IN 1691 Mr. Godfrey Lawson, who was mayor in 1689 and died in 1709, and who lived not far from where Woodhouse Lane joins Upperhead Row, got leave from his colleagues on the Committee to make “some addition of building to the Free School.” Thoresby tells us that he
“added a new Apartment in the Year 1692, in the lower Room whereof is a Conveniency for a Fire for the Scholars in Winter; and in that above a growing Library, wherein are some choice Books of his Gift and other charitably disposed Persons. ... In the Windows are curiously painted the Founders Arms and Ars Grammatica, well performed by Mr. Henry Gyles of York.”
OF THE OLD SCHOOL the playground was small, and, though extended in 1820 and 1844 was merely “a sort of barren sandy desert” about half an acre in extent, “with a straggling oasis of sooty grass in one corner.”
No proper cricket or football was practicable, and the chief pastimes of which we hear are pea-shooting and snowballing, marbles and tops, “piggy” and “blackthorn.” Football indeed, we are told, was not much thought of then, and though cricket was a favourite game it was played elsewhere.
“Our club played cricket on Woodhouse Moor, wickets and bats being deposited in some disused kennels in the garden of a whitewashed cottage then standing in the middle of the Moor, where a pack of foxhounds or harriers were kept in former years. Permission was afterwards obtained to play in the field on which the present School stands, and the actual site of this was our favourite pitch. A milk farm stood at one end of this field, and a sod wall and furze bush fence . . . surrounded it, and at the time of the opening [of the new building] scarcely a house existed between the School and Burley Church.”
A WRITER in the “Leodiensian” of 1883 states that there was a School magazine in 1801, but of this I have not been able to find a copy.
The earliest issue which the Library possesses is dated 1819, and entitled “The Juvenile Magazine or Free-School Review.” It was printed by Headley and Mudie, Independent Office, Leeds, “for Bubulcus Montanus and Co., Schooltown, Leeds.”
It is a small volume of 192 pages in smallish type. No names are given either of contributors or of editors. It contains translations into verse from classical authors, articles on points of classical grammar, Latin and other poems, essays, letters, reviews, criticisms, articles (somewhat inaccurate) on the history of the School, biographies of some of its
bygone worthies, etc. The preface tells us that there had been in the School other magazines “entitled the Hermes and Eclipse.” These “might have been (and indeed in some respects were) calculated to improve both the Editors and Readers in argument, in elegance of sentiment, in fluency of language, and variety of expression,” but had been “the means of introducing and promoting a spirit of hatred and envy.”
These papers however were now amalgamating in one, called “Union,” and Bubulcus & Co. trusted that “all that malignant envy, that scornful indignation and that contemptible spitefulness which have lately been too generally evinced between the two parties will now be checked and laid aside.” Still, they urged that the “Union” could not afford “so extensive an advantage as this larger publication” the object of which, as stated later, was “to show the town that our education has not been bestowed in vain . . . to show our friends that we are not those senseless beings who are satisfied with merely not leaving their impositions unexecuted, that we though young are not insensible to glory.”
IT MUST BE confessed however that the editors in 1845 were not far wrong when they described the “Juvenile Magazine” as “on the whole a prosy sedate performance, and might very well pass for a publication of a century earlier, and would make it appear that boys of that day were much more sensible than now, though it is generally believed that boys are always much the same.”
The volume shows however that Mr. Richards' pupils had a good deal of original sin in them, for we find them using glass to reflect the sun into other boys' eyes, pea-shooting, drawing pictures in books, chalking nick-names on their neighbours' backs, putting slips of paper under other boys' collars, making the lives of the industrious a burden to them, cutting their fingers to escape writing, taking physic to avoid coming to School, and alas! sitting on the school-wall and jeering at passers-by. We hear of cribs, tarts, “potatoe guns,” syringes, “pop.” We learn that several boys had a taste for botany, and that one botanist detested Latin verses but could play 5 musical instruments. An early study of chemistry may perhaps be inferred from a trick of daubing studious boys with nitric acid.
FROM AUGUST 1827 to September 1828 another magazine was issued. This was “The Leodiensian or Leeds Grammar School Magazine,” printed by Robinson and Hernaman, Commercial Street, Leeds.
It forms a volume of 280 pages. Again no names are given, but the editor who calls himself “Jaques,” is traditionally identified with W. H. Brookfield, who left the School in 1826. He confesses that “the Cacoethes Scribendi is an incentive of no inconsiderable force to the step we have ventured to take,” and says “nothing is further from our intention than to confine our publication to the productions of those now within the pale of the School in which this originates—were it so we could have but little hope of success; but we confidently look to several individuals more remotely connected with the Institution for literary support.”
