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PUBLIC SCHOOL NOTES.

The Haileyburian contains some admirable extracts from Quintilian, in which that learned author gave many unconscious arguments in favour of the English Public School system. The College was beaten by the Marlborough Nomads by three tries to one; à propos of which we notice an indignant letter from a correspondent inquiring whether it was true that some fellows were actually playing bat fives at the time of the match. A new dormitory has been built, and named after Mr. Batten, a former Principal of the College.

The Epsomian contains a review of a very successful, though somewhat damp cricket season; the top batting average 24 being highly creditable considering the weather. Accounts of football matches, out of most of which the School has issued victorious, take up the main body of the paper. There is also a sapphic effusion, "The Lament of a forward," from which we extract the following pathetic attempt at self-justification,

"Gentle as doves are we, and yet the ladies

Say we are brutal."

The Elizabethan gives the details of the life of a famous "Old Westminster," the Marquis of Anglesea, who led the brilliant charge of the Life-Guards at Waterloo, and lost a leg on the same occasion. Two pages are taken up with the account of a debate on the foreign policy of the Government, which a large majority decided in favour of. There is a notice to the effect that the yearly play "will be performed, as usual, in College Dormitory."

The Harrovian is honoured by the remarks of "Herodotus at Harrow." The venerable classic, among other pungent and humorous observations, alludes to a game which the Harrovians "call footer, but other Englishmen call it football." All other Englishmen, O Herodotus !-thou hast further yet to travel. But the wind-up is the best, where Herodotus triumphantly shows that Englishmen are mistaken when they boast of one poet greater even than Homer. A Harrow nursery-rhyme affords a hint to our Pound-keepers.

"Little Tom Hook has lost his book,

And does'nt know where to find it;
Leave it alone, and it'll come home,

With "three pence to pay " behind it."

The Carthusian contains two pieces of real poetry, entitled "Hetty" and "Innocence and Penance."

Mr. Elwin has been to Charterhouse, where in addition to his lecture, he sang four songs, in one of which "he showed to perfection the complete control that can be exercised over the human voice." Madame Antoinette Sterling, too, has been delighting the School with her artistic singing. The Band does not appear to be in a very satisfactory state, its performances being stigmatised as "all bad" in one place, and as "hideous noises" in another.

The School Magazine, (Uppingham) has a great deal of matter in it, all more or less readable; there are three long letters from Zululand, and an amusing account of New Zealand natives and their customs. Mr. Brandram's recitation at Uppingham of "a Midsummer Night's Dream" is the occasion for a capital review, in which the all-important moral, "Read Shakespeare for yourself, and think about him "is admirably drawn.

The Cheltonian has at least one good thing "Jabber wocky" rendered into Greek Iam bios; we quote one or two easily recognisable lines

“ ὄρνιν τ' Ἰουβιουβὸν, οὐχ ἧσσον λέγω,
πάντως φύλασσον.”

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The Rev. Robert J. Wilson (formerly Assistant Master, M.C.) has been appointed Warden of Radley College.

MARRIAGE.

Oct. 29th, at Ula, Colorado, United States, Arthur Ross, son of Mr. Francis Ommanney, of Gt. Winchester Street, to Maria A., daughter of the late John S. Wright.

DEATH.

Arthur Henry Kirwan Ward, 29th Regt., died of fever at Mhow, Bombay, 26th November, aged 21 years.

From the Pall Mall Gazette.-"It is worthy of note that Colonel C. M. Macgregor, C.B., who is mentioned as having recovered the guns abandoned by General Massy in the action before Cabul, on the 11th, performed a very similar action in the China war, a feat which gained for him not only a strong, though unsuccessful, recommendation for the Victoria Cross, but also the high honour of being mentioned by Lord Herbert when proposing the vote of thanks to the army for its services in China. Colonel Macgregor, then a subaltern, was in command of a squadron of Fane's Horse, on escort with a half battery of Armstrong guns. The Tartar horsemen according to Lord Napier's despatch, entirely surrounded this party, and for a time it was feared. that the guns were lost. The escort was almost overwhelmed by the numbers opposed to it; but Lieutenant Macgregor, who was in command, undismayed by the disparity of numbers, rode at them with such a will that they broke right through the Tartar ranks and scattered them most effectually. This engagement had the effect of dispiriting thenceforth the Tartar cavalry.' Three times wounded in the mutiny Colonel Macgregor was in that campaign twice mentioned for distinguished gallantry. China gave him a second medal and four extra wounds. Bhootan furnished him with a third medal and an eighth and ninth wound. Abyssinia brought him a medal. Now, at twenty-three years' service, he finds himself a full Colonel with five war medals, the C.B., C.S.I., C.I.E., and chief of the Staff in Afghanistan."

