The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-24
ARNOLD'S RUGBY.
Glimpsee of the Famous Old School
 and Playground.

out on High Street. One does not sweep by it around Deadman's Corner in an old-fashioned stagecoach behind four horses, as Tom Brown did, but comes upon it after circuitous stroll from the railway station; yet there it is on guard, with flag fiuttering and the gray lines of the old school house behind it-and it is Rugby If one turns to right or to left in Lawrence Sheriff Street threre will be disappoint- ing glimpses of the frightfully modern and inartistic Italian quadrangle, with bewildering glints of brick and slate in many colors, or of the spick and span new schools, nine huge, window riddled masters houses, and the museum with Thomas Hughess statue in front of it; but if one keeps straight on through the gateway into the Old Quadrangle the clock tower will be over the high archway leading to the dining hall; behind it will loom up the ivy clad turret of the headmaster'c house; there will be low clotsters on two sides with form rooms, studies and dormitories above and behind them; on a third side will be the old, big schoolroom, with a row of studies above it, and at the southwest corner passage will lead from the dimly | lighted cloisters to the beautiful close, with it's broad stretches of turf, lines of , elms and the island tumulus of the old-time bogs far in the background, ] This is Arnolds Rugby, as one of the best of the old boys, Tom Hughes,
 described it for all time; and so clear and sharp are the silhouesttes in flashes
 of memory that the scenes of the schoolboy's classic come back with in
 tense realism as the visitor rummages
 about in the quadrangle and in the close.
 Barely within the entrance gateway is the old fves court, where the house.
 boys sang on Saturday afternoons in
 Tom Browns day; and a spiral stair
 case leads to the high room with the
 bow window, where Dr, Arnold taught
 the sixth form. In the austere dining hall, with the high oak waiuscot, are
 the bullies roasted the rebellious flag;
 and by side door are reached the passages, flanked by studies, like rows of boxes, where Brown and East plotted their war of independence from creul flag masters. From the inner court another passage opens into the headmasters study, where the three truants, looking like scarcrows,
 after a cross-country run, were com mended by the benignart Dr. Arnold, | his eyes twinkling with merriment, to the mercies of the housekeeper, with an extra allowance of jam. The
 storms have played havoc with the
 ancient elms lines of them having been uprooted and cut down; and one looks in vain for the big Treen and the three trees where hostilities cen- tered in the football scrimmages; and the moat around the flags stand has
 been drained and levelled. Yet, Little-
 side and Bigside, save that the rocks have been frightened away from the playing field, are not seriously altered
 since Tom Browns struggle as a new boy with the football pack, and th5 cricket matches, in which he was cap tain of the eleven. One can still find the secluded corner of the chapel piece where the big fight Slogger came Ion, and then was broken off by the unexpected appearance of the head
 master. In the chapel itself every thing has been turned about and up-
 set by architects in enlargements and revolutions; but the beautiful picture 1 in glass, "The Alteration of the Shap-
 herds" which Dr. Arnold brought from
 an old church in Louvain, is the east
 window, and gray stone, bearing a
 cross and his name marks his grave. It is not the chapel where Tom Brown
 stood sorrowing when his schooldays
 were over and the greatest of head masters had gone forever. The old chapel after being patched up, en- larged and incorporated with more pretentious structure, finally disap- peared altogether, and new one, with a lofty have and massive tower, took it's place.
 Rugby has not had much history be- fore Dr. Arnold made 1t the most in- fluential school in England. It was founded by Lawrence Sheriff. and Elizabethan merchant, and endowed with small landed property, including mansion in Rugby, a parsonage in Brownsover village and third of an estate near the Founding Hospital, London, which increased in value to
 95,OO0 a year. The first schoolhouse was opposite the parish church in the center of the village, and was hardly better than a big barn. The progress of the school was slow in consequence of bad financial management, constant litigation and difficulties in carrying out the founders plan of offering free education to the sons of residents. I About TAO new site, consisting of a manor house and farm lands, was pur- chased on the south side of the village. A schoolroom with clock tower was built adjoining the mansion, and barns and ether farm buildings were tenn porarily used. AS the attendance in- creased from 70 to over 300 boys re- construction of the buildings became necessary. From 1909 to 1915, at an expense of $175, ,G0O, the headmasters S 1 house and schoolroom were rebuilt |