SCHOOL DAYS AT RICHMOND AND RUGBY.
With the removal to Croft, Mr. Dodgson was brought more and more into
prominence; he was appointed examing chaplain to the Bishop of Ripon, and
finally he was made Archdeacon of Richmond and one of the Canons of Ripon
Cathedral.
The Grammar School at Richmond was well known in that section of England.
It was under the rule of a certain Mr. Tate, whose father, Dr. Tate, had
made the school famous some years before, and it was there that our Boy
had his first taste of school life.
Holidays in those days were not arranged as they are now, for one of the
first letters of Charles, sent home from Richmond, was dated August 5th;
so it is probable that the term began in midsummer. This special letter
was written to his two eldest sisters and gives an excellent picture of
those first days, when as a "new boy" he suffered at the hands of his
schoolmates. As advanced as he was in Latin and Greek and mathematics,
this letter, for a twelve-year-old boy, does not show any remarkable
progress in English. The spelling was precise and correct, but the
punctuation was peculiar, to say the least.
Still his description of the school life, when one overcame the presence
of commas and the absence of periods, presented a vivid picture to the
mind. He tells of the funny tricks the boys played upon him because he was
a "new boy." One was called "King of the Cobblers." He was told to sit on
the ground while the boys gathered around him and to say "Go to work";
immediately they all fell upon him, and kicked and knocked him about
pretty roughly. Another trick was "The Red Lion," and was played in the
churchyard; they made a mark on a tombstone and one of the boys ran toward
it with his finger pointed and eyes shut, trying to see how near he could
get to the mark. When _his_ turn came, and he walked toward the tombstone,
some boy who stood ready beside it, had his mouth open to bite the
outstretched finger on its way to the mark. He closes his letter by
stating three uncomfortable things connected with his arrival--the loss of
his toothbrush and his failure to clean his teeth for several days in
consequence; his inability to find his blotting-paper, and his lack of a
shoe-horn.
The games the Richmond boys played--football, wrestling, leapfrog and
fighting--he slurred over contemptuously, they held no attraction for him.
A schoolboy or girl of the present day can have no idea of the discomforts
of school life in Charles Dodgson's time, and the boy whose gentle
manners were the result of sweet home influence and association with
girls, found the rough ways of the English schoolboy a constant trial.
Strong and active as he was, he was always up in arms for those weaker and
smaller than himself. Bullying enraged him, and distasteful as it was, he
soon learned the art of using his fists for the protection of himself and
others. These were the school-days of _Nicholas Nickleby_, _David
Copperfield_, and _Little Paul Dombey_. Of course, all schoolmasters were
not like _Squeers_ or _Creakle_, nor all schoolmasters' wives like _Mrs.
Squeers_, nor indeed all schools like Dotheboys' Hall or Salem Hall, or
_Dr. Blimber's_ cramming establishment, but many of the inconveniences
were certainly prominent in the best schools.
Flogging was considered the surest road to knowledge; kind, honest,
liberal-minded teachers kept a birch-rod and a ferrule within gripping
distance, and the average schoolboy thus treated like a little beast,
could be pardoned for behaving like one. In spring or summer the big,
bare, comfortless schoolhouses were all very well, but when the days grew
chill, the small boy shivered on his hard bench in his draughty corner,
and in winter time the scarcity of fires was trying to ordinary flesh and
blood. The poor unfortunate who rose at six, and had to fetch and carry
his own water from an outdoor pump, or if he had taken the precaution to
draw it the night before, had found it frozen in his pitcher, was not to
be blamed if washing was merely a figure of speech.
Mr. and Mrs. Tate were most considerate to their boys, and Richmond was a
model school of its class. Charles loved his "kind old schoolmaster" as he
called him, and he was not alone in this feeling, for Mr. Tate's influence
over the boys was maintained through the affection and respect they had
for him. Of course he let them "fight it out" among themselves according
to the boy-nature; but the earnest little fellow with the grave face and
the eager, questioning eyes, attracted him greatly, and he began to study
him in his keen, kind way, finding much to admire and praise in the
letters which he wrote to his father, and predicting for him a bright
career. Admitting that he had found young Dodgson superior to other boys,
he wisely suggested that he should never know this fact, but should learn
to love excellence for its own sake, and not for the sake of excelling.
