may it be preserved, like the procession of boats to Surly, at Eton, on the 4th of June.
None of us meet in these old familiar scenes, and under the grey college tower, without remembering our quaint school-politics, and the code of generous boyish laws which we once obeyed—the daily gossip of triumphs, failures, and scrapes—of the improvement or the disappointment caused by the failure of some player at cricket, fives, or football. The canvass of merit in the companion, and of conduct in a master—the forecasting who would win the prize or the scholarship—the check given to a bully, or the likelihood of a “disagreeable fellow” leaving—snatches of reference to home and its pursuits to the confidential friend—the hopes of the future life, and the exultation at the success of those who had made themselves a name already in the world. We look with a feeling akin to envy on the junior clustering round the confectioner’s boy, or shirking the call to be fagged; and on the senior plodding over his task, for we cannot but recollect that in this little world one could obtain influence without means, family, or position; friendship here was sincere, the bitterest estrangement capable of reconciliation, the most avowed hostility of explanation. How little each thought on the threshold of life that he would never meet his fellows again on the same standing; the old phrases in which he or they were initiated would be proscribed, the demeanor altered, the manners and habits of thought different,—that each would have gone through so much, before they would be re-united. But still the inspiring traditions and lasting influences remain unimpaired; the early sympathies are revived strong as ever, and like those who drank of the legendary spring of St. Leonard at Winchelsea, all thirst to revisit the “old place” again. For every Domum is like the re-assembling of the long sundered members of an united family round their parent’s hearth, the rallying place of their common affections, which is still the home of young and old alike—where all are equal and dear and welcome once again. As Canning said, “In my conscience I believe that England would not be what she is without her system of public education;” and Johnson never uttered a greater truth than when he averred that “at a great school there is all the splendour and illumination of many minds; the radiance of all is concentrated in each, or at least reflected on each.”
The following graphic letter, which was written in the year 1759, gives the earliest account of a Wykehamist meeting, and has never yet been printed.
As I do not find your name mentioned at the late meeting, it may not, I trust, be unacceptable to you if I send you some account of that transaction, for your own satisfaction and the credit of parties concerned in it. The first and principal, then, that I will observe to you is, that it was extremely well conducted as to order and unanimity; all was decent, without riot or dispute. The numbers present were about 150, amongst whom were the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Earls of Shaftesbury, Coventry, Hilsborough, March, and Eglintoun; Lords Wentworth, Saye and Sele, and Bruce; the Bishop of Exeter; Mordaunt, Acton, Drake, Filmer, Wriothesley, Hobbes, and other Baronets; Messrs. Doddington, Starkie, Drax, Fletcher, Butler, Bond, Hamilton, Price, Col. Brudenell, Penton, and many other Members of Parliament; Judge Hervey and the Poet Laureate, with many other persons of distinction. The healths that were drank were as follows: “The King,” “The Prince, and Royal Family.” “Success to the British arms.” “Omnibus Wiccamicis.” “The two Universities.” “The Correspondent Meeting at Winchester,” by which is meant the company, assembled at the Warden’s lodgings, who that day made a public entertainment at Winchester. “The Master and Scholars.” “Thanks to the old Stewards and the new.” “Mr. Clarke, who was one of the company, and is said to be the oldest Wickamist.” Then the Speaker stood up and finished the toasts, and drank to “the immortal memory of William of Wykeham.” After that, Mr. Fitzherbert sang the song of “Domum,” which was joined by a grand chorus!
We must not forget to add that the festivities of Domum terminate with a ball on the Thursday in Election Week, in St. John’s Rooms. The old Winchester corner at Lord’s Cricket Ground, we regret to think, is deserted now; but we believe that the day will never come when the sons of Wykeham will not
Still in the summer twilight sing their sweet song of home!
A FEW VACANCIES.
There were, till lately, and probably may still be, “a few vacancies” in what is called by competent authorities the most splendid establishment of its kind in the world. It contains dwellings for its inmates of goodly architecture, ranged in pairs, at intervals, round a quadrangle of singular beauty, where the figures of those who enjoy its shady walks are seen through arches of the finest moulded brick, decorated with the most exquisite reliefs in terra-cotta. Every tenement has its rooms complete, and its separate garden and vineyard, while the library close by is of the noblest and fullest for a private institution. The sacristies are full of curiosities, the lavatory is rich in gold and ultramarine, while the church, with all its splendid ornaments, is as chaste in its general effect as the most fastidious criticism could desire. There are frescoes by Luini, pictures by Guercino, Perugino, and Borgognone, and specimens of pietra-dura work, in which the most costly materials are employed, with the rarer stones so disposed as to look like gems of unprecedented size. The stalls are fitted with elaborate intarsiatura of choice woods; the nave is enclosed by fine, lofty bronze rails, and imposing monuments, candelabra, and other artistic chefs-d’œuvre contribute to make the edifice so interesting, that certain enterprising booksellers have thought it worth their while to publish no less than seventy plates of its façade and details. Into such an establishment, with such a church, we believe that those who wish to be admitted can be received without any payment; and, when once there, they will find themselves connected with a society of men who come from different parts of the world, and are able to devote themselves to uninterrupted study, or to take a share in still further beautifying the
