. At the same time it must be added that he was very successful, much more successful than his brother, the Harrow captain, who had to bowl against him. The truth is, he quite understood my bowling, which happened that day to be at its worst, and he cut it about very unmercifully." Individuals who have been famous cricketers must also be mentioned, such as Lord Harris and Mr. Longman on one side, and Mr. A. J. Webbe, Mr. F. S. Jackson, and Mr. A. C. Maclaren on the other. The following have made one hundred runs and upwards in an innings at Lord's for Harrow : — 1860. A. W. T. Daniel . . .112 1885. 1888. 1895. 1897. A. K. Watson E. Crawley R. B. Hoare . J. H. Stogdon T. G. O. Cole 135 100 108 124 142 The highest individual innings (157) as yet made in the match was played by Sir Emilius Bailey for Eton in 1841, but Cole has the credit of the highest aggregate for two innings, namely, 178. Beside these, remarkable innings were played by Maitland in 1862, who, on a difficult wicket in the last innings of the match, scored 73 out of a total of 145 ; and by A. J. Webbe, who, in 1874, practically had to play Eton single-handed. He was beaten, but not disgraced, for he scored in his two innings, 77 and 80 : his eleven allies, including that steady scorer Extras, made 78 and 65 amongst them. A. C. Maclaren in his first and last years in the Eleven did two remarkable performances. In 1887, being then fifteen, he made 55 and 67, and in 1890 he made 76 out of a total of 133. In 1883 T. Greatorex remained unconquered by the Eton bowling, which was aided by a combination of gloom, wet, thunder, and lightning which suggested cricket on the Brocken, 1 The writer, the Harrow captain, who was afterwards second master at Winchester, and later Bishop of St. Andrews. He won the extraordinary athletic distinction of playing for Oxford in the first University cricket match and rowing in the first University boat race in 1829. 2 Headmaster of Harrow from 1836 to 1844, and later Bishop of Lincoln. THE ETON AND HARROW MATCH 231 scoring 37 and 40, and being not out in each innings ; while for an all-round per- formance, that of F. S. Jackson in 1888 can hardly be surpassed. He made 21 and 59, assisting Hoare to put on over 100 runs in the second innings and thereby altering the whole look of the match, and when Eton went in for the last innings, he quickly destroyed all idea of their winning by taking five out of the first eight wickets that fell, all clean bowled : when the eighth wicket fell the Eton total was 17. As Jackson had got six wickets in the first Eton innings, his record of 80 runs and 11 wickets is worthy of the place in Harrow songs ^ which E. E. B. has given it. With changes and with chances The innings come and go. Alternating advances Of ecstasy and woe ; For now 'tis all condoling. And now — for who can tell A gentleman's a-bowling. It yet may all be well. Ten score to make or yield her. Shall Eton save the match ? Bowl, bowler ! go it, fielder ! Catch, wicket-keeper, catch ! Our vain attempts controlling They drive the leather — no ! A gentleman's a-bowling. And down the wickets go. It is impossible, however, to write of Eton and Harrow cricket without some reference to those who have nursed the young cricketers at either school. How much Eton owes to the skill, patience, and devotion of Mr. R. A. Mitchell it is impossible to estimate, but Harrovians know to their cost how often his unerring eye has detected the fault which, duly watched for at Lord's, has resulted in the unexpected downfall of some crack performer. The names of Ponsonby and Grimston are familiar to all who have been Harrow boys. How is it possible to describe the work done by these two staunch friends of the « School on the Hill " ? How many men are there among those who subscribe to the old motto, Stet Fortuna Domm, who can look back to their school life without some special recollection of Fred Ponsonby or Bob Grimston .? Real lovers of cricket, devoted to Harrow, actuated by a single desire to produce the best cricketers and the best class of English boys, how they toiled on the cricket-ground, how ready they were to help, and how excellent the example they always set of honest, fearless, upright conduct. The effect of their work cannot yet be measured; they made many a good bat or awkward bowler, but they also sent many a boy out into the world stronger and better, because he had had a few minutes' talk with them. They are gone, their memories only remain, but generations of Harrow boys will follow %ne' upon another and those memories will still be green. In the old Harrovian club are ^ A Gentleman's A-bowling, school song by E. E. Bowen. HARROW SCHOOL two old straw hats, in the paviUon two portraits, and beneath them the following inscription : — IN MEMORY OF THE HON. ROBERT GRIMSTON AND FREDERICK PONSONBY, EARL OF BESSBOROUGH, FAMOUS CRICKETERS, LOYAL HARROVIANS, BLAMELESS GENTLEMEN, WHOSE FRIENDSHIP, BEGUN IN SCHOOL DAYS, AND CEMENTED ON FIELDS OF ENGLISH SPORT, RENDERED MORE CONSPICUOUS THE LOVE THEY BORE TO HARROW, WHERE, THROUGH FIFTY SUMMERS, WHILE TEACHING SKILL IN CRICKET THEY TAUGHT ALSO MANLINESS AND HONOUR. No Harrow boy, past or present, can look upon the pictures of the men or read the inscription without feeling that if there is nothing else to be said for Harrow cricket, it cannot be denied that it brought to Harrow for many decades two of the best and kindest men the world has ever produced. Harrow is, however, fortunate in still having a staunch friend in Mr. I. D. Walker, who means to do all he can to help the boys to keep up their reputation ; and in Mr. M. C. Kemp, a famous old Harrow and Oxford wicket-keeper, the captain of the Eleven has a friend to whom he will never turn in vain. For some years, from about 1875 to 1885, the match was practically managed from the pavilion by Mr. I. D. Walker for Harrow, and Mr. R. A. H. Mitchell for Eton ; the out-fieldsman nearest the pavilion used to come for instructions and carry them to the captain. On more than one occasion the somewhat ludicrous spectacle has been seen of the whole field being placed and ready for a certain bowler, and having to be entirely moved for a fresh bowler, owing to the arrival of a despatch from headquarters. By mutual consent this system has been discarded, and the match is now managed by the respective captains. On one occasion a singular mistake occurred in consequence of this system of management from the pavilion, a mistake which, unfortunately for Harrow, did not cause the disaster to Eton which might have been expected. A Harrow batsman was playing a most brilliant innings and defying all the changes of bowling. Mr. Mitchell sent out a message that a certain bowler was to be tried. The out -fieldsman did not clearly hear the name, and took out the name of one who was certainly not renowned for his bowling. To Mr. Mitchell's horror he saw this bowler commence the attack, but the horror turned to smiles when the Harrow wicket was obtained in his first over. I believe he was judiciously removed after this over, and allowed to retire on his laurels. A curious incident occurred when the present Master of Trinity, Dr. Butler, was playing at Lord's. When he had scored about 20 runs he received a violent blow on the knee, on account of which play was stopped for some minutes. The opposing side crowded round him, expressing their sorrow and suggesting various remedies. When play was resumed, and he had got to the end of the bowler (Reay) who had caused the mishap, the umpire said to him, "It's lucky for you, sir, that you was 'it so 'ard, as the bowler forgot to ask for leg before, and you was clean out ! " No account of the Eton and Harrow match can be complete without some notice of its development as a society function. Nowadays it is a cricket match and a ^ ■~^ THE ETON AND HARROW MATCH 235 huge society function. There are many there with a real, absorbing, straining interest in the cricket ; there are many more with a languid and pretended interest ; there are most of all with no interest. You may go there to sit silent and watch, or to meet old friends, or to talk cricket shop, or to lunch, or to see and talk about dresses as your taste leads you to do. Punch has more than once jested at the expense of those who added to their want of knowledge the desire of enlightening others. The information that " Harrow is in at one end and Eton at the other,'' or that " the men in white coats are the headmasters of Eton and Harrow," may well have been imparted in all good faith. It is at any rate easy to overhear similar absurdities every year. But the carriages and the unending, chattering, loitering crowd which provoked a hot and angry would-be spectator, wedged in where he could see nothing, and merely irritated and tantalised by cheers of which he could not find out the meaning, to murmur viciously to himself, " I suppose this is what they call D Block," are of modern growth. The writer of some reminiscences of Eton and Harrow matches from 1858 to 1864 says that in the first of these years the ring of spectators did not extend completely round the ground, while a ball hit against the tennis-court wall rebounded into the play. The ground was rough, the wickets, when fast, fiery and uncertain. Shooters were common, and fast bowlers consequently very valuable. Consequently scores were low and matches were finished within the two days' limit. The out-fielding was rougher still ; and in the 1859 match the first ball bowled was hit to leg and fielded, but the throw-in bumped up out of reach not only of the wicket- keeper, but also of point and cover-point, who were backing up too close. Long-stop had the most arduous task in the field in dealing with the fast bowling. In 1863 there were 20 byes and 24 wides in the Harrow total of 268, but this was by no means a very high proportion. In the match of 1836, when Harrow were routed by Winchester by an innings and eight runs, the two Harrow innings were 29 and 24. Of these meagre totals the extras amounted to 15 and 12, just above one-half of the whole aggregate. In 1862 six catches were made by the Eton and Harrow long- stops, Cleasby and W. O. Hewlett. The Eton and Harrow match, from a humorous point of view, is not a subject which will commend itself at first sight to the partisans of either school. The event is always regarded with such intense interest by past and present members of both schools, and is in itself so serious a contest, that it is not easy to see how there can be much that is humorous in connection with it. At the same time, it is possible to find some aspects of the proceedings at Lord's in the second week in July which may properly be recorded in this chapter. From the cricketer's standpoint, it must be the cause for some, possibly grim, humour that so many of those who flock in their thousands to Lord's cricket-ground should take such a very limited interest in the game. How often have we seen groups of people seated on the grass behind the various covered stands, or with their backs to the game, evidently thoroughly enjoying their own society and the strawberries and cream in complete ignorance of what is going on inside the ropes ? May not the cricketer in question be excused if he is not merely amused, but also somewhat annoyed, at what he will doubtless regard as an insult to his favourite game .'' It is difficult, if not impossible, for him to appreciate the fact that many of those, who 236 HARROW SCHOOL attend this annual London picnic come without the smallest intention of taking any interest in the cricket, but in order to see their friends " do " Lord's, and generally enjoy themselves. Again, a cricketer, provided he is not himself an old member of one of our great public schools, may be inclined to make some cynical remarks upon the fact that so much interest is taken in cricket played by hoys, when, in his opinion, only Gentlemen v. Players, or some big county match, would justify so much interest and enthusiasm ; or if he has come in order to pick out cricketers of the future, it may amuse, if it does not annoy, him to find that the applause as often owes its origin to the desire " to reply," as to any particularly good piece of cricket. How often, nevertheless, have we " old boys," who love the match for old as- sociations' sake, joining in the roar of laughter in reply to the loud shout of "well caught *" coming from the other side, and greeting the smart fielding of a ball which has looked to over-eager friends as if it were a catch, enjoyed the disappointment caused when they realised that it never was a catch, but that the ball had already hit the ground ? Time was when " chaff" played a much larger part in the game than it does now. Who is likely to forget the shouts that greeted a certain famous cricketer when he went on to bowl underhand " grubs" .'' That " b-b-b-b-bowled," each h mark- ing a step of the bowler's run, was a cry which would have disconcerted any but the coolest and most self-possessed. And who has not smiled at the remarks which used to be addressed to the deep fields by the representatives of the opposing school, standing immediately behind them ? One of two famous old taunts which, though now merely memories, were common in Etonian mouths thirty years ago, was — " Who shot the marker ? " a sarcastic inquiry which always remained unanswered, for the accident at the Harrow butts was an invention of our rivals' imagination ; the other was the unkind expression of sympathy addressed to any Harrow player who felt for his trouser pockets, an allusion which had to be treated with the scorn it deserved. Again, in the old days before the new pavilion was built, the following scene, probably not devoid of humour to any one except the person most concerned, might frequently have been witnessed. The match is over, and the friends of the winning side determine to " chair " their champions round the ground. The crowd and the excitement make this by no means an easy task. Eventually, however, the " heroes " are seized, hoisted, and carried down towards the old spiked palings which used to fence off the pavilion from the ground : the entrance gateway is, of course, blocked, so an effort must be made to pass the favourite over the fence. Owing to the crowd, to the breathlessness of the carriers, and possibly to the solidity of the " blue," the task proves to be beyond the strength of the bearers, with the result that the hero is deposited on the rails, and is, with difficulty, extricated from a position which is more painful than glorious, but one which, with all its drawbacks, few of us would not be proud to have filled. The rough element, in the shape of humble and disreputable, but bellicose and ardent, local supporters of each school, were accustomed to come to Lord's clad in eccentric costumes, and much bedecked with the colours of the school they supported. The excitement of the two days, and perhaps the thirst engendered by the heat, generally proved too much for their feelings, and after the close of play a free fight THE ETON AND HARROW MATCH 237 often took place. But at times the fighting was not always confined to the rough element. There have been occasions when the scholars (if not the parents of scholars) have taken and received blows on the eventful second Saturday in July. On one occasion hats were freely smashed, and a faction fight ensued ; but this was only once, and now the youth of the period is, as a rule, more staid and less excitable than his own father. No one who was present will forget the scene at the match in 1866, when play was suspended for a time, and hot and angry argument reigned supreme in the pavilion. The casus belli was as follows : One of the Eton batsmen hit a ball which he believed reached the boundary, and walked leisurely to the opposite wicket (the boundary in those days counted three instead of four). The ball, however, did not reach the boundary, and the Harrow fieldsman returned it to the bowler, and the batsman was run out. Then a protest was raised by the Eton captain, who maintained that the ball had hit a spectator who had encroached on the ground, and was, in fact, equivalent to the boundary. Although this took place some time before the time appointed for drawing the stumps, no further play took place that evening, and discord reigned supreme. However, ultimately better counsels pre- vailed and the matter was settled amicably, the Harrow captain offering the bats- man to go in again, which the latter declined, and the umpire's decision was final. Even the police at times contribute a grain of unconscious humour. No doubt they find the horde of boy-spectators rather trying to the temper, uncertain and slow in the production of the tickets which entitle them to free admission to the grand and to their school stand, and correspondingly quick in excuse, evasion, and repartee. Consequently Robert is on his guard. On one occasion it is told that the smallest and youngest member of the Harrow Eleven presented himself at the gate of Lord's on the morning of the second day, and was making his way through, when he was stopped with a demand for his ticket. "" I haven't got one," he replied ; " I'm one of the Harrow Eleven." Robert looked at the solemn small boy, with admiration for what appeared to be really consummately cool cheek, and answered, " Come, sir, you young gen'lemen do say rum things, but you can't expect me to believe that." But the truth is, the match lends itself more to sober seriousness than to joke. Old men look grimly on, hardly daring to speak when things are going against their school. The light and the dark blues divide into two distinct camps, and devote themselves to cheering their friends as each point is scored against the adversary, and in such circumstances it is not easy to find much that belongs to the comic side. There is no doubt that Eton and Harrow partisans do not find much that is comic in a close finish, such as that of 1885, when in the fourth innings, after appearing to have a comparatively light task before them — 93 runs to make in close on two hours — Harrow wickets fell so fast that a quarter of an hour before time seven wickets were down for 73, and Harrow still wanted 20 runs to win. A win, a draw, or a defeat seemed any of them possible. Defeat, however, was soon off the cards, and excitement rose higher, till, when at the beginning of what was believed to be the last^ over, the game stood a tie. The first three balls delivered to ^ Farrands, the umpire on the occasion, when asked on the Monday following if it was the last over, said there would have been one more. 238 HARROW SCHOOL E. M. Butler, the Harrow captain of the year, were not scored off, but from the fourth the winning hit, a four, was scored, and the match was won on the very stroke of time. Less dramatic but more drawn out was the interest of 1878, when