MIDSUMMER FANCIES. Have ye ever heard, as I hear, in the calm midsummer days In the deep blue days of summer, when no breath doth stir the haze, Mystic voices floating earthwards, whispers from an unseen land, When I, wandering, as my wont is, idly o'er the silent strand, Pause and watch the countless ripple of the laughing gladsome waves, Where they toss and wanton gaily on the floor of the sea caves, Then from out the golden sunshine, through the air so still and clear Laden with a sweet faint perfume from the pine tree forests near, From the sea-green of the ocean, and the azure of the sky, From the yellow stretch of beach, where myriad seashells scattered lie, Come the voices, bringing comfort to a soul o'erfraught with pain, And a thousand clustering fancies crowd upon the weary brain. Thoughts of past and thoughts of future, what has been and what will be; Sweeping from the mind all traces of a gross anxiety, Oft too in the quiet even when its shades are creeping o'er, When the twinkling lights are shining through the open cottage door; When the moth and sharded beetle wing their aimless mazy flight, And the eerie bats flit swiftly round the sea-cliff loaming white, Then they come, those mystic voices, floating from the woodland wild, Whispering their wondrous secrets, Nature's message to her C. child. Occasional Notes. THE Whole School returned on Friday, Jan. 23rd. THE first thing that struck our eyes on arriving. at the College gates was some scaffolding put up round the Porter's Lodge. A belfry tower is in course of erection. This is an improvement which will deprive habitual grumblers of the pleasure of grumbling that the Lodge bell cannot be heard. The old chapel bell has been fitted up on the Lodge, for temporary use, till the belfry tower is completed. THE New Chapel does not seem to have progressed very much during the holidays. We would recommend to our readers a long description of the plan of the New Chapel, in Lucy's Marlborough Directory. The technical details are not perhaps very lucid, but it is pleasant to read that the New Chapel will possess the dignity and beauty of a miniature cathedral, &c. AN Army Class has been formed under the superintendence of Mr. Bull. The other masters are Mr. Rundall and Mr. Drury. The new masters are E. C. Read, Esq., and W. H. Story, Esq. THE match against a team of O.M.'s played on the last Saturday of last term, resulted in a defeat for the school, by 3 goals, and 3 tries, to one goal. HOCKEY is now being played by all the houses except Baker's. FOOTBALL, Big games are still kept up in conse. quence of two matches which have been arranged, viz: v. Magdalen College, Oxford, Feb. 7th, v. Trinity College, Oxford, Feb. 14th. THE Debating Society has been revived, as was proposed in a letter in a former number, as a Sixth Form Debating Society. We trust that by this means its existence will be more effective and less precarious. WE print in another column the list of contri. butions received by the College Mission Building fund, in answer to the appeal in our last number. The members of Council have subscribed with their usnal generosity. WE would recommend to the notice of those who are in the habit of strictly keeping their own marks, a little book recently published, entitled Conrad's Memorabilia for Schoolboys. It affords space for entering marks, places, work done, scores at cricket, and similar interesting records, and may be obtained from Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row, price 8d. THE Public School Gymnasium competition will be held in London on March 18th, probably. REV. E. F. N. NOEL-SMITH is coming down to Marlborough at the end of this week. He will hold a meeting in the Bradleian on Saturday, Feb. 7th, and preach on the Sunday following. BISHOP KELLY, acting for the Bishop of Salisbury, will hold a confirmation in the College Chapel, on March 26th, at 5 p.m. On Wednesday, January 7th, the Master and some Marlburians past and present were invited by the Curate in charge of the Marlborough Mission to meet some of the Congregation. During the evening, singing, speeches and galvanic batteries, divided the attention of those present. We are sorry to observe PASSED INTO SANDHURST. Reginald C. Clarkson. Alexander Cadell. Frederick T. Middleton. CAMBRIDGE. Theology, Class III.-S. Swann, Trinity Hall. Chemistry, Class I.-W. B. de Jersey, Pembroke College. General Examination, Class III.-H. G. C. Hardwick, Clare College. General Examination, Class IV.-J. E. Bryant, Trinity College. CALLS TO THE BAR. Lincoln's Inn-Arthur Turnour Murray, B.A., Oxford. Inner Temple-Francis George Montagu Mason, M.A., Oxford, and Thomas Graham Balfour, B.A., Oxford. ORDINATIONS. Deacons Arthur Cecil Stopford Gayer, M.A., Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Ernest Frederick Newman, M.A., Keble College, Oxford. Edward Taswell Richardson, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. Gerard S. Rogers, B.A., C.C.C., Oxford. E. T. Sankey, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. bridge. David Charles Firminger, B.A., Pembroke College, Cambridge. Arthur Foley Winnington Ingram, B.A., Keble College, Oxford. Edward Shearburn Marshall, B.A., B.N.C., Oxford. Edward John Norris, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. Richard Somerville Wood, B.A., Exeter College, Oxford. ECCLESIASTICAL PREFERMENTS, &c. