CHAPTER XI. HARROW-(continued). DR. VAUGHAN came too late to retain for the school the services of Benjamin Hall Kennedy, subsequently Head Master of Shrewsbury, and John Wm. Colenso, subsequently Bishop of Natal, but he did introduce into the school some admirable masters. Dr. Westcott, Dr. Bradby, Mr. Arthur Watson, Mr. John Smith, Dr. Farrar, Mr. Masson, Mr. Hutton, Mr. Henry Watson, F.R.S., and Mr. Bowen, the Harrow laureate, all came to the Hill under Dr. Vaughan. It would be an honour to any school to count the present Bishop of Durham among its masters. I fear some of us taxed his patience sadly. Dear old John Smith! He is dead, and his favourite pupil (whose heart is buried on the Mount of Olives) is also at rest. What boy who left the Hill between '54 and '82 ever mentions John Smith without a blessing? He was a Galloway man, just as Carlyle was a Dumfries man. Both were fine specimens of the Lowlander of the peasant stock; only John Smith was a Thomas Carlyle with Christian humility added. It was his practice in class to ask questions on newspaper topics. They were not always very relevant to the subject in hand. One of his pet questions was"Who is the greatest man in England?" How delighted he used to be, if his question met with the answer-"John Bright". John Smith had this in common with Schopenhauer. The German philosopher advised his son to study the Times. The Harrow master would have endorsed that advice. The wit of the school was the French Master, Mr. Masson. We were forbidden to bring in hot meat from Fuller's to breakfast. One boy had contrived an ingenious receptacle for delicacies in the shape of a draught-board with the words "French Dictionary" printed outside. One morning as he was walking along with this under his arm, he met Mr. Masson, who observed a little steam coming out. “What is that you have there?" The boy mumbled something about dictionary, "Ah! let me look up one little word," said the enquiring French Master, and out rolled two sausages and mashed potato. How much it lies in the power of a boy to brighten by some happy phrase the dreariness which comes over the form that is reading an Ode of Horace for the twentieth time. My readers will remember the stanza which occurs in the third Ode of the first Book Nequidquam Deus abscidit Prudens Oceano dissociabili The present Mr. Justice of the Irish Bench rendered this "The sea that objects to the Union." How Dr. Butler did laugh! No wonder the future judge was an immense favourite of his. On another occasion Dr. Butler was taking the Second Sixth in Aristophanes, when M. (who afterwards went into the Guards) translated a line literally-"You can not buy much with two obols" "Quite correct," remarked Dr. Butler; "but cannot you render it in more idiomatic English?" Thus encouraged, our future guardsman gave the following-"You cannot buy much for the price of half a pint." Dr. Butler was delighted. At an earlier period the nephew of a poet in his Latin prose rendered "Cæsar led his army etc." by "plumbavit exercitum." Dear old "Billy" (Mr. Oxenham) was immensely tickled at Cæsar being reduced to the level of a plumber! There have been famous quarrels among schoolmasters as among other men. Dr. Samuel Butler of Shrewsbury School and Mr. Jeudwine were not on speaking terms. For seven and thirty years the first and second masters, both estimable men, addressed each other only by letter. This was one of the reasons for the decline in the numbers of the school even under so able a head. Happily they were reconciled, when Mr. Jeudwine lay on his death 2 bed. In 1739 there was a dispute between Dr. Burton, the Head Master of Winchester, and the Usher. This dispute must probably have played a part in the decline in numbers of Winchester Commoners between 1735 and 1751. Indeed in 1751 the number of Commoners declined to eight. During the past 200 years the non-foundationers at none of our public schools have been reduced to the same extent, except perhaps at Harrow under Mr. Coxe. The harmony of the masters working under Dr. Vaughan was a main reason for the revival of Harrow's prosperity. The Second Master of Harrow, Mr. Oxenham, admired Dr. Vaughan immensely, and I am told by one who was present, checked some sixthformers who spoke with disrespect of his Latinity. 3 Is it true that dust now gathers on Pickwick as it did long ago on Peregrine Pickle? If so, it is also true that Pickwick has become a classic. The modern schoolboy may pronounce its pages dry, but his master gives it as a prize. The trial scene was acted on the Eton Speech Day of 1898. Very different was its repute with schoolmasters fifty years ago. Mr. D. F. Carmichael tells me that he brought some books to his tutor (Mr. Oxenham) to be bound, and the title of Dickens's work caught his eye. "Pickwick!" exclaimed the immortal "Billy", and putting into his voice as much contempt as was possible, he threw the book into the corner, and gave my friend the Fourth Georgic to write out. What made Mr. Oxenham so beloved? Mr. Oxenham was a master to whom the infliction of punishment seemed a personal pain. An eye-witness tells me that a boy in his house had been expelled and rightly so. The boy was lamenting his fate, prophesying that his expulsion would bar his rise in any profession. A wise mother could not have been more tender to him than his housemaster, Mr. Oxenham. He pointed out that though he was justly punished, he was not going to be like Cain with a mark on him all through his life etc., etc. William 1 Annals of Shrewsbury School, p. 295. 