Charles made quite a name for himself during those first school days.
Mathematics still fascinated him and Latin grew to be second nature; he
stood finely in both, and while at Richmond he developed another taste,
the love of composition, often contributing to the school magazine. The
special story recorded was called "The Unknown One," but doubtless many a
rhyme and jingle which could be traced to him found its way into this same
little magazine, not forgetting odd sketches which he began to do at a
very early age. They were all rough, for the most part grotesque, but full
of simple fun and humor, for the quiet studious schoolboy loved a joke.
Charles stayed at the Richmond school for three years; then he took the
next step in an English boy's life, he entered Rugby, one of the great
public schools.
In America, a public school is a school for the people, where free
instruction is given to all alike; but the English public school is
another thing. It is a school for gentlemen's sons, where tuition fees are
far from small, and "extras" mount up on the yearly bills.
Rugby had become a very celebrated school when the great Dr. Arnold was
Head-Master. Up to that time it was neither so well known nor so popular
as Eton, but Dr. Arnold had governed it so vigorously that his hand was
felt long after his untimely death, which occurred just four years before
Charles was ready to enter the school. The Head-Master at that time was,
strangely enough, named Tait, spelt a little differently from the Richmond
schoolmaster. Dr. Tait, who afterwards became Archbishop of Canterbury,
was a most capable man, who governed the school for two of the three years
that our Boy was a pupil. The last year, Dr. Goulburn was Head-Master.
Charles found Rugby a great change from the quiet of Richmond. He went up
in February of 1846, the beginning of the second term, when football was
in full swing. The teams practiced on the broad open campus known as
"Big-side," and a "new boy" could only look on and applaud the great
creatures who led the game. Rugby was swarming with boys--three hundred at
least--from small fourteen-year-olders of the lowest "form," or class, to
those of eighteen or twenty of the fifth and sixth, the highest forms.
They treated little Dodgson in their big, burly, schoolboy fashion, hazed
him to their hearts' content when he first entered, shrugging their
shoulders good-naturedly over his love of study, in preference to the
great games of cricket and football.
To have a fair glimpse of our Boy's life at this period, some little idea
of Rugby and its surroundings might serve as a guide. Those who visit the
school to-day, with its pile of modern, convenient, and ugly architecture,
have no conception of what it was over sixty years ago, and even in 1846
it bore no resemblance to the original school founded by one Lawrence
Sheriffe, "citizen and grocer of London" during the reign of Henry VIII.
To begin with, it is situated in Shakespeare's own country, Warwickshire
on the Avon River, and that in itself was enough to rouse the interest of
any musing, bookish boy like Charles Dodgson.
From "Tom Brown's School Days," that ever popular book by Thomas Hughes,
we may perhaps understand the feelings of the "new boy" just passing
through the big, imposing school gates, with the oriel window above, and
entering historic Rugby.
What first struck his view was the great school field or "close" as they
called it, with its famous elms, and next, "the long line of gray
buildings, beginning with the chapel and ending with the schoolhouse, the
residence of the Head-Master where the great flag was lazily waving from
the highest round tower."
As we follow _Tom Brown_ through _his_ first day, we can imagine our Boy's
sensations when he found himself in this howling wilderness of boys. The
eye of a boy is as keen as that of a girl regarding dress, and before _Tom
Brown_ was allowed to enter Rugby gates he was taken into the town and
provided with a cat-skin cap, at seven and sixpence.
"'You see,' said his friend as they strolled up toward the school gates,
in explanation of his conduct, 'a great deal depends on how a fellow cuts
up at first. If he's got nothing odd about him and answers
straightforward, and holds his head up, he gets on.'"
Having passed the gates, _Tom_ was taken first to the matron's room, to
deliver up his trunk key, then on a tour of inspection through the
schoolhouse hall which opened into the quadrangle. This was "a great room,
thirty feet long and eighteen high or thereabouts, with two great tables
running the whole length, and two large fireplaces at the side with
blazing fires in them."
This hall led into long dark passages with a fire at the end of each, and
this was the hallway upon which the studies opened.
Now, to Charles Dodgson as well as to _Tom Brown_, a study conjured up
untold luxury; it was in truth a "Rugby boy's citadel" usually six feet
long and four feet broad. It was rather a gloomy light which came in
through the bars and grating of the one window, but these precautions had
to be taken with the studies on the ground floor, to keep the small boys
from slipping out after "lock-up" time.
