MARLBOROUGH.

MARLBOROUGH is justly proud of its position as the most successful of the younger public schools of England. Not yet forty years old, and in spite of the many and great misfortunes which, especially in its early years, very nearly caused its extinction, it has in intellectual and physical success already surpassed some, and rivals the rest even of the older schools. The two pictures of Marlborough, as it came into existence in 1843, and asit exists to-day, together with the intermediate history which connects the one of these pictures with the other, are of vivid interest.

In 1843, certain people, having conceived the idea of founding a school in which the sons of clergymen should be educated in an inexpensive, practical, and simple way, formed themselves into a council composed of ten clergymen and nine laymen. This council founded the new school and regulated it

during the first two years of its existence. The first charter, by which the title of Marlborough College was given to the school, was not granted till 1845, two years after it was opened.' It virtually only confirmed the organisation of the school as arranged by the original founders. The government of the school was left in the hands of the council, consisting of twelve clergymen and thirteen laymen, which was elected by and from the number of the life-governors. Donors of 100%. to the school funds became life-governors, with the right of always having one nominee in the school. Boys were only admitted to the school on nomination; but the right to a single nomination might be obtained by anyone in return for a donation of 50%. Sons of laymen were admitted to the school; but the number of these was not to exceed onethird of that of the sons of clergymen. For the former, the yearly charge for education was 521. IOS.; for the latter, 31. 10S. A considerable sum of money received for nominations before the school was opened was spent in acquiring and adapting a suitable building.

The Great Western Railway had just taken the
An additional and supplementary charter was granted in 1853.

traffic from the well-known coach road which runs from London to Bath through the small Wiltshire town of Marlborough. The Castle Inn at Marlborough had marked one of the chief stages on that road, and had been one of the best inns in England. But, having depended solely on the custom of coach passengers, its occupation was now gone; and on the 5th of January, 1843, it was closed for ever as an inn. The same building was opened on the 23rd of the following August as Marlborough School.

The place was well chosen. The nature of the country round a great school is of considerable importance. It should, if it is to give full scope to and to develop the various tastes of its boys, be placed as remotely as possible from town life, in a healthy, varied, unenclosed, and beautiful country. The site chosen for the new school fulfilled these requirements in a high degree. It was remote from any great centre of life; for the town had ceased to be of itself of any importance. In the midst of the Wiltshire downs, the country is eminently healthy. Seven miles of forest and the meadows of the valley of the Kennet make it varied and beautiful; and, as regards its interest,

it has much, perhaps more than almost any other part of England, to recall its old history. The great stone circle at Avebury, the artificial hill at Silbury, the various 'camps,' on the downs, and innumerable other ancient monuments,' lend interest of this sort to the surrounding country. The very ground on which the school stands has a long and connected history. When eight years after the school was founded, he who was then head master told to Marlborough boys the history of their school home, he had to tell how the great mound standing among the school buildings was made in the so-called Druid times, and, with the stone-circles of Stonehenge and Avebury and with Silbury Hill, formed part of a great system of such works; how, in the eleventh century, this mound became the site of a royal Norman castle; how Henry the First held court in this castle; how in the wars of Stephen its inhabitants sided with the latter; how Parliament met within its walls in 1267; how it was a royal possession till the time of Henry the Eighth, who devised it to Katherine Parr; how by her marriage after the king's death, with one of the Seymours, it passed to the latter family; how it was defended by Roundheads against Royalists,

and then by Royalists against Roundheads; how the original castle having finally disappeared, the Seymour to whom the place then belonged built himself a great Elizabethan country house on the same site, getting the design of it from Inigo Jones; how it was surrounded by a quaint and famous Dutch garden; how Dr. Watts, celebrated for his hymns, was entertained in it; how The Seasons' Thomson, being also entertained, got drunk in it; how its owners, getting tired of it, deserted it, let it as an inn, and finally sold it to one of the Ailesbury family; how it became one of the most famous inns on the Bath road; and how the very same building became the original and central building known as 'C House' of Marlborough College.

The school met for the first time on the 23rd of August, 1843. The buildings, which consisted only of the old inn and of a large schoolroom, now divided into class-rooms and situated behind the present Upper School,' were not complete, but were sufficiently advanced to afford all absolutely necessary accommodation; and certain members of the council were on the spot busily and personally superintending the final arrangements. More than two hundred boys arrived, of whom only twenty-five