Rugby Days. 51 



Henry Dixon possessed a scrupulous regard 

 for truth, a sense of responsibility in all that 

 he undertook, and a simplicity and manliness 

 of character which commended him especially 

 to Dr. Arnold's liking. A great classical, 

 and still less a great mathematical scholar, it 

 was not in Dr. Arnold's power to make out 

 of him. It should be mentioned that as a 

 nine-year-old boy Henry Dixon had a severe 

 attack of ophthalmia, w T hich troubled him off 

 and on for the next six-and-twenty years, 

 often confining him to a darkened room and 

 necessitating complete idleness for a month 

 at a time. The result was that his early 

 education was greatly interfered with, and 

 that instead of entering Rugby at the age of 

 eleven or twelve, he was kept back until his 

 sixteenth birthday had passed. As a Rugby 

 boy he suffered so severely from ophthalmia 

 that for at least one-third of each term passed 

 by him there he was totally disqualified for 

 work, being unable to write a word or read a 

 line. 



Like Dr. Arnold himself, Dixon had no 

 aptitude for mathematics, and his taste for 

 classical literature (as he showed subse- 



