Part 2 (1/2)

[3] ”The wood belonged to the Hazeldeans, the furze-land to the Sticktorights--an old Saxon family if ever there was one” _My Novel_

Book I

III

HARROVIANA

”I may have failed, my School may fail; I tremble, but thus much I dare; I love her Let the critics rail, My brethren and my home are there”

W CORY

Everyone who travels by the North Western, or the Great Central, or the Midland Railway, must be conversant with the appearance of that ”Pinnacle perched on a Precipice,” which was Charles II's idea of the Visible Church on Earth--the Parish Church of Harrow on the Hill Anselm consecrated it, Becket said Mass in it, and John Lyon, the Founder of Harrow School, lies buried in it When I was a Harrow boy, the Celebrations of the Holy Coenerally late; so some of us were accustomed to communicate every Sunday at the 8 o'clock service in the Parish Church But even in holy places, and amid sacred associations, the ludicrous is apt to assert itself; and I could never sufficiently adentleman who died of the first Refore of the Admiralty in Ireland

Without an equal at the University, a rival at the Bar, Or a superior in chaste and classic eloquence in Parliament

Honoured, Revered, Admired, Beloved, Deplored, By the Irish Bar, the Senate and his country, He sunk beneath the efforts of athe Revolutionary Invasion of the Religion and Constitution of England, On the 29th of Septee”

Alas! poor Mr North What would he have felt if he had lived to see the Reform Bills of 1867 and 1885? Clearly he was taken away from the evil to come

Until the Metropolitan Railway joined Harrow to Baker Street, the Hill stood in the enuine and unspoilt country, separated by five rass from the nearest point of London, and enco in rank and scale from villas to country houses Most of these have fallen victims to the Speculative Builder, and have been cut up into alleys of brick and stucco, though one or two still re their hay-fields and rhododendrons When I first ascended Harrow Hill, I drove there from London with rass erow timber Harroas then a much prettier place than it is now The far-seen ellory, and the whole effect of the Hill ooded So an Eton man and Harrow master[5] wrote:--

”Collis incola frondei Nympha, sive lubentius Nostra Pieris audies, Lux adest; ades O tuis Herga[6] mater, alumnis!”

”Goddess of the leafy Hill, Nyins the lay,-- Herga, be our guest to-day”

The site now covered by the externally hideous Speech-roo-bath and a tennis-court--was then a garden In truth, it only grew strawberries and cabbages, but to the i pleasaunces of Seifts and accomplishments, had no aesthetic or artistic sense; and, under his rule, the whole place was over-run by terrible combinations of red and black brick; and the beautiful view froe plain, was obstructed by some kind of play-shed, with a little spout atop--the very is at Harrow, by far theis what is now called ”The Fourth Forinal rooe and convenient school-house with a chiee Day School that Harrow originally was Its stout brick walls have faced the western breezes of three hundred years, and in their mellow richness of tint rele roos--Chapel and Library and School-Roo as it exists, Harroill be visibly and tangibly connected with its Founder's prescient care

John Lyon knew nothing of Conscience Clauses He ordained that all his school-boys should attend the Parish Church; and so they did, stoay in galleries where hearing was difficult and kneeling impossible

In 1836 Dr Christopher Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, was elected Head-entle Longley Seeing that Worshi+p was practically i conditions, he set to work to build a Chapel It occupied the sament of it reraceful structure The Chapel was consecrated by the Visitor, Archbishop Howley, in 1839 Dr Wordsworth, justly proud of his handiwork, invited his brother-master, Dr Hawtrey of Eton, to view it

Much to Wordsworth's surprise, Hawtrey did not take off his hat on entering the Chapel; but, when he neared the altar, started back in confusion, and exclaiy, ”I assure you, my dear friend, I had no notion that ere already inside the Sacred Edifice”

So inally constructed, but tihan added a Chancel with an apsidal end, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott

Next, the central passage of the Chapel became a Nave, with pillars and a North Aisle Then the South Aisle was added, and decorated with glass before which one shudders, as a Memorial to Harrow men who fell in the Crimea So the Chapel re between transepts and side-chapels, were added in memory of Harrow men who fell in South Africa The total result of these successive changes is a building of reular shape, but richly decorated, and sanctified by innu since loved and lost A tablet, near which as a new boy I used to sit, bears this inscription--

In mournful and affectionate ree, Oxford, and forh the Strait Gate of Huht and true knowledge of Him Who is our Peace