New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-07
HARROW SCHOOL.
ParochiaI Charity Widened ont Into
Great Educational Establishment.
Harrow, December Is.

Harrow, December 10
The most expensive school in England had
modest beginning as a parochial charity Har-
row had neither an ecclesiastical foundation, like
winchester, nor royal one, like Elton. Its
founder John Lyon while living in the Eliza
bethan era of sea power and empire building,
was a Little Englander with parochial mind
Inheriting small estate and increasing it by
thrifty trading, he left portion of it for the
maintenance of a good road from Harrow to
London and the remainder for free grammar
school for the benefit of farmers and trades
people in the village The endowment was so
slender that, while the school was founded in
1911, about the time of Rugby, it was not until
1915 That the building finished for the &C
commodation of forty free scholars; and it was
not until advantage was taken of one of the
founders afterthoughts and pay scholars were
admitted that Harrow was in the way OF being
p great school In the eighteenth century Elton
markedly Tory nursery that Wing
families began to send their boys to Harrow
School. This helped to make it a fashionable
school, when the Duke of Chandos had favored
II with his patronage. Five Prime Ministers,
Lord Goderich Spencer, Perceval, Lord Aberdeen.
Sir Robert Peel and Lord Palmerston, were edu-
Gated here, and the present Lord Spencer came
being the sixth. The boarding houses built
for the accommodation of young noblemen aud
rich merchants were spacious those
at Elton. There were local appeals to the courts
for the protection of the sons Of tradesmen and
suburban residents. who could not keep up with
the young nabobs; but Chancery and the Public
School Commission were against the original
charity and there was a final compromise when
the Lower School of John Lyon opened on
Che edge of the sixth form cricket ground, where
a commercial education could be offered to the
sons of townspeople at low cost with free Latin.
TlTT+ he houo of arr q
Last forty years a second endowment fund has
been provided the school estate increased by
more than two hundred acres and large group
CT modern structures added. In this way John
Lyons Tudor charity school has become Eton's
most formidable rival in the education of boys
belongi lg to the privileged and wealthy classes.
The visitor strolling along High-st. toward
the parish church at the crest of Harrow Hill
Is astonished alike by the ranges of meadow and
park and by the modern aspect of the school
buildings. He is barely more than eight miles
from Charing Cross, yet the soiled fringe of
suburban ugliness has been folded back and
there is a broad oasis of playing fields and park
land among the closely built stretches of brick
cottages and detached villas. The old school on
the hilltop overlooking London was in the way
of being suffocated by suburban improvements
and building operations when DR.. Weldon was
headmaster; and its redemption by the purchase
of outlying grounds and estates involved in
vestment of more than $4500O0 subscribed by
old boys and masters Among these spacious
grounds there is only one building, rather a
single wing of it, which lay claim to
tiquty This is the red brick Old Schools, where
ell the work was done for more than two centu-
ries and where men as famous Rodney. Sheri-
dan Byron, Dalhousie and the five Harrovian
Prime Ministers were trained for great careers.
arbe fourth form room, with its mullioned win