2 Annals of Winchester College, pp. 392-4. 3 Harrow School: Early Headmasters, by B. P. Lascelles. Spottiswoode was sent down from Eton for the serious offence of firing a small cannon on the 5th November! He then went to Harrow, afterwards became President of the Royal Society, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Eton presented to us Wm. Spottiswoode, we returned the compliment by presenting Eton with Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., who was first at Harrow, then at Eton, and finally Senior Wrangler. Sir Redvers Buller, V.C., also might have been altogether an Harrovian in se totus teres atque rotundus. He came to us first, but exchanged the Hill for Eton. The school possesses a fine Gymnasium; the Harrovian says, “seldom more than a dozen" struggle for the vacant places in the Eight, while at Rugby the competition is keen. No wonder Rugby was victorious this year. The head of our Eight was Prince Purachatra, a son of H. M. the King of Siam, that loyal friend of Harrow School. "Billy's" House had the enormous advantage of having the three Walkers-V. E., R. D. and I. D. These three veterans (of whom R. D. Walker alone survives), with the late Lord Bessborough, Robert Grimston, Henry Vernon, A. W. T. Daniel (who have all joined the majority), C. F. Buller, H. M. Plowden, A. J. Webbe, W. H. Patterson, Archy McLaren, F. S. Jackson, J. H. Stogdon and T. G. O. Cole, are among the best known of Harrow cricketers of the latter half of this century. Harrow has no "wet bobs," yet many "Blues" that rowed for their University came from the Hill. We can, however, only claim one double blue, William Massey, who rowed in the Light Blue Eight and played in the Eleven. Like many another fine athlete he was as modest as he was skilful. We may give him this due now, as he has joined the majority. Cricket fills a position of such importance on the Hill that not to refer to it would be to give an incomplete account of school-life there. I have described elsewhere how the cricket eleven form the aristo Lord Bessborough was in our Cricket Eleven and the Cambridge Eleven; "Bob" Grimston was not in our Eleven, but he was in the Oxford Cricket Eleven. 2 * Captains of Harrow Cricket Eleven in 1849 and 1860, and both in the Cambridge Cricket Eleven. cracy of the school and have given reminiscences of some of them. The good fellowship that exists among the members of the eleven must be put down to the credit of the game. There was the story of M. and N., captains of the Eleven two years in succession. They were not on speaking terms, but after running up together a fine score at Lords they met on the steps of the pavilion and shook hands in silence. Nothing could have been more English or more satisfactory than this undemonstrative scene. It is generally supposed that if once you "get your flannels" you have them for your school-life, and such I believe is the case; but the voluntary resignation of his flannels by a member of the Eleven has often been discussed. It was bluntly suggested to A., who retorted by making the "cock" score of his year at Lords. Another cricketer, B., a delightfully modest lad, was quite willing to retire; but the matter dropped, and B. lived to make the winning hit at Lords. Then C. was asked to give up his flannels-"Not I,” replied C., "after giving up so much time to cricket I might have devoted to bird-nesting!" No doubt Old Harrovians will be able to give the names of these three good men and true. The reason why cricket, rowing, and football should form an important part of a boy's education is not on account of the skill to which he may attain, but on account of the self-reliance, concentration, promptitude, and resource which athletic excellence confers. In other words, while a boy is taught in the form, he teaches himself in field and on the river. His own supervision of his own games in play-hours breeds no want of discipline in schoolhours, but rather the contrary. A good athlete is rarely insubordinate. His leanings are all in the direction of law and order. The good-fellowship, and even the disappointments of the game, all sow the seeds for achievements in later life. Perhaps the three most interesting Lords' matches ever played were (at least from an Harrovian point of view) those of 1858, 1898 and 1900. In 1858 the Eton and Harrow match was resumed after its discontinuance since 1855, and when Dr. Vaughan entered the grounds, he received a tremendous ovation from what was then considered a vast gather |