Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-21
MIR. wAKEMAN,S JOURNEYINGs.
Day at Rugby, England-Its Envi-
 ment-Historical-Th Ruins of keniIworth-Origin of the Famous School at Rugby Town-Its foun-


 ronment-Historical Ruins of
 keniIworth-Origin of the Famous
 School at Rugby TOwn-Its foun-
 der.
 RUGBY, England, March ,.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 In the very heart of England, and in the sunniest of all its midland shires, closely surrounded by scenes of the most romantic and historic interest, stands the fine old town of Rugby. Roche-berie from roche, rock or stone-quarry, and berie, a court or habitation of note, you will see it called in King Williams Domes- day book; but in the Dictionaire Celtique it's orthography became Rokeby, from ruc a river and bye, town, that is, a river town or town near or by a stream, which name prevailed for many centuries.
 Its environment is historically remarka- ble. It stands at what was once the edge of the great and historic forest of Arden, | which lay between the banks of the Avon, | Taent and Severn. In the seventeen cen tury the first great battle between the kings and the parliamentary forces was fought at Edge Hill, twenty-five miles to | the south, to which the lads of the Rugby | school often make excursions; and distant | from Edge Hill but six miles is Banbury, | of the cherished nursery-rhyme memory, | and to whose toothsome cheese Shakes | peare likened Falstaff, because of his fat and rich habit. Not two miles away from Rugby the Avon is enlarged by the river | Swift, memorable for having borne to | ocean wastes the ashes of Wickliffe, when his bones were burned by order of the | council of Sienna. Quite as near is Wat ling street, the most stupendous of the | old Roman works in Britain, and an eighty-mile tramp will take you over it, in | the very track of the ancient legions, into | London. Not far away, in the adjoining side of Northampton, is Fotheringhay notably connected with the lives and fates | of princes, and famous and infamous as | the place of execution of Mary Queen ot
 Scots. The grand old ruins of Kenil- | worth, with its memories of jousts, tour naments and revelries of Elizabeth, is but | a dozen miles to the west. Coventry, with it's legends of pilgrimages and the deed of
 Godiva which brought freedom to the city
 is nearer still. Warwickshire possesses nc
 less than sixty-four great seats with theil
 castles and halls, from Allesley Park tc
 Wroxall House, besides many fine cathe
 drals, and superb monastery and castl,
 ruins. While but a summer days wall
 down the gently-iowing Avon, is Strat ford, tomb and shrine of the worlds i'm
 mortal bard.
 Rugby was never widely noted-for i
 had founded no abbeys, built no cathe
 drals, originated no pilgrimages, and GU
 off the head of no great prince-un
 til one big hearted, big -brained English
 man, Tom Hughes, told of his boyish ex
 periences in "Tom Browns School Days a
 Rugby" in such a winsome way that h l drew the heart of every boy, young ant
 old, so tenderly to the brick quadrangl . here that in reminiscence and affection it has become a genuine shrine for an
 manly sort of fellow that ever had an school-days of his own, throughout al christendom.
 Outside of the fortuitous fame give Rugby town and school by Tom Brown School Days," the present great impo1
 
 tor in England had its origin in almost a accident, and its grandest development i
 an equally fortunate incident. Its found !, CT was as fanatical an old pudge as eve lived in England. His name was Lau renee Sheriff He was born of lowly pa rentage at Rugby, and became an ordins z " nimble-fisted fireen-grocer of the tim in London, frequenting the Rose Taver and exciting religious brawls while in hi !. cups. On one of these occasions an equa ly addle- pated haberdasher whom Sherit
 had incensed with his maudlin harangue ? about himself, the Lord, and good leyd ! Elizabeth-afterwards Queen Bess-ha the audacity to call Princess Elizabeth ''
 Jill" On this monstrous offence bein given Sheriff ran away as fast as his dun U py legs could carry him; had an 'infonni , l tion" laid against the haberdasher befoI ! ! the bishop of London; for which the wi | less purveyor of ancient furbelows ''got ! flap with a fox tail," and Sheriff got h l luminous name in Fox's Book of Martyr q This valiant grocer died in London - 1867, bequeathing a mite of property
 and near Rugby, and, originally, one hul | dred and fifty pounds in money, the walt J of the total bequest at that time not 6: y ceeding four hundred pounds-for the pu z pose of building Ia fayre and conveniel T school house. in the then village of Ru by. The master was, Eff it convenient might be, to be ever Master of Arts e There was also to be lodging for fo, T almsmen. Out of this munifcent beque y the trustees were enabled, about one hul dred years later, in 1853, to solemnly Il cree a payment to the schoolmaster of / salary of three pounds per quarter, ar > to the almsmen a gift of seven shilling l. and seven pence per quarter. Accordir II | +n I SharifTfo Q and intent" Rugby school would have T .e mained to this day precisely this mann 'l of ha'penny charity. At the last m 'e s ment the wary old miser repented of was o ing so much money on grammar-schola l. and almsmen, and, by codicil, substitut, >, in lieu of the grant of one hundred al y fifty pounds, one-third of twenty fol T. rhen valueless acres of land belonging 7, him in Middlesex. The field was an u III slightly waste in the Conduit Close E, Gray's Inn Fields. After many yea mighty London overran the spot; Co duit Fields became one of its most arist g, cratic districts; the present income fro Il the property must exceed twenty thousar 10 pounds per annum; and this is how Rugl Y school became one of the most splendi IS IS and undoubtedly the richest non- -sectaria 'n boys schools in the world.
 But better than its accidental veal
 was Rugby's incidental transformatit
 from the old system of hammering al
 bullying to one guided by intelligence al
 humanity. In 1928 along came a demu
 and kindly faced man, whom the wor
 now knows as the famous Dr. Arnol
 He became head master of Rugby I
 was quiet, unassuning man, who, whi
 he happened to embrace Christianity ar ne become great scholar, seemed not
 have fOrQ0ttpn that nnrfinn Of his h to had been passed in b5yhood and yout
 time. He fought great though sile st battle at Rugby with the old feudal forr
 of sneering dignity, lofty exclusivene
 and relentlessness on the part of unde
 masters, and with the defenders of t
 bludgeon generally. He got together m g. who would teach languages and natl