SCHOOLS 



Shuttleworth (college, 1796), made Bishop of Chichester. Williams died 

 in 1860, just as brighter days began to dawn for Wykeham's Colleges after 

 a period of decided depression. 



Yet under Dr. Moberly the first prospects of Winchester seemed 

 bright indeed. The accession of the girl-queen, Queen Victoria, was 

 announced to her at 5 a.m. on that famous summer morning in 1837 

 by a Wykehamist and a Hampshire man, 1 William Howley, who, as 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, was, next to the blood royal, the first subject 

 in the realm. A pupil of Dr. Warton's (college, 1779), he returned to 

 Winchester straight from New College as a fellow, and at the early age 

 of forty-six became Bishop of London. Under these auspices, almost the 

 first work of Dr. Moberly was to compass the destruction of the pictur- 

 esque but crowded and insanitary ' Old Commoners.' The freehold of 

 the Sustern Spital being acquired from the dean and chapter in 1838, 

 * New Commoners ' was built at a cost of over 27,000,* of which the 

 college contributed 17,739, arising chiefly from the investment of money 

 accrued from falls of timber. The plan was simple and excellent, but 

 the elevation was truly appalling. The building was of raw, red brick, 

 with a low-pitched slate roof. Its unredeemed ugliness was surely the 

 most lugubrious effort in architecture even of the Early Victorian era. 

 This was due to the building being done cheaply. The effect of the 

 constitution of the college, the division of surplus among the warden and 

 fellows, was that Winchester, with an income of 20,000 a year, was worse 

 off than Rugby with half that amount. For i 0,000 out of the 27,000 

 which ' Commoners ' cost, the headmaster was personally responsible, and 

 had to pay interest. Yet, unattractive as it was, the immediate effect of 

 the building was to attract. The numbers went up to 1 48 its utmost 

 capacity. 



Then came the discovery that the building was as faulty inside as it 

 was hideous outside. There were no chimneys or other ventilation in the 

 bedrooms. Below the building the branch of the old Lort-burn which 

 had served the Sustern Spital, and should have been diverted, was choked 

 by the mass of matter thrown in to form the foundation, ' converting the 

 subsoil into a subterranean marsh, redolent with malaria.' 3 In 1846 there 

 was an outbreak of fever. The numbers in a single year fell to 112. The 

 city also, by refusing to be drained, contributed a reputation of unhealthi- 

 ness. So in spite of sanitary reforms the fall went on. 



An incipient rebellion in Commoners in 1 848 probably did not mend 

 matters, though it was suppressed with much promptitude. It began in 

 the prohibition of a bonfire and fireworks on a Saturday night, simmered 

 through Sunday, and on Monday manifested itself by a barring-in, the 

 boys refusing to leave their rooms. They were taken at their word, and a 

 master was posted in each ' gallery ' to see that they maintained their 

 refusal. When they tried to leave they were sent back. In a few hours 

 they were starved out and surrendered at discretion. 



1 Born at Ropley. " Pub&c Schools Commiuion, iii. 331. 



8 Wykehamka, p. 237. 



359 