This magazine contained essays, poems, narratives, etc., and nothing about the School except an elegy on the ancient sycamore
“against whose ample side
Cadets for freedom had their honour tried.”
Its cessation is ascribed to “nagging in the efforts of some of its literary contributors” and to “the sparing hand with which approval has been accorded.”
THE NEXT MAGAZINE of which we have record is “The Leodiensian or Grammar School Miscellany,” printed by Bolland and Kemplay, Intelligencer Office, Leeds. It has on its title page the town arms with the motto “Hic et ubique.”
It began in September 1845, and 12 numbers appeared, forming a volume of 284 pages. It stopped because “to edit, to write articles, and at the same time to attend to our necessary school occupations is no very easy matter to perform monthly.” It is clear then that this magazine was run by boys still at the School, but though initials are often affixed it seems impossible to identify the writers. The editors hoped that the magazine might give an impulse to the genius of youth “without teaching them always to inflict their effusions on the public,” and promised variety, avoidance of religious subjects, and freedom from scurrility. They described their predecessor as the object of their “respectful imitation,” and the magazine therefore was again of the literary type and as a school record is valueless, except that there is an allusion to a projected rival run by a seceder from its staff.
The contents as before are stories, essays, notes and criticisms, and poems (mainly however translations). There are also some instructive articles on Gothic architecture.
IN APRIL 1856 appeared the first number of “The Leodiensian or Grammar School Miscellany,” printed by C. Kemplay, Intelligencer Office, Leeds. It had as its motto “Scribimus indocti doctique,” and was sold at 6d.
I have only been able to see a few isolated numbers, the last of which—“No. 9”—bears the date 1857.* [*NOTE—it ended in June 1857 owing to lack of contributors and subscribers.] These however are sufficient to show its character. It contained poems, travelling sketches, articles on Yorkshire battles, an abridgment of a lecture by Mr. Barry, a history of the navy, an account of the crusades, a note on the election of Mr. Hall (O.L.) as M.P. for Leeds, etc.
There is an introductory letter by Mr. Barry, hoping that it may promote corporate feeling and give “some scope for thought and invention and some incentive to kinds of reading extraneous to our system of school work.” He very wisely urges the writers “to be real ... to write and act as we think, not as we fancy we ought to think, and therefore to attempt rather what we know than what it may be thought intellectual or learned to seem to know,” and he strongly advises them to describe their own experiences and their own feelings. All the articles are anonymous, and the names of the editors are not mentioned.
THE PRESENT MAGAZINE—“The Leodiensian, the Leeds Grammar School Magazine”—began in January 1882. It bore the School arms and motto on its title page, and was originally published by Richard Crosland, 69 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds.
Eleven numbers were issued in 1882, nine in 1883, 1884, and 1885, and the price was 4d. a number. In 1886 the custom of issuing six numbers in the year began, and the price was raised to 6d. The size, originally octavo, was changed to quarto in 1896, and the cover and the arrangement of contents were altered in 1903. The first editor was W. C. B. Cowen, assisted by a committee consisting of G. H. Wilson, F. Walker, A. Kelk, and R. E. Scholefield. At first it was managed entirely by the boys, but in later years a master has exercised a kind of general control over it. For some time it barely paid its way, but now it seems on a safe footing.
Its character was quite different from that of its predecessors. It appealed not to the general public but to the School, and its object was not to gratify the literary aspirations of the writers, but to weld together the boys by interesting them in the life—and especially the athletic life—of the community. In this respect the magazine has amply justified the anticipations of its founders, though personally I could have wished that the editors had sometimes had a keener sense of the requirements of a future historian of the School.
SCHOOL SOCIETIES, ETC.
OF SCHOOL SOCIETIES I can find no mention before 1881, though it is almost inconceivable that they did not exist, and all I can do is to mention a few which have waxed and waned during the last 40 years.
OF THESE by far the most permanent has been the Debating Society, the pedigree of which can be traced back to 1881, when, we are told, it started owing to “an idea . . . derived from a late member of the School who was himself a great debater.” Who this was I do not know, but I am pretty sure that the new institution, like many other things at that period, owed much to the energy of the Rev. H. H. H. Boys. The meetings—the first one was on 7 Nov. 1881—used to be held at
night in the lower schoolroom under the presidency of a master. The members paid a small subscription, and the membership was confined to boys and masters. The attendance at first was good, sometimes rising to 40, but interest in the Society gradually flagged, and in 1889 it was reconstituted as the Sixth Form Literary Society, with power however to co-opt boys from other Forms—“the only conditions being that every member should in his turn read a paper . . . and should conduct himself with due sobriety.”