Under the window was usually a wooden table covered with green baize, a
three-legged stool, a cupboard, and nails for hat and coat. The rest of
the furnishings included "a plain flat-bottom candlestick with iron
extinguisher and snuffers, a wooden candle-box, a staff-handle brush,
leaden ink-pot, basin and bottle for washing the hands, and a saucer or
gallipot for soap." There was always a cotton curtain or a blind before
the window. For such a mansion the Rugby schoolboy paid from ten to
fifteen shillings a year, and the tenant bought his own furniture. _Tom
Brown_ had a "hard-seated sofa covered with red stuff," big enough to hold
two in a "tight squeeze," and he had, besides, a good, stout, wooden
chair. Those boys who had looking-glasses in their rooms were able to comb
their own locks, those who were not so fortunate went to what was known
as the "combing-house" and had it done for them.
Unfortunately there are recorded very few details of these school-days at
Rugby. We can only conjecture, from our knowledge of the boy and his
studious ways, that Charles Dodgson's study was his castle, his home, and
freehold while he was in the school. He drew around him a circle of
friends, for the somewhat sober lad had the gift of talking, and could be
jolly and entertaining when he liked.
The chapel at Rugby was an unpretentious Gothic building, very imposing
and solemn to little Dodgson, who had been brought up in a most
reverential way, but the Rugbeans viewed it in another light. _Tom
Brown's_ chosen chum explained it to him in this wise:
"That's the chapel you see, and there just behind it is the place for
fights; it's most out of the way for masters, who all live on the other
side and don't come by here after first lesson or callings-over. That's
when the fights come off."
All this must have shocked the simple, law-abiding son of a clergyman. It
took from four to six years to tame the average Rugby boy, but little
Charles needed no discipline; he was not a "goody-goody" boy, he simply
had a natural aversion to rough games and sports. He liked to keep a whole
skin, and his mind clear for his studies; he was fond of tramping through
the woods, or fishing along the banks of the pretty, winding Avon, or
rowing up and down the river, or lying on some grassy slope, still weaving
the many odd fancies which grew into clearer shape as the years passed.
The boys at Rugby did not know he was a genius, he did not know it
himself, happy little lad, just a bit quiet and old-fashioned, for the
noisy, blustering life about him. In fact, strange as it may seem, Charles
Dodgson was never really a little boy until he was quite grown up.
He easily fell in with the routine of the school, but discipline, even as
late as 1846, was hard to maintain. The Head-Master had his hands full;
there were six under-masters--one for each form--and special tutors for
the boys who required them, and from the fifth and sixth forms, certain
monitors were selected called "praeposters," who were supposed to preserve
order among the lower forms. In reality they bullied the smaller boys, for
the system of fagging was much abused in those days, and the poor little
fags had to be bootblacks, water-carriers, and general servants to very
hard task-masters, while the "praeposter" had little thought of doing any
service for the service he exacted; in fact the unfortunate fag had to
submit in silence to any indignity inflicted by an older boy, for if by
chance a report of such doings came to the ears of the Head-Master or his
associates, the talebearer was "sent to Coventry," in other words, he was
shunned and left to himself by all his companions.
Injustice like this made little Dodgson's blood boil; he submitted of
course with the other small boys, but he always had a peculiar distaste
for the life at Rugby. He owned several years later that none of the
studying at Rugby was done from real love of it, and he specially bewailed
the time he lost in writing out impositions, and he further confessed that
under no consideration would he live over those three years again.
These "impositions" were the hundreds of lines of Latin or Greek which the
boys had to copy out with their own hands, for the most trifling
offenses--a weary and hopeless waste of time, with little good
accomplished.
In spite of many drawbacks, he got on finely with his work, seldom
returning home for the various holidays without one or more prizes, and we
cannot believe that he was quite outside of all the fun and frolic of a
Rugby schoolboy's life. For instance, we may be sure that he went bravely
through that terrible ordeal for the newcomer, called "singing in Hall."