Eton went in to get a long score in the last innings, and were beaten by 20. Ladies clapped, as the fight was fought. And the chances went and came : And talk sank low, till you almost thought You lived in the moving game. O, good lads in the field they were. Laboured, and ran, and threw ; But we that sat on the benches there. Had the hardest work to do. What is it .'' forty — thirty more ? You in the trousers white. What did you come to Harrow for. If we lose the match to-night ? If a finger's grasp, as a catch comes down. Goes a thousandth part astray — Heavens ! to think there are folks in town Who talk of the game as play ! " Over " — batsmen steadily set ; " Over " — maiden again ; If it lasts a score of overs yet. It may chance to turn the brain. End it, finish it ! Such a match Shortens the breath we draw. Lose it at once, or else — a catch ! Ah!i This is a very brief summary of the history of cricket as played between the two schools at Lord's, and it leaves much yet to be told ; but, whether from the historical or humorous point of view, this old trial of strength is not unworthy of the attention of those who believe that our great public schools have had no small share in making our country what she is. And it is to be hoped that for many a year to come Eton and Harrow will try their luck at Lord's, and that the same good fellowship, high spirits, and strenuous competition will continue to mark the contest. Walter H. Long. I Lord's 1878, by E. E. B. CHAPTER XXII PONSONBY AND GRIMSTON The death of Lord Bessborough in 1895 has not left untouched generations of Harrovians, who had known him well for the last sixty years ; when, in 1884, Robert Grimston passed away, one was taken but the other was left, and Lord Bessborough"'s visits to the dear old school on the hill continued as frequent as ever. Theirs may not have been strictly called eventful lives, but they were eventful in the annals of the school to which they were so deeply attached. Their place it will be impossible to fill, their memory is enshrined in the hearts of Harrow boys. They were men of honour, they were men of truth, they resented a mean action, they abhorred a false word ; and, owing to their high character, exercised an influence among the boys abiding in its nature and unique of its kind. It is getting on for half a century since I first saw them at Harrow ; I was almost a new boy, in days when new boys had rather a hard time of it. I was no exception, and had never been to any private school. The two came to my room with Henry Vernon, the pride of the school at cricket, football, and rackets. " Vernon," said Bob Grimston, " look after that young cricketer." Two years after I was in Vemon'^s Eleven, which beat both Eton and Winchester easily. What a difference those few words of encouragement and recommendation made to me ; and do not Harrow boys through these many years call to mind how sympathy and advice from Grimston and Bessborough have altered the position and tenor of their lives, and made them face the difficulties and dangers which beset a schoolboy's career ? No one can overrate all that Harrow owes to both in the cricket-field. They were ever ready to stand as umpires, and to devote time and labour to rolling and preparing the pitch ; they were ever ready to coach in the evening when practice was going on ; they instilled into the Eleven that golden maxim, " Cricketers should play for their side, and not always be thinking about their averages, and individual performances." I might go on for ever describing their unselfish labours, but it is wholly unnecessary, as we all know the affection with which we regarded them. It was not only at Harrow that these two were conspicuous in the cricket-field, their names at Lord's and the Oval were household words. Both played for the Gentlemen against the Players, both were original members of I Zingari ; and I have no hesitation in saying that Lord Bessborough was one of the finest judges of 240 HARROW SCHOOL the game. He told me he learnt most of his knowledge of cricket from William Clarke of Nottingham, the famous slow bowler. Their friendship commenced in 1829 as boys at school. Bessborough left first in 1833 and went to Cambridge, Grimston to Oxford. They both played for their respective Universities. Bessborough joined the Midland Circuit, became a revising barrister, and afterwards obtained a certain amount of Parliamentary practice. Grimston joined the Home Circuit, but did not practise for long. During this period the regular visits to Harrow began. Sometimes the two walked down there from London, played, and walked back in the evening; at a later time, when railways began to run frequently, they went by train to Ealing, and walked from there, a most rural walk, to Harrow. On their walks they used to lay out their plans for making up Elevens — no easy task in the days of the school's decline, until the time came when an Eleven had to be made out of sixty-nine boys. But I may safely say neither interfered with the choice of the Eleven. If their opinion was asked by the captain as to the respective merits of the new candidates, they gave it, not saying much about faults, except when a very bad field was suggested. It must not be supposed that after leaving the Bar either of them led an idle life. Grimston became a Director of the Electric Telegraph Company, and on the death of Mr. Robert Stephenson he was elected Chairman, and held that office until the Company was transferred to the Government in 1868 ; he also was Chairman of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, and Director of the Anglo-American. " He was esteemed " (wrote one who knew him well) " in the City as an honest man to the backbone; shareholders liked and trusted him, because they knew they could rely on his word."" This estimate of Grimston's character was fully borne out by Baron Martin's judgment, in the only election in which Grimston took an active part, on behalf of the late Right Hon. W. H. Smith. A petition was subsequently lodged against Mr. Smith's return for Westminster (1868), he having defeated John Stuart Mill. No doubt, there were many suspicious circumstances in the case, more especially as to the exhibition of boards, for which large sums were paid. Grimston, as chairman of Mr. Smith's committee, had to give evidence. Baron Martin summed up in these words : " Mr. Grimston has sworn that the exhibition of these boards was not dishonest, but the plan was had recourse to for the purpose of giving publicity to the candidature Robert Grimston. PONSONBY AND GRIMSTON 241 of Mr. Smith. Mr. Grimston is a man of position and name, his character for honesty, uprightness, and veracity has never been questioned ; so I am bound, believing his evidence, to say that the case has not been made out against Mr. Smith." In the winter Grimston was devoted to hunting, and he always had a strong feeling for any one who was fond of either hunting or cricket, and could excel in them. He is well described in Whyte Melville*'s novel of Satanella as " the president of the slip-coach, which took the London hunting-party to Leighton." The same broad- brimmed hat that he said was necessary to shade his eyes in summer, covered his head while hunting, but he then wore a broad black ribbon under his chin to keep it safe on the back of his head. There is a sketch of him escorting a lady, who makes a remark which he ventures to doubt, and he answers, " Fll eat my hat if it is "" ; to which she replies, " What, brim and all, Mr. Grimston ? '' He was held in high esteem by hunting men, by farmers in the vale of Aylesbury as well as by the Rothschild family. Lord Bessborough, in his note-book, sums him up in these few words : " I believe all who knew him well would give the same account of his character, and in such account I am sure that the qualities of courage, honesty, and earnestness would be named as the main features, which, with some other qualities, made him the fast friend of many in all classes, and almost always popular and respected." It is a curious fact that the two firm friends should have been so utterly opposed in politics. Lord Bessborough was a strong Liberal, although, from many con- versations I have had with him, I do not think he endorsed Mr. Gladstone's views on the Home Rule question ; but, throughout life, he certainly was in full touch and sympathy with the Irish people. Grimston, on the other hand, was a stout, unbending Tory, a fact which is fully exemplified by an anecdote which I told Mr. Gale, and which appears in his Life of the Hon. R. Grimston. As, however, I rode the horse to try for Mr. Grimston, I venture to repeat it. Mason, from whom Mr. Grimston bought all his horses, asked me to jump a valuable hunter and tell him if it would suit Mr. Grimston. On my recommendation, Grimston came down to see it. After seeing it, he said, " Mason, what is the price.?" — "dfi'SOO," said Mason. "I don't object to that," answered Grimston ; " now tell me his name." — " Free Trade," was the answer. " Take him back to the stable," said Grimston, " I never will own a horse with that name." Lord Bessborough (then Frederick Ponsonby ; he succeeded to the title in 1881) became agent to Lord Fitzwilliam at Coolattin, and was recognised as one who gained the good-will of every tenant on what has always been considered one of the model estates in Ireland. I believe his success there was mainly owing to an absence of conventionality on his part, and his cordial union with those whose opinion differed from his own. He was also for some time Chairman of the Great Western Railway, and continued a Director until his death. He never allowed pleasure to interfere with business ; but, besides being a great cricketer, he was a born actor, and for years took leading parts in the Old-Stager performances at Canterbury. When at Cambridge, in conjunction with C. Taylor, W. Bolland, and others, he devoted his leisure moments to cricket and theatricals, and the outcome of these were the 242 HARROW SCHOOL annual Canterbury gatherings, which have now extended over a period of more than fifty years. The venerable Mrs. Keeley, speaking of him and his brother Spencer, said : " The brothers Ponsonby were not amateurs, they were actors,"" A perfect temper, a consideration for others, were the characteristics of his nature ; he never made an enemy, and it is useless to try and express what his loss meant to a wide circle of friends. To me, personally, he was the truest friend ; and from this room where I am now writing I can see the tree where we both sat under, when he came to stay with us after I had been very ill to soothe and cheer me in the early days of my recovery. It is almost needless to say that Harrow, cricket, and the future of Ireland (1886) were the main topics of our conversation. For two years before his death his health had been failing, and his loss of memory was a perpetual anxiety to his friends. He still continued to go to Harrow, and the 2nd of March 1895 was his last visit there. On the following Tuesday he was very ill, and he died on the 12th of March of that year. His body was sent to Bessborough, and he was buried in the family vault on the 19th. At the funeral there was an extraordinary demonstration of respect and affection. Protestant and Catholic clergymen, Orangemen and Nationalists, rich and poor came from afar to pay their last tribute to one they loved so well. On the same day, at the same hour, a memorial service was held in Harrow chapel, where Lord Bessborough had been a frequent worshipper and communicant ; and those who were fortunate enough to be there will ever remember the touching and eloquent address of the Master of Trinity, Henry Montagu Butler, once head of the school and one of my Eleven in 1851, and afterwards for many years headmaster of Harrow, one of Bessborough's greatest friends and warmest admirers. Nor must the representative meeting held at the Westminster Palace Hotel on Ascension Day of that year be forgotten, when, under the presidency of Mr. Welldon, Cabinet Ministers and ex-Cabinet Ministers, peer and commoner, clergy and laity, cricketer and non-cricketer, met to start a Bessborough Memorial Fund, and to carry out for the benefit of the school what was known to be the wish of Harrow"'s truest friend. Perhaps I have been selected to write this dual biography, because in after-life 1 was so much thrown into the society of one or the other, alike in my profession, in the cricket-, and in the hunting-field. I was admitted into their circle of friends, although a much younger man ; and I am heartily thankful for the blessing of that friendship. Many of that circle have now passed away, but some of the old lot still remain, one and all of whom will endorse all that I have endeavoured to say Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, Sixth Earl of Bessborough, i.tmiMii- ' ■.gr.?*isg " PONSONBY AND GRIMSTON 243 about two friends who were faithful to the responsibiHties of life, who hated little- ness, meanness, and selfishness, and who died, as they had lived, simple and honour- able gentlemen. E. Chandos Leigh. R. G.i Still the balls ring upon the sunlit grass, Still the big elms, deep shadowed, watch the play ; And ordered game and loyal conflict pass The hours of May. But the game's guardian, mute, nor heeding more What suns may gladden, and what airs may blow, Friend, teacher, playmate, helper, counsellor. Lies resting now. " Over " — they move, as bids their fieldsman's art ; With shifted scene the strife begins anew ; " Over"" — we seem to hear him, but his part Is over, too. Dull the best speed, and vain the surest grace — So seemed it ever — till there moved along Brimmed hat, and cheering presence, and tried face Amid the throng. He swayed his realm of grass, and planned, and wrought ; Warned rash intruders from the tended sward ; A workman, deeming, for the friends he taught, No service hard. He found, behind first failure, more success ; Cheered stout endeavour more than languid skill ; And ruled the heart of boyhood with the stress Of helpful will. Or, standing at our hard-fought game, would look, Silent and patient, drowned in hope and fear, Till the lips quivered, and the strong voice shook With low glad cheer. 1 The Editors desire to express their thanks to Mr. Bowen. for allowing them to reprint in this book this and the following poem, written by him on the occasions of the deaths of Mr. Grimston and Lord Bessborough. 244 HARROW SCHOOL Well played. His life was honester than ours ; We scheme, he worked ; we hesitate, he spoke ; His rough-hewn stem held no concealing flowers. But grain of oak. No earthly umpire speaks, his grave above ; And thanks are dumb, and praise is all too late ; That worth and truth, that manhood and that love Are hid, and wait. Sleep gently, where thou sleepest, dear old friend ; Think, if thou thinkest, on the bright days past ; Yet loftier Love, and worthier Truth, attend What more thou hast. F. P. One friend and he, when thi'ills of warmer spring Lent health and voice to boyish frame and tongue. Stood side by side, or parted but to bring Their treasured counsel to the scattering throng. Tory, and Whig ; stout will, and courtly grace ; One strong for strife, one ignorant of foe ; Both high of heart, and matched in honour''s race ; And in what else united ? Ah, we know. Harrow, what service that from narrower soul We give the hill where hopes and courage move, Can rival his who spent, ungrudging, whole. For thee, with thee, his seventy years of love ? Eager in boyhood ; then a hero, gi-eat In fields of sport, from vulgar flaunting free ; Tried in life's larger labours, tasks of State ; But most himself when caring most for thee ! How gentle, helpful, playful ! who that came Shy, weak of limb, yet dreaming fame and skill, But found, ere half he whispered House and name, A voice that nurtured effort, strengthened will ? And never a Harrow triumph swelled the heart, And never a cloud fell dark on School or boy. But he, strong brother, claimed the foremost part, First in our griefs, and gladdest in our joy. PONSONBY AND GRIMSTON 247 " So shifts the leg — so shapes the arm, the wrist " — Ah, but the voice, the gesture ! See him watch With Enghsh strength, with Irish warmth, or hst The boyish count of innings or of catch. The sunny humour rippHng on the hps 'Mid pleasant tales of ancient strife and stress ; And hope that knew no languor nor eclipse. And clear calm eyes, and gallant tenderness. Our fields have lost his presence. Never more, In the long splendour of the summer days, Game after game, as swells the mounting score. His temperate voice shall gladden into praise. Others will toil as he did ; still shall hold The chain that binds us ; skill nor love shall cease ; But he, the first, the purest friend of old. Rests in the silence of the endless Peace. Yet, O dear memory of the friend of youth. Die not, but stay, and quicken, at his name. All that we have of valom- and of truth. Honour in strife, and simpleness in fame. Still keep his teaching fresh, with arm and foot Supple, and firm, and scorning sloth alone ; Keep fieldsmen watchful, batsmen resolute. But make our hearts as loyal as his own ! E. E. B. CHAPTER XXIII HARROW FOOTBALL Harrow is one of the four leading schools which have maintained their own rules of football since football began. Of these the Rugby game alone has spread far beyond its native boundaries. The system of rules known by the name of tbe " Association's was developed about the year 1865, in correspondence chiefly with the codes of two London schools, Westminster and Charterhouse. But neither Harrow nor Eton nor Winchester has thought well to alter a method of play which suits their own ground, and is hallowed by long tradition. The Eton game is that to which that of HaiTOw is most akin ; it also has a strict rule of " ofF-side," and the spirit of the play consists in following up rather than in passing. But the Eton ball is different, the conception of back play is different, and the goal is limited in height ; while the " fair catch '* is peculiarly Harrovian. /^ In the early days of football, Harrow was small; and the whole school joined ( in play together, in two, or later in three, large games, and on half-holidays only. \ As numbers increased, the management of these became more difficult, and the J other days of the week were utilised, at first informally, for house games. The ifl^ ^ large school games were compulsory ; but it became increasingly distasteful, and at ^ ■ last hardly ])ossible, to make_ young boys take part in play in which they were over- i crowded and could talce but little interest ; and gradually the house games became .KmoYe important and organised. They are now regarded as the normal mode of practice ; and though it is still desirable to give opportunities also for united play, the problem of doing