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making many useful runs. Forward we played splendidly, all our men playing well on the ball, and seldom giving their half-backs a chance of getting away, and it is greatly to the credit of the Nomads that they were able to beat so strong a team which numbered five international players in its ranks. The following played for us:

C. M. Wilkins (Captain), B. C. Stephenson (4backs), J. E. Square (back); A. K. Butterworth, W. E. Hogg, G. D. Petrie (-backs); J. D. VansAgnew, F. C. Kimber, C. Hawkins, G. G. Hawkins, C. E. Powell, F. Thursby, G. H. Windeler, G. Barnet, and E. H. Laurie (forwards).

THE NOMADS MATCH.

After a week of wind and rain the weather cleared up just in time for the match with the Nomads who have been accomplishing great things this year against Richmond, Woolwich, etc.; and who collectively seem as flourishing as the evergreen, Isaacson in particular. He with W. Alford represented a very old generation of O.M's. Our respect for the reputation of our opponents was not diminished by the consciousness that five of our fifteen were from one cause or another unable to play, so that our team really consisted of ten representatives of the School plus five substitutes.

The Nomads kicked off from Lyne's end, and as Hawkins failed to grasp the ball, they charged on and at once brought it into our quarters. A short, but good run by Mahon averted worse consequences, and another of the same sort by Martyn, which ended in the snapping of one of the flag posts with a loud report (almost as loud as the collision between Womersley's head and Fox's afterwards), restored the balance of the fray,-but only temporarily; as our powerful foe again surged forwards till finally we were driven to touch-down in self-defence. After this the game still continued too much in our quarters in spite of the constant and meritorious attempts of Mahon and Fox to work in the opposite direction. By some good passing between Womersley and Lawrie we were again driven back and forced to repeat the tactics above mentioned. When the ball was set going again a good charge by Stokes improved matters, and for some minutes it remained near the trees. But slowly and surely it was brought back again, and Lawrie got a try low down which, however, Square failed to turn into a goal.

This was soon to be followed by a worse disaster. Before another retrogressive movement on our part was well developed Womersley by a quick and dodgy run obtained another try close to the post. Square this time did not spare the spectators' nerves. After change we had what wind there was, and also the sun was in our favour, and we soon shewed that their aid had had something to do with our previous discomfiture. The game was infinitely faster and merrier and runs much more frequent. Turner by a good bit of dribbling which Mahon backed up by a dodging run had proceeded some way in the right direction when the ball got out at the lower side, and on its being thrown in, Wilkins emerged with it, and by a splendid run in which he shoved off some and dodged others with equal ease, landed the ball right behind our goal. Only to find

that all his exertions were useless and that as the Umpire had decided that it had been thrown in crookedly he had to bring it back to his starting point. None the worse for his exercise, however, he took his share immediately in driving us to within twenty yards of goal, when his fine performance was perhaps eclipsed by Hawkins, who careered the whole length of the ground through every grasping hand till just on the verge of the line he fell exhausted into the clutch of Womersley. We have not seen so fine a run for a long time. next came to the fore following up a dribble by Turner, and before long Mahon made a fine run in right behind from nearly the middle of the field, and Turner kicked the place.

Fox

The Nomads at once retaliated by forcing us back all across the field, and though Mahon made another run which made things even for a time, we were penned more or less and Powell by a strong rush got a try of which nothing however came.

So ended the game in favour of the Nomads by two tries; but most creditably contested by the School considering the calibre of their antagonists and their own enfeebled forces. Of the forwards who did not follow up very well or play together properly for the first few minutes it would be hard to speak too highly afterwards, and if we select Tanqueray as having to appear to us as remarkably central in the squash always, we do so with misgivings that we may be wronging others who played equally well. The three quarters men had little to do, apart from what

has been mentioned, except collar. This they did well. Mahon and Fox were both all there as halfs. We congratulate the latter on the strength of his skull, which successfully withstood as severe a test as it could well have been exposed to, and on his incessant activity and excellent play throughout the game. The Nomads forwards were extremly good. They know how to use their great strength and are a most formidable set for any School team to meet. Behind Wilkins and Womersley were in great form. We wish the Nomads many more such victories as those over Richmond and Woolwich before the season ends.

The following were the players :—

Nomads :-J. F. Cooper (back); C. M. Wilkins (captain); D. Womersley, J. E. Square (backs); E. H. Lawrie, R. F. Isaacson (backs); R. Alford, G. G. Hawkins, F. C. Kimber, C. E. Powell, P. T. Robinson, F. Thursby, J. D. Vans-Agnew, G. H. Windeler, A. S. Borlase (forwards).

School :-A. P. Kerry, W. B. Kingsbury (backs); A. H. Hawkins (captain), A. W. Martyn ( backs); E. Mahon, F. H. Fox (backs); A. B. Turner, A. H. Tanqueray, A. Ll. Davies, H. M. Carey, W. G. G. Stokes, L. M. Fountain, G. R. Lascelles, A. Druitt, C. T. R. Scovell (forwards).

