P U B L I C SC H OOL L I FE R U G B Y H H . H AR Y . D E DITE D AN D SP ECIALLY ILLUSTRATE D B Y TH E SPO RT AN D GENERAL P R ESS AGEN CY LON DON ! SI R ISAAC PITMAN S ON S LTD . 19 1 ] N O 1 AM N C O R N R E C . E E , PRI NTED B Y SIR ISAAC PITMAN So N T D. LO N ATH s , L , DON, B . AN D N EW YORK 19 1 1 P refa c e THERE is nothing new in th is small book except what has happened since 1900. The present compiler most warmly thanks . use . Dr W H . D . Ro and Mr H C Bradby for their freely-granted permis sion to make use of their excellent books on Rugby School (A History of Rugby h l S c oo . use , by W H . D . Ro , Duckworth R . Co . 1898 u b and , ; and g y, by H C ll Bradby , George Be and Sons , use l all Dr . Ro has fu ly investigated of available records , and most the history here contained is a bare summary of his work . In so small a compass it has been frequently necessary to condense , even to the point of obscurity . For this and many other failings the compiler wishes to apologise to any possible reader . He is glad to feel that the booklet has — at least interested one reader him self , who has found plagiarism more entertaining than one would imagine . Any accuracy it may have is due to M. F. A . the revising care of his friend , G l Chatwin , whose Rugbeian ore much ’ exceeds the writer s , and has been most freely lavished on the purging of errors from these pages . Those that remain ’ are solely the writer s fault . C o ntents CHA P AGE P . I ISTORY . H II . THE SCHOOL B UILDINGS III . SPORTS AND INSTITUTIONS V HE WORK OF THE SCHOOL I . T TRI IAL ROUND V. THE V List of Illustrations S L F L S Frontis iece THE CHOO , ROM THE C O E p To [ a ce p a g e SCHOOL HOUSE THE HEADMASTERS ’ WINDOW SCHOOL HOUSE HALL ARNOLD LIB R ARY L S L BL TEMP E PEECH ROOM , MEMORIA TA ET TEMPLE SPEECH ROOM (EXTERIOR) Q UAD GATES OLD BIG SCHOOL NEW Q UAD THE CHAPEL (EXTERIOR) EAST END OF CHAPEL (INTERIOR) S L US F L B S CHOO HO E , ROM O D IG IDE THE GY MNASIUM THE ARMOURY THE ART MUSEUM TEMPLE READING ROOM L S ST TEMP E PEECH ROOM , EA END SH G 1909 OOTIN EIGHT , LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WEBB ELLIS TABLET A LINE OUT ON BIG SIDE A HOUSE MATCH WATCHING A CRICKE T FOREIGN L S F L B S TEMP E PEECH ROOM , ROM O D IG IDE TEMPLE READING ROOM (INTERIOR) NEW BIG SCHOOL A SCH OOL IN NEW BIG U S F L SS Q AD GATE , A TER A E ON NEW BIG SCHOOL (INTERIOR) L S W S TEMP E PEECH ROOM , E T END (INTERIOR) OLD Q UAD 0 . C . IN THE CLOSE Rugby Sch o o l CHAPTER I HISTORY HOWEVER uncertain and dim our outlook upon English History h as been (and in as many c es still is) , it is true of most of us that somewhere about the beginning of the sixteenth century the view seems as to be coming more into focus , it were us i persons appear real to , even fam liar ; events assume a logical sequence ; even s of date , a few them , stick in the memory . all li At events , the reign of E zabeth is of li a region ght after much Plantagenet , - and pre Plantagenet , obscurity . We hav e read that the Elizabethan days were of e lan ex an days wide mov ment , j ubi t p sion , and , what is more , we understand hi so that these t ngs were . We know for ourselves what happened between 1558 and 1603 ; what happened before t hat epoch we have been told , times a s without number , and have often forgotten . 2 RUGBY SCHOOL And if the sixteenth century puts ai ull uncom re cert nty in the place of d , p di hen ng acceptance in the average mind , Still more is there reason for every Rug beian to feel that here at last he is standing ” r on firm g ound . For every schoolboy , though he may lack that odd piece of knowledge with which Lord Macaulay once credited him , at least knows (if he be a Sh eriffe Rugbeian) that Lawrence , or f Sh erife Sherri f, or (and some other varia of tions , for he had no more notion writing his own name consistently than had Shakespeare) founded Rugby School in 1 