this efficiently can hardly, as yet, be considered as solved. At present, two days in the week are generally devoted to minor contests. The Eleven one house play that of another, but are paradoxically called, for these occasions, ''" Second Elevens " ; the " Third Eleven,"" by which is really meant the second, play at the same time against the corresponding set in the other house. ^ The smaller boys, while these games are going on, have an off'-day ; but experim ents are sometimes made for gi ving them also m ore frequent occasions of plavinp-wTl-'K" theiV Mwr| Medical prohibition apart, every boy learns to play, and the head of his house cany insist upon it. At first, he takes his humble part in house games which occupy three or four days in the week ; then, as his strength increases, in the " Second Elevens," described above ; then again, as he rises to the front rank, in the formal matches between the houses for the championship of the school ; finally, if his prowess has lifted him to so proud an elevation, in the school Eleven. Every Harrow boy learns to play ; and in the view of many who have known^ such games long, there is nothing in the whole range of his education which he can more profitably leai'n. It is not only the gain of doing in a manly way what others do, and sharing the common life, nor the health that comes to body and mind from mingled activity and sport, bnf \j\ thp fontball fiplH f,]^g chflT"'"^^^ ^^ mnrp revealed, ^r>rjrnitatir>n nr for T^lflmp^ than at any other moment o f the day. It is not a thingto dwell upon too much ; but happy are the thousands of boys who have learnt, either in full measure or in small, from what they have seen at their play, to be honourable against their interest, to check a rising quarrel, to forbear a selfish advantage, to be gentle to those that are weak, to be brave where nature is frail. Nowhere but in games of school and college can be found that delicate play of imagination which will strmrglp to tb^* vf^^y hmifg of endurance in make- believe hostility against the ranks whom chance has made temporary foes, and who a minute later will mount the hill in friendly truce together. And even more — ask those who have seen much of such games, and it will be strange if they cannot think of gloomy feelings brightened, of unworthy intentions dropped, of quarrels reconciled, in the forty-five minutes of play. Looking back on the history of Harrow football for the last thirty years, it would be a difficult task, though it is a tempting one, to select and record the names of special heroes. One English bishop could not well be left out of the list, but that was more than thirty years back. Perhaps, however, it may not be wrong to fix on the Elevens of 1871, 1880, 1889, and 1893 as among those which have afforded the best representation of what the Harrow game can be made. But the rain-gauge of the year has always something to say to it. Some years are fairly dry, and suit the nimble " forwards " ; more, unfortunately, are wet and muddy, and strength and endurance tell. For if any stranger should desire to see real mud at its best, he has only to inspect a game of Harrow football at a time when the surface of what once was grass has been soaked by a fortnights rain, and trampled by two- score of feet. Perhaps better days — or grassier — are to come. In 1885 it was thought that some signal material good ought to be provided for the school in memory of Dr. Butler's headmastership, and the field which so many feet had 252 HARROW SCHOOL trodden at play was bought by a large subscription, half of which was contributed from the late Mr. T. C. Baring"'s purse. Since then a serious attempt has been made to drain and preserve the forty acres of meadow ; and old Harrovians, when they revisit the scene, may perhaps view drier games, if not heartier, than those which their own memories recall. E, E. BowEN. CHAPTER XXIV RACKETS At no game have the representatives of Harrow gained a more brilliant reputation than at rackets, whether you look into the records of the competition for the Public Schools Cup, the Inter -University matches (single and double), or the Amateur Championship, For in the Public Schools Cup competition first started at Prince's Club in 1868, and continued there till the courts were pulled down in 1887, when the venue was changed for one year only to Lord's, since which date the contest has been fought out at Queen's Club, Harrow can boast of sixteen victories, Eton coming second with only six, Charterhouse third with three, Rugby fourth with two, and Winchester, Wellington, and Malvern claiming one each; while, as the result of victories in three successive years, three cups have already found a permanent home in the Vaughan Library — the first in 1873, the second in 1881, and the third in 1885. In the Inter-University matches, out of 164 players who have figured in the courts, 67 have come from Harrow; and among the 6 winners of the championship since 1888, 3 can boast of Harrow names. Here we have, indeed, a record of which the school can justly feel proud. Undoubtedly, before the competition was started at Prince's Club, there were few courts in England, and it was not till 1S64> that the present school racket- court was built. Before then, our forefathers contented themselves with the two open-air courts, now falling rapidly into disuse and decay, varied by an occasional game against the school buildings in the corner of the schoolyard. Low hitting and careful placing were then the order of the day ; and among the great players of the Fifties special mention should be made of Sir William Hart Dyke, who in his day was the champion player of England, one of the quickest men ever seen in a court. When he beat the first professional Erwood in a match, the defeated candidate is said to have remarked, " I think I could beat him, if only he would carry weight." Julian Marshall and V. E. Walker are names not to be passed by, nor A. Ainslie and H. M. Plowden. In the Sixties came R. D. Walker, with his marvellous power of " placing," his brother I. D., Cecil Clay, C. F. Buller, and E. J. Sanders. Up to this date there had been no regular professional employed by the school ; so the task of looking after the young players had devolved upon " Sam," the old school Custos, but as increasing years and rotundity deprived him of his pristine activity, he gave place to George Smale, who had the satisfaction of coaching the first 254 HARROW SCHOOL Harrow pair that won the Public Schools Cup in 1871, A. A. Hadow and G. A. Webbe, and never has a closer finish been seen in any final. Eton and Harrow were the antagonists, and after three games all had been called, fourteen all, and in the sett of three, one all, two all were called before Harrow won ; and the same pair repeated the victory, though more easily in 1872. This year is memorable for the fact that P. F. Hadow, in the match for the Challenge Racket, beat one of the winning pair of 1871, and so claimed the right to play for the school; but the Philathletic Club decided that the same pair which had won so well in 1871 should play again. Then Walter Gray, now the coach at Charterhouse, appeared upon the scene, and in his first year had the pleasure of seeing P. F. Hadow and F. D. Leyland win the cup permanently ; and a fourth successive victory awaited us in 1874, when Leyland had C. W. M. Kemp as partner. In the next year Kemp was assisted by E. O. P. Bouverie, one of the most graceful players Harrow has ever produced ; and when victory seemed assured, an unfortunate misunderstanding led to Kemp receiving a fearful blow in the face, which compelled him to leave the court for a considerable time, and gave Eton an unexpected victory. In 1876 the cup was recovered by H. E. Meek and L. K. Jarvis, a magnificent pair of hard hitters ; and then Gray was lost to us, after coaching Harrow for six years, of which four had resulted in victories. Between 1877 and 1885 we had no coach permanently residing, but Prince's Club kindly allowed " Judy," otherwise known as W. Stevens, to come down once a week to coach our players, till he came and settled at Harrow in 1885. " Judy's " advent prepared the way for yet greater glories for the school ; and while it would be invidious to select any one of the three coaches for special praise, it is difficult to over-estimate the value of the services they all rendered to the school. As the brothers A. A. and P. F. Hadow were mainly responsible with G. A. Webbe and F. D. Leyland for winning the first cup, so, under " Judy," the brothers M. C. and A. F, Kemp, with E. M. Hadow and Hon. F. W. de Moleyns, were able to secure the second in 1881. Then Ernest and Eustace Crawley, C. D. Buxton, E. M, Butler, N. T. Holmes, P. Ashworth, and R. D. Cheales won the cup for five years in succession ; and small wonder, seeing that three of them afterwards won the Amateur Championship, and two others w ere exceptionally fine players — as their performances at the ""Varsities and in the Army amply prove. But since 1887 we must exclaim " Ichabod," as we have won only three victories, for which A. H. M. Butler, W. F. Wyndham, J. H. Stogdon, A. S. Crawley, F. W. A. Rattigan, and L. F. Andre wes are responsible.^ It is pleasant from these statistics to see how, if an elder brother gains laurels at rackets, the younger ones seek to rival him. Three has been our lucky number. TTius we find three Hadows, three Crawleys, three Kemps, three Walkers, and two Butlers prominent among our Harrow players. Nor yet must we fail to be grateful to the great unknown who made Harrow the home of " squash." Now we possess six squash -courts, and eleven more in the yards of diff^erent houses, each with peculiarities of its own — a splendid training-ground for wrist and eye. No new boy can complain of having no facilities given to him for learning rackets, nor that ^ Since this chapter was written, the last-mentioned pair have added another victory to our list, and have secured the Cup for the second year in succession (1898). RACKETS 255 squash is an expensive game. Rather can the casual spectator, strolling through the courts, complain that young players too often are content to make their early efforts with rackets well calculated to damp their incipient zeal. Rackets with but few strings unbroken, with great holes, through which a ball will often vanish, or, more ignominious still, get stuck, are too frequently seen in the hands of the young. AVhat fun, I wonder, can they imagine they derive from the game under such conditions ? And yet they look serenely happy, and repeat regularly the performance, destined to wiser eyes and older heads to end in disappointing failure ! Some may be tempted to exclaim, on seeing how comparatively rarely we have won of late years at Queen's, " Fuit ingens gloria Dardanidum,"" but I doubt if our standard is lower now than in the years of victory. Rather I would suggest that the other schools train their players more carefully, and the competition has consequently increased, so that Harrow players must look to their laurels and continue to play up. M. C. Kemp. CHAPTER XXV THE SCHOOL BATHING-PLACE The " incomparable Ducker," as a Transatlantic enthusiast has called it, like all other institutions, is the product of a long evolution. The name, which long usage has made classic, if not official, is a corruption of the Harrovian dialect for " Duck- puddle," and points back to a time when the anatum gratissima seeks was less attractive to the human species than it is now. Indeed the name itself seems to have been transferred from an almost prehistoric bath which existed in the dark ages of the Napoleonic era, and had no rival till about the year 1810. This venerable pond was situated in a field about a quarter of a mile eastward of the present Ducker. It was divided down the middle by a bank of earth, and was fed by a ditch which brought water from Lord Northwick's lake in the Park. The same supply was utilised for the " new " Duck-puddle established in the reign of Dr. George Butler in 1810 or 1811 on the site of what is now called the " old"" bath, viz. that part of the present bath which lies between the entrance and the iron bridge. This was doubtless an improvement ; but small boys are said to have still preferred the peace and quiet of the older pond, and, as regards cleansing properties, it is likely that, in a short time, there was not much to choose between the two. Thus the "old" bath, known as such to recent generations, must be distinguished from the " antediluvian " bath of Dr. Longley's and Dr. Wordsworth's headmasterships. The sides of the " old " bath (known till Dr. Vaughan's time as the "new" bath) were of earth, "modified" at the bottom into mud by the action of water. Besides the harmless necessary newt, the disappearance of which from the Ducker of to-day would cause widespread regret, it is said that frogs and water-rats abounded. Even under these not very promising conditions it was evidently possible to learn to swim. The second Sir Robert Peel learnt here the art which once saved his life in the Mediterranean. Nay, it has even been said that the skill which Byron displayed in the Hellespont and elsewhere was acquired at Harrow, viz. in the oldest Ducker of all. But the bolder spirits, among whom one at least of the worthies just mentioned may be reckoned, preferred often to seek cleaner waters, such as the Elstree reservoir, the Brent, or the canal. Yet, in justice to the bathing-place of pre-Reform days, due allowance must be made for love of sport and original sin as motives of these excursions. There was exhilara- tion in the drive in a donkey-tandem of which credible tradition speaks, as well as in the " cool silver shock " of a plunge in the sparkling canal. THE SCHOOL BATHING-PLACE 259 So much must suffice for a prehistoric peep at the primeval sHme to which we turn, as science instructs us, as the beginning of the evolutionary process. The epoch-making changes which have followed during the latter half of the century must be briefly recounted. In 1848, the year in which ancient monarchies were tottering all over Europe, revolutionary ardour attacked even this home of ancient peace and conservative frogs. The time-spirit, personified in Dr. Vaughan, in this and succeeding years purified the water ab ingravescente sqtialore, as an inscription on the clock-tower records, introduced a new supply through pipes communicating with an artesian well, built a cottage, put a caretaker into it, and gave the place its first artistic decoration in the shape of the " Lion's Mouth.'"' The said cottage was of wood, and was erected in 1851 ; being, after a life of forty-five years, somewhat " battered, and decayed," it had begun to let in various things " through chinks which time had made," and has at length (in 1896) been superseded by a red brick house, which, surrounded by trees, offers to the eye a pleasing bit of colour in the view from the terrace. In Dr. Vaughan's time, moreover, the old mud bottom and sides gave place to bricks, slates were laid round the edge (where they were found eventually to have harboured numerous snakes and blind-worms), and sheds and a towel-house were for the first time erected. Thus began the second epoch in the history of the present site. Whatever the shortcomings of this Duck-puddle may have been, there was much to be grateful for in the thoughtful improvements carried out through the care of Mr. G. F. Harris and the large, if unobtrusive, liberality of Dr. Vaughan. The third, or modem, epoch dates from 1881. The water, after all that had been done, did not give satisfaction ; complaint was made of its irregularity, its colour, and its consistency. It would be tedious to give all the details of the great change which now took place. The present bath was designed gratuitously by Mr., now Sir, John Fowler, C.E., who also superintended the execution of his somewhat elaborate plans. It was opened on 28th May 1881, with appropriate ceremony, by Dr. H. M. Butler, who had taken great interest in the reforms, for the inception of which the school had to thank the enterprise and enthusiasm of Mr. A. G. Watson, then and for a long period the master in charge of the bathing depart- ment. The bath was nearly trebled in size, and taken round a graceful curve, so that its full extent and beauty do not burst on the visitor all at once. It is surrounded by an asphalt path, between which and the fence rises a bank adorned with shrubs and flower-beds ; the numerous sheds, some of them following the curve of the bath, are likewise covered with roses and creepers. A clock, mounted on a wooden tower at the farther end, warns the bather somewhat fitfully of the flight of time, and arms him with an excuse valid against very new masters. The water is supplied from the top of the hill by the Colne Valley waterworks, and can be gradually renewed without emptying the bath ; an ingenious arrangement of waste- pipes carries off' the surface-water into the ditch outside the fence, so soon as it is raised above a certain level by the admission of a fresh supply ; and the fresh water, entering at the bottom under considerable pressure, successfully freshens and aerates the whole. By an arrangement of lock-gates it is possible to empty half the bath for cleaning purposes, without disturbing the other half ; but this contrivance has 260 HARROW SCHOOL never been put in practice, as the whole bath is emptied, cleaned, and repaired every Easter holidays. A rather elaborate system of gutters is necessary to prevent the rain which falls on the banks or path from finding its way into the crystal pool. An interesting illustrated description of the new bath and the work done there in 1881 was given in an article in the number of Engineering for August 26th, 1881. So far, no human invention has been able to prevent the formation of a green film in the water in hot weather, and the amount of it varies curiously from time to time ; but absolute clearness can hardly be expected all the summer in standing water not under cover. The bottom being of cement, which is annually repaired, pollution is probably reduced to a mimimum. The present bath is 500 feet long, and 100 feet wide at the broadest pai-t ; the average width is 60 feet. The depth varies from 3 feet 8 inches at the ends to 6 feet 1 inch near the iron bridge, which marks the point where the extension of the old bath begins. The depth in feet and inches is painted at intervals on the sides just above the surface of the water. The extension is also a great boon to skaters, an area of 31,000 square feet being a surface not to be despised in the neighbourhood of London ; the depth of the water is then reduced by a half, which makes an "immersion"" comparatively harmless, and also enables skaters to pass under the bridge. The sides of the bath are covered with cement calculated