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THE BATTLE OF MARTINSELL. After three weeks of disappointment, a day was at last found fine enough for the Mayor's holiday and the Rifle Corps' field-day. By one o'clock about a hundred men marched out to attack and defend Martinsell. Provisions had been sent forward; a hasty lunch was snatched en route, and by three o'clock operations were in full swing. B company, advancing through the wooded slopes of Martinsell, were checked in full career by a withering fire from the defending gorse, but a desperate combined attack drove the defenders headlong across the open ground, till they encountered their reserves, who held the enemy in check, till their comrades had time to re-form behind their lines. For a time the battle languished, which circumstance the enemy turned to account by developing flanking movements, which, however, were so desperately met, that the one was sufficiently checked, and the men composing the other were swept off the ground by an overpowering fire from front, flank and rear. Ammunition being now almost exhausted, the reserve supplies were ordered up, and the defenders took up a fresh and impregnable position, from which they issued in full force, and drove the enemy after heroic resisttance back to the farm where they made their final and successful stand. Driven from the main buildings they lined the hedges and walls in the rear and swept every approach with increasing and searching volleys, and even the ardour of the assailants could not drive them from their position. The battle ceased only with the ammunition, and the umpires were at once surrounded by an eager crowd, all asking, as the animals after the far-famed caucusrace, "who has won ?" needless to say, the umpires rose to the occasion, and gave the eminently comprehensive and satisfactory reply "Every one." As argument was useless after this, the two companies fell in for the homeward march, somewhat weary in body, but still lusty and strong of voice, indifferent even to the difficulties of a march in the dark through muddy, rocky lanes, and even fences that required a band of pioneers to force them. Tea, (of the description known as "high") was done ample justice to; Her Majesty's health was drunk with due honour; and the universal verdict on the day was "successful to the last degree." Of course during such desperate fighting many deeds of individual

prowess were overlooked; but it is our pleasant duty to record, that one gallant private boldly faced a fence lined with the enemy's marksmen and received unflinchingly two withering volleys, which, however left him unscathed: that an officer, burning to win the cross, leapt a fence sword in hand in valiant style, and would have captured one of the enemy, if he had not been shot down by an unseen hand: while the determination evinced by either party, on no account, and under no circumstances to recognize defeat, will sufficiently prove the spirit and resolution with which the day was fought, and the battle of Martinsell lost

or won.

Natural History Society.

The last meeting of the year was held on Thursday, Nov. 25th, when the Master had kindly undertaken to read a paper on 66 Wind and Weather." To do due honour to the occasion nearly all the Common Room, and the members of the Society, and an unusually large number of ladies occupied all available space. After distinguishing the different kinds of Barometers and the action of each, Mr. Bell went on to explain the intimate connection between the direction and force of the wind, and Isobars and barometic gradients, as enunciated in Buy's Ballots law; dwelling particularly on the origin and characteristics of Cyclonic systems as contrasted with Anticyclonic. He then explained the meaning of the weather charts given in the Times, and the means by which we are enabled from them to forecast the weather with tolerable certainty for a day or so in advance. After illustrating the meaning of the few proverbial weather-signs that are trustworthy, he explained the ingenious contrivances adopted to obtain a continuous record of barometric and wind variation. The lecturer's words were admirably illustrated by various appliances, notably an enlarged "Times" chart of Isobars and winds representing a typical Cyclone, and a most beautifully executed diagram shewing the readings of the Glycerine Barometer for twelve successive days, and a miniature copy of the Oxford contrivances for registering Barometric and wind variation, the last two being the work of the Senior Prefect. A cordial vote of thanks from the Bursar brought the proceedings to a close, after the Master had

announced his generous intention of presenting the School in the name of the Society with a large Barometer to be placed in some conspicuous location.

Previous to the lecture the President informed the Society of the handsome present just made to them by E. Meyrick, Esq., O.M., of his large collection of beetles, formed while he was a boy here, a present all the more valuable, as it comes just at the time that the attention of Entomologists is being directed to this particular branch of work. A home for them will be found in the existing moth cabinet, which is now supplanted by a more suitable one liberally granted to the Society by the Council at the cost of 30 guineas.

The working members have so much increased during the year, that the President was able to announce the proposed formation of sections next term, for special instruction in Entomology under the direction of Mr. Hart-Smith and P. H. Maddock, and in Botany under Mr. Preston and E. N. Gardiner. There were present 50 members, 18 visitors from the School, and 36 members of the Common Room and friends. Total 104.

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WHEN the terrible internecine struggle of the Wars of the Roses was past, England began to be stirred by the grand intellectual movement that arose in Italy. It was an age when great discoveries both in the physical and intellectual world widened the sympathies, and increased the ideas of the middle ages. In the glorious 15th century two new worlds had been opened by Vasco di Gama and Columbus, in the grand old civilization of India and the hardy savages of America. The travels of Amerigo Vespucci in the far west were in the hands of all men, and awakened a strange curiosity. While these new worlds were discovered, Copernicus by his discoveries taught men the secret of the universe. Gutenberg had invented printing, without which we should not have had the splendid editions of Aldus. The Turks had banished the Greek scholars from Constantinople to bring their splendid stores of learning to Italy. The discovery of a fragment of Greek sculpture, or of a mutilated manuscript of a lost treatise of Cicero sent a thrill of joy through the hearts of enthusiastic scholars in all the west of Europe. Under the splendid patronage of Lorenzo

PRICE 3d.

the magnificent, learning and art rose together to a noonday prosperity in the city on the Arno, decorated now for the first time by the mighty dome of Brunelleschi, as by the brilliant array of the great intellects of the revival; art gained scope and wideness, learning brilliancy and strength, as in the Renascence men opened their eyes and saw."

