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THIRD DAY. On the Common. By Promotion Littlefield and Cotton House lost the services of Chase and Askwith respectively. The former kicked off from the town end, and immediately began to pen its opponents and within the first ten minutes Petrie lus secured a try, for them, which Platt converted into a goal. Not long after, Scott from a free kick dropped another goal, for them. After change Littlefield still improved matters, Petrie getting another try which was unsuccessfully placed. Nothing more occurred till the end of the game So Littlefield were victoriou s by 3 goals and 2 tries to one goal and a try. For the victors Petrie lus Chase (on first two days) Robertson and Scott (behind), and Impey and Willes (forward) distinguished themselves, while for Cotton House, Fox, Fairrie and Thompson (behind) and Askwith (on first two days), Little and Dreuitt (forward) played best.

HOUSE GROUND MATCH, 1st TIES.

BAKER'S (FLEUR DE LYS) v. UPCOTT'S
(MALTESE CROSS).

This match was thoroughly well contested throughout, Baker's having the best of it on the first and third days, and their opponents on the second day. Baker's shewed the best play all through the match.

1st DAY, Oct. 12, on the "Hundred."-The day was intensely hot, and consequently the play was somewhat slack. In the first twenty minutes, Smith, who was playing excellently at half-back, ran in low down. The place was entrusted to Halcomb, and failed. Almost immediately Hill 2us, by a splendid run, got another try for Baker's, which was successfully placed by Halcomb. Nothing more happened, though Upcott's in their turn slightly penned Baker's during the last half-hour.

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2nd DAY, Oct. 18, on the LXXX.-Upcott's had the best of it throughout. A strong wind blowing from Lyne's end, and Baker's played against it first. Nothing was got in the first half back, the attacks of Upcott's backs being only repelled by the magnificent play of Hill 2us, who collared in capital style. After change Jones caught the ball when thrown in, and ran in between the posts. Alston placed a very good goal. After this Baker's goal was constantly endangered by the runs of Birch and Peat, but Upcott's failed to secure any further advantage, thus leaving Baker's with one touch-down to the good.

3rd DAY, on the "Hundred," Oct. 31.-Upcott's had lost by promotion Jones and Birch, while Baker's likewise were deprived of the services of their captain, Acton. In the first half-hour Hill 2us and Hawkins 2us, the latter by an extremely brilliant run, got tries, but both places were unsuccessful. Upcott's then played up hard to retrieve their fortune. Still, though over-weighted in the squash, Baker's forwards kept them close to their goal, and thus the match ended in a victory for Baker's by 1 goal and 3 tries to 1 goal.

For Baker's, besides those already mentioned, Acton, Stokes, Westcott, Smith, Dyson, Hill 1us played very well throughout. Tanner at half-back deserves mention for extremely plucky play and collaring.

For Upcott's, Jones, Hartley, Dawson, Ravenhill were best forward, while behind the play of Sanders and Taylor showed great promise.

ART SOCIETY.

On Tuesday, Nov. 5th, a general meeting was held, which, as it happened to fall on the same night as a Debate, was attended by fewer members than would otherwise have been the case. Pictures by the members were exhibited as usual; the collection was not large, bnt what there was perhaps exceeded in excellence nearly every thing yet exhibited by School members. Most noticeable was a painting in watercolours on a panel, to form afterwards part of a cabinet by Cox; the subject was taken from one of the excellent drawings in "the Baby's Opera," and was drawn and coloured to perfection: some etchings on linen which were also done by Cox shew that, with a little trouble, he will obtain a great mastery over figure drawing. D'Urban also had two birds. painted equally well on wood.

After this preliminary business was finished, W. B. Taylor read a very interesting paper on Sacred Art. He first criticized Gustave Doré for the coarse and theatrical nature of his sacred pictures, though it was allowed that due credit had not been given to his imaginative powers, and his mastery over colour, and light and shade. Then the body of the paper was taken up with definitions and criticism of the Pre-Raphaelite School, especially the examples on the walls of our Chapel. The authors had sought a model in the early Italian painters, and had endeavoured to combine their purity with the calm. serenity of classical art. Of this School Mr. Stanhope was a faithful disciple: indeed, no other explanation could be given of the faults of his pictures than that he had so imbued himself with the spirit of his examples, as to think it necessary to copy their defects as well as their beauties. Their faults were either in gross defects of anatomy, or of position, or of conception of the first of these, the middle

figure of the Three Children is a prominent example; of the second, the arrangement in the picture of Abraham entertaining the Angels, and the jarring. effect produced by the Angel and Isaac, in the picture of the sacrifice, being placed exactly parallel to one another; and of the third, the picture of the Temptation, where the undignified features of the principal figure were expressive of nothing save humiliation and defeat, And the introduction of such conventionalities as the table and pile of wood was typical of the incongruities of the School, nor could it be justified by Raphael's transfiguration, where a distinct object was gained by placing two utterly different scenes in striking, if impossible, contrast. Great praise was bestowed on the picture of the Agony, in which the earnestness of our Lord's attitude and expression, and the reverent position of the Angel were very finely conceived. The lifelike attitudes of the Women at the Sepulchre, and the stately figure of the Angel were amongst the finest things in the series, though the picture as a whole could hardly be put in the same rank with the Agony and the Anunciation, where the Virgin's simplicity, and unrestrained grace were beautifully expressed.

