The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-06-25 00:00:00

TARVIN HALL SCHOOL.

The public examination of the pupils educated at Tar-
vin Hall Schools, under the superintendence of Mr. John
Brindley, took place on Thursday week, in the presence
of a most respectable company of ladies and gentlemen;
amongst whom we observed the Rev. T. S. Bowstead,
Vicar of Tarvin, and Prebendary of Lichfield ; the Rev.
S. Cragg, M.A. of Oxford, now resident in Liverpool,
and formerly clergyman of the parish in which Mr.
Brindley held the appointment of Head Master of the
Oldswinford Hospital Endowed School ; and many of the
parents and relatives of the scholars.
The examination papers both in classics and mathema-
tics, were of a very high order—resembling rather those of
a College in the Universities, than such as are in general
use at less pretending educational institutions—and had
been worked up by the pupils in a manner which did great
credit to their own abilities and industry, as well as to the
attainments and capabilities of their masters. On this
occasion the proficiency of the young gentlemen was
tested by questions proposed by their tutors—each master
conducting his own department—and by some of the
visitors present ; when the facility and accuracy with which
passages from the Greek of Homer, Thucydides, and Eu-
ripides, and from the Latin of Horace, Virgil, Cicero,
Livy, and Ctesar's Commentaries, were read and trans-
lated, excited general admiration. An examination in
the Greek Testament, St. Mathew xxvi. was after-
wards conducted by the Rev. S. Cragg, M.A. and the
result was highly gratifying. An English examination, to
illustrate the degree of attention which is given to Scrip-
tural instruction, was conducted by Mr. Brindley, the
subjects being the parables of our Saviour, as narrated in
the Gospels of St. Mathew and St. Luke.
The pupils then adjourned to the spacious play-ground,
where they went through their drill exercises ; after
which both visitors and scholars sat down to a cool col-
lation, which was served up in the Lecture Hall, with the
most hospitable liberality. "The health of Mr. and Mrs.
Brindley, and prosperity to the Tarvin Hall School, "
having been proposed as a toast, was duly honoured ; the
enthusiastic cheers of the boys giving a pleasing assurance
of the cordiality of their attachment to the Principal and
his amiable wife.
_ _

The dormitwies and all the school premises were then
inspected by the visitors, who were unanimous in their ex-
pressions of approval to the regard of health, cleanliness,
and comf, rt, with the whole of the arrangements exhibited.
The examinations were again resumed, when recitations
in Greek, Latin, French, and German, were respectively
spoken by the pupils, with marked "emphasis and discre-
tion, " evincing an evident appreciation of the beauties of
the several compositions, from the Medea of Euripides, the
/Eneid of Virgil, La Fontaine's "Le paysan du Danube,"
the poems of Schiller, and other German author s. Ex-
aminations in Geography and English History followed ;
Arithmetical and Mathematical problems, worked by the
scholars, were submitted to the notice of the company,
with every facility for testing the acquirements of the
pupils : the mode of Book-keeping taught in the establish-
ment was explained and illustrated by sets of mercantile
books and correspondence, which the boys are instructed
to manage; and the specimens of which, as well as those
of Writing and Drawing, were highly creditable; some of
them. indeed, were admirably executed.

Medd, of Stockport, was again at the head of the Clas-
sical and French departments; Sprague, of London, was
first in Mathematics; Silvester, of West Bromwich, and
Gaussen, of Magherafelt, Ireland, in German; P. Moore,
Birmingham, in drawing; and Vernon, Willington, in
book-keeping and surveying. It was stated that 500
marks had been fixed upon as the greatest number that
could be obtained for the principal mathematical paper.
Sprague obtained the full marks, having worked out
every proposition without an error. Vernon's set of books,
by double entry, and the ground plan of Tarvin Hall,
with the outbuildings, gardens, &c., surveyed and drawn
on a scale of the twentieth of an inch to a foot, were most
creditable performances.
The examination being ended, Mr. Brindley delivered
an address with much eloquence and feeling, during
which he described the progress of his establishment, his
method of management, the qualifications of the different
masters engaged, the nature of the studies pursued, and
the domestic economy by which the institution was regu-
lated. He thanked his friends for the support which he
had already received; and stated that he was now in a
state to carry out, in every particular, the course of in-
struction detailed in his original prospectus.

