114 THE EXTERNAL GROWTH OF SHERBORXE SCHOOL. 



to the School, and outside the scope of the present paper. The 

 block of buildings, in which we are now assembled, was for many 

 years a silk factory, occupying the site of w r hat were once the 

 Abbey Mills. These were purchased in 1873 of Earl Digby, and 

 adapted for the teaching of Science, Music, Drawing, and 

 Carpentry. Our excellent Swimming-bath dates from the same 

 year. The actual room, in which we sit, was our Music Room until 

 1880, when it was fitted up for its present purpose as a Museum. 



And now, ladies and gentlemen, having briefly sketched the 

 history of the School Buildings to the present time, my task is 

 done. The internal history of Sherborne School forms a different 

 chapter, 'even more obscure, during the first two centuries of its 

 existence, than that which I have endeavoured to lay before you. 

 The present is scarcely a time to dwell upon the singularly 

 chequered story ; but it is a chapter full of interest for those who 

 would study the conditions of the development and prosperity of 

 what I trust I may still call a great Public School. The public 

 Schools of England are native to our soil. They have grown, some 

 of the most famous of them, like the proverbial mustard seed, from 

 small beginnings into great trees. The secret of this growth has 

 not lain in great endowments, but in faith, and patience, and in the 

 subordination of the individual to the general interest. Institutions 

 are greater than men, and every man who is privileged to belong to 

 an historic institution owes far more to it than he can ever hope to 

 confer upon it. Not for individuals, not for parties, not for one 

 generation more than for another do the Public Schools of England 

 exist. They belong to the nation. As national trusts must they 

 be administered, if they are to live and flourish. As nurseries of 

 national life, pure from all self-seeking, and devoted to the highest 

 moral, religious, and intellectual as well as physical interests of 

 youth, must they be maintained, or the roots wither, and the 

 curse of sterility falls at last upon the fairest growth. 



