xxii ITS PRESENT STATE 289 



For conqueror's hands, for men of peace the calm 

 Of peaceful lilies. At the shrine to-day, 

 O loved physician, of thy worth, we lay 

 We, who from near and far in concord meet 

 This hundredth birthday of thy fame to greet 

 Nor crown nor fading garland ; nought can pay 

 For love but answering love : these courts of stone 

 Found at thy searching in the breezy north 

 Will speak thy eulogy when we are at rest. 

 And when another century hath flown, 

 From her grey halls shall Ackworth still send forth 

 Children who shall arise and call her blest. 



To-day the school yet thrives under the able care of 

 Frederick Andrews, and accommodates 180 boys and 

 120 girls : there are seldom vacant places. The excellent 

 original buildings still form the centre, around which 

 many others have grown up ; their dark grey sandstone 

 is well worn, and gives an air of antiquity to the chambers 

 and stairways : some of the rooms are still used for the 

 same purposes as at first. But the school has developed 

 with the times, and is now well equipped with the best 

 appliances : numerous bathrooms, a large swimming-bath 

 with its aerator, a steam fire-engine, and an ample gym- 

 nasium belong to a later age than Fothergill's, as do 

 laboratories for chemistry and for physical and domestic 

 science, music rooms, an art school and a central library ; 

 whilst 84 acres Tiave grown to 280. A fine Gothic room 

 named Fothergill Hall, seating 400 persons, was added in 

 1899 : it contains the bust of the patron saint. 1 



1 " I cannot sufficiently express my admiration of the order, seriousness 

 and repose of this great institution." Sir J. G. Fitch, H.M. Inspector of 

 Schools, Report, 1866 ; see Schools Inquiry Commission, Reports of Asst. 

 Commrs. ix. pp. 236-288 ; and compare Prof. M. E. Sadler on Friends' Schools 

 in Friends' Quart. Exam., July 1907, p. 437. Fuller details of Fothergill's 

 labours in the foundation of Ackworth School and of his visits to the place 

 will be found in J. H. Tnke's Sketch, pp. 48-67. See also [J. Fothergill] A 

 Letter to a Friend in the Country relative to the Intended School at Ackworth, 

 24.1.1779 ; and other letters, to Priestley, 24.viii.i78o. quoted in Mem. S. 

 Fothergill, p. 541 ; to B. Franklin, 25.x.i78o, Amer. Phil. Soc. ; and MS. 

 Letters to H. Zouch, Autumn 1777, Frds. Ref. Lib. Gibson MSS. i. 119 ; and 

 to D. Barclay, 23.X.I778 ; this last and the letter of the boys' monitors are 

 among the David Barclay papers ; H. Thompson, Hist. A ckworth School. The 

 tenth line of F. Taylor's stanza has been slightly altered. 



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