to resist any injury from skates. Ducker opens generally about the middle of May, and remains open all the summer term ; occasionally there is also a fortnight or so when bathing is possible at the beginning of the Christmas term. In fact, in the wonderful autumn of 1895, football was often reduced to a game of a quarter of an hour, and served merely as an excuse for a bathe. All boys are obliged to " pass " in swimming, viz. to swim a distance of 70 yards, unless the doctor forbids them to bathe. *' Passes "" take place once a fortnight, and afford considerable amusement to all but the candidates. A master conducts the proceedings, and starts the candidates in batches of six, while an expectant and highly critical crowd is, it is to be feared, more anxious for sport than for the success of the novices, though a plucky struggle always receives encouragement. The experts on the bridge take care that no one shall start till he has ducked his head, it being naturally the custom for most of the " passees ■" to enter the water feet first. Any failure to reach the little wooden bridge which marks the goal serves the useful purpose of giving practice in the valuable art of life-saving. A few strong swimmers, some of whom in recent years have become really proficient in the "drill" of the Life-saving Society, are in readiness on the bank, anxiously watching for the first signal of distress. Swimming is, in a sense, a part of the school curriculum ; all those who do not pass at the first attempt are obliged to take three lessons a week until they can satisfy, and a weekly report of their progress goes to the Form-masters. In the Fourth Form public opinion supports magisterial pressure, as a " school "" is given so soon as the whole form have passed. The lessons are given, at the cost of the Bathing-place Fund, partly by the caretaker, partly by the swimming-master, who is also continually on the spot to give any necessary hints or help to more expert performers. To the present instructor, Mr. James Howe, an untiring and most enthusiastic amphibian. THE SCHOOL BATHING-PLACE 261 many Harrow swimmers of the last decade owe their first acquaintance with various aquatic exercises, useful and ornamental, among which water-polo and life-saving drill are the most important. The " pass " is the only general test of swimming, but there is a further trial of all-round capacity, called a " Dolphin *" pass. This is held two or three times in the course of the season, and there are generally about fifteen " dolphins " in the school at a time. The test consists of a long swim, five lengths of the bath, i.e. /f*v^- •«xiV ^'^J' DucKEB Cottage. about half a mile, which has to be performed within a prescribed time, and must include an exhibition of breast-, side-, and back-stroke ; also the competitors have to start with a running header, and, during the swim, to dive under a floating hurdle, to climb out on to a low running-board and take a standing header in again ; moreover (on a different day), they must save the life of a wooden dummy. For each of these performances they are marked, and complete failure in any one of them, or partial failure in any three, constitutes a "pluck." "Dolphins" have various marks of distinction, of which the most highly valued is leave to bathe more than once a day. The ordeal is pretty severe, and its value is seen in the improve- ment in pace which has shown itself in the last few years, on account of which the 262 HARROW SCHOOL maximum time allowed has been reduced from twenty-two to nineteen minutes. The " record '"* performance is that of C. G. Wickham, who, in 1896, accomplished the swim, with its various incidents, in fifteen minutes eighteen seconds. The name " dolphin "" is perhaps not very appropriate to so serious a competition, the chief value of which is, that it encourages hard work in the water as opposed to dolphin- like gambollings. Other aquatic creatures whose names occur on the walls of the sheds, to the bewilderment of the stranger, are " Ducks " and " Ducklings." These are simply the senior and junior representatives of their houses, the races between which are held in the last week of the summer term : the winning " Ducks " become the holders of a challenge cup. The last fortnight of the season is indeed busy with a variety of competitions. There are " Form " races, viz. four races open to boys in the Sixth Form, Fifth Form, Remove and Upper Shells, Lower Shell and Fourth Form respectively. Then, besides the final " passes " and " dolphin " trial, there is the competition for the Royal Humane Society's medal. This is a rather long business, involving, as it does, the rescue of a dummy under three different sets of circumstances. More reality has lately been given to these feats by the Society's recent requirement, that the medallist shall also have passed a satisfactory examination in the principles of life-saving in the water and life-restoration on land. There are, of course, many things which require to be known, if not practised, in order to save a drowning man but which can hardly be learnt from handling a wooden block, without circulation, without respiration, and especially, without power of resistance. The morning of the last day of the term, nominally a " whole school day,'"" is devoted to various sports. The programme includes the long race for the Ebrington Cup, the headers for the Beale Cup, long-distance diving, diving for china eggs, and a beginners' race, by no means the least interesting item. Races with representatives of other schools are not easy to arrange. In 1894 a race was swum against Eton in the Thames, and resulted in a win for Harrow. But, to the regret of both schools, this race is not likely to be repeated. The training of " wet-bobs " for Henley is a difficulty in the way of Eton swimming, since the " wet-bob " is, somewhat paradoxically, discom-aged from entering what might appear to be his native element. Success in the cricket field also conflicts with swimming : non omnia possumus omnes. In 1896 a race against Charter- house took place at Ducker, in which the home team won ; this, it is hoped, may become an annual fixture, and help to encourage the practice of swimming long distances. So much for competitions. But, after all, emulation is not the most potent force which draws Harrovians down the hill on summer evenings. No description of Ducker would be complete which made no mention of its Capuan charms ; even the most emulous record-breakers do not always " bend the bow." At all events, to the majority "Ducker" means an hour or two of chartered, and doubtless well- earned, slackness. To bask on the sunny bank, clad in the most rational dress ever devised (the " Ducker- towel "), to flop occasionally into the water with the careless luxury of a water-rat, to recreate exhausted nature with the mammoth " Ducker- \ jti : ^ " '^- — "C*~— , '' ^, .../.,,. '-Lit J J :-m ;! I . ®rfc 'i. H^*' «%^* iyj-a. « 3 THE SCHOOL BATHING-PLACE 263 bun,"" — these are the reminiscences to which hereafter the thoughts of the jaded merchant or minister who may read this chapter will be fondly recalled. Faint reflections of these pleasures may doubtless be enjoyed elsewhere ; yet, as one of our own poets has said — Each temple of human detergency. Each new ablutional throne (Except in some case of emergency)^ Yields to our own. A. R HoET. CHAPTER XXVI THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL It is not uncommon nowadays to hear it said that our great public schools betray a growing disregard for intellectual interests. It is conceded that they are wholesome and vigorous nurseries of character, that the general tone is more refined and civilised than it was, that the average boy is better looked after, and the indolent boy more successfully checkmated; but it is urged that originality is discouraged, that the enthusiasm for literary culture which characterised a former generation has disappeared, and that the finer flowers of scholarship have faded before the boisterous breath of athleticism. And undoubtedly there is some measure of tinith in such a Jeremiad. " The old order changeth " in this as in so many other sides of modem life. We have- let us be frank with ourselves — sacrificed something in the change that has taken place. To be a " scholar and gentleman " is not now, as it once was, the hall-mark and aspiration of the best public-school men. We have kept, it is hoped, the gentleman, but we have lost, to a large extent, the scholar. This is as true of Han*ow as of other schools. And yet it would be a serious mistake to suppose that the balance is all on the wrong side. On the contrary, we have many compensations to reckon up, and intellectually our public schools are not by any means so impoverished as is commonly supposed by their critics. This is not, of course, the place for an educational essay, but, after all, no study of the school life and history would be complete without some estimate of its intellectual efficiency and equipment ; and there is no apology needed for offering a brief sketch of the intellectual opportunities provided in modern days at Harrow, both in and out of school hours, and for showing how the rising generation of Harrovians are still maintaining unimpaired the reputation of the school as a place of " sound learning." Broadly speaking, the machinery of education at Harrow is divided into two branches, voluntary and compulsory — the former being, in many respects, fully as important as the latter. Of the compulsory portion of school work I need not speak at any length. It is familiar to all who are acquainted with the school. And yet I may be permitted to make one or two general remarks on the leading features of the system, as they are often overlooked and indistinctly realised even by those who have been at Harrow themselves. View prom the Top of Peteiibohough Hill. Facing page 264. THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 265 A Harrow boy has three alternatives. He may belong to the Classical Side, or to the Modern Side, or to the Army Class. Each of these is conducted on a somewhat different principle. The Classical Side is based on the Jbrm, the Modern Side makes a wider use of the division, the Army Class is a species of private tuition. Each of these has a distinctive character. Under the form-system the form-master has almost the entire responsibility for the boys' work, and his form stands in a very special and intimate relation to him for the time being. It reflects, or ought to reflect, his character, tastes, and teaching. It is his little kingdom, and he has incessant opportunities for exercising stimulus, sympathy, observation, and control. In spite of the fact that the top boy may be very clever and the " lag " boy very stupid, there is a uniformity of treatment and a fellow-feeling which binds them all together; and any form-master who is worth his salt takes a pride in his own methods, and cannot fail to leave on his form the impress of his own convictions and personality. The divisional system is different. In this case boys are classified far more exactly according to their proficiency, though the form-master is still responsible for the bulk of the work ; yet a boy sees more of different masters and different competitors than he does on the Classical Side. For actual intellectual progress it is probably better than the form system, but it offfers fewer opportunities for the inter-play of character and character. The divisional master is, in effect, a professor on a small scale, and only sees the members of his division at somewhat long intervals. The Army Class is a recent development to meet the requirements of the military examinations, and it has, we may say without exaggeration, amply justified its creation. Its success has been conspicuous and uniform, and it has saved a large number of Harrovians from the disagreeable necessity of a crammer. More than this, it has proved that boys can and will work at high pressure at a public school, in spite of various counter-attractions, if they are wisely guided and carefully trained. What has been done for the army may now be done for the navy ; for the naval authorities, being anxious to make the experiment of enabling naval officers to enjoy the same advantages of a public-school education as the sister service, have, as is generally known, recently raised the age for competition. It is gratifying to be able to state that the boy who passed first into the Britannia last year, 1897, passed direct from Harrow. This project will be watched with considerable interest, for it is not only a new departure in naval policy, but, extending their scope in this direction, the public schools will become even more widely national than they were before. Concurrently with all this arrangement of forms, divisions, and special tuition, there is of course the tutorial system, which though not so marked a feature at Harrow as at Eton, is still a very important and valuable element in a boy's training. The relation of a tutor to his pupil is unique and, so to say, pastoral. It resembles the tie between a Roman patronus and his cliens. The tutor is a boy's mentor in the choice of study, his intercessor in case of trouble, and he is the only master who is responsible for him throughout his school career. So much for the compulsory side of a boy's education. But there are, as I have stated, almost equally important agencies, which are purely voluntary. A boy may me HARROW SCHOOL take them or leave them, but there are very few who are not affected by one or other of them. Foremost among these we may place the Vaughan Library. In former times this noble room was open only to masters and monitors, and even still the possession of a key and the privilege of taking books out are restricted to them. But at almost all hours of the day the Library is now open to all boys, and there are few more encouraging sights than to see the large number of boys on half- holiday afternoons in the winter terms reading with orderly avidity in the school Library. Often the boys least successful in school -work are found to be the most constant visitors there in pursuit of some special hobby or research. The privilege is never abused by disorder or the defacement of property. It is the retreat of the student, the shelter of the friendless boy; and such an opportunity for literary recreation within the reach of all cannot fail to influence the school as a whole. The Library also forms a theatre for another display of intellectual activity, the School Debating Society. Surely no school has a more inspiring senate-house. The busts and portraits of the great statesmen of the past look down on the young speakers, and here, if anywhere, the spirit of debate and oratory should flourish. Sometimes, Proh curia inversique mores !. the interest in this valuable institution has been allowed to flag, happily, however, not for long ; and the present generation seems fully alive to the duty of maintaining its efficiency. On Saturday evening — on the two winter terms — the members of the School Parliament meet in force to discuss questions of School and State ; and, if we may trust the accounts in the Harrovian, the eloquence and numbers of the speakers and the enthusiasm of the audience leave little to be desired. Mention of the Harrovian leads me to speak of another outlet for intellectual effort. The school paper at Hari'ow has had a chequered and intermittent career, as may be easily seen by the shelves of the Vaughan Library, where the various publications are collected. It has flourished under various names. It was the Triumvirate in 1859, the Tyro in 1863, the Harrovian in 1869 ; then, from 1883 to 1888, it was actually conducted outside the school under the title of Harrow Notes by Mr. R. de C. Welch. From 1888 to the present time it has appeared regularly under the Editorship of a small committee, composed partly of masters and partly of boys. It has always offered a cordial welcome to the contributions of literary boys, and from time to time articles of considerable merit have appeared in its pages. Perhaps it reached its palmiest days under the brilliant management of Mr. G. W. E. Russell and Mr. Sichel. But, of course, the literary standard is bound to vary, for it depends on the existence of a few literary boys. These only appear at intervals, and their reign is, from the nature of the case, short. But it was felt wise to secure the permanence of the magazine, partly as a record of school history and partly as an opportunity for literary effort ; and it may now be considered one of the regular institutions of the school. I suppose if any Harrow boy of the present day were asked to name the chief reminiscences that lived with him at the close of his school career, he would un- THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 267 doubtedly reckon among them the lectures in Speech-room. He would be strangely inappreciative and ungrateful if he did not, for probably no school has ever had a finer lecture-hall than the New Speech-room ; and assuredly no school has had the privilege of listening to a more interesting and distinguished series of lectures. That this is no exaggeration is proved by the mere mention of only a few of those public men who have, within the last ten years alone, honoured the school by the delivery of lectures and addresses — Lord Wolseley, Lord Roberts, Lord Charles Beresford, Lord George Hamilton, Mr. Bayard, Dr. Nansen, Sir Henry Irving, Sir Squire Bancroft, Sir John Lubbock, Mr. F. C. Selous. Similar to these, though naturally appealing to a much . smaller circle, are the terminal concerts. The oratorios, the symphonies, the string bands, and the glee singing are each and all of a very high class, almost as good as money can procure. To the musical boys they are a source of great pleasure ; and even the least musical, like " the ranks of Tuscany," can "scarce forbear to cheer." Mr, Santley, Mr. Edward Lloyd, Mr. Ben Davies, Madame Antoinette Sterling, and Herr Joachim may be mentioned among those who have performed at these concerts in recent years. Then, again, the long list, longer almost every year, of prizes offered by bene- factors for voluntary competition points to another opening for intellectual exercise. Year by year a large volume of spontaneous work is contributed by a very con- siderable number of the boys. Houses become almost identified with certain prizes ; and it will not, I think, be invidious to mention in such a connection the signal and continuous success which has attended Mr. Bosworth Smith's efforts in this direction, especially in the encouragement of history and geography. It is difficult to over-estimate the effect of such competitions, for what a boy does by himself for the love of it must always be of the highest value. Such knowledge is apt to stick, and to lead to