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NOTES ON THE CASTS IN THE BRADLEIAN.

THE BUST OF ZEUS AND ITS RELATION TO THE STATUE OF PHEIDIAS.

Of all the great sculptors of the ancient world, no one enjoyed a higher renown than Pheidias, and the consenting testimony of his own and subsequent generations fixed upon the "Zeus" which he wrought for the temple of Zeus at Olympia as his masterpiece, the work in which he most truly succeeded in incorporating in outward and human form the highest conception of the divine he was capable of attaining. In human form; for we must ever remember that the Greek was not merely a polytheist, a worshipper of many gods, but that he conceived them as they were presented to his imagination in many old and treasured legends and above all in the poems of Homer. There he found the gods depicted with all the attributes and passions of men, and sometimes in their actions descending to the ordinary human level but yet in the main stronger, juster, and more benevolent than mortals, in a word, possessing the characteristics of the noblest among men and exhibiting them more completely realised, in more perfect development and more permanent outline than it were possible to discover on earth. This attribution of the highest and noblest qualities to the gods and the attempt to realise them in art, went hand in hand with that earnestness of life and aim which the Greeks displayed during the century preceding the Peloponnesian War; as they lost that earnestness they lost the power of expressing those qualities in art, not indeed at once, but by slow degrees. It is this seriousness of moral purpose that gives to the works of the Pheidian period, fragmentary as they are, a value quite commensurate with that which they derive from the wonderful technical skil displayed in their execution. If we would understand anything of the spirit which animated the Greeks during the culminating period of their development, when, besides their study of art, they produced those masterpieces of prose and poetry which are the foundation of nearly all modern literary culture, we must recognise the difference between this spirit at its best and what it afterwards became. The difference is the difference between that which is both religious and artistic, and that which is artistic only.

As the Greek miud outgrew its earlier and ruder beliefs and passed beyond the time when polytheism could satisfy its religious instincts, the Greek artists became less and less animated by a desire to represent their gods as really divine and capable of awakening solemn thoughts. But in studying the work of Pheidias, we must remember that he tried to appeal to the soul and not merely to the eye. It was this quality that gave to his statue of Zeus a permanent value; it was this characteristic that endeared it to his countymen and moved even the prosaic Roman general, Aemilius Paullus, to declare, as he looked on the figure, that he seemed to see Jove in visible presence; it was this that drew from the Stoic philosopher, Dion Chrysostomos, the words, "if there were a man utterly overburdened in spirit, who had endured many misfortunes and pains in his life-time and could not enjoy sweet sleep, even he, methinks, as he stood before this statue, would forget all the painful things human life is destined to undergo; so hast thou, Pheidias, in very truth discovered and wrought a wonder

'Which so cures heart-ache and the inward stings
That men forget all sorrow wherein they pine;'

such a light and such grace flow from thy work." Have we any means of judging what this work, regarded with such reverence by the ancient world, was like? Unfortunately, very few. The statue itself was Chryselephantine, made of gold and ivory overlaid in their plates upon a wooden figure. It seems to have remained substantially as Pheidias left it, till the year A.D. 408, when, under the Emperor Theodosius II, the temple at Olympia was burnt, and the Olympian games finally put an end to. A few coins of the Eleians have come down to us, one of which shows the general attitude of the figure, seated in a chair, holding in the left hand a sceptre and in the right a winged Victory presenting a crown; another presents us with the head in profile. The traveller Pausanias, to whom we owe most of our information about the names and works of the Greek artists, describes the statue as he saw it during the times of the Antonines; but unfortunately in a pseudo-antiquarian spirit, he devotes most of his space to an elaborate description of the carvings which adorned the chair. The "Otricoli" bust,

[* A drawing of this coin will be placed in the Bradleian, so that it may be compared with the bust.]

