The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-14 00:00:00

THE LATE MR. J. H. PRATT.

The Times of Monday publishes the following letter, dated
Cadenabbia, Lake of Como, Sept 4 :

Sir,—This beautiful spot has just been the scene of
a grievous disaster. Mr, John Henry Pratt, M. A.,
Fellow of Trinity College. Cambridge, and since 1872
an Assistant Master at Harrow, was drowned last
Saturday, August 31, while bathing in the lake. His
body has not yet been found. Of his many friends
none were with him at the time; but the following is
the result of a careful questioning of the directors of
the Belle Vue Hotel, who have shown great kindness
in the matter, of the boatman whom Mr. Pratt em-
ployed, and of sevei3l ladies and gentlemen (especially
the English Chaplain, the Rev. J. H. Drew), who
have done their utmost to bring the facts to light :
Mr. Pratt arrived here from Pontresina about five
o'clock in the afternoon. Immediately after entering
his name in the book of arrivals he walked along the
shore of the lake southwards for a short half mile to
Tremezzo. There, after drinking a glass of beer, he
hired a boat with an awning, and was pulled out into
the lake several hundred yards. He swam about for
some three or four minutes, and then took hold of the
boat. The boatman asked him if he was tired and
wished to come out, but he said he should like to go
on a little longer. Just at this moment one of
the very small steamers that now ply on the lake
in addition to the regular service passed near;
the boatman's attention was for a very short time
fixed upon it. When he turned again the swim-
mer was not to be seen. He had gone down
suddenly without uttering any audible cry or attract-
ing the attention of any one, though when last seen he
was within a very few feet of his boat. This state-
ment of the boatman as to the nearness of the swimmer
to the boat is confirmed by the evidence-of another
boatman in the service of a private family. This man
was about forty or fifty yards off, and had noticed Mr.
Pratt swimming vigorously. He saw no sign of dis-
tress, and suspected nothing till the swimmer had
disappeared. Immediately after the disappearance
numerous boats put off to the spot; and on Sunday
and Monday the lake was carefully dragged, but with-
out any result. No one that we have questioned
seems to have any hope that the body will ever be
seen again.
This is all that can be at present ascertained of the
manner in which a precious life, full of every kind of
vigour, has been suddenly lost. Mr. Pratt's career,
short as it has proved, was marked by rare promise.
He was head boy at Haileybury College, having been
educated there under the mastership first of the Rev.
Arthur Butler and then of the Rev. G. H. Bradby.
At Cambridge he won the Bell Scholarship and another
University Scholarship. In 1872 he was Senior Classic,.
the first to gain that honour under the new system of
examination. The following year he was elected Fe-

low of his College, having meanwhile been appointed
to a Mastership at Harrow. For the last two years
he had been making careful preparation for an
edition of the Achilleid of Homer. Like many
eminent scholars and men of science at the present
day he was a daring and practised Alpine mountaineer.
Among the younger members of the Alpine Club few
can have surpassed him in the number and difficulty
of first-class ascents. On such expeditions he was a
perfect companion, cool, sure-footed, observant,
humorously patient of hardship, and thoroughly unsel-
fish. When, on the 15th August, he reached Miirren
after a difficult ascent of the Blumlis Alp—difficult be-
cause of the exceptional depth and softness of the snow
—in the company of his brother Fellow of Trinity,
Mr. Walter Leaf, he looked a model of health and en-
durance. _ _ _ _

-It7ii-One of your functions, Sir, to chronicle the
deaths of distinguished men. If you admit to your
columns this imperfect testimony to the worth of one
whose powers were far beyond the average, but who
had not time to achieve public distinction, you will, I
know, be gratifying the feelings of a wide circle of
attached friends. Mr. Pratt's loss will be long and
deeply mourned by his old school-fellows at Halley-
bury, of whom he was so lately the head; by many
Swiss travellers who knew his exploits on the highest
Alps; by many of the ablest members of the great
College of which he was so proud to be a Fellow; and
not least, by the masters and boys at Harrow' where
his fine gifts of mind and of heart will be a sad and
sacred tradition.—l am, Sir your faithful servant,
MONTAGU BUTLER.