DOCTOR HAYMAN 133 



came a desire to let them see that I could do without them 

 and would be beholden to none of them while reading for 

 the Exhibitions that summer. This was the sole motive 

 power of my effort in that direction, and the result we shall 

 see presently. 



There was only one Speech day in my time, with Dr 

 Hayman as headmaster, and of that I wrote : 



Our speeches come off on the ist July I am condemned to 

 act the part of ^schylus in a play of Aristophanes (Greek). 

 Fancy how horrible to talk Greek in dress clothes on a sort of 

 short-legged table in the midst of numbers of people ! I shall 

 be home in time for Darlington Show and we shall have lots of 

 dogs there. 



Then, in a later letter : 



Our speeches came off on Friday. I performed the part of 

 -ZEschylus with some success and received a prize value 3 for 

 Latin hexameters from the trustees of the School. 



Dr Hayman made an excellent speech at the beginning so 

 excellent that none of his enemies could find fault with it. Among 

 other things he spoke of " the excellence of his assistant masters,' 5 

 which certainly heaped coals of fire upon their heads. 



After the speeches there was, as usual, the Vlth dinner. This 

 time we had it in a tent on Dr Hayman 's lawn. Warner was not 

 there, so I presided and had to make speeches, call upon people 

 to sing, etc. 



These episodes, however, are too near the end of my 

 time at the school to come in proper sequence here, but 

 I give the extracts, as they throw a pretty clear light on 

 Dr Hayman' s position and in some measure perhaps serve 

 to explain how I, by becoming a strenuous adherent of his, 

 was able during those last two terms to do pretty much 

 what I liked. 



All Rugbeians of that period and a good deal later will 

 remember Patey, the school marshal, whose duties were 

 never very clearly denned, but he used to come in at first 

 lesson in the mornings and report all who had been absent 

 from " calling over " the afternoon before. In many other 

 ways he was supposed to exercise some sort of supervision, 