which was found at the end of the last century, and of which we now possess a cast, presents a general likeness to the head on the coin mentioned above, but there are at the same time striking differences, and these just in those points where a comparison of the bust with the Parthenon sculptures, known to be by Pheidias, would lead us to look for them. Briefly we may say that this bust exhibits more mannerism than we should find in the work of Pheidias, and especially in the treatment of the hair. The coin exhibits the hair lying flat upon the head and bound with a plain wreath of oak-leaves; the artist of our head has sought to get more effect by giving a main-like appearance to the hair, and working it in broad masses, and by deepening the channel which divides it from the rest of the face, he has adopted an artifice to make the latter stand out in more prominent relief. There is reason to believe that this treatment of the hair dates from the time of Alexander, who appears to have been, like Absalom, very vain of his hair; and thus his portraits by the great master of bronze, Lysippus, set a fashion which later artists copied and exaggerated.* Still, in spite of mannerisms such as these, we may indulge the belief that the head, in its general features, is a not altogether unworthy imitation of the head of the geat statue of Pheidias; at any rate, as we look upon its broad and massive brow, its mild eyes, and slightly parted lips, we may be led to realise more completely that union of strength, intelligence, and benevolence, which mark the Homeric picture of the son of Kronos, as he "spoke and nodded assent with his dark eyebrows, and the ambrosial locks of the king streamed from his immortal head, and he made mighty Olympus tremble."

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some of the Masters. A full account is given elsewhere in our columns.

OWING to the severity of the weather, it was impossible to play the Clifton Match, which had been arranged for Dec. 13th.

THE Swindon, Marlborough, and Andover Railway has at last begun; they have lowered the Salisbury road and have proceeded some little way.

THE sermon on Sunday, Dec. 14th, was preached by the Rev. J. F. Bright, Fellow of University College, Oxford, and formerly Master of Preshute House.

DURING the fortnight preceding the examination prayers in class-rooms at 7.10 have taken the place of Morning Chapel.

UPPER School singing began as usual on the Saturday before examination week, and has been well kept up.

In accordance with a proposal in one of our numbers this term, a board for Pound notices has been placed under the Bradleian Arches.

THE O.M.'s chorus will be "'Eviππov žévε tãode, Xupas," from Mendelssohn's Oedipus Coloneus.

T. N. H. Smith, Esq., has been temporarily indisposed during the past fortnight, but we are glad to see him again restored to health. His place during the interval was taken by W. H. Chappel, Esq., O.M. WE have received a book entitled "Hugh Russell at Harrow" for review from the publishers (Messrs. Prevost and Co.) We are sorry that we cannot violate our traditional custom of not reviewing books. WE beg to acknowledge, with thanks, our receipt of the following:-Blundellian, Alleynian, Journal of Education, Harrovian, Undergraduates' Journal, Haileyburian, Carthusian, Uppingham School Magazine, Elizabethan, Epsomian, Cheltonian, Carlisle High School Magazine, Denstonian, Columban, Rathmines' School News.

En Memoriam.

THE REV. GEORGE BRANSON.

A recent number of the Marlburian contained the announcement of the death of George Branson. I had hoped that someone better qualified than I would have added to this simple announcement a sketch of that portion of his life which connected him with Marlborough. His was an individuality so marked, and his attachment to the School was so warm and

true, that, in default of others, I feel compelled to jot down some of the pleasant memories of him. which dwell in my own mind.

When I first knew Mr. Branson he was Master of the Lower IVth. In this post he remained; nor could the attractions of higher work, however, congenial to his intellectual tastes, induce him to change his form. It was characteristic of him to be averse to change-not from the mere indolence which shrinks from the necessary effort, but because he found sufficient interests to satisfy him in the work he had in hand. The intelligence which distinguishes the Lower IVth at the present day perhaps was equally conspicuous then; yet the form had its "Old Stagers" who were in some danger of stagnating, but these were so well known to their master and so much the object of his solicitude that for them to "look intelligent" was sometimes sufficient to lift them from their slough of despond to a more hopeful position in the form.

Again, he was Preparation Master. Some of us after a few years of this work may have found it somewhat monotonous. It was never so to him. It was a wonderful opportunity, he used to say, to study boys' characters.