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has presented the Rev. Charles A. Jones, Mathematical Master in Westminster School, to the living of Dedham, near Colchester. Rev. A. C. S. Gayer; Curate of Royston, Cambs. Rev. C. P. Milner; Chaplain of Kelly College. Rev. E. F. Newman; Curate of St. Mary, Reading. Rev. P. A. Phelps; Rector of St. John-the-Baptist, Bristol. Rev. F. Robinson; Curate of St. Mary, Charterhouse. Rev. G. S. Rogers; Curate of Bishopston, Gloucestershire. Rev. E. T. Sankey; Curate of Ashbourne and Mapleton, Derbyshire. Rev. E. H. C. Stephenson; Curate of St. Clement, Notting Hill. Rev. Alfred Tanner; Vicar of St. Mary's, Haggerston. Rev. A. O. Trotter; Curate of Hartpury, Gloucestershire. Rev. H. Westcott; Curate of St. Barnabas, Sunderland. Horace Alfred Damer Seymour has been appointed a Commissioner of H. M. Customs. W. P. Davis has been appointed House Surgeon at S. George's Hospital, and has recently carried off the Brodie Prize at that Institution. In Memoriam. Lieutenant Charles William Albert Law, 4th Dragoon Guards, was killed on the 17th of January in the battle near the wells of Abu Klea. Law was born in November, 1861, entered Marlborough in September, 1875, left at. Christmas, 1878, and received his commision July, 1882. There can be but very few now in the school, who knew Law, not many who even knew his elder brother Harry, and yet the name is familiar to an unusual number of our readers, to many who never actually knew either of the brothers, for both were promin ent in all games, the elder in the XV, and winner of the Mile, the younger in the XI-both, on the Race Committee. "What! C. W. or J. H. ?" was the instantaneous reply once made to me by a Canadian, who certainly only knew them through the Marlburian. For me, it is impossible to think of one without the other, and the frank affection each felt for the other, the honest respect the elder never hesitated to express for the character of the younger, painfully add to the sense of personal loss which all must feel, who knew Charlie Law; not we only of his own House, but many of his contemporaries in all parts of the School. Popularity may not as a rule mean much, but the feeling for Charlie Law in all who knew him, whether boys or masters, was the instinctive tribute to a character singularly winning, manly, simple and unselfish. A hard-worker, yet always full of fun, with high principles, and a strong sense of duty, he was the very ideal of the material out of which our best English officers are made; and though I have no particulars of his death, and never may have, I know that the Lieutenant fulfilled the promise of his boyhood, in Africa as at Brighton, and that he fell as a Christian soldier should fall, doing his duty thoroughly, without a thought of self. W. E. M. One who knew both of them well writes to me, "If anything could soothe the crushing grief of his friends at home it might be to know what words were spoken of him at Marlborough on the first two days of this Term. And he deserved them all, for he was as gentle as he was good and as brave as a lion." MIDSUMMER FANCIES. Have ye ever heard, as I hear, in the calm midsummer days In the deep blue days of summer, when no breath doth stir the haze, Mystic voices floating earthwards, whispers from an unseen land, When I, wandering, as my wont is, idly o'er the silent strand, Pause and watch the countless ripple of the laughing gladsome waves, Where they toss and wanton gaily on the floor of the sea caves, Then from out the golden sunshine, through the air so still and clear Laden with a sweet faint perfume from the pine tree forests near, From the sea-green of the ocean, and the azure of the sky, From the yellow stretch of beach, where myriad seashells scattered lie, Come the voices, bringing comfort to a soul o'erfraught with pain, And a thousand clustering fancies crowd upon the weary brain. Thoughts of past and thoughts of future, what has been and what will be; Sweeping from the mind all traces of a gross anxiety, Oft too in the quiet even when its shades are creeping o'er, When the twinkling lights are shining through the open cottage door; When the moth and sharded beetle wing their aimless mazy flight, And the eerie bats flit swiftly round the sea-cliff loaming white, Then they come, those mystic voices, floating from the woodland wild, Whispering their wondrous secrets, Nature's message to her child. C. Occasional Notes. THE Whole School returned on Friday, Jan. 23rd. THE first thing that struck our eyes on arriving. at the College gates was some scaffolding put up round the Porter's Lodge. A belfry tower is in course of erection. This is an improvement which will deprive habitual grumblers of the pleasure of grumbling that the Lodge bell cannot be heard. The old chapel bell has been fitted up on the Lodge, for temporary use, till the belfry tower is completed. THE New Chapel does not seem to have progressed very much during the holidays. We would recommend to our readers a long description of the plan of the New Chapel, in Lucy's Marlborough Directory. The technical details are not perhaps very lucid, but it is pleasant to read that the New Chapel will possess the dignity and beauty of a miniature cathedral, &c. AN Army Class has been formed under the superintendence of Mr. Bull. The other masters