_ . .
In the course of the afternoon, George Harrison, Esq.,
visiting surgeon to the establishment, made a viva voce
report to the visitors assembled in the Lecture Hall, of
the sanatory condition of the Institution, which he
described as having been remarkably free from disease;
a circumstance which he attributed to the domestic trea -
merit of the boys, and the salubrious locality of the school.
The company and pupils, at the close of the examina-
tions, re-assembled at the tea-tables, and having partaken
of the social repast, the natonal anthem was sung ; after
which the party separated, expressing their warmest ap-
probation of the proceedings in which they had been en-
gage 1, and their decided satisfaction at the manner in
which the educational and domestic arrangements at Tar-
vin Hall are carried into effect. Tarvin, our more dis-
tant readers may not be aware, is a pleasant village, about
five miles from Chester. The Hall has a front elevation
113 feet in length. The School buildings, which are de-
tached, are 130 feet in length, and consist of a Lecture
Hal! and Refectory, 40 feet by thirty, and 30 feet high ;
four class rooms, each 20 feet square, communicating with
each other; and a Gymnasium about 40 feet by 30.
These apartments open into a spacious play-ground
which has a southern aspect, commanding an uninterupted
view of Beeston Castle and the picturesque scenery of the
Cheshire and the Welsh hills. There are also fields and
gardens attached, to which the pupils have free access,
a swimming bath, and every other convenience suited to a
large educational establishment.—Chester Courant.

EXHIBITION AT THE MECHANICS'

INSTITUTION.

The third polytechnic exhibition that has been got up
by the active managers of the Mechanics' Institution in
this town is already on view, although little more than a
week has elapsed since the examination of the pupils of
the schools took place in the rooms, prior to their being
" let loose" for the summer holidays. When the great
accumulation of works of art and science, curiosities,
mechanical and other models, and wonders of various
kinds, arranged within the walls within so brief a period, ,
is taken into account, the meed of extreme industry and
celerity of movement is due to tile directors and to the
men under them, who must have toiled night and day to
pour done.ng
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PletiOn ; the catalogues, too, (which could not well be
vafmoca Ucoohet lafare
prepared sooner) have yet to be printed, so that to at-
tempt a detailed account at the present time would be
somewhat premature. We have not ourselves, moreover,
yet had an opportunity of taking more than a cursory
glance at some of the more attractive portions of the ex-
tensive exhibition, but from what we have seen we can
confidently recommend it to the public as furnishing a
most interesting lounge for a few hours, and that too at a
comparatively moderate expense. We shall institute no
comparisons between its general merits and those of the
previous exhibitions at the same place ; for this is a (peg.
tion which, according to the various opinions of individuals
and their peculiar turn of mind or of study, will resolve
itself into a matter of taste. Suffice it to say that a sight
of the multitudinous works, artistic and mechanical, is
worth far more than the money, and we doubt not but
many even of those who do not avail themselves of
sea-
son tickets, will soon, through themselves and friends,
make up the difference to the treasury by repeated visits.
In one room we noticed a great number of beautiful
models of engines, machinery, ships, &c., and also a su-
perb papier male bed-stead—the head and foot-boards
beautifully painted and varnished like the finest modem
specimens of tea trays. We thence found our way into
the Egyptian and Eastern curiosity room, in the centre
of which stands a splendid Burmese carriage, or coach of
state, captured, we believe, from a prince, and which in
gorgeous and quaint decorations leaves far behind the
state carriage of our metropolitan Lord Mayor. It is
surmounted by a gilded erection resembling the top of a
Chinese temple ; is panelled and glazed all round ;
studded with knobs of bright metal; has very light well-
made wheels, and is extremely curious in all its details.
The walls of the same room are covered with the veritable
casts in plaster of Paris of Egyptian pictures and por-
traits, the figures raised in basso relievo, and coloured,
taken by the celebrated Belzoni himself from the originals.
These we understand were recently redeemed from ob-