The first meeting under the new system was held on 26 Nov. 1889 in the Library at 4 p.m., and much of its initial success was due to the Rev. G. M. Hutton. It was at first simply an essay club, but the papers were followed by discussions, and in 1891 the reports in the “Leodiensian” are headed “Literary and Debating Society.” In 1905 the custom started of holding annually a combined debate with Wakefield Grammar School. It may be mentioned that the School has produced three presidents of the Cambridge Union (W. H. Brookfield, J. P. Thompson, and J. K. Mozley), and one president (B. R. Wise) and one secretary (R. S. Blakelock) of the Oxford Union.
There have also been junior debating societies at different times, and in 1909 a French debate was started, confined mainly to the boys in the highest French class. Every member is bound to speak at each meeting. The meetings are held usually during school hours but at least once in every year in the evening. Mention may be made here too of the Shakespeare readings held since 1905 at the Headmaster's house and attended by boys in the Sixth Forms and by some of the masters and members of their families.
ONE SOCIETY which flourished greatly for a time was the Natural History Society, started in 1892. Among its objects was the formation of a museum, and some cases were bought and specimens collected, but the project has never yet been carried into effect. Meetings however were held regularly for some years, and much useful work was done under the inspiration of Messrs. Stockdale and Webb.
Bug-hunting excursions were organized in which other boys were also allowed to take part. The first was to Fewston on Shrove Tuesday 1892, and the antique appearance of Swinsty Hall caused archaeology to be included among the objects of the society. The second was to Bolton on Ascension Day in the same year, and from this originated the custom of annually visiting the priory on that day. This indeed is now the only relic left of the society, for c.1897 the energy of its members began to wane and, in spite of a temporary revival some 3 years later, it can now only be described as dormant; though ornithological and other records continued to be kept by a few boys and in connection with the botany prizes there have been a good many informal rambles to places in the neighbourhood. A scientific society for boys in Form vi was instituted in 1917.
CHESS CLUBS have been started more than once but have never lasted long: there was one in 1900 which played a match with Bradford Grammar School. In the same year a branch of the Navy League was established in the School but it only continued for a few years: traces of it remain in the pictures of ships in the corridors.
ATTEMPTS TOO have been made, from time to time to interest the boys in charitable objects. For many years a collection was made for the Lifeboat Fund, and on more than one occasion money has been collected for Dr. Barnardo's Homes. Missionary addresses have been frequently delivered, and in 1896 a contribution was made by the School to the College at Amritsar with which the Rev. A. C. Clarke—a master from 1893 to 1896—was connected, and this was regularly sent for a considerable time. Some years ago a subscription was raised to help the sufferers through the floods at Paris.
In 1912 the money that would have been spent on prizes at the Athletic Sports was used in relief of the distress caused by the coal strike, and during the war a house for Belgian refugees was maintained by the School, and a monthly contribution made to the Red Cross Society. The object throughout has been to train the boys in habits of sympathy and self-sacrifice, so that out of their own pockets they should give willingly that which costs them something.
Everything then that savours of compulsion has been steadily discouraged, and great care has been taken in selecting the objects to which they are asked to contribute.
THE THEATRICALS.
IN THE Grammar Schools of old acting was practised, partly as a training in elocution but still more to vitalize the study of the classics, and at a later time English plays too were represented.
At Leeds we hear of a performance of the “Andria” of Terence in 1766 and of the “Eunuchus” in 1768. From such performances probably sprang the custom of acting scenes from ancient and modern dramas on Speech Days. At Leeds “recitations” are said to have been introduced in 1856, and in 1884 the “speeches” at Leeds were 4 or 5 in number, each taking from 5 to 10 minutes to perform. Few however of the audience could hear and fewer still understood what was said. The labour of preparation was great, and it was hard to get time for the necessary rehearsals. Hence in 1895 there was only one speech and in 1896 and 1897 two, and in 1902 they were dropped entirely.
IT WAS NOT however only on Speech Days that acting took place. There was a performance of “The Rivals” in Mr. Barry's time, and from 1864 to 1884 there were annual “Theatricals,” at which complete plays were performed.