This love of observing character he carried beyond the College walls. There was scarce a group of children at play by the road side, but each individual was known to him, and when he missed one from the wonted number, he would enquire with tender solicitude of Mary Jane why Jemima Ann was not out to-day. It was not the mere fun of the thingthough George Branson was I think the most humourous man I have ever known-but a delightful power of sympathy which drew him towards these children. The "Old Stagers" of the Lower IVth, the children by the road side, the simple rustics whom he met in his walks-for whom he always had a genial, winning word of greeting-were all to him beings of like hopes and like passions, though not of like advantages, with himself, and to them his heart went forth, and all were alike objects of his interest and his sympathy.

I have said that Mr. Branson was a humorous man. Where illustration is so abundant I hardly know how best to illustrate this trait, which those whose acquaintance with him was slightest would probably regard as the whole key to his character.

His humour showed itself in a thousand ways, but it possessed this delightful characteristic that it never was other than absolutely kindly. I doubt whether the fascination of a good joke ever made him utter an unkind word of anyone. Perhaps my most obvious illustration would be his speeches at the Marlborough dinners. In the summer of 1878, a hundred and twenty Old Marlburians were kept by him for half an hour convulsed with laughter. Other men can make their joke or two and are therefore accounted amusing speakers; but his speech was so inimitably quaint and humourous throughout, that, although there ran through it a vein of real earnestness and deep feeling, the gravest of us could not maintain his gravity. But his humour showed itself in all directions. In his face-A lady who had entertained him for the first time at dinner, complained that she had not received one word of warning, and that as a consequence she had had the utmost difficulty in restraining her laughter at seeing the play of his countenance even before he had uttered a single word. In his dress-did ever anyone but George Branson bowl through a Common Room match, or throw himself into a foot-ball "squash," in a tall hat? This was his universal head gear. Neither I think would any one but he in the midst of one of his most eloquent sermons have pointed a moral by the quotation of one of the most familiar of the A Rule Examples.

A word as to his sermons. They were marvellous outbursts of noble rhetoric, which it did one good to listen to, even apart from the direct lessons they conveyed. In these sermons too, one saw how thoroughly imbued his mind was with the classics, ancient and modern. All were laid under contribution to illustrate his subject. Indeed few men could be readier with a quotation than he, and even at cricket practice I have heard him at a hint from another recite long passages from his loved Shakspeare. Yet if you had entered his rooms and from them endeavoured to form some estimate of the occupant, it would have been very misleading. Some of us love to accumulate books, which we only half read and don't half know, from the sort of semiintellectual atmosphere they seem to spread around them. George Branson's shelves were almost empty -a Shakspeare, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, a few school books, were about all; and yet many of

us would have envied him the rich treasury of his mind, and the ample stores of learning ever ready at his command.

The mention of Burton's Anatomy reminds me that, in common with so many humourous men, he had his moods of profoundest melancholy. Then Burton became his favourite author, and in solitude he contemplated life as well-nigh intolerable.

For such a man as George Branson, so conservative in his interests, and so warm in his attachments, only a great shock would suffice to alter the whole course of his life. That shock came to him in the death of his mother, the person most dear to him in all the world, as witness those beautiful In Memoriam lines which he published after her death in the Cornhill Magazine. He left Marlborough to go into residence at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he was a Fellow. After a time he took the small living of West Tisted, which was tenable with his Fellowship. Here he was just the same man we had always known him, winning the hearts of his simple parishioners by his genial sympathy, a welcome guest at the table of the rich, and yet as constant as ever in his affection for Marlborough. He proved this by never missing a Marlborough Dinner nor a Rugby Match, and when one day I was speaking of this he replied "Yes, I have never missed a match, and it is with untold satisfaction that I remember that never on any occasion have I been betrayed for a single moment by any hit however splendid into applauding a piece of Rugby play."

A few years since the Living of Selborne became vacant, and being in the gift of the Fellows of Magdalen he had the first refusal of it. The Living was a very valuable one and full of interest from its connection with White, the Naturalist. He accepted it; but at the last he could not bring himself to leave his own little Parish, and the little flock he had tended and learnt to love, and the Living passed into other hands.

Mr. Branson was staying in the house of friends, where one morning he was found dead in his bed.

Let me be allowed a quotation from the A Rule examples to end this very imperfect sketch of a remarkable though not widely known man ;

Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit,
Nulli flebilior quam mihi.

T.

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