subsequent research. It is a living and natural growth, and fosters intellectual initiative far more effectively than the compulsory task-work exacted by authority. Among the societies of the school, one ot the oldest, as well as the most useful, is the Scientific Society. It was founded in 1865 under the presidency of the Rev. F. W. Farrar, now Dean of Canterbury. With him was associated the present Bishop of Durham, and both of them did their utmost to promote the welfare of the young Society. Distinguished scientists and others were invited to address the members, and on two occasions Mr. Ruskin delivered lectures before it, and presented the Ruskin collection of minerals now in the Butler Museum. In the early Transactions of the Society we often find mention of F. M. Balfour, the well-known biologist, whose early death was such a loss to the scientific world. The Society continues to meet regularly in the winter terms, and encourages much thoughtful and independent work. Two little monographs have recently emanated from members while yet in the school, — Harrow Birds, by G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton, and Harrow Butterjlies and Moths, by J. L. Bonhote and Hon. N. C. Rothschild. Lectures are given on all conceivable subjects, and, on one occasion lately, a boy illustrated his lecture on eagles by introducing two pet eagles of his own, which he was allowed to keep in his house-master's garden. One of the original objects of the Society was " the formation of a Museum of 268 HARROW SCHOOL Natural History."" This is now an accomplished fact. The Butler Museum is a great addition to the life of the school, and is already stocked with scientific and artistic treasures. Boys with a turn for art may study the invaluable Egyptian collection bequeathed by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, or the unique portfolios of photo- graphs of European paintings presented by Mr. Schwann ; or, again, the beautiful collection of architectural photographs given by Mr. Gardner. As showing the interest the boys themselves have taken in the work, it is noticeable how many specimens, especially in the bird collection, have been given by boys themselves. One feature is the handbooks to the various departments. Sir Archibald Geikie, for instance, not only arranged the geological section, but has written a small monograph to describe and explain it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and it is gratifying to note that Winchester has lately flattered Harrow by freely borrowing ideas from her in the construction and furniture of her new Quingentary Museum. But I must not forget the new Drawing School, for it is now playing an important part and promises to have a successful future. The excellence of the work already accomplished is incontestable, and Mr. Hine has every reason to be proud of the progress that has been made in so short a time. Harrow has never, I think, produced a great artist, but we may now hope that the time will come when the name of a great painter will be added to the roll of Harrovian celebrities. So far I have spoken of the opportunities provided in modern HaiTow for the various forms of intellectual interest and activity. But it is often asked. What is the present condition of Harrow scholarship ? Does she still produce a succession of sound scholars.? Does she hold her own in comparison with the other great schools? Since it occurred to an enterprising journalist to tabulate the results of the various scholarships gained year by year by the leading schools, and to base a specious estimate of their comparative merits on such statistics, there are many people who are disposed to rate a school according to its success in this somewhat contracted field. This is not fair on any school, least of all on such a school as Harrow ; for, as has often been pointed out, Harrow has no rich foundation, like Eton and Winchester, with a number of very valuable scholarships, to attract the clever boys ; and secondly, Harrow boys, as a rule, will only consent to go to one or other of the leading colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. A small scholarship at an inferior college possesses no attractions for them, as the number of boys to whom a scholarship is an absolute necessity is extremely small. However, in spite of these two palpable impediments, I think it may be said that HaiTow scholarship still maintains a satisfactory level. During the last twenty years no less than two hundred and sixteen scholarships have been awarded to Harrovians, or old Harrovians, at the Universities and elsewhere ; and it is a significant and interesting fact, not paralleled, I believe, in any other school, that during the last eleven years Harrow has only once failed to carry off a scholarship or exhibition at Balliol College. Truly we may say : — A Balliol comes to us now and then. Such, then, is a brief summary of the present intellectual condition of the school. I think it points to one or two interesting conclusions. First, a great change has THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL 269 come over this side of the school life. In former days a small coterie of clever boys, with pronounced and even precocious literary aptitude, reigned at the head of the school, but the mass of the boys were left with few interests to occupy their minds out of school hours. The school course was mainly literary and classical, and the scholarship of the abler boys was finer and more exact than is characteristic of the present day. In recent years the curriculum has widened indefinitely by the introduction of science, by the system of specialisation in the Sixth Form, by the foundation of the Modern Side, and the creation of the Army Class. And side by side with these, but independent of them all, lies the large range of intellectual possibilities which I have attempted to delineate, and which are mostly of very recent growth. If a boy cannot discover in such a varied programme any means of developing his special tastes, it is not the fault of Harrow but of himself. In conclusion, I may be allowed to indicate how old Harrovians continue to prosecute original research with distinction and success in many varied fields of learning. And perhaps I cannot do so better than by offering a list of living Harrovians whose names at this moment are well known in the literary and scientific world for the results they have achieved, and are still achieving. Among such may be included the work of Professor Pelham in Roman history, Pro- fessor Courthope in Poetical Criticism, Lord Raleigh, Professor A. G. V. Harcourt, in Chemistry, Dr. Walter Leaf in Homeric literature, Mr. Hastings Rashdall in the history of Medieval Universities, Mr. Justice Ridley in Classical translation. Sir George Trevelyan in Biography, Mr. St. George Mivart in Biology, Mr. Arthur Evans in Archaeology, Mr. Bernard Bosanquet in Sociology, Mr. C. L. Tupper on Indian administration, Mr. W. B. Harris on African travel, Mr. F. C. Burkitt in Textual criticism, Canon Charles Gore on Theology, Dr. Rendall in Stoic philosophy. Such a list is sufficient to prove that Harrow is well represented in all the chief departments of learning, and that the line of Harrow scholars and students continues unbroken to the present day. Et quasi cursores doctrinae lampada tradunt. E. W. HowsoN. CHAPTER XXVII SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION The task of giving an account of the social life of the school is one which presents peculiar difficulties. School habits and customs are generally regarded as if they were immutable. Tradition, once established, forthwith takes to itself the semblance of hoary and venerable age, and looks as if it would defy the wear and tear of coming centuries, as it pretends that it has resisted the attacks of the past. In reality, its permanence is that of the sand on a tide-swept shore ; little alterations are always going on unseen, and now and again comes a storm, and the whole coast-line is changed. Yet to one who visits it for the first time, when all has grown calm again, there is no trace that it has not been so always. Each new-coming genera- tion of boys makes the same mistake. Who does not know the boy's explanation, " Why, it has always been so," of something that is, in reality, almost as young as himself .P One of my difficulties is this incessant change in social life; another difficulty, no less serious, is my critics. No Harrovian, present or past, can be other than a critic of a formidable character, for he is well acquainted with his facts. Those who have to write in this book of bygone days, of the school buildings and institutions, and the careers of men whose lives or writings are a part of the history of the land, as well as being a glory to their school, may hope to tell Harrovians something here and there which is new to them ; but in trying to reduce to writing what all Harrovians know and feel, I cannot hope to say anything new ; it will be enough if there is nothing that is not true. And from brother Harrovians I must beg indulgence, if I sometimes record what seems to them very old and a trifle commonplace, because I am writing not only for them, but for others who, not being as they, do not know the ins and outs of the school life. It is not making a rash assertion to say that there is no school which owes more to the generosity of its old boys ; this fact is abundantly demonstrated in the chapter on the benefactions. One might go further, and say that no school evokes more loyalty among its former members. And yet if one old Harrovian meet another who was not a contemporary, the almost inevitable first question is one that would seem to point to division rather than union, for it is, " Whose house were you in ? " Yet this is, after all, a survival of boyish days and boyish habits, now quite divested of significance. There will, indeed, be a closer bond if the two SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 271 discover they were in the same house, but if they were in different ones the fact has lost all meaning for them. Were they on " footer-field," and their respective houses struggling in a house match, they would stand and shout as they shouted years ago when they were small boys, " hating the foe with a playing at hate " ; but, when the match is over, they will walk up the hill together, and the difference of house will lead to nothing but an opening for talk on kindred experiences. To old Harrovians in particular, and to the world in general, the school is a school ; but to a boy in it, it is primarily a collection of houses, of which his own is, ipsojacto, " the best house in Harrow," and the rest are mainly unknown ground. To the ordinary boy the history of a term, putting aside the inevitable " swot," is domestic history ; foreign politics are represented by the relations of his house with other houses, by house matches in cricket and football, second and third Elevens,^ and rivalry in sports. Only once in each year does the idea of school thoroughly dominate the idea of house, and that is in the presence of a common foe at Lord's. Yet if any stranger imagines this strong house feeling overpowers school loyalty, that the school is not united as a school, he would be grievously mistaken. Let him attempt to hint, I will not say the superiority, but even the equality, of any other school, and he will be at once enHghtened. The school feeling is there : you may hear it asserting itself in the holidays, if Harrow is not treated with the respect it deserves in an Harrovian's opinion ; you may find it in the warm applause that rewards the school cricket Eleven in its battles against visiting teams ; you may behold it with a bunch of cornflowers in its buttonhole at Lord's ; but, as a rule, the feeling is dormant. In Harrow it is taken for granted ; there is nothing to provoke it to show itself, and, consequently, interest is centred on a smaller field — on the affairs of the house. On coming back from the holidays, a boy will eagerly discuss with his comrades the prospects of the term. Have they any chance of being " cock-house " in football or cricket t — and no chance is too small on which to build a mighty castle of hope. Even if reluctantly compelled to abandon all hope of these greater triumphs, boy-opinion solaces itself with the thought that at any rate " we can lick so or so's." Second to winning in football or cricket. (the. iirsUs-much the m ostjvalued). comes the newly-instituted house championship in sports. Below this come triumphs at rackets, at torpids (footballers who have been less than two years in the school), at fives, at gymnasium, at shooting, at swimming. Should failure blight all these hopes, crumbs of consolation may yet be gathered from successes in house " twelves " (twelve sturdy singers in unison), or the finer, yet less esteemed, arts of glee or madrigal singing. The chances of members of the house getting into the school cricket or football Eleven, or in any way representing the school, will give matter for much conversation and it will be reckoned as " beastly hard luck " if they are not eventually chosen. Should the head of the house be ^ " Second Elevens " at cricket are games played between Elevens picked from each house of those who are not included in the regular school games. Those who play in them think them more entertaining than the games ; they are less scientific, and have the charms of rustic uncertainty. " Second Elevens " at football are games played between the full strength of each house, and are first Elevens in everything but name. ITiey are consequently more serious affairs than second Elevens at cricket. A third Eleven is the next best Eleven to a second Eleven. 272 HARROW SCHOOL also captain of the school cricket Eleven, a new boy will feel that his presence alone confers a unique lustre upon his house, and will regard him with almost as much awe as he regards the headmaster. But the strength of this house feeling cannot be judged by what is seen on the surface, for it is not emphasised by artificial distinctions, but rather, on the contrary, masked and cloaked over. When the school is assembled as a body, as indeed it is many times in the week, either in chapel, speech-room, or at bill, there is no sign of it ; there is no distinction of ribbon or colours to mark out one house from another, except when games are actually going on ; house colours, indeed, show up clearly during the "footer"" and "running" terms, but the great mass of the cricketers are indistinguishable, all alike, with a dark blue coat and a blue cap with narrow white stripes round it. Only a few house caps are seen, for a house cricket Eleven is rarely filled up (i.e. has caps given to all its members), unless it is cock-house or plays in cock-house match, and as caps are won in house matches, which mostly take place late in the term, caps are rare. The school is headed by the monitors, who are essentially a school institution, and it is governed in matters athletic by the Philathletic Club, which is in the main an elected body and has nothing to do with house feelings. The cricket Eleven and the football Eleven emphasise the existence of the school, though the latter is a less important and glorious body, owing to the fact that no other school is met at football, the species of game played being unique. Old Harrovians form the bulk of visiting Elevens, for it requires an education begun early to make much of Harrow footer on Harrow clay. Strangers, bred to Association, who come down to fill a vacant place, sometimes play a brilliant game offside, or give themselves much pain by trying to treat a Harrow football (an object something like a large straw church hassock, with the corners rounded off) as if it was an Association ball, and heading it rashly. Besides this essentially school football, there are school sports, school racket- and fives- courts, school prizes, the school yard, the school bell, and first, second, third, and fourth school, and last, but not least, school songs ; but, when this is all said, there is not much more that makes for " school," while the main influence of associated life and athletic rivalry makes for " house." This feeling is, no doubt, further fostered by local peculiarities. Harrow School is not, as some schools are, in a ring-fence of its own. It is in the middle of what was once a village, but which has now grown to a considerable town. There was originally no central block of school property ; piece by piece has been acquired, and undesirable neighbours bought out, or pushed out, by the elbowing of the growing school. It needs no long memory to go back to the days when the terrace was a kitchen-garden, when the site of the Vaughan Library was occupied by a set of cottages, when the garden below the school yard was occupied by a public- house. School-houses have been built on such sites as could be had ; even now none, save part of the headmaster"'s house, is the property of the school. Thus while the main part of the town lies on the western and southern slopes of the hill, or round the foot of it, the school buildings and houses are on the crest of the ridge. SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 273 But these houses are a good deal scattered, some being quite close to Lyon's old school, and others nearly half a mile away. There are no bounds within which boys are restricted. The school buildings themselves are distributed some on one side of the High Street and some on the other, and it is only in the school- yard or, better still, on the terrace that the visitor really feels himself to be in the middle of a great school. Here he has behind him the chapel, the new schools, the Vaughan Library, and the headmaster's house ; and behind them, again, the old schools, the Speech-room, the Grove amid its trees, and the spire of the parish church to crown the whole. To the north-east his view is limited by the fine block of school -rooms, the Butler Museum Schools, designed by Mr. Basil Champneys ; but looking down the hill he can gaze away towards Hampstead and London, and, if the day be clear, distinguish the clock tower and the Abbey at Westminster, or the dome at St. PauPs. It used to be hard to decide which was the more beautiful view, that from Byron's tomb and the western terrace of the churchyard, or that from the school terrace eastwards. The former was probably the favourite, especially at sunset, and indeed it was hard to equal anywhere — the steep side of the hill, the noble trees overhead and scattered down the slope, only allowing glimpses of the town, itself rather picturesque in the confusion of roofs ; and beyond a wide stretch of country, reaching away past Windsor and the valley of the Thames, or in a more western direction towards the Chilterns. Alas ! that one has to say so, but this