seurity and decay, having been found amongst the lum-
ber of a cellar in London. They are considered very
valuable, and they are certa"nly curious as conveying the
pictorial taste of the remarkable people who produced
them. We thence, moving on, found ourselves within the
mazes of a labyrinthine grotto and cavern, snowing at
several points, right and left, as we proceeded, a series of
wonderful pictorial illusions, formed in recesses,—
namely, a mountainous view of the Tyrot ; the basaltic
caverns of Fingal, in the Western Islands of Scotland ;
an excavated Indian Temple ; the Isle of Elephanta ; the
Catacombs of Egypt, a blue cave ; the Isle of Capri ; and
coral islands and grottos in the Sou'h S •as. These are
all very beautiful, and, apparently, faithful resemblances
of the wonders and beautiful scenes they reprosent. The
light (gas) is admitted from the roof, but the flame is in-
visible to the spectator, and thus favours the illusion. In
one of them the sun is shining forth, and sparkles
brightly on the gently rippling waves. The basaltic co-
lumns, and rocks of the caverns are admirably thrown
out ; and the views above ground are painted in a de-
licate and masterly style. The pictorial part is
the work of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Parker, of the
Theatre Royal, and the mechanical part by Mr. Wilmore.
Descending from this curious labyrinth (the whole of
which, together with the views, though intricate, and ap-
parently of great extent in the perspective, is constructed
within a room only 28 feet long !) we reached a still more
extraordinary and unexpected scene uhicn occupies the
whole of the lower preparatory school—a Glaciarium, or
Alpine Winter Scene, surrounded on three sides by pines
and other trees, coated with apparently real snow, and
with a frozen lake of artificial ice, on which numerous
skaters were busily and rapidly moving in all the evolu-
tions of their art, while some were here and there gather-
ing themselves up after a fall—the whole forming a most
amusing mele, in no respect different from what may be
witnessed during a severe frost on St. Domingo
though in an apparently more northern latitude. The
pond is surrounded on one side and at the ends by fir
trees and palings " of the same," with a walk for the
spectators, which was much crowded ; and in the distance
at the further side rise in pictoral illu&ion piqued and
snow-clad mountains, with straggling and stunted fir trees
in the hollows. One could scarcely believe but he was in
a frigid region in the depth of winter, but for the high
temperature of the place, the exuding drops on the fore-
heads of many present. convincing them that they were at
home in the warmth of June. There is an inclined plane
covered with the same glassy material, and down which
several of the more adventurous skaters " precipitated"
themselveawith great velocity, making,with the impetus ac-
quired in the descent, nearly the whole circle of the pond.
Not a few, however, fell heavily at the bottom, and in
their pain probably exclaimed, (if they were scholastic.)
" facilis eat descensus ad-." The ice is, we learn,
formed of bisulphate of soda, or salts; is very hard, and
when first laid down was smoothed with joiners' planes.
It cuts with skate irons precisely like common ice, and a
man is employed to sweep off the snowy particles. The
surface is renewed every morning with a slight moist coat-
ing of the material, and then again presents all the ap-
pearance of the real thing itself, and has apparently all its
slippery properties. From " the Alps" we visited the 12
Cartoons in a " higher latitude." These were selected as
of superior met it, from the recent exhibition at West-
minster Hall. They are very large, and embrace a variety
of historical subjects—British and Foreign. The Plague
in London; the Execution of Wallace; King Alfred re-
ceiving prisoners; St. Augustine (we believe) impressing
upon King Alfred the beauties of Christianity ; Boadicea ;
and Nos. 6 and 7 (the subjects of which we could not re-
cognise) are amongst the best, but we have not yet eat,
mined the whole with attention. They are certainly one
of the greatest attractions in the exhibition. At the top
of the staircase are some beautiful carvings of game, fish,
fruit, foliage, &c., in box-wood and apple-tree, by a
London artist, so finely and minutely cut that they appear
to be exquisite castings. In the picture gallery there are
some good specimens, though the collection in this and
the drawing department is scarcely equal to that of the
last exhibition. Amongst them are M'Clise's fine pic-
ture of "Snap-apple, Night," which, though an early
production of that artist, is quite Hogarthian in character
and humour ; and Beard's celebrated Slavery picture.
When we add that there is an egg-hatching apparatus, a
model of a coal-mine, numerous models of locomotives,
&c., a vast collection of curiosities and antiquities, auto-
graphs, dissolving views, a powerful galvanic and electric
apparatus, statuary, processes of various manufactures, a
fine diorama, a series of concerts, and in the yard a
diving-bell (in which visitors may descend to the depths
of a large reserioir), &c., &c., we need say no more to
induce a visit to the exhibition.