46 Life and Times of " The Druid." 



seen — presided over the fortunes of Laurence 

 Sheriffs famous foundation until he had set 

 his stamp upon public school education all 

 over the world — a stamp which time will 

 not soon efface. " Nimrod " has left us a 

 spirited sketch of the Rugby of his day, 

 accompanied by well drawn portraits of 

 " Master Langley," landlord of the Spread 

 Eagle Hotel, and of " Old Brummage, of 

 the Black Bear," which reveal that there was 

 no harder drinking school in England. The 

 boys got drunk with impunity, unless the 

 offence was so glaring as to attract notice 

 from some master, who had little alacrity in 

 spying out what he did not want to see, and 

 still less in reporting the culprit to Dr. 

 James, who never failed to flog him un- 

 sparingly, without putting an end to the 

 bibulous propensities of his school mates. 

 " Nimrod," and other boys of sporting pro- 

 clivities, were regular attendants on foot at 

 the meets near Rugby, of the Warwickshire 

 and Pytchley hounds. The school discipline 

 was so lax and education so neglected that 

 the class list at Oxford and Cambridge rarely 

 contained a Rugby name, and Walter Savage 



