Part 11 (2/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: BANKWELL.]

In September, 1897, an Old Boys' Club was formed under the presidency of the Headmaster in order to maintain a closer union between past and present members of the School, and to organize Meetings and Athletics.

The Scheme met with considerable support, and from time to time meetings and dinners have been held.

For the most part of the last twenty years of the century the numbers of the School had been too great for the Hostel to include them all. In 1894 there were two hundred and eight boys in the School, of whom only twenty to twenty-five were Day Boys. Craven Bank had consequently been used as another Dormitory. Bankwell, and for a time Hollybank, were filled with some of the younger boys. The great difficulty under which the School laboured was the frequent change of Masters, especially of those who took the higher forms. It was therefore suggested that the House System as opposed to the Dormitory System should be given a trial.

Hollybank was no longer needed in 1900 to take the overplus from Bankwell, and a Master was put in charge of it, in the hope that older boys would come. The attractions were twofold. In the first place it was intended to give the Master in charge of it an opportunity of marrying and the expectation of a sufficient income to make him content to continue at Giggleswick. In the second place it was hoped that the fact of a man being married would tend to induce parents to send their boys more readily. Unfortunately the scheme was not wholly successful, and was soon abandoned.

Every boy in the School attended the Gymnasium, which since its opening in 1887 had been under the superintendence of Sergeant-Major Cansdale.

Many boys also learned carpentry in the Joiners' Shop, which had been fitted with benches and lathes, and other necessary materials in the upper room of the Old School.

This brief summary of the School life was depicted at the Educational Exhibition and it was a worthy record for a small School. It will be seen that the main characteristic of the School was that it was amongst the first to adapt itself to modern needs. It is probably no exaggeration to say that at that period no school in England could approach Giggleswick in the practical teaching of Science; to this was due a great measure of its success. In every branch of school life excellence was attained, an unusual number of Scholars.h.i.+ps were won and the Football Fifteen for two successive seasons in 1894 and 1895 never had a single point scored against them in any School Match.

Throughout the history of the School there have been very few signs of literary exuberance. Only one School song has been written, called ”Now Reds” by Mr. J. R. Cornah for the _Giggleswick Chronicle_, April, 1898.

The _Giggleswick Chronicle_ was begun in 1880 but it was edited by Masters and was intended rather to place on record the terminal life of the School than aspire to literary eminence. As such it has achieved its purpose and is a valuable and interesting record. But apart from official matter boys have shewn themselves very loth to summon forth their energies and write. With one exception no paper, written by boys alone, has been published since the _Olio_ caused Sir Walter Scott to smile.

The Boer War claimed a certain number of Old Boys, some of whom did extremely well. Captain H. H. Schofield distinguished himself at the Battle of Colenso, and helped to rescue two guns, for which he gained the Victoria Cross, while Lieutenant S. A. Slater was largely responsible for a clever and daring capture of Bultfontein. Altogether at least nineteen boys went out.

CHAPTER XI.

The Chapel.

House of Commons Library, March 1, 1897.

Dear Style,

I have an idea in my head of offering to build the School a Chapel with a Dome as an architectural experiment, employing Jackson, the famous Oxford Architect. One would call it the Diamond Jubilee Memorial. Site the knoll in the Cricket Field.

We have very few domes in England and it might give a hint to others.

But I should like to hear any suggestions of yours. A Domed Building on the site should look well. It would need much thinking out as we do not understand Domes. The Round Church at Cambridge gives some hints.

Yours truly, W. MORRISON.

Rev. G. Style.

This letter was received by the Headmaster on March 2. The effect of such news coming without any previous warning can be imagined. The difficulty of commemorating the Diamond Jubilee year had seemed overwhelming and this unexpected offer from Mr. Walter Morrison dissipated the troubles in a moment. In the second place a School Chapel had alone been wanting to complete the seclusion and privacy of the School, and hitherto the prospect of such a building had seemed unattainable. It was now offered as a gift.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALTER MORRISON J.P.]

Mr. Morrison had recently returned from travelling in the East and had been greatly impressed by one particular feature of Eastern Architecture. The dome is almost universal in Palestine, and Mr.

Morrison desired that an architectural experiment should be made in England. He wished to see the School Chapel built in the Gothic Style but with a dome. Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A., was approached upon the subject and remembering that his former Master, Sir Gilbert Scott, had always hoped to undertake such a work, he gladly made his plans.

The aim of all the best Architecture is to construct a building of such a kind that it will withstand the ruin of the ages and will prove an opportunity for doing well whatever it is built for. The purpose of a house is that a man should be able to live in it. The essence of a church is that it should provide a place of wors.h.i.+p. It is easy enough to construct a four-square building with accommodation for a required number of people but brick walls are not sufficient. Utility does not consist only in adequate s.p.a.ce; it has many other features, closely inwoven with it. Fitness is the keynote of beauty. Taken by themselves there is little beauty to be seen in two parallel straight iron lines running through the country-side, but conceive of them as railway lines, adequately and without any unnecessary waste of material performing the office for which they were made, and few sights can be more charged with the very essence of beauty. The purpose that underlies the construction and the complete fulfilment of that purpose is beauty.

But a Church cannot be content only with a building sufficiently well-built to hold its wors.h.i.+ppers and sufficiently in tone with its surroundings to express the unity of art and nature. It has a further form of expression that it must satisfy. It is a religious building, and as such its characteristics and its form must exemplify religious tendencies and thought. A barn can be supremely beautiful, but it does not radiate the atmosphere of wors.h.i.+p. A Church must be characterized by certain great and instinctive elements of grandeur, it must breathe the spirit of reverence, it must, as Ruskin says, ”speak well and say the things it was intended to say in the best words.” Giggleswick School Chapel may justly be said to fulfil all these conditions. It is in harmony with its surroundings, and it is a structure of great architectural beauty, that is to say, it expresses its purpose in the best way.

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