Taken, then, as a whole, the pictures suited the general style and colour of the chapel, and showed in many places genuine skill and power, though inexplicably marred by glaring defects of form, and inapproporiate adjuncts. And it was justly said that, if purity of taste was only to be gained by such means, the price paid was too heavy. And if, as was suggested, the artist would offer in apology that he had to make his pictures suit the rest of the chapel decorations, is not the defence a strong condemnation of the whole adornment? The Pre-Raphaelite school had failed to produce sacred pictures that combined simplicity, grandeur, and the severity of the classical Schools, with the grace of the Italian, and often obscured this meaning by difficult and mystical additions.

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The Rifle Corps.

On Monday, November 18th, a somewhat small muster turned out for Company Drill, the day was bitterly cold and consequently the drill of an inferior order.

Printed by PERKINS & SON, at their General Printing Offices,

Waterloo House, Marlborough.

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EDITORIAL.

DECEMBER 18TH, 1878.

How

THE Editor sat "ruminating (as Mr. Pickwick would say) on the mutability of human affairs." The term was past and the day of reckoning had come. many youthful contributors had had their eager hopes dashed to the ground, by the stern edicts of editorial criticism. It was the irony of fate. Kismet, said the Editor, and the momentary weakness of his great mind was past. He wheeled his chair from the fire, seated himself at the table, and with untiring energy devoured the mass of amusement and instruction forwarded gratuitously for his own benefit. Well! he had some cause to be thankful. The sleep of the school during the past term had been good, no one had abused the splendid opportunity of eight hours' uninterrupted slumber by dreaming, and worse still by imparting his dream to the Editors. But had the school prolonged their sleep through the day as well? Could the united genius of the school produce only one poor prose article? And yet was the article poor? The Editor read and reread it carefully, but in vain. He was powerless as a child to solve the riddle. Was there some vein of poignant sarcasm hidden beneath that rough and meaningless exterior? Was it the outpouring of

PRICE 3d.

some youth who was, or fancied himself, worn out by the world and its follies? Was it (and this the Editor finally concluded) the frenzied gushing of some Prefect tormented by the hideous nightmare of Cicero's shape looming near, grim and menacing for frequent mistranslation? If so, we tender him our heartiest congratulations; his sentences would be the very joy of Cicero's heart. May her Majesty's righteous indignation for the murder of her English never fall upon his head. We subjoin a sentence taken at random, neither better nor worse than the rest: "Contentment, if well cultivated, is such a blessing that it removes jealousy, malice, covetousness, and in short all tormenting passions. Contented people are not unnecessarily depressed by reverses of fortune, but endeavour to adapt themselves easily to their lot, however hard." And these wearisome platitudes are dragged out with monotonous repetition into six long pages. But let not the author despair the handwriting and punctuation are good, and the morality excellent. If he chooses a subject a little more suited to a School Paper, and study carefully a small English Grammar, we have little doubt of his success.

:

On turning to the poetical contributions the difference in quantity was marvellous, not so in quality.

Some of the pieces were, in their way, amusing; a few excellent, but tedious; the rest characterised by their pointless inanity.

The first piece we notice is of the amusing kind. Our author is facetious: he entitles it "a tale of tails." Good but old, is our only comment, and we proceed to master its contents. They were certainly suited to Christmas time. The hero of the poem is introduced to us in the agony of swallowing an antiphibious pill." Chorus of frogs in the distance. He retires to rest, but sleep, perhaps through fear of the mysterious drug, refuses to visit his tired eyelids. She sends a substitute, however, in her place, and in the eloquent language of the poet :

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"Methought I fell into a dungeon deep,

A feeling, I assure you, which caused pain." Poor fellow! There is no need to' assure' us. We believe him. The chorus of Frogs now leave their slimy baunts, and like true friends, come to visit him in his distress. He angrily rejects their assistance, and hurls after them his boots. As a punishment for his ingratitude, there entered a horrid form.

"With bony arm and livid hand outstretch'd

He seized me by the nose, as if in game, Eftsoons he spake, 'D'ye ken what I have ketch'd.'" (sic) Our friend was equal to the emergency. With a courage worthy of a better cause he raised his hand,

"And hit him in his lurid eye"

The Form was, not unnaturally, discomfited and fled, leaving a chorus of snakes to console the conqueror. As might be expected, they consoled him to some purpose, and he awoke in the "ecstatic rapture of their close," though somewhat cold, "embrace."

The poem is really not bad in its way. The author sets himself to be facetious, not to write poetry; and to a certain extent he succeeds. The style and rhyme shew that he could write decent poetry if he tried. We shall be glad to hear again from the author of "Tails."