are Mr. Rundall and Mr. Drury. The new masters are E. C. Read, Esq., and W. H. Story, Esq. THE match against a team of O.M.'s played on the last Saturday of last term, resulted in a defeat for the school, by 3 goals, and 3 tries, to one goal. HOCKEY is now being played by all the houses except Baker's. FOOTBALL, Big games are still kept up in conse. quence of two matches which have been arranged, viz: v. Magdalen College, Oxford, Feb. 7th, v. Trinity College, Oxford, Feb. 14th. THE Debating Society has been revived, as was proposed in a letter in a former number, as a Sixth Form Debating Society. We trust that by this means its existence will be more effective and less precarious. WE print in another column the list of contri. butions received by the College Mission Building fund, in answer to the appeal in our last number. The members of Council have subscribed with their usnal generosity. WE would recommend to the notice of those who are in the habit of strictly keeping their own marks, a little book recently published, entitled Conrad's Memorabilia for Schoolboys. It affords space for entering marks, places, work done, scores at cricket, and similar interesting records, and may be obtained from Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row, price 8d. THE Public School Gymnasium competition will be held in London on March 18th, probably. REV. E. F. N. NOEL-SMITH is coming down to Marlborough at the end of this week. He will hold a meeting in the Bradleian on Saturday, Feb. 7th, and preach on the Sunday following. BISHOP KELLY, acting for the Bishop of Salisbury, will hold a confirmation in the College Chapel, on March 26th, at 5 p.m. On Wednesday, January 7th, the Master and some Marlburians past and present were invited by the Curate in charge of the Marlborough Mission to meet some of the Congregation. During the evening, singing, speeches and galvanic batteries, divided the attention of those present. We are sorry to observe that so few of the Sixth availed themselves of Mr. Marshall's kind invitation. The loss was theirs. The Master gave a very encouraging account of the subscriptions for the Building Fund, and the representative of the Senior Prefect spoke for the enthusiasm felt by Marlborough in this her undertaking. Ir may not be known to our readers that General Sir Herbert Stewart, who has lately been promoted to the rank of Major General for his brilliant services in the Soudan, was at Marlborough for a term, before he went to Winchester. EDITORIAL. It would be a wilful perversion of the truth to say that members of the school appear to show the slightest sense that they have any duty at all to discharge towards the Marlburian. They appear to be quite content to leave to the Editors, besides their own sufficiently arduous duties, the task of composing from their own resources a large portion of every number. It does not speak well for a school which habitually wastes so much time on the comparatively worthless pursuits of athletics, brewing, and novel reading, that only four people in the course of an entire term are energetic enough to devote a few hours to an occupation which cannot but be of inestimable value to themselves, while at the same time contributing to the support of a valuable School institution. The only form of composition which appears to approve itself to our readers is letterwriting. A letter which was sent us upon a vexed question of football politics evoked literally scores of answers, while many other subjects were treated in an equally copious manner. But the composition of most of these letters is of the feeblest possible character, while many are defaced by grammatical and orthographical errors which would prove an infallible bar to passing the IVth standard at any elementary school. Amongst others 'discide' (apparently for 'decide') struck us as peculiar. Perhaps the best specimen of our unpublished correspondence is the following: Dear Sir, Starch me, Yours in limpness, STICK UP. but it is not very original. Much as we agree with our correspondent's suggestion, why should he re quest us to perform that very necessary operation upon him? People who are afflicted with such grievances had really better apply to the proper authorities. We Now for the rejected addresses.' They are, as we have stated, four in number. Three are-well, written more or less in rhyme; one is in prose. will begin with the former. Two are far from good, one, though very inadequate, shows promise. The first is called "Affinities." We have studied it for nearly an hour, but the meaning is still hidden in obscurity. Had not the author concealed his name, we would have given his house-master a hint to look after him. We are sorry not to have room to quote this unique production in its entirety. We may observe that the talented author has shaken himself free from the trammels of convention, and dispensed with a principal verb in the first two verses. "AFFINITIES." Stars, that from the purple depths All things above-stars, eyes, and love- Moon that in the tranquil eves Riseth in placid wonder; And music of the hollow seas Drawn out in low-toned thunder; And winds that wander through the grass And all sweet sounds that nature hath, The next specimen is entitled the "The Rime of the Highland tourist," (why Rime ?). This is not so bad as the last, (let not the author be