SCHOOLS 



The chancellor's prize for Latin verse was established in 1769. 

 Eleven times out of twenty-eight (1769-98) it fell to Wykehamists. 



Warton, though successful as a teacher, was singularly unsuccessful 

 as a disciplinarian. His reign was one of slackness, tempered by rebellion. 

 There were rebellions in 1770, 1774, 1778, and the last and crowning one 

 in the year of the French Revolution, 1793. 



Of the first two we have graphic accounts in the letters of the first 

 Earl of Malmesbury, James Harris. He came of Wykehamical stock 

 and was a commoner in 1762. At the age of twenty-four he was ambas- 

 sador at Madrid, and won golden opinions by his treatment of Spain. 

 He was a keen Wykehamist, finding Winchester a paradise after a brutal 

 schoolmaster at Salisbury. In 1772 he wrote to his father that he was 

 much satisfied ' in having given the Parliamentary Journals to Winchester 

 College rather than to Merton. I received great civilities certainly from 

 this last body, but none equal to what I owe to the first.' 



His mother kept up a constant correspondence with her son, and 

 wrote to him 23 February, 1770 (Life and Letters of First Earl of 

 Malmesbury, i. 194) : 



This post brought Mr. Bowles a letter from his son at Winchester, giving an 

 account of a great riot in that School. It began on some affront given, I think, 

 Monday, by the townsmen to some of the Commoners. Tuesday evening a detach- 

 ment of Commoners set out, armed with bludgeons, and some with pistols. Dr. 

 Warton, on hearing this, locked up what boys remained in the Commoners' Hall, but 

 they forced the door open and would join their friends. The College was also locked, 

 but they also grew outrageous, and they were let out to join in the fray. About 8 they 

 were got home all of them and put to bed. One townsman was wounded by a shot in 

 his leg. Wednesday night they sallied forth again, armed with weapons of all kinds, 

 and fought in the churchyard. The riot was so great that the magistrates were 

 obliged to interfere and the Riot Act was read. At length they dispersed, and I do 

 not hear of any further mischief than bruises. Master Bowles was not in it, but by 

 his manner of writing he seems greatly terrified. I am sorry for all this, as the School 

 had got into great repute, and it must give Dr. Warton infinite concern, but the spirit 

 of riot is gone forth into all degrees. 



On 3 March she wrote again : 



. . . The riot I mentioned in my last, at Winchester, is all over, and no one expelled. 

 It was a formidable thing, for they had several brace of pistols. It began, as I hear, 

 by the landlord of the White Hart desiring some of the Commoners, who were drinking 

 at his house, not to drink any more, but to go home. This gave such offence, that 

 the next day some went and broke his windows. The man was obliged to call his 

 neighbours to his assistance, so that brought on the battle between the townsmen and 

 the scholars. The great hero's name is Hare, he had been expelled from Eton. 



This riot, though the cause of it shows a curious state of manners, 

 and a slack state of discipline which could admit a boy expelled from 

 Eton, did not do any harm apparently. 



Mr. Harris, sen., went to Winchester in July 'to hear the gentlemen 

 speak for Lord Bruce's medal.' This medal was one of the precursors of 

 the queen's medals of to-day. Two silver medals were first given by 

 Lord Bute, presumably when his boys were in Warton's house as second 

 master. In 1761 a gold and two silver medals were given by the Earl of 

 Aylesbury, who had been a commoner, and continued to be given by 



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