The next poem is entitled "The Lay of the Last Leopard." It also is in a facetious style, and is one of the most curious pieces we ever read. The only theory that can at all explain it, is that of "divided authorship." There are clear traces of two or more original poets; and further, the poem may be split up into its component lays, there is first the "Lay of the Leopard," the oldest and most important; next there is the lay of the Hat, an old and trusty article of apparel; then follows the Blunder

busseid, seemingly of later date, since that terrible instrument of warfare was unknown in pre-historic times lastly, there is the brief but brilliant Episode of the Button-hook, which we are unwillingly forced to believe a forgery. The general antiquity of the poem is proved not only by internal evidence-for the paper is, to say the least of it, soiled, and the hand-writing antique and crabbed,-but by the most wonderful undesigned coincidence. Impelled by curiosity we turned over the page, to see if any explanation or date were appended. That curiosity was for once satisfied. We read with admiration not unmingled with awe, a truly marvellous copy of Latin Verse. All that the writer's varied knowledge could afford, all that his brilliant taste could suggest, lay there spread before our eyes. It was enough, more than enough. The superscription had revealed to us the author's name, and station in life, which, though humble, he knew well how to adorn. Space prevents us from gratifying our readers' natural curiosity to see the whole of the piece. We quote only the more interesting parts, and draw particular attention to the disjointed nature of the lines, clearly the work of ancient ballad writers, collected into their present shape by a modern hand. The first stanza, like all ancient poetry, is remarkable for its simplicity, it is :

"I saw a Leopard; he Gave me a stare, Put me in jeopardy,

I tore my hair."

Could anything more conclusively prove our theory? Space compels us to publish the text alone, and leave the criticism to our readers. The Leopard was not appeased by the terror depicted on his victim's

countenance :

"Then he came prancingly

Up to my nose; Off I went dancingly On my ten toes."

"Out barbarous Vandyke"! we exclaimed. This is downright murder. Who wishes to be told the leopard came up to his nose; who wants to know that the trembling wretch used the fantastic organs which nature gave him? The second and fourth lines in our opinion entirely spoil the beauty of the Stanza.

Willingly would we describe the flight of the victim-the pursuit-the escape. But the time fails At the critical moment, a tree luckily came in view, up this the pursued nimbly hopped, leaving

us.

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Sic transit gloria mundi. Yesterday a living leopard, to-day a dead sheep. Yes let the cart come and bear the fallen hero to the shambles. There remain to be noticed only three other contributions. The first is entitled Beauty. The style is poor, the sentiment maudlin, and the author evidently youthful and inexperienced. He begins :

In this world of hum drum duty
Oft-times had I heard of beauty.

And goes on to state that he had always regarded beauty as the 'phantasy of the poet's pen,' till one day he "saw Dorothy, he knew it then." Really, we think, he might keep these little episodes of his private life to their proper place, namely, his own bosom. If he send us contributions of a less confidential character, we shall be most happy to insert them.

The other two contributions are of the class characterised, as we said before, by their pointless inanity. They are entitled "an Ode to Marlborough," and "The Dentist," and are hardly worth notice.

On reviewing the term, we should say it had been more prolific in correspondence, than in anything else. Excellent as correspondence is, we should be thankful to have an occasional solid article, or musical poem. And we think it necessary to remind the School that letters on the internal affairs of the College cannot be published

ULFILAS.

(Continued from last No.)

Seven years had he been Bishop when the Exodus took place, and for thirty-three years more he worked at his mission of teacher and civilizer. Sometimes, doubtless, he would recr ss the Danube, or organise missionary bands to work among the yet unconverted north of the river. For the power of Athanaric was not undisputed there; another judge, Fritigern, seems to have striven to protect the Xtns, and there are bitter quarrels and wa fare between these two, till a new foe appeared upon their flank and forced them to unite. This new foe was the Hun, who came pouring upon the Gothic frontier from Central Asia, carrying nothing but devastation and destruction with him wherever he went. Strange figures these Huns must have been, and the terror they inspired finds an echo in the fearful descriptions left us of their appearance; hideous beings with pig-like eyes, and faces like lumps of dough (deformis offa, non facies), their noses flattened by their nurses in childhood, and their chins and cheeks gashed and scarred to prevent the growth of the beard. No dwellings had they, not even a straw-roofed hut; a roof they thought a dangerous thing, it might fall at any moment Linen cloth and skins formed their only covering; their boots, made without last, were so clumsy that they could ot walk. So they rarely left the saddle, but ate and drank, bought and sold, and even slept on horseback; nay, the Roman historian does not hesitate to describe them as leaning forward over the horse's neck and enjoying a "diversity of dreams" in this somewhat cramped attitude. They seemed, as it were, grown on to and a part of, the horse. The stately Guth, whose tall stature and well-proportioned limbs were always the admiration of the Romans, lost all heart at the sight of these creatures; they must have been engendered-so his terrified imagination told him-by witches an demons upon the steppes, and a magic hind had guided them to the Gothie land and then vanished. Defeated again and again by these Hans, their lands burnt and ravaged, the Goths in their sore need bethought themselves of their brethren, the Lesser Goths, across the River. So they too, came down to the bank and stretched out their hands to the Romans and begged to be allowed to cross. Could they but between themselves and once pu, the Danube this horrible foe, they were ready to submit to any con. ditions. The Roman Emperor was Valens, weak, vain, and covetous; and he thought it a fine thing

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