celebrated view — of which Byron wrote : Again I behold where for hours I have ponder'd As reclining, at eve, on yon tombstone I lay ; Or round the steep brow of yon tombstone I wander'd, To catch the last gleam of the sun's setting ray — is somewhat spoilt. First, the trees in the churchyard had to be topped ; and then their fellows down the hill had to suffer in the same way, and in doing so opened up a row of ugly cottages at the bottom of the hill. The fives-courts, half- way down, were not an improvement ; but worse than all is a small yellow plague- spot in the shape of the school observatory, just under the sightseer's nose. New trees will grow up to replace the stumps that survive, and perhaps some day a generation with more idea of the picturesque will remove the observatory. May it be so. But at present the view from the eastern terrace is without a rival, and it, too, merits the praises bestowed on it. This praise is sometimes hasty ; boys who are rushing to be in time for first school can hardly be expected to pause, even for the glories of a winter sun glowing in an angry red through the fog-banks of London, or shining over the morning mists which float up From Wembley rise^ and Kenton stream. From Preston farm and hollow, Where Lyon dreamed, and saw in dream, His race of sons to follow. For an obvious reason, we are less familiar with summer sunrises. But not less wonderful is the same view at night, with the great glare low in the sky which marks where London lies, and the Hampstead lights of which we sing : — 274 HARROW SCHOOL Good-night. Ten o'clock is nearing ; Lights from Hampstead — many, fewer, more. Fainter, fuller, vanishing, appearing — Flash and float a friendly greeting o'er. Read them, read them. Ere the slumber come, Goodwill speed them Here across the gloom. All good comes to those who read aright. See they are twinkling. Good-night, Good-night. Good-night ! How they dart anigh thee. Bright, glad rays for repetition known. If the task be crabbed and defy thee. How they blink a sympathetic groan. Wit acuter, Guesses free and fast. Tyrant tutor Placable at last. Such the blessings sparkle to the sight. Take them and answer. Good-night, Good-night. I have been led into a long digression, but one that I believe is pardonable ; no Harrovian leaves Harrow without there being impressed on his mind a recollection of his school, standing up on a hill, and looking out over the beautiful plain that stretches away from it. The growth of the idea is gradual. While the sight is every day in our eyes, we are perhaps hardly conscious of it ; but when we leave it, we treasure the recollection, and find in the high position and the wide outlook the image of the school's own high destiny and wide interests — levavi oculos. Let me say something in detail of some school institutions, and perhaps I can- not begin with anything better than work. It is unnecessary to go through all the intricacies of the time-table ; a brief survey of a boy*'s obligations must suffice. Each boy is under the care of his tutor and his form-master. Of the two, the tutor is the more in loco parentis. He teaches his pupils in sections, according to their position in the school ; in some cases he supervises the preparation of work, for all boys below the Fifth Form go to their pupil-room, or familiarly " to pupe," between third and fourth schools ; he is kept aware of his flock's progress with their various masters by official and unofficial reports ; he tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and makes it warm for those who go astray ; he is a fount of advice, reprobation, encouragement, and punishment paper; lower school boys expect their tutor to stop in all day, so that they may find him whenever they want him, but few tutors give complete satisfaction in this respect. Tutor and house-master may be one and the same person, or they may not. House-masters who are not classical masters are not tutors, and their boys are placed in the pupil-rooms of such classical masters as do not possess large houses, and as the headmaster is not a tutor, the boys in his house are always parcelled out in this way. It is more convenient to have tutor and house-master embodied in one, but whether it is a happy state of things when he combines all offices, and is form-master too, is doubtful. He is apt sometimes to know too much. SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 275 Form work is much like form work elsewhere, and is too humdrum a matter to merit description. The average number of boys in a form on the classical side is about 33, and on the modern side somewhat less. The school is divided into three Fourth Forms, three Shells, a Lower and Upper Remove, three Fifth Forms, and a Lower and Upper Sixth Form, with identical divisions on the modern side, save that there is no third Fourth Form and only one Remove. The working week is divided into three whole school-days and three half-holidays, whole holidays being given about once a fortnight in the summer terms, and much less frequently in the other terms. Times have changed in this respect since Dr. George Butler's days, when three whole holidays a week were by no means rare. On a half-holiday work in the morning is as on other days, and in the afternoon boys are called over in the school yard, during the winter term at 4.15, and in the summer at 4 and at 6. The 4 bill in summer is double, part on the cricket-ground (cricket-bill), a descrip- tion of which is given in the article on cricket. At yard -bill the boys pass one by one in bill order before the bill -master of the week, answer their names, touch their hats, and walk on. For those who miss their turn two courses are open, either to accept the situation and the inevitable " pun," or to " cut in," i.e. make a sly dash for their right place, and risk a doubled punishment if detected. For a master to get through bill in ten rainutes is smart work, — there are well over 600 names to be called, — a quarter of an hour is the usual time. On whole school-days a boy does an hour and a quarter"'s school before breakfast. This is first school. Second school is any school, or schools, between 10 and 1.30, generally two, each demanding an equal amount of preparation out of school. Third school is the first school in the afternoon, and lasts three-quarters of an hour. Fourth school is the last school of the day. In the summer this ends at 6, and is followed by tea, thus leaving the evening free till lock-up (8.30 p.m.) for cricket. In the winter, third school is at 4 p.m., leaving the afternoon free from dinner till that hour, and this time is utilised for football. The story of these games is told elsewhere, but a boy manages to fill up intervals of leisure with " squash " (always in season), in the winter with " fug-footer," or in the summer with cricket in the yard, be it house yard or school yard. These games are irregular in their time, some house-masters pro- hibiting games in their house yards during the morning, others not. Cricket in the school yard can only go on during hours when there is no school. There the game is played with a bat and a hard, heavy, and bulky ball called a yarder ; the sort of ball that Blunderbore would have used for tennis had he known the game. Any number can play, but bowlers must not bowl two at a time. The thing is to bat — to slog — and yet stay in. No one makes runs, although friends go " sixes," which means six balls alternately with a friend, until the partnership is terminated by want of skill, or want of discretion (a ball into the vicarage garden). The wicket is a log of wood, which falls with a sonorous noise, and there are few sounds which more vividly recall school -days to an old Harrovian than the recurring "whack, whack, whack, — bump, — Innings!" (a yell from every one who thinks nothing is lost by asking) that goes on steadily from 6.30 to lock-up on most summer evenings. Cricket in house yards is generally played with a broomstick and a softer ball, and has local bye-laws. Cricket in the yard is a more aristocratic 276 HARROW SCHOOL game than football, which is principally the sport of the lower and middle school. The ball used is a diminutive Association ball, and the game is heating, destructive of boots, and in wet weather dirty. When it rains hard, it is played in the cloisters, where a slippery stone pavement, a bad light, and frequent iron pillars add to the excitement. Another variety of fug -footer is played in house passages in the evening, for which the true " fug,*" a squashy creature made of hair, with a chamois- leather skin, is employed. House -masters disapprove of this game, and never play it. I seem to have wandered, in a boylike and reprehensible manner, from work to play, and it is time to return to more serious things. Let me try and draw two pictures, companions to Hogarth's celebrated hidtistrious Apprentice and Idle Apprentice. Taking the upward course first, the new boy finds himself placed fairly high in the Shells, or perhaps in the Remove, in which case he is classified in the eyes of his fellows as a " swell.*" He " swots," does " swagger cons," comes out high, and in trials at the end of term probably comes out first, when a prize in " Speecher " rewards him. He gets a double remove {i.e. skips over a form), goes up through the Fifths rapidly, gaining " copies " by the way. A copy was, in the old days, a tangible thing — a prize book, with the arms of the school — which you chose for yourself, received from your house-master or tutor, and which appeared later in your bill ; now-a-days a copy is nothing more than an asterisk opposite your name in the broadsheet (the published list of the order of the school), but three copies in any one subject entitle to a prize in Speech-room ; and even if a boy has not managed to acquire three copies in any one subject, four mixed ones will get a prize at the end of his career, " with our best wishes on leaving Harrow." Our " Industrious Apprentice " collects copies in large numbers, and prizes here and there, perhaps adding a school prize or two to the number. Before he is sixteen he may well find himself in the Sixth Form ; but until he reaches that age, he is not able to use Sixth Form privileges, or fag others. His last year will see him numbered among the monitors. The early constitution of this body has been described else- where. By a comparatively late change, their number has been increased and the method of selection has been altered, so that the top ten only are, necessarily, monitors by virtue of their place in the school, and the remaining places are filled by influential persons, heads of houses, members of the cricket and football Elevens, and so forth, who, being in the Sixth Form and of good character, are thought worthy of being made monitors. Far other is the path of the " Idle Apprentice." For a term or two all goes moderately well, but a reputation for slackness is in process of manufacture. " Puns " come thicker and thicker ; his tutor's face gets longer and longer, as he supplies sheet on sheet of paper with the thin red line. The boy is tempted to wish that tutors would sign orders for a packet of " pun " paper at the beginning of term and have done with it. It is his " beastly hard luck " to be always put on when he has " cut his con," and " skewed " in his " rep," when he " knew all the rest except the bit he got." He is " hauled up " in his spare time, and learns accurately how far it is not safe to go with his various masters. " Lines " are becoming obsolete as an instrument of correction, much to his regret, for doing them is SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 277 mechanical ; and he is inclined to protest against the command to do a hundred facts out of a neglected history lesson ; as a victim once explained, " Lines are easy ; but to do a hundred facts, that requires imagination ! " The next step of the " Idle Apprentice " takes him into extra school, where, with others like himself, he copies out Latin grammar from 3 to 5.30 p.m. on a half-holiday afternoon. If this has no effect, he is sent up to the headmaster. Even then the extreme rigour of the law may not be put in force. Perhaps he is put " on lines *" for a half- holiday, which means that he has to show up ten lines every half-hour, from 2 till 6, and these cannot be done beforehand, for the paper for the next ten is issued A Boy's Room. when the preceding ten are shown up ; and " on reports " or, as he phrases it, " on cards,"" the card being a report of his conduct during the past week from the masters who have made complaint of him. Being " on cards " will probably lead to a temporary amendment, and a series of good cards brings his release. A bad card, however, will take him to the Fourth Form room, and what happens then is not to be described ; it is sufficient to say that small pieces of birch twig may sometimes be gathered from the floor. Let us charitably suppose that after this the " Idle Apprentice'' reforms. Having seen some of the incidents of school, let us now betake ourselves to a house, a big ^ house, that is to say, for small houses are, as a rule, but temporary * There are 11 big houses, of which the headmaster's has somewhere about 60 boys, and the others 39 ; and 6 small houses with, as a rule, about 9 each. 278 HARROW SCHOOL resting-places, in which a boy may remain a term or two until there is a vacancy in the big house for which his name has been entered. It is not, indeed, everything to pass the entrance examination ; it is necessary also to secure a place in a house. But that done, let us suppose our new boy, John Lyon miTis, established in his big house. Houses of the newest type consist entirely of single rooms, but others have some "singles," but mostly "doubles." In such a "double" our friend finds himself, and with his companion sets about making it gay. He has, perhaps, a few pictures brought from home, and adds to his stock from his pocket-money : hunting and sporting subjects are most popular ; curtains, a mantel-border, and a tablecloth are added ; plain furniture is found for him, but not an armchair, so our friend sets to work to besiege his house-master for an order for one ; failing that, an appeal is made to his " people," and he finds himself the possessor of a *' frouster," or, in abbreviation, " froust." ^ A casual visitor to his room might be tempted to wonder where his bed was. A Harrow bed is a folding arrangement, the bed turning on a hinge near the head, and lifting up into a species of cupboard, the door of which being shut conceals the whole thing. Dark tales used to circulate in the school of such a bed shut up with a boy in it, and left fastened until the un- fortunate victim suffocated, or broke his neck, or died from a rush of blood to the head, or was discovered many years afterwards a mouldering skeleton, or went mad, or was the victim of some picturesque catastrophe. It is hardly necessary to say that no basis in fact exists for the horrors of this legend ; but the whole practice belongs to the dark ages, when times and habits were harder. For the first fortnight Lyon mins, as a new boy, is exempt from being fagged, but then his duties begin. Fagging varies much in different houses, and depends largely on the proportion of Sixth Form to lower boys. If our friend is lucky, and the house is not, from his point of view, overloaded with Sixth Form, while boys in the lower school are plentiful, he will probably begin as a find fag. Sixth Form, and in some cases other influential boys have breakfast and tea in their own rooms, instead of going into hall like the lesser lights ; this is termed " finding," and two go to a'.** i?rid." ' A " find fag " has to lay breakfast or tea for his " find," to bring up the kettle .from the Ijouse kitchen, and to make the tea or coffee, if the Sixth Formers do not pifefev to mqike it themselves (find fags make very bad coffee, because they are always in' a hurry). The whole process takes about ten minutes, and he is then free for his own meal, though in some cases he has to return later and clear away. Two find fags generally go to a find, and take week about, or else one does tea and the other breakfast. The duties are less arduous than they used to be, when find fags were sent out for " hot meat." Now-a-days meat, eggs, porridge, or something of the kind is provided in the house ; but not so very long ago, the duty of feeding boys at breakfast was held to be sufficiently discharged with bread and butter. If you wanted more, you catered for yourself at one of the tuck-shops, the usual plan being to get a " tizzy tick " from home, i.e. an order for sixpenny worth of goods a day on some shop. Tizzy ticks, however, often ticked fast, and had a habit of running out a fortnight or so before the end of term, leaving the owner to breakfast on ^ To "froust," akin, I suppose, to frouzy, means to lie in bed in the morning. Hence ''frouster," a chair to be sleepy in. SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 279 bread and butter and charity. One of the duties of a find fag was to fetch break- fast for his find, and there was a wild scene every morning at nine o'clock in the kitchens of the favoured shops, with every one striving to get helped before his neighbour ; whatever the food chosen, there was one mode of conveyance applied impartially to fish, flesh, and fowl — it was wrapped up in white paper and slipped into a paper bag. Incredible as it may seem, even such greasy and fragile matter as " Six (i.e. sixpenny- worth) of fried eggs and bacon "" could be thus carried off. With paper bag flat in hand, a stream of boys could be seen returning to their houses, bearing foods varying from the somewhat speculative " oyster rissoles " to the last resource of the unimaginative, " Six of sausages with " (zaith is an abbrevia- tion for "with mashed potato"). But the practice has somewhat declined of late years. The next grade of fag is " boy." There are several " boys,"" so the turn to be " on boy "" comes round at intervals of a few days. The " boy " is believed to stay in the house, when he is " on boy," in readiness to attend to any one who calls him. He is summoned by a prolonged shout of " Bo-o-o-y," which is very beautiful when well done, but requires practice ; exhaustion of wind before the " oy " is jjroperly rounded off, or a crack in the voice, ruins the effect. New and timid Sixth Form generally try their first " boy," when they are sure that every one is out — including the boy. A "boy" may be required to do any odd job, to take a note, borrow a book, fetch biscuits or other eatables, relight a fire. If he is out when he is called, or does not give satisfaction when he comes, he is liable to be " put on " again the next day. The aristocracy of fagdom is the night -fag, a sort of nocturnal boy, who answers calls after lock-up, and lets