_Habet populus Romanus ad quos gubernacula rei publicae deferat_: _qui
ubicunque terrarum sunt_, _ibi omne est rei publicae praesidium_, _vel
potius ipsa res publica_.
CICERO.
HAMLET. _Is not parchment made of sheep-skins_?
HORATIO. _Ay_, _my lord, and of calf-skins too_.
HAMLET. _They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that_.
SHAKESPEARE.
The Trustees of the School met at Uppingham on March 11th. This was the
earliest opportunity of consulting them collectively on the resolution to
break up the school and to migrate, which had been taken on the 7th. They
sanctioned the breaking up of the school. On the question of its removal
elsewhere they recorded no opinion.
Meanwhile a reconnaissance was being made by one of our body, who was
despatched to visit, as in a private capacity, Borth, and two or three
other spots on the Welsh coasts, while inquiries were also made in other
directions.
On Monday, 13th, the Headmaster left Uppingham for a visit to the sites
which promised most favourably. A deep snow on the ground made the
departure from home seem the more cheerless, but it had melted from the
Welsh hills before we reached them. On Tuesday, the party--which now
consisted of the Headmaster, two of the staff, and one of the Trustees
(whose services on this occasion, and many others arising out of it, we
find it easier to remember than to acknowledge as they deserve)--stayed a
night at the inland watering-place of Llandrindod, one of the suggested
sites. The bleak moors round it were uninviting enough that squally
March day. But the question of settling here was dismissed at once;
there was not sufficient house-room in the place. So next morning we
bore down upon Borth.
The first sight of the place seemed to yield us assurance of having
reached our goal. The hotel is a long oblong building with two slight
retiring wings, beyond which extends a square walled enclosure of what
was then green turf; Cambrian Terrace overlooks the enclosure at right
angles to the hotel, the whole reminding us remotely of a college
quadrangle. On entering the hotel, the eye seized on the straight roomy
corridors which traverse it, and the wide solid staircase, as features of
high strategic importance. A tour of the rooms was made at once, and an
exact estimate taken of the possible number of beds. Besides two other
members of the staff, who joined the pioneers at Borth, the school
medical officer had come down to meet us, and reported on what lay within
his province. Meanwhile two of the party were conducted by mine host to
explore a "cricket-ground" close to the hotel, or at least a plot of
ground to which adhered a fading tradition of a match between two local
elevens. The "pitch" was conjecturally identified among some rough
hillocks, over the sandy turf of which swept a wild northwester, "shrill,
chill, with flakes of foam," and now and then a driving hailstorm across
the shelterless plain. So little hospitable was our welcome to a home
from which we were sometime to part not without regretful memories.
Next day, March 16th, a contract was signed, which gave us the tenancy of
the hotel till July 21st, with power to renew the contract at will for a
further term after the summer holidays. Our landlord, Mr. C. Mytton, was
to provide board (according to a specified dietary) and bed (at least bed-
room) for all who could be lodged in his walls, and board (with light and
firing) for the whole party; to supply the service for the kitchen, and
to undertake the laundry. Servants for attendance on the boys were to be
brought by the masters. The payment was to be 1 pound a head per week
for all who were lodged and boarded, or boarded only, in the hotel. For
washing, and one or two other matters, an extra charge was admitted. We
have only to add that the bargain was one with which both parties, under
their respective circumstances, had reason to be satisfied; and that the
arrangement worked not more stiffly than could be expected where the
large margin of the unforeseen left so much to subsequent interpretation.
Even Dido and Hiarbas were not agreed about the precise width of a bull's-
hide. We do not, however, wish it to be inferred from this classical
parallel, that our settlers claim to have rivalled the adroitness of the
Punic queen in her dealings with the barbarian prince:
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