It has been difficult to obtain much information about them, but it seems clear that, whatever they may have been at first, they got to be regarded as a recreation and not as a branch of education. Till 1871 too the plays were usually selected from masterpieces of literature, but those of a later date were for the most part of an inferior type. The performances undoubtedly gave much pleasure to both actors and audience, but c.1882 troubles began to arise. A room—e.g. the Albert Hall or the Grand Assembly Rooms—had to be hired, and the expenses were heavy. There seems also to have been a lack of talent, and a difficulty in obtaining a competent “coach.”
Moreover the boys did not like the way in which the management had fallen into the hands of “old boys.” This last difficulty was got over, and in 1884 most of the performers were boys then at the School. The receipts however barely covered the expenses, and Mr. Matthews for more than one reason thought it best that the performances should cease.
Since 1884 the only acting (except on the Speech Days till 1902) has been of a scene or two at the entertainments from 1884 to 1888, and this custom was revived at the concert of 1912.
THE CONCERT.
IN 1871 the Chapel Choir, under the name of the “St. Caecilia Musical Society,” gave a concert in the Queen's Assembly Rooms.
Whether this was the first concert connected with the School I do not know, nor whether it was followed by others, but the “Leodiensian” of 1882 mentions that on 13 Dec. 1881 there was a concert in the Albert Hall given by the Choir, “assisted by several ladies and gentlemen of the Leeds Philharmonic Society;” that it was for the benefit of the Chapel Fund, that the schoolboys were conspicuous for their absence, and that it was hoped to make it an annual performance, but to the best of my knowledge the experiment was not repeated.
IT WAS NOT however from the Choir that the present concerts sprang but from the needs of the Games Fund, and the credit for their foundation ought, I think, to be assigned to the Rev. H. H. H. Boys, the treasurer of that fund, and for their development mainly to Mr. Bernard Johnson, who was music master from 1892 to 1904.
When the games were optional the treasurer was constantly in want of money, and for the purpose of raising it recourse was had to an entertainment.
The first of which I can find a record took place on 8 Dec. 1883. It consisted of songs, instrumental music, and readings, and the performers included boys, masters, “old boys,” members of the Clergy School, and other friends. From 1884 to 1888 the programme comprised also the performance of a scene from some play. For several years the entertainment was given in the present gymnasium, but in 1893 it was shifted to the Upper Schoolroom. In this year the main feature was the Toy Symphony arranged by Mr. Johnson, and now for the first time the “Leodiensian” called the entertainment “The Concert,” and henceforth music became the main feature, though readings continued till at any rate 1898.
The concert in 1900 was marked by the performance of a comic cantata, “Love the Logician” (written by Mr. H. L. Johnson (O.L.) and composed by Mr. Bernard Johnson), in which a number of leading musicians in the town playing weird and strident instruments took part, and this was repeated in that of 1901, which was held in the Albert Hall.
In 1902 the charge for admission was dropped, and in
1903 the concert was shifted to the hall of the University, where it has since been held. In 1912 an old custom was revived by the introduction of a scene from Shakespeare acted by the boys.
THE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS.
IN MR. BARRY'S time there was a Cadet Corps at the School. I am indebted to an “old boy” for the following description of it.
“The uniform was a light grey tunic with narrow red—or black and red—facings, light grey trousers, and a shako showing in front a bronze medallion of the School arms. Buff belts and disused army carbines completed the equipment. The officers were a lieutenant (W. G. Nicholson), an ensign (C. H. Kemplay), a colour-sergeant (A. L. Jukes), and, I think, a corporal. Sergeant Neville was the instructor —always punctual, painstaking, and good-humoured.
Two or three times a week—perhaps on Wednesdays. and Saturdays only—the members came to School in uniform and had an hour's drill after twelve. On one occasion some of the Sixth Form were let off from mathematics and spent the afternoon in making cartridges in the Boarders' Study. A march to Farsley followed on the next half-holiday, when for the first and last time, to the best of my recollection, the carbines were actually fired off at the butts. The corps came into existence about 1860 and may have reached a total strength of 25 or so in its most flourishing state. Then attendances fell off until half-a-dozen was the usual muster, and it had probably died a natural death several months before Midsummer 1862, when the C.O. left School for Woolwich.
Ours was quite an independent corps though I think the Leeds Rifles paid us a little friendly attention once or twice, such as letting us march out with them. I never heard that any one sanctioned the formation of the corps except the Headmaster who permitted it without interesting himself in it further.”
Another “old boy” describes the belts as brown, and calls the head-dress “a light grey kepi with a silver badge.” Perhaps the officers