SCHOOLS 



a common fate,' stated he must follow their example. He took his 

 younger brother with him, though the brother afterwards went back. 



The action of the authorities against the rebels was emphatically 

 condemned at the next scrutiny. 



The Warden and Posers required the removal of the obnoxious Commoner Tutor, 

 they restored every boy who had been put down in the School to his former place, 

 they publicly expressed their regret that they were unable to recall those who had been 

 expelled. The Junior Poser (J. Poulter, afterwards M.P. for Shaftesbury) was so 

 overpowered by the sense of wrong which could not be set right, that he is related to 

 have laid his head down on the table in Election Chamber and fairly wept aloud with 

 indignation. 1 



Five college boys and fifteen commoners were the victims. The 

 rebellion did no harm to the school's reputation, perhaps because both 

 Eton and Harrow were also in the throes of rebellion. Rugby, too, 

 rejoiced in its great rebellion of 1797, when also it enjoyed the distinction 2 

 of soldiers being called in to put it down, and another in 1822. 



Warden Huntingford died at the age of eighty-four in 1832, having 

 had the longest reign of any warden no less than forty-two years. Dr. 

 Gabell stayed on as headmaster for another five years. Of his merits and 

 thoroughness as a teacher Page Wood and others have left their testimony. 



In 1823 'Gaffer' Williams, the second master who had been 

 cheered during the rebellion, succeeded as headmaster. He was founder's 

 kin, and therefore, and not because of any superior merit, went to New 

 College as a fellow at sixteen. ' Gaffer ' is a common term in Wales for 

 a ' grand old ' boy, possibly a corruption of grandfather. ' Tall, powerful 

 and handsome, he excelled in all games and was the hero of the cricket- 

 field no less than of Election Chamber.' He rode a white horse, believed 

 to have been chosen because visible a long way off, so as to give warning 

 to errant boys to get out of the way ! In his time there were two small 

 outbreaks, not against the masters but against prefects, both in Commoners. 

 The first in 1827 was a personal row between a sixth book inferior and a 

 prefect. An account of the second is given by Lord Selborne in his 

 autobiography, marked by that detached and impartial manner which 

 made him so great a judge. 3 



The discipline of the School was in 182530 dependent on the 'praefects,' . . . 

 only eight in Commoners. ... A regulated system of fagging is the best security 

 against tyranny by the strong and thoughtless idlers . . . whose place in it is generally 

 low in comparison with their growth. It was from this class of boys that all the 

 bullying of which I ever had experience, both at Rugby and Winchester . . . pro- 

 ceeded. . . . The system always worked well when the praefects had physical strength 

 and moral courage, as was generally the case. It was only when these conditions were 

 wanting . . . that it broke down. This happened in 1829, when I myself was a 

 praefect. We were a weak set altogether I do not mean intellectually, but physically 

 and none of us had that skill or reputation in school games which goes further than 

 intellect. William George Ward * ... was senior praefect . . . awkward, eccentric 



1 Wykehamtca, p. 189. 



1 Not unique, as Mr. Rouse says, History of Rugby School, p. 185 (Duckworth, 1898). 

 3 Memorials Family and Personal, by Roundell Palmer, Earl of Selborne, i. 96 (Macmillan, 1896). 

 * One of the leaders, or led, of the ' Oxford Movement," who crossed the Rubicon to Rome. His 

 book, The Ideal of a Chrutian Church, published in 1 844, created no small stir in clerical circlet. 



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