down beds. If he is mischievous, he will, when he lets down a bed, artfully set the legs with a slant inwards, so that when the owner sits down upon his bed the bed will sit down too. It is rarely safe to do this, except in the case of a very mild Sixth Form. Night-fags, as being of superior intelligence to other fags, are usually given the task of cutting new books. Of house customs it is well to speak warily. Each knows the customs of his own house, and has a vague idea of those of others ; but no man living knows them all accurately, for minute differences exist that distinguish each one from any other. But let us, with Paul Pry, hope we don't intrude and pray that we may be granted an interview. A boy's room is his castle ; to behold him thoroughly at home, he should be visited there on a winter evening, Avhen his "swot," as he terms his work, is done. He will be found in his "froust" in front of his fire. A bag of biscuits, or a cake, may perhaps be discovered in his neighbourhood ; possibly he may be engaged in " brewing," but this will depend on his house-master's tolerance. Some will have none of it ; others permit cocoa, but strike at ambitious attempts at frying eggs or herrings. Fair work can be done with a Dutch oven in front of the fire, but a sausage roasted over the gas is seldom good. Knots of boys cluster in the rooms of the more popular, sitting by preference on the table, and discussing the events of the day and the turns of fortune ; chaff", a mild " rag " (ragging may be either verbal, or in more violent cases may develop into bear- 280 HARROW SCHOOL fighting), chatter over holidays or games, will go on till the ringing of a bell warns all to be off to their rooms and get them to bed. The tardy will linger, braving the risk of detection by Sixth Form, who are expected to see that the rest are in their own rooms by bedtime, and taking the chance of a cut or two from the head of the house's cane, till the lights go out, leaving them to grope their way to their own rooms and undress in the dark, or else encroach on a Sixth Form privilege by " toUying up," i.e. lighting a furtive candle. A house-master can give some privileges to influential boys in his house, even if they are not high in the school; and to "get your privs'"" is a great object of ambition ; but, besides these Sixth Form rights of " finding "" and " tollying up," there are others. Our world regards seniority as giving the right to think and show oneself to be somebody ; indeed the whole government of houses (and that involves the main part of the government of the school) is passing more and more from those high in the school into the hands of boys prominent in athletics, or who have been in the school a long time. The line of demarcation between those who have been three years or more in the house and those who have not is much sharper than between boys who have won caps or fezzes and boys who have not, or between Sixth Form and the rest. The head of a house is not necessarily head in bill order ; a house-master can appoint any whom he considers influential and trustworthy ; and the head of the house will rely as much for active support on the seniors, and the "caps" and " fezzes," as upon his Sixth Form colleagues. No rules are so strictly kept as the rules of " swagger," and these chiefly consist of customs and practices legal for " three-yearers " and forbidden to others. Strictly speaking, " swagger " or " side " has come to have two meanings : the first, and true one, is the encroaching on privileges to which you have no right ; but akin to this there is another meaning, namely, the using of these peculiar privileges which others may not use. The rules of "swagger" are most complex, like other traditional and unwritten codes, and in them a new boy is apt to find himself entangled. He goes out with his umbrella rolled up and finds he is swaggering, or he carries it by its middle or under his arm, or he walks on the middle terrace after chapel, or he innocently wears his " bluer " open when it is hot, or turns his trousers up when it is wet, and again he is swaggering. Lady visitors sometimes think small boys at Harrow rude. It is not rudeness which leads boys to stick close to the wall, even when coming up covered with mud from football, and shoulder the world into the gutter ; it is modesty ; to walk in the road is swagger. To loiter at the house- door, or to sing or whistle in the passages, or to wear a hat in the house are also forms of swagger. A whole corpus of swagger rules exist in the matter of dress. A certain similarity of dress is universal. The lower school wear Eton jackets and round collars over the coat ; the upper school wear tail-coats. These were evening dress-coats of the ordinary type ; but slight modifications have crept in, by which the coat has become precisely like nothing but itself. In old days, a blue frock- coat with brass buttons was an alternative garment, but this has been long out of fashion. The Harrow straw hat is another oddity. It possesses a very wide brim, and is very shallow, so shallow that it cannot possibly fit the head, and is kept in its place by elastic. The cricket Eleven wear speckled " straws," and the rest of the SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 281 world white ones with a blue ribbon ; monitors having, in addition, the badge of the crossed arrows on the ribbon,^ but all alike are of the same curious shape. In windy weather the insecurity of the thing is most trying, as once off, it will roll, "if not for a mile, for a quarter or so," with the owner in frantic pursuit. To allege that your hat blew off and you could not catch it, by way of excuse for being ten minutes late for first school, is much on a footing with the tardy milkman's remark, that the morning was so foggy that he could not find the cows — plausible, but unconvincing. These straw hats superseded the top-hat for weekday wear some forty years ago, and have added much to the oddity of a boy*'s appearance. On a gusty day in winter with the snow on the ground, the sight of a boy clasping a shallow straw hat to his head, while the tails of a dress-coat flutter wildly around him, strikes strangers as truly remarkable. Not so very long ago, a cold day in summer offered an equally quaint spectacle, that of a boy playing cricket in a dress-coat, buttoned up for the sake of warmth ; but the institution of the " bluer," a blue flannel coat for summer wear, has put a stop to this. Coats and hats, then, are uniform, but " swagger " has play with the rest. Buttonholes, double-breasted or coloured waistcoats, white waist- coats, coats with silk facings, pattern ties, bow-ties, tie-pins, patent leather boots, sweaters, are all " swagger." Going up to first school in pumps is " swagger," but apt to annoy masters. As to collars, a whole article might be written about them alone. Eton collars are worn with Eton jackets, no one would dream of " stick-ups " with them; but once decked with tails, whether these be "charity tails" granted by the head of the school, at the request of a boy who is unduly bulky for the lower school, or merely tails assumed as a matter of course on entering the Fifth Form, the variety of rule is infinite. In some houses " stick-ups " go with tails at once ; in others, they come with the second term in tails ; in others, only those who have been three years in the house, or who are " caps " or " fezzes " (i.e. in the house cricket or football Eleven), may wear " stick-ups." And then there are subsidiary rules about the brand known as chokers. A head of a house once put up this notice on the house notice-board : " Those who have been two years in the house may wear stick- ups, those who have been three years may wear chokers." Each house has its own code in minuter regulations, about exits, entrances, and the rights of innocent passage, all designed to maintain the dignity of age, some houses going so far as to print their " swagger rules " ; but, again, as this book is not a guide to the art of swagger, we must go on. The persons who think the most of " swagger privs " are those who do not possess them, and it is in this stage of school life that school tradition is most strictly kept. All its intricacies are explained to sisters and younger brothers, with comments and criticisms on audacious persons who walk in the road when they should not, and the home circle becomes used to a new language. To tell the truth, it is not a rich language, and it borrows widely from the slang of outside. Its first principle is the substitution of the syllable " er " for the termination of words. Thus the recreation ground becomes "Recker," and the electric light "lecker." Speech -room is " Speecher," and Duck-puddle is " Ducker." " Seconders " and " thirders " are second and third Elevens. To be degraded is to be "degerd" (pr. daygerd). 1 A recent alteration. 282 HARROW SCHOOL " Harder " is hard-ball rackets ; a " yarder "" explains itself, and further examples of this are unnecessary. For the rest let him tell an imaginary tale in his own words, how that he was " slack,"" and tried to " stop out '' and " get signed " for the " swot '"' he had " cut," Failing he " tollied up " to " mug up " his " rep,"" ^ but his " house- beak " 2 " slimed "*"" (went round quietly) and " twug "'"' ^ him, and gave him a " pun."*"" He " frousted "''' in the morning till second bell, and w^as late for " speecher " ; got through his " rep," but was " skewed "'"' in his " con " ; had his knife " bagged " by his form-beak, and got a " skit " more puns, and was " hauled up " on the next " half- hol." Coming out of school he had a "rag"" with a friend, whom he called a " chaw."*"* * As the consequent dispute delayed him, his " find " was in a " bate,"*"* and threatened a " whopping."" Being a " dab "'"' ^ at " teek "'"' ^ he did a " swagger ex,"" and passed a quiet second school, but got a "jaw" from his tutor in "pupe" for being slack at " stinks." ^ At "footer" he "bucked^ up," and was unluckily "skied," ^ just as he was going to give yards in front of base. He " specks " '^^ on his " fez " at no remote period, if he is not " chawed up." ^^ As an example, this may serve to enlighten, or possibly puzzle his " people " ^^ ; who come down to visit him, give him lunch, and then take him for a walk on the terrace, listening to his conversation. But, as a rule, his vocabulary is too commonplace to be philologically interesting. As it is swagger for a boy to bring another of a different house into his own until he has attained the dignity of a three-yearer, it is plain that at first a boy's friends are likely to be mainly in his own house. To younger boys other houses are unknown ground. But this does not last for ever. Members of a school Eleven who have fought together at Lord's, boys who have played the summer through in the same game, grave and learned seniors who have sat, day after day, side by side under the headmaster"'s eye as monitors or in the Upper Sixth Form room, are drawn closer and closer together by associations of the past. The gulf between house and house, once so wide, so unfathomable, closes up, until among elder boys it is lost sight of altogether. Age and athletic distinction bridge it over ; the cheerful practice of " leaving breakfasts " fills it up ; and towards the end of a last summer term, the isolation of house feeling disappears before the sense of the school life which is so soon to end. " Flannels " and " Sixth Form coats " cluster in groups round house-doors in the evening, or join in yard-cricket in strange house yards, where as new boys they would have hardly thought their lives safe. Friendships between boys in different houses are knitted closer in the course of walks arm-in- arm along the London road, — no longer on the pavement. In spite of the edict against " parading the London road " one may manage to see, on a fine summer evening after third chapel, a linked row, conspicuous in white waistcoats, with the gilt buttons bearing the crossed ari'ows, stretching magnificently across the whole breadth of the road. It is in the later years, nay, even in the last days that linger between " Lord's " and the end of term, days so urgently wished away in that they ^ Repetition, 2 House-master (derivation through thieves' Latin, magister, " magistrate^ beak "). 3 Caught, past participle of verb to "twig." * A cad, a chawbacon, s A skilful person. •' Arithmetic (final syllable long). ' Science. * Played hard, ^ Charged and upset, '^ Expects to get. " Disabled, ^^ Relations or friends. SCHOOL LIFE AND TRADITION 283 sever us from the holidays, and yet so much prized as the scanty remnant of the long tale of school life that is near told to its end, that house feeling fades into the background, and there is formed that overmastering love of the school which serves to unite once more old Harrovians whenever and wherever they may meet again, and which has been the fount of that inexhaustible loyalty and generosity which has made the school what it is. George Townsend Warner. EPILOGUE ON HARROW TERRACE Behind — the old Elizabethan school, Chapel and form-room clustering in the trees, A little world of academic rule, Busy and restless as a hive of bees ; Where ordered work and simple worship blend. Thought marries thought, and friend is knit with friend. Below — the meadows, fields of happy fight. Rich with the memory of a thousand frays, Where rival forces clash in fierce delight, And boyhood plucks its first and proudest bays. O joy of mimic battle ! generous feud ! Rough nurse of freedom, strength, and fortitude ! Beyond — the mighty city spreading far. Smoke-wrapt, mysterious, pinnacle and spire. Big with tremendous fates that make or mar, A scene to strike the soul of youth afire — Great London looming black against the night. Silent, beneath her lurid belt of light ! O boys ! O men that will be ! yonder lies The world before you. Forth, and play your parts ! Your Country calls for valiant sons and wise, Quick brains, intrepid wills and loyal hearts. So shall your Founder's motto thrive and grow — " DoNORUM Dei Dispensatio."" E. W. HowsoN. INDEX Abbey, the, 43. See Druries Abercorn, Duke of, 119, 120 Marquess of, 69, 145, 159, 173 Aberdeen, Geoi-ge, Earl of, and old chapel, 104, 141, 106, 137 ; Byron's " Athenian Aberdeen," 171 Abingdon, Edmund de. Archbishop of Canter- bury, 6 Acheson, Viscount, 137 Acland, Sir H., 52 Sir T. Dyke, 69, 137 ; Peel Medallist, 140 Agar, Hon. C. W. H., 132 Ainslie, A., 253 Alperton, 2 ; " dame " of, 36 Althorp, Lord, third Earl Spencer, 165 ; Reform Bill and Free Trade, 166 ; Abolition of Slavery and Poor Law, 167^ 170 Anderson, Mrs. Anna Maria, 147 Douglas, E., 147 H., 85 Andrewes, L. F., 254 Arden, Lord, 137 Arkwright, H., 147 Armstrong, baker, his dog, 100 Armstrong House, 51 Army Class, 265 Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 52, 81, 87, 88 n., 127; and educational reform, 99 n. ; school religion, 126 ; his two sons, 132 Matthew, 146, 214 Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbuiy, 3 Ashley, Anthony Evelyn, 182 Ashworth, P., 254 Athletics, early, 13, 85 ; work first, 92 ; election of clubkeepers, 97. See Cricket, etc. Babington, Anthony, 24 Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 20 Balfour, F. M., 267 Bampton, W., 3 Baring, T. C, 44, 153, 252 Barrett- Hamilton, G. E. H,, Harrow Birds, 267 "Barry Cornwall," Bryan Procter, 187 Barton, D. Plunket, 203 Batten, Mr. , 47 Battersea, Lord, 150 G. M., 76 Baxter, W. , first " foreigner," 57 Baylis, T. H., Judge, Q.C., 80 Beaumont, 'J\ W., M.P., 41, 142 Walter, 148 Beddington, S. H., 156 n. Belamy, 24 Benson, Dr., Archbishop of Canterbury, on Dr. Vaughan, 114 Beresford-Hope, Rt. Hon. A. J., M.P., 37, 120, 141, 147, 179 Berger, Capel H., and music, 123, 205 Bessborough, Earl of, Dr. Montagu Butler on, 242. See Duncannon and Ponsonby Memorial Fund, 242 Blayds, C. S., 48, 113, 196 Blomfield, Bishop A. , 47 Bolton, W., A.D. 1.530, 3 W. , 39, 58 Bonhote, J. L. , Harrow Butterflies, 267 Bosanquet, Bernard, 269 Bosco or Boys, W. de, 6, 8 Bosworth-Smith, R., 52, 53, 125, 267 Botcherbv, Mr., 142 Botfield, Beriah, 144 Bourchier, Lady, 148 J. E., 148 Bouverie, E. O. P., 254 Bowen, E. E., at Grove, 47, 108, 120, 123; Modern Side, 147, 151, 154 ; the Harrow poet, 210, 218; "four bill," 223; poem on Grimston, 243 ; on Ponsonby, 244, 252 Boyle, Viscount, 137 Bradby, Dr., Haileyburv, 53, 108, 120, 125, 133; "Herga," 209 Bradley, 55 Brian, Rev. Thomas, 51, 57 ; Eton and King's Coll., Cam., 58 Bromley, Dr., 43, 170 Broughton, R., 65 Bruce, 211 Bucknall, Mr., carriage wrecked, 61, 162 BuUer, General Sir Redvers H., V.C, 53 HARROW SCHOOL Buller, C, quodcunque vult Peelus, 175, 177 C. F.,253 Bulwer, Lord, 69, 172 Burges, W., architect, 119, 145 Burghersh, Lord, 180 Burgon, Dean, 105 Burkitt, F. C, 269 Burnaby, Colonel, 51, 132 Bushell, Rev. W. Done, 1, 26, 37, 44 Butler, Dr. George, ch. viii., 33, 38, 39, 57, 66, 79, 136 ; depression under, 67 ; Duck- puddle, 68, 256 ; new school motto, 68 ; improves curriculum, 69 Butler, Dr. H. Montagu, Master of Trin. Coll., Cam., ch. xiii., 18, 125, 133, 232; Museum, 33; builds, 42, 101; on Dr. Vaughan, 109, 113; sermons, 122; re- opens Ducker, 259 A. H. M., 254 E. M., 53, 238, 254 Memorial Field, 153 Museum, 31, 120, 268 Samuel, 138 Butts, 88, 53, 199 Buxton, C. D., 218, 254 ; Pavilion, 156 n. Byron, Lord, 43, 65, 187 ; his conspiracy, 67, 69 ; on Dr. G. Butler, 71 ; on Dr. Drury, 164 ; on Peel, 169 ; as schoolboy, 188 ; "Byron lay," 211 ; and Ducker, 256 House, 51, 214 Caius, Dr., Founder of Caius Coll., Cam., 20 Calthorpe, Lord, 187 Calverley, C. S. See Blayds Calvert, Sir Harry, 137 Cecil, Lady Mildred, 141 Cenulph, King of Mercia, 1 Chad, Dick, 101 Champneys, Basil, architect, 34 n. , 146 Chandos, Duke of, 157 Chaplin, Right Hon. H., 47, 182 Cheales, R. D., 254 Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Christ Church College, Oxford, 3 " Church Hill," 51 Church House, 3, 6, 10, 21, 26, 32 Churchill, Lord, 187 Clarendon, Earl of, 137 Clark, J. W. , llegistrary, Cambridge University, 54 Clarke, W., 240 Clay, Cecil, 258 Clayton, Captain W. C, 9th Lancers, 147 Clifford, Sir Augustus, 170 Clogher, Bishop of, 137 Cloyne, Bennet, Bishop of, 137, 158, 185 Cockerell, Mr. , architect, 38 n. Cockney wooing, sad end of a, 100 Cocks, Dr. Richard, 3 Codrington, Sir E., of Navarino, 149 Admiral Sir H., 149 General Sir W., 149 Cohen, H. A., 203 Colbeck, C, 156 Cole, Viscount, 137 T. G. O., 230 Colenso, Dr., Bishop of Natal, 41 ; first mathematical master, 98 n. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 138 Colomb, Rear- Admiral, 156 n. Conolly, Tom, 100 Cook, F. L., 151 Cottenham, Lord. See Pepys Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, his consecration, 112 Cottrell, killed at cricket, 132 Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Courthope, Professor, 269 Cowper, Earl, 47, 182 Coxe, Dr. James, 36 ; absconded, 59 Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Cranstoun, Lord, 137 Crawley, A. S., 254 Ernest, 254 Eustace, 254 " Jaw-me-dead," 91 Cricket — at Harrow, ch. xx. ; of old days, 25 ; choice of Eleven, 91 ; grounds, 85, 91 ; Spartan rules, 91, 101 ; new ground, 145 ; pavilion, 146 ; Episcopal, 190 ; drainage bill, 218 ; Harrow batting, 220 ; " second Elevens," 271 n. Eton V. Harrow, ch. xxi., 69, 90, 91, 223; Byron, 226 ; men of 100 runs, 230 ; faction fight, 237 Harrow Wanderers, 226 Harrow v. Winchester, 90, 91, 229; C. Wordsworth v. C. Wordsworth, 230 House matches, Leith's v. School, 37 ; chal- lenge cup, 225 School- and house-yard, 275 Songs, "King Willow," 211; "A Gentle- man's a-bowling," 231 Cruikshank, Rev. J. A., 51, 205 Cunningham, Rev. J. W., Vicar of Harrow, 38, 85, 89, 95, 137 SirH. S., K. CLE., 182 Currer, C. Savile, 37. See Roundell Dalhousie, Marquess of, 69, 161, 173 ; letter to Dr. Butler, 173 n. Dalling, Lord, 170, 181. See Lord Bulwer Dalmeny, Lord, 137 Dalrymple, Sir Charles, M.P., 114 Darwin, R.A., one of Wordsworth's monitors, 107, 143 Davidson, H. O. D., 53 De la Warr, Earl, 137 Devonshire, Duke of, 137 Digby, Kenelm, on Dr. Vaughan, 109 Disraeli and Sir R. Peel, 170 " Dolphins," the, of Ducker, 261 Drury family, the, ch. vii. Rev. H. Joseph T. , D. D. , 37, 82 ; his letter on the great fire, 40, 43, 57, 62 ; Westminster and Trin. Coll. , Cam. , 63 ; died, 95 INDEX 287 Drury, Rev. Mark, 37, 44, 65, 6Q, 80 Rev. H. , 43 ; Eton and King's Coll. , Cam. , 65 ; '^'^ Harry," Byron's tutor, 65 n., 140 Rev. B. H. , President of Caius Coll. , Cam. , 18, 25, 40, 43, 65, 108, 120, 140 Rev. W. J. J., 44, 65 " Druries," 40, 43, 92, 153 Ducker, late Duck-puddle, ch. xxv., 68, 86, 262 ; original, 95 ; enlarged, 143 ; public on Speech-day, 203 ; as it was and is, 259 ; " passing " in, 260 ; dolphins, 261 ''Ducks" and "ducklings" of, 262 Duncannon, Viscount, fourth Earl of Bess- borough, 167 ; Irish famine, 168, 170 (Present), 218 Dyke, Sir W. Hart, 47, 182, 253 Earle, General, 51, 132 Eaton, C. O., and ''goose" match, 225 Ebrington, Viscount, 140, 143 Edlyn, Richard, 29 Edward VI., King, 11, 15 Edwards, Mr., 52 Elgin, Lord, Elgin Marbles, 164 Entries, Dr. Wordsworth's and Dr. Montagu Butler's, 92 n. Erwood (racket player), 253 Eton school, 88 n. Euston, Earl of, 137 Evans, Arthur, 269 Mr. Benjamin, 37, 66 ; died, 65 Eyre, G. E. B., 150 Faber, Frederick, 192 Fane, Julian, 180 Faning, Mr., music master, 215 Farmer, John, 34, 120, 209 ; comes, 123 ; leaves, 151, 205 ; musical instructor, 208 Farrar, Dr., Dean of Canterbury, 108, 120, 125, 133, 267 Fires, Grove, 40 ; great fire, 40 ; Kennedy's and Phelps', 47 " Flambards," 8, 20, 48, 54 Folkestone, Lord, 137 Football, ch. xxii. , 85 ; Butler Memorial Field, 153, 251 ; Harrow rules, 248 ; " First, Second, etc.. Elevens," 248, 271 n. ; Harrow theory of, 250 ; " off-side " at, 250 " Forty Years on," facsimile of music MSS. , 206, 209 ; Harrovian national anthem, 212 Foster, Mr. J., Churchwarden of Harrow, attacks " foreigners," 67 Fowler, Sir G. , C. E. , designer of Ducker, 259 Fox Talbot, W. H., 69, 138 Free scholars, their " dames," 35 Friend, a, 156 n. Gardner, Mr., 268 " Garlands," 53 Geikie, Sir Archibald, 268 R., 203 Genoa, H.R.H. Duke of, 52 George III., King, 51 Gerard, Sir Gilbert, 20, 21, 23, 29, 54 Philip, 21 Richard, Scholar of Caius Coll., Cam., 10, 17 W., 8, 10, 23, 29 Giifard, Lord, Vice-Chaucellor, 44 Gilby, ground-man, 225 Gilliat, Mr., 52 Glasse, Dr., 36 Goderich, Lord, 137, 162 Godley, John R., 52, 132 Goi'don, General, 151 Gore, Canon Charles, 53, 269 fepencer W., 210 Gower, Earl, 137 Grafton, Duke of (sixth), 52, 137 Graham, Bishop of Chester, 111 E., 216 Gray, Walter, 254 Greatorex, T., 230 Greenhill, 2 Gregorv, Sir W., 178 Sir W., jun., 178 Richard, 142 Grimston, Hon. Robert, ch. xx. 41, 47, 85, 91, 120, 124, 131, 145, 146, 211 ; dinner to, 218 ; on cricket, 219 ; Baron Martin on, 240 ; and " Free Trade," 241 Memorial Fund, 218 Grosvenor, Earl, 137 " Grove," the, 19, 26 ; hanging garden, 51 ; fire, 40, 44 ; " Old Harry's going up," 83, 84, 86 ; shut up, 92, 186 ; a reception at, 209 Haddo, Lord. See Lord Aberdeen Hadow, A. A., 156 n., 254 E. M., 254 P. F., 254 Halhed, Nathaniel, 185 ; and Sophia Linley, 186 Hallam, G. H., 50, 120, 125 Hamilton, Lord A., 137 Lord George, M.P., 120, 182 Harcourt, A. G. V., 269 Hardwicke, Earl of, 137 Hare, Rev. Augustus J. C, 47 ; Arnold, 88 n. ; on " Squash-day," 97 Hare-and-hounds, 86 Hare-roving, the Harrovian fire-signal, 40 Harman, Edward, one of Dr. Wordsworth's monitors, 107 Harris, Rev. G. F., the Park, 92, 108; and Duck-puddle, 116, 208, 259 Clement, of Pentepigadia, 132 W. B., 269 Harrovian, The, school paper, 266 Harrovian Club, Old, 218 ; inscription to Ponsonby and Grimston in, 232 Harrow, " dame," 36 ; weald, 2 " Eleven, one of the," and " Robert," 237 Hill, appearance of, 25 ; population, 29 288 HARROW SCHOOL Harrow Hill Church of St. Maiy^ 5, G ; and Harrow School, 32 ; " set upon a hill," 89; consecrated by St. Anselm, 128 Hill Rectory Manor, Court Rolls, 6, 44 Manor, size, 2 ; Courts, 3 ; Court Rolls, 4 Mission, 116, 124 Park Trust, 48, 152 ; map of estate, 155 School, how it grew, 272 ; before John Lyon, ch. i. ; under Dr. George Butler, ch. ix. ; Speech-day, ch. xviii. ; present curriculum, ch. xxvi. ; Grammar School, 8 ; in Church House, 10, 21 ; Royal Charter de novo erigere, 18, 21; "foreigner" clause, 23, 35 ; boys leave parish church, 33 ; dreads hares, 40 ; increase of " foreigners," 58 ; Seal stolen, 59 ; Eton system adopted at, 60 ; under Dr. Drury, 64 ; " Liberty and Rebellion," 67 ; " foreigners " in danger, 67 ; in 1822 (Temple Bar), 72 ; holidays and punishments at, 77 ; under Ur. Long- ley, 82 ; entries under Dr. W^ordsworth and Dr. Vaughan, 82 n. ; nothing but classics at, 84 ; declines, 87 ; irreligious, 88 w. ; only three boarding-houses, 92; Vaughan's Speech-room Assembly, 110 ; Dr. Butler's enlargements, 116 ; Speech- day instituted, 162 ; boys' furniture, 278 ; espt'it de corps at, 271 School Benefactors, ch. xv. School Buildings, chs. iv. and xv. ; Lyon's, 20 ; windows wired, 31 ; Butler's enlarge- ment, 33, 137 ; Vaughan's, 144 School Chapel, ch. xiv. , 33 ; hymns in, 99 ; building of, 104, 141 ; rebuilding. 111, 143 ; consecration, 128 ; organ, 151 School Customs(old),rollingin, 76; "squash," 34 ; Guy Fawkes' Day, 97 ; archery com- petition, 162, 200 ; Sixth Form rights, 280 ; " swagger," 280 School Debating Society, 266 School divisions, etc., 275 School Drawing School, 268 School fagging, 76, 82 ; legalised, 102 n. ; at cricket, 220 ; " finding," 278 ; night- fag and sitting beds, 279 School Football Field Trust, 153, 252 School games. See Cricket, etc. School Musical Society, 205, 267 School Scientific Society, 267 School Speech-day, 203 School Speech-room (old), 202 ; lectures and concerts, 237 School tutors, 265, 274 Harrowby, Earl of, 137, 162, 182 Hastings, Marquess of, K.G., 137 Hatherley, Lord, 37 Hawkins, Mr., 36 Mr., 113 Haygarth, A. , 92 n. Hayward, Mr,, 53 C. F., architect, 145, 146 Heath, Dr. Benjamin, 43, 47 ; Eton and King's Coll., Cam., 61 Herbert, Hon. Sidney, 47, 69, 175 ; Miss Nightingale, 176 Hermitage, the, 26 Hewlett, Mr., 38, 64 W. O., 10, 34, 39 n., 44, 235 97 Hide, W., 31, 38, 55 " Hillside," 53 Hine, W. E., 268 Hoadley, Bishop, 60 Hoare, S., M. P., on Dr. Vaughan, 113 Sam, custos, 90, 96, 253 Holmes, C. F., 43 N. T., 254 Hook, Theodore, 184, 187, 188 Hope-Ed wardes, W. J., 121 Home, W. 35, 38 ; first married headmaster, 56 Hort, A. F., 263 Houses, ch. v. ; Dr. Glasse, 36 ; dames', 36 ; of Druries, 37 ; Dr. A'\''ordsworth's fire, 39 ; only three, 92 ; no H.M.'s boarding-house, 95 ; house v. house, 271, 282 ; large and small, 278 How, Walsham, D.D., Bishop of Bedford, 124 Howard, Lord H. M., 137 Howe, James, 260 HoMson, E. W., 70, 214, 269; Epilogue, 284 Hutton, H. E., 44, 108 IsLip, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 " Ivy House," 51 ; anthem tune, 214 ^^ Jack-o'-Lantern" of Kennedyites, 86 Jackson, F. S., 230, 231 Jarvis, L. K., 254 Jenner, H. Lascelles, Bishop of Dunedin, N.Z., 86 Jones, Sir W., 60, 157 ; on Sumner, 184, 186 ; and Speech-day, 201 Joseph, 148 Jonson, Thomas, M.A., 56 Kahslakk, Sir J, B., 179 E. Kent, 138, 179 Keary, Mr., 52 Keble, Rev. J,, 90 n. Keeley, Mrs. , 242 Keith- Falconer, Hon. Ion G, N., 150 Kemble, George, 177 Kemp, A. F., 254 C. W. M., 2.54 M. C, 224, 232, 254 Kennedy, Rev. B. H., 47, 82, 83 Kenton, 2, 26 Kenyon, Lord, 137 Kerr, Lord Charles L., 137 General Lord Mark, 52 " Knoll, The," 52 Knutsford, Lord, 47, 182 Kyrkeham, Robert de, 3 Lance, Rev. W., 55 Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 2 INDEX 289 Langton, Stephen, Ai'chbishop of Canterbury, 3 Lascelles, Sir Frank, 63 B. P., G2, 204 Latimer, Bishop, 15 Law, Rev. W. (Harrow Mission), 116, 214, 218 ; pavilion, 15G n. Layton, Richard, 3 Leach, Mr., 13, 28 Leaf, C. J., 14G Herbert, 147 Dr. Walter, 48, 14G, 2G9 Leigh, Hon. E., C.B., Q.C., 243 Leith's, Mrs., 37, 92 Leofwine, King Harold's brother, 2 Leyland, F. D., 218, 254 Lichfield, Bishop of, 137 Lilford, Lord, 137 Lloyd, Tom, beat Harrow, 228 Lockwood, Captain G., of Balaclava, 37, 132 Loftus, Lord, 137 Long, Right Hon. Walter H. , M. P. , 44, 182, 238 C. E. , 23 ; in archery costume, 200 Longley, Dr. C. T. , Archbishop of Canterbury, inaugurated Lambeth Conference, 82 ; his staff of masters, 82 ; and " Jack-o'- Lanthorn," 86, 178 Lyon, John, Founder, ch. iii. ; and grammar, 12 ; observations, 15 ; school buildings, 27 ; orders, statutes, etc. , 35 ; do. changed, 56 ; his archery competition, 199 ; in " Queen Elizabeth," 210 Joan, Founder's wife, 21 ; dies, 29, 54 Zachary, not Founder's son, 21 Sir J., Lord Mayor of London, 24 Memorial Fund, 119, 145 Lyttelton, Lord, 137 Lytton, Earl of, 48, 158, 180 ; Cabul, 181, 198 Macdonald, Lord, 137 Mackenzie, Mr. , 41 Maclaren, A. C, 220, 230 Macnamara, J., 156 n. Maitland, 230 Manning, H., Cardinal, 88 n., 177, 190 Marillier, J. F., 52; imports gas, 75, 80, 82 ; "Teek," 84 Jacques, 82 Marshall, F. E., 53, 214 Julian, 253 Martin, Thomas, 56 Mary, Queen, 18 Masson, Gustave, 120 Mauley, Lord de, 167. See Hon. W. Ponsonby Mavrogordato, Pandely, 156 n. M'Call, Colonel G., 156 n. McGregor, General A. M., 48 Meek, H. E., 254 Melville, Teignmouth, V.C, 43 Mepham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Merivale, Charles, Dean of Ely, 43 ; on Dr. G. Butler, QG, 69 ; at work and play, 76 88 «. , 98 n. ; cricketer, 189, 190 Herman, 177, 190 Middlemist, Mr., 51, 120; and John Farmer, 209 Milling-ground, fights in public, 96 Mills, Mr., 64, 80 Mitchell, R. A., 227, 231, 232 Mivart, Sir G., 269 Moberly, Dr., 88 n. Modern Side, 147, 265 Moleyns, Hon. F. W. de, 254 Monitors, unfortunate parvi magistri, 17, 97, 100 ; Harrow, 102 ; Dr. Vaughan on, 102 ; Wordsworth's investiture, 103; Vaughan's, 110 Monro, 113 Montgomery, Bishop of Tasmania, 227 Moreton, E. and W. , 44 " Moretons," 8, 44 Morier, James, 188 Moss, J. C, 214 Museum Schools, 33 Neeld, Joseph, M.P., 142 " Newlands," 53 Newport, Viscount, 137 Nicholson, W., his field, 218 W., 90 Noel, Hon. Roden, 196 Normanby, Marquess of, 137 North, Sir E., 3, 4, 29 Northwick family, the, 1, 4, 48, 137 " Old Pipes," 101 Ossory, Earl of, 137 Ossulston, Lord, 137 Oxenham, E. L., 148 Rev. H. Nutcombe, one of Wordsworth's monitors, 107, 140, 142, 193 Nutcombe, 80 Rev. W., 44, 82 ; " dear old Billy," 83, 92, 101, 108, 140 Page, A., as FalstafF, 203 John, of Wembley, 23, 29, 55, 135 n. Richard, Wembley Park, 8, 48 Thomas, of Sudbury, 29 Page- Wood, Sir W., 111. See Lord Hatherley Palmerston, Lord, 64, 109, 137, 158, 162, 167, 169 ; and fag, 170 ; v. Roebuck " from dusk till dawn," 171 " Park, the," 48, 83, 92 Parr, Dr. Samuel, 60 ; at Stanmore, 62 ; sup- ports Dr. Butler, m, 69, 137, 157 ; grot- esque figure, 177, 185 Parsons, Mrs., 96 Peacock, Dean of Ely, 111 Pears, Dr., 108, 133 Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Peel, Viscount, Speaker of House of Commons, 140 Sir Robert, 38, 48, 137, 162 ; Reform, 169 ; on P'ree Trade, 170 ; Disraeli's " greatest M.P.," 171 ; on panel, 211 Sir W., 48 290 HARROW SCHOOL Peel, A. G. V., 140, 203 F., 140, 182 Robert, 180 W. R. W., 140 Pelham, Professor, 269 Pember, E. H., 150 Francis VV., 150 Howard E., 150 Pembroke, Earl of, 137 Pepys, C. C. (Lord Cottenham), 168 ; and O'Connell, 169 Perceval, Spencer, 136, 162 ; assassinated, 169 Perry, Bishop, 87 Peterborough, Bishop of, 44, 137 Phelps, Archdeacon, Life of, 48 ; 41, 47, 52, 82 Philathletic Club, 116, 254 Field, 154, 218 Pinner, 2 ; Church of John Baptist, 6, 26 ; population, 29 Piatt, J. D., 97, 105 Playing fields, 154 Plowden, H. M., 253 Plymouth, Earl of, 137 Ponsonby and Grimston, ch. xxii. Ponsonby, Hon. F,, 167 n. Hon. F. G. B., sixth Earl of Bessborough, ch. XX., 37, 41, 85, 91; his character, 92, 119, 120, 123, 131, 146, 147, 156 n., 211, 240, 241 Hon. W. L,137, 167 «., 170 Popham, F. L., 140 Porson, Richard, 66 Powell, Picky, Eton champion at Lord's, 101 Preston, 2 ; John Lyon's birthplace, 21, 26 Pump House, 8 " Raca," 8 Rackets, ch. xxiv., 86, 90 ; Harrow far ahead, 253 ; " squash," 254 Rayleigh, Lord, 269 Ramsay, Lord, 137, 173 Sir J., Bart, 137 Rashdall, Hastings, 17, 269 Rate, Anthony, 54 Rattigan, F. W. A., 254 Rawdon, Lord, 137, 160 Redding, 'Hiomas, of Pinner, 29 Reeves, Mr., 36 Rendall, Rev. F., 38, 53 Dr., 269 Richardson, Judge, 67 Ridley, Sir Matthew W., 48, 148 n., 182 Hon. Justice E., 148 n., 269 Robertson, Rev. J., 125, 133, 214 Robinson, Hon. F., 164 Rodney, George Brydges, 157, 211 Roper, G., his letter about Queen Mary, 18 Rose, Rev. Hugh J. , 90 «. Rothschild, Hon. N. C, Harrow Butterflies, 267 Roundell, Rev. D. R., 147 Charles Savile, 48, 147 J. R.,147 Roundell, Richard, 147 W., 147 Royston, his tuck-shop, 43 Roxeth Manor, 2 ; Butts, 5 ; " dame," 36, 155 ; common enclosed, 217 Rugby school, decline at, 87 n. , 88 n. Russell, Lord Charles, 146, 149 G. W. E., 149, 182, 266 Salisbury, Marquess of, 141 Sanders, E. J., 253 Sanderson, Rev. L., 116 Saunders, Rev. Francis, vicar of Harrow, usher, 59 Sayer, J., 140 Scholarships, four, 97, ch. xv. School bells, 31 Schools, chantry, 14; dames', 13; monastery, 12, 14 Grammar, origin of, ch. ii. ; Harrow, 8 Public, transition period, 87 ; low tone of, 88 n. ; numbers of, and at, 98 ; religion supreme in English, 126 ; services, 133 ; Gibbon on English, 183 Schwann, Mr., 268 Scott, Sir Gilbert, 111, 143 E., Keeper of MSS., British Museum, 18 Sebastiani, Marshal, French Ambassador, 48 Seymour, Admiral Sir M. C, 44 Shaftesbury, Lord, 69, 137 ; friend of the poor, 174 Shei'borne school, 29 Sheridan, Richard Brinslev, 47; life, 60, 158, 185, 186 ; on Speech-day, 201 Shilleto, Rev. R., 47, 92 Sichel, Mr., 266 Sinker, Dr., Trin. Coll., Cam., 151 Sly, Mr. , architect, 30 Smale, G., 253 Smith, Goldwin, 99 Rev. J., his death, 124; inscription, 131, 133 W. H., his boards, 240 Smythe, Hon. Percy, eighth Viscount Strang- ford, 44 ; his Greek chorus, 106 Snape, Dr., Eton, 60 Soames, 90 Sorbonne, Robert de, 16 Sotheron, Estcourt T. H., 178 Spencer, Earl (second), 137, 161 Earl (fourth), 143, 182 Spottiswoode, VV., 48 " Squash," 34 ; day, 97 St. Anselm, 3, 19, 128 St. John, Lord, 137 St. Thomas a Becket, 3, 17, 19 St. Vincent, Viscount, 132 Stanhope, Right Hon. E., 51, 181 Mrs., 156 n. Stanley, Lord, 111 Bishop of Norwich, 110, 131 Dean, 110 ; on school chapels, 113 n. Steel, Rev. T. H., 47, 82, 84, 92, 108 INDEX 291 Stephenson, Sir Robert, 240 Stevens, W., " Judy," 254 Stogdon, J., 52 J. H.,254 Stone, W. H., 144 Strangford, Lord, monument to, 132 Lady, 150 Sudbury manor, 2 ; " dame," 86 Sumner, Dr. R., 86 ; fi*om Eton, GO ; " another Demosthenes," 184 Sutton, Dr. Manners, Archbishop of Canter- bury, G6 Swimming races, 262. See Ducker Symonds, J. Addington, 53, 197 Tait, Archbishop of Canterburv, 108, 111 Tallents, G. W., 140 Tapling, T. Keay, M.P., 156 n. Tassoni, Anthony, 202 ; his dancing-room, 96 », Teignmouth, Lord, 161 Templer, Capfciin J. C. (Harrow Town Volun- teers), 116 Tercentenary Festival, 116 ITiackeray, Thomas, D. D. , 36 ; Eton and King's Coll., Cam., 59, 157 Thompson, H. Yates, School of Art, 34, 156 n. Thornton, Percy M., M.P., 24 Tomlin, J. W. S., 203 Torre, Rev. H. J., 89, 99 Tozer, Mr., 106 Trench, Rev. Francis, his letter, 96 n. ; on stone-throwing, 101 n. Richard Chevenix, Archbishop of Dublin, 37, 120, 176, 190 Trevelyan, Sir G., 36, 47, 182, 269 W. C, diary, 76 ; walks, 79 Trollope, Anthony, Lyon's free scholar, 72, 77, 80, 193 Tuck-shops, 43, 96 Tunstal, Bishop of London, 3 Tupper, C. L., 269 Turton, Bishop, 102 UxMVKUsiTiEs, age of, 11; and monks, 12; decay of, 15 Uxendon, 2 Vaughan, Dr. C. J., Master of the Temple, ch. xii., 90, 106 ; the restorer of Harrow, 38, 41, 51, 52, 113; favourite pupil of Arnold, 108 ; his character, 108 ; believed in monitors, 109 ; letter to Lord Palmerston, 110 ; sermons. 111, 120, 133 ; and Ducker, 259 E. H., 52 Library, 144, 266 Vernon, H., 239 Verulam, Earl of, 120, 137 Vittoria, victoryof, 77 Wade, Sir Thomas F., 43, 180 Walker, J, D., and " Webbe," 218, 220, 232, 253 R. D., 253 V. E., 253 Wallroth, 227 Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Warner, Billy, 101 Rev. G. T., 52 G. Townsend, 80, 283 Watkins, Mrs., 156 n. Watson, Dr. , Bishop of Llandaif, 63 Arthur, 108 A. G., 52, 53 ; and Ducker, 116, 259 Waynflete, William, Bishop, 16 Webbe, A. J., "Walker and," 218, 220, 230 G. A., 254 Welch, R. de C, Editor of Harrow Notes, 266 Welldon, Rev. J. E. C, 53, 113, 134, 242 Wellesley, Marquess, 162 Wembley manor, 2 ; " dame," 26 ; park, 48 " West Acre," 52 Westcott, Dr., Bishop of Durham, 38, 44, 53, 108, 120, 125, 133, 203 ; lo Triumphe, 209, 267 Westminster School, depression at, 67, 87 n. Whittle, Robert, 55 Wickham, C. G., 262 Wildblud, Macharie, first scholar of Harrow, 55 n. Wildman, Lieut. -Col., of Newstead Abbey, 137 Wilkins, H. M., 142 Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, 145, 268 Williams, Isaac, 37, 138, 189 Sir W. Fenwick, of Kars, 111, 143 Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, 3 Winchester, Bishop of, 53 School, 72, 88 «,, 229, 248, 253 Winchilsea, Lord, 137 Winkley's, Mrs., 96 Jim, 96 Winterton, Earl of, 137 Woodhouse, 90 Woods, Mrs., 37 Wordsworth, Dr. Charles, Bishop of St. Andrews, 37 ; his school-days, 75, 190 Dr. Christopher, Bishop of Lincoln, ch. xi., 38, 98, 99, 103; fire, 39, 41; his " school of Christian gentlemen," 89 ; blessings of unity, 92 n. ; deprecates leaving parish church, 95, 128 ; builds chapel, 103 ; his character, 104 ; " a-giving it to the Pope," 105 ; follows Arnold, 106, 120, 133 Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1 Wykeham, William of. Bishop of Winchester, founds school, 9, 16 ; Dulce Dotnum, 209 Wyndham, W. F., 254 Young, Rev. E. M., 120, 126 \ Printed by Yi.. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. 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