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It was soon said that "Greek had crossed the Alps," not long after to make its way across the channel. When Leo X, the son of Lorenzo, had been raised to the Pontificate, in the place of the turbulent Julius, when Henry VIII had ascended the throne imbued with a strong admiration for Erasmus, when the peaceful policy of Wolsey did not distract men's minds to foreign conquests, Grocyn, Linacre, Colet, More, and a host of others were in the heyday of hope, thinking they would spread classical learning all over the land, but not dreaming of the Reforma tion. In accordance with the seriousness of the British character, as well as our insular position, the Renascence was far less literary, far less widely human than it was in Italy, but more moral, with far more of a religious tone, and much more practical in character.

Grocyn, a fellow of New College, was probably the first to teach Greek at Oxford, while Linacre

founded modern science by his study of Galen. But the most representative man in the English Renascence was John Colet. He approached Greek in an entirely different spirit to foreign scholars. He did not care to revel in the majestic epic of Homer, the passionate outbursts of Sappho, the subtle drama of Sophocles, the magnificent oratory of Demosthenes; he did not imbue himself with a half-serious, halfdreamy scepticism from the beautiful writings of Plato; he treated Greek in an entirely religious light -to read the New Testament in the original and get a new standpoint for a new religion. He wished to strip away the allegories and mysteries of the middle ages. In his earnestness and zeal he was quite out of sympathy with the past. Thus this simple yet high-minded man was one of the pioneers of the Reformation.

The most brilliant of the scholars of the time was Erasmus, who stood on a par even with the great Melanchthon. His devotion to Greek learning is well expressed in the following words of his, "I have given up my whole soul to Greek learning, and as soon as I get any money I shall buy Greek booksand then I shall buy some clothes." Vast learning and keen observation, sprightly fancy and agreeable wit, so aptly exemplified in the "Praise of Folly," an ironical song of triumph over the old world that was passing away-combined with sincere piety were his chief characteristics. If the Teutonic new learning lacked the elegance that reigned south of the Alps, it certainly had more power and strength, and he was one of its greatest representatives.

The chief patrons of the new learning in Oxford were the Churchmen. Archbishop Warham despised the luxury and sensuality of all the nobility of his time, and loved nothing more than to gather the great scholars round his board to chat with some new arrival from Italy, or to mingle in a contest of wit and liveliness by capping quotations and other literary amusements. Bishop Langton used to examine the young scholars every evening and to send the most promising ones to Padua. Henry VIII remained the steadfast friend of culture; Edward VI in his youth was a fair scholar in both classical languages; Mary wrote good Latin letters; Elizabeth was a bluestocking who read Sophocles or Demosthenes before breakfast; Lady Jane Grey was the pet pupil of Roger Ascham.

With the new learning there was necessarily a great educational reform, and to this we owe the numerous well endowed Grammar Schools in most of our country towns. One of the first was St. Paul's School, founded by Colet, who wrote a Latin grammar for it. In it he superseded all the old systems of instruction, and he aimed at a diffusion of the two classical languages coupled with a sound religion. The clergy, as not unfrequently, were well to the front with a bigoted cry of alarm. "No wonder," More wrote to Colet, "your school raises aların, for it is like the wooden horse in which armed Greeks were hidden for the ruin of barbarous Troy." The cry of alarm passed away before the irrestible tide of the Renascence.

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It is noticeable that the Master of St. Paul's was to be "lerned in clene Latin, and also in Greke, if such an one may be gotten' In the Universities of course the study of Greek, which was the first step in the wider learning, played a far more important part. The first lecture at Oxford was in 1513, but not without strong opposition, which took the form of childish frays between the "Greeks" and the Trojans." One vehement divine, when summoned by the king to Woodstock to answer for his violent tirades from the University pulpit-such were the sermons of the good old days-pleaded that he was actuated by the spirit. "Yes," quoth bluff king Hal, "by the spirit, not of wisdom, but of folly." In Cambridge Greek was enthusiastically received. Erasmus first opened his lectures there, but without fees, for the students were too poor to pay, and soon raised the University to the level of the foreign Universities. All these were, however, only the pioneers of the great intellectual movement, which soon produced one really great work, the Utopia of Sir Thomas More.

MOX DISCESSURUS.

'T'is nearly time: and I must leave This place, so long, so fondly loved : From thee could I depart unmoved,

And could I now forbear to grieve?

Here, where the bleak downs gird the plain Where I have spent such happy days,

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