567 . As a fact he did not at any rate , not in any sense in wh ich we talk now of Rugby School . What he did , and how the seed - wn— has developed into the full blo no , not , - w — so we hope , yet quite full blo n plant , l of - w ll fu l life and vigour to day , it i be necessary to trace out as briefly as may be . Sh eriffe P And first , who was Lawrence ll Indeed , there is little enough to te . was r u b or Apparently he bo n at R g y , at any rate thought so himself though no man is a very authentic witness to that circumstance , any more than to his death ; and the date of his birth is HISTORY 3 ’ likewise wrop in myst ry but a man wh o was in 154 1 made a Freeman of ’ the Grocers Company and wh o quite 1567 certainly died in September , (for the New Parish Register of Christ Church , so gate Street , says , and takes occasion ' to spell him after yet another fashion , Sh yryffe can hardly have been born of much after the accession Henry VIII . Grocer he certainly was , and so far proud of it as to take as his own a part of the ’ of arms the Grocers Company , and to add ’ thereto , by way of crest , a lion s paw, or erased , , holding a bunch of dates , the r of f uit the first in the pods argent , the a A st lks and leaves proper . modern humorist has conj ectured that he w a s the first of his trade to discover that sand might profitably be admixed with sugar but this is to cast aspersions on the character of one whose sole appearance ’ in History is in the pages of Foxe s B ook o Ma rt rs f y , where he stands as an out ’ spoken loyalist (had he not the Queen s letters patent as her Purveyor of Spices not afraid to correct sharply and in public - - the over free , wine inspired criticism of of se another frequenter the Ro Tavern , Hi las not far from Newgate Street . s t 4 RUGBY SCHOOL i its will and testament we have , w th l i 1909 inestimab e cod cil , and in an artist w as found imaginative enough to con j ecture his personal appearance from this meagre record of h is career where fore he now stands , and long may he stand , in stained glass , unpretentious , unremark able , soberly gowned , over against the mightiest shaper of his growing School , looking down on its six hundred members gathered in the latest and (internally) ’ l the best of Rugby s secu ar buildings . We give Th ee most humble a nd h ea rty tha nks 0 most merci ul Fath er or our , f , f Founder La wrence Sh eri e a nd or a ll fi , f our Governors a nd B ene a ctors b wh ose f , y benefit this wh ole Sch ool is brough t up to odline s a nd ood lea rnin g s g g. So every all Sunday , at least , and on high days is heard , in a Chapel which he never of of dreamed , the prayer the School congregation not unmindful of the good intent of our religious Founder . Like many another charitable bequest , his good intent h as developed beyond his L t ken . e us see what were the means by which he well and truly laid the foundations . His Almshouses do not here concern HISTORY 5 us ; but hard by these he directs that there should be ‘ built a fai r and con ” v enient a n School House , in which honest , discreet , and learned man was to teach grammar and generally preside of Sh eriffe over the Free School Lawrence , of London , Grocer , to serve chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brown ” sov er A al 12 . s ary of £ per annum , w together ith free lodging , was thought sufficient to secure the proper quantity of honesty , discretion , and learning . TWO Trustees were appointed , and to them the will consigned the Mansion House and certain land in Rugby , more land and a house at Brownsover , and a 1 legacy of 00for general school purposes . So ran the original will , but by the most of fortunate inspirations , he wrote a nl h is Codicil , o y a few weeks before substitu death , revoking the legacy , and for of ting it the third part a field , called Conduit Close , near London .