"Each new boy," we are told, "was mounted in turn upon a table, a candle
in each hand, and told to sing a song. If he made a false note, a violent
hiss followed, and during the performance pellets and crusts of bread were
thrown at boy or candles, often knocking them out of his hands and
covering him with tallow. The singing over, he descended and pledged the
house in a bumper of salt and water, stirred by a tallow candle. He was
then free of the house and retired to his room, feeling very
uncomfortable."
"On the night after 'new boys' night' there was chorus singing, in which
solos and quartets of all sorts were sung, especially old Rugby's
favorites such as:
"'It's my delight, on a shiny night
In the season of the year,'
and the proceedings always wound up with 'God save the Queen.'"
Guy Fawkes' Day was another well-known festival at Rugby. There were
bonfires in the town, but they were never kindled until eight o'clock,
which was "lock-up" time for Rugby school. The boys resented this as it
was great fun and they were out of it, so each year there was a lively
scrimmage between the Rugbeans and the town, the former bent on kindling
the bonfires before "lock-up" time, the latter doing all they could to
hold back the ever-pressing enemy. Victory shifted with the years, from
one side to the other, but the boys had their fun all the same, which was
over half the battle.
Charles must have gone through Rugby with rapid strides, accomplishing in
three years' time what _Tom Brown_ did in eight, and when he left he had
the proud distinction of being among the _very_ few who had never gone up
a certain winding staircase leading, by a small door, into the Master's
private presence, where the rod awaited the culprit, and a good heavy rod
it was.
During these years Dickens was doing his best work, and while at Rugby,
Charles read "David Copperfield," which came out in numbers in the _Penny
Magazine_. He was specially interested in _Mrs. Gummidge_, that mournful,
tearful lady, who was constantly bemoaning that she was "a lone lorn
creetur," and that everything went "contrairy" with her. Dickens's humor
touched a chord of sympathy in him, and if we go over in our minds, the
weeping animals we know in "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the
Looking-Glass," we will find many excellent portraits of _Mrs. Gummidge_.
He also read Macaulay's "History of England," and from it was particularly
struck by a passage describing the seven bishops who had signed the
invitation to the Pretender. Bishop Compton, one of the seven, when
accused by King James, and asked whether he or any of his ecclesiastical
brethren had anything to do with it, replied: "I am fully persuaded, your
Majesty, that there is not one of my brethren who is not innocent in the
matter as myself." This tickled the boy's sense of humor. Those touches
always appealed to him; as he grew older they took even a firmer hold upon
him and he was quick to pluck a laugh from the heart of things.
His life at Rugby was somewhat of a strain; with a brain beginning to teem
with a thousand fairy fancies that the boys around him could not
appreciate, he was forced to thrust them out of sight. He flung himself
into his studies, coming out at examinations on top in mathematics, Latin,
and divinity, and saving that other part of him for his sisters, when he
went home for the holidays.
Meantime he continued to write verses and stories and to draw clever
caricatures. There is one of these drawings peculiarly Rugbean in
character; it is supposed to be a scene in which four of his sisters are
roughly handling a fifth, because she _would_ write to her brother when
they wished to go to Halnaby and the Castle. This noble effort he signed
"Rembrandt."
The picture is really very funny. The five girls have very much the
appearance of the marionettes he was fond of making, especially the
unfortunate correspondent who has been pulled into a horizontal position
by the stern sister. The whole story is told by the expression of the eyes
and mouth of each, for the clever schoolboy had all the secrets of
caricature, without quite enough genius in that direction to make him an
artist.
The Rugby days ended in glory; our Boy, no longer little Dodgson, but
young Dodgson, came home loaded with honors. Mr. Mayor, his mathematical
master, wrote to his father in 1848, that he had never had a more
promising boy at his age, since he came to Rugby. Mr. Tait also wrote
complimenting him most highly not only for his high standing in
mathematics and divinity, but for his conduct while at Rugby, which was
all that could be desired.
We can now see the dawning of the two great loves of his life, but there
was another love, which Rugby brought forth in all its beauty and
strength, the love for girls. From that time he became their champion,
their friend, and their comrade; whatever of youth and of boyhood was in
his nature came out in brilliant flashes in their company. Boys, in his
estimation, _had_ to be, of course--a necessary evil, to be wrestled with
and subdued. But girls--God bless 'em! were girls; that was enough for
young Dodgson to the end of the chapter.