puffed up); the verses, though full of painful and glaring deficiencies, have a certain ring and spirit about them. The Highland tourist is supposed to be drowned near a spot where a remote progenitor of his own has committed a terrible crime. We quote the following verses as being truly exquisite gems: Our tourist friend was rather shocked, For this Maclean gave his mother her name Nemesis delays it no longer, A flock of gulls. The wind now lulls, What a boundless flow of description in that last line! How vividly the scene is brought before our eyes! The other two pieces need not detain us long. "An Apostrophe to the Turk leaving his country " is evidently the work of a very young writer. We hope he will try again; there is some promise in his work, but it is not quite up to our standard. One hint may be useful to him. Eschew blank verse. Bad blank verse is the easiest thing to write; good blank verse perhaps the hardest. Our sole prose contribution is an essay on Psychical Research. There are some good points in this, but it shows evident signs of hasty work. We wish we could find room to quote a very interesting "ghost story." We shall be very glad to hear from the author again. In conclusion, if our contributors only knew how many cups of strong tea have been required to support us under the affliction of toiling. through their productions, they would really try to do better next time. THE MARLBURIAN CLUB. We make no apology for calling the attention of our readers, especially those of them who are Old. Marlburians, to the following remarks, which refer to what is one of the most important, though youngest, of Marlborough institutions. We feel convinced with the writer that the aims and objects of the Club have only to be more widely understood for it to be more largely supported, and we trust that not only a large number of O.M.'s of older date who may see these lines will join the Club, but that many of those who have recently left us will prove their willingness to maintain touch of all that is Marlburian by becoming members: "The first formal Committee meeting of the Marlburian Club was held at Limmer's Hotel at the beginning of November, and a good deal of business was done. The Club numbers nearly 250 Members, and is now fairly started. Since the last Committee meeting many candidates have come forward for election. An analysis of the names now printed in the list of Members shows very clearly, however, that the supporters of the Club are for the most part drawn from a somewhat elderly generation of O.M.'s, and that those who have left at a comparatively recent date have not come forward in such numbers as was expected. Dividing the College life into periods of ten years, and grouping O.M.'s into corresponding classes, it appears that of those who left School between 1843 and 1853 thirty-six are Members of the Club, the decade ending 1863 contributes seventy-one, that ending 1873 contributes eighty-three, while of the large number who left Marlborough between 1873 and 1883 only twenty-seven have joined. This result has caused some disappointment to the Committee, who cannot but think that this delay in coming forward is due rather to a want of information than to any objection to, or want of interest in, the Club. The aims and objects of the institution have already been explained in the Marlburian more than once. Briefly, they are these:-To aid in every way everything Marlburian that is deserving of aid or in want of assistance; to enable old School friends to keep up and renew old friendships by bringing them. together as members of one common association; and to establish a definite organisation and centre for the interests of Marlburians in their old School. If these were all the aims of the Club it is evident that Members would find their chief reward in the consciousness of having done their duty by their old School. But the promoters go further than this, and offer especially to younger Members advantages which it may be supposed will appeal more directly to the principle of self interest. In a word, a resolution was passed at the Committee meeting, held in January, that a Club-room should be engaged for Members of the Club; a Club-house is obviously beyond the means of the institution. The Hon. Secretary is already in correspondence with the authorities of the Hôtel Métropole, whose central position will be extremely suitable for the purpose. At the Club-room Members will be able to meet each other, see the papers, and write letters; and arrangements will, if possible, be made with the Hotel authorities by which special consideration will be shewn to Members of the Club. Therefore, while town Members will find the Club-room a pleasant and convenient lounge, and the Hotel a suitable place for dining, country Members will be certain of finding a welcome at the Hotel, and every possible attention paid to their wants. To all those O.M.'s in London who are not members of any larger club it seems likely that the Marlburian Clubroom will be a great convenience, and it is hoped. that many of them will be induced to join for this, if for no other reason. The subscription for Members is only 10s. 6d. per annum, with no entrance fee, a sum which is within the reach of the slenderest purse. Candidates for election need only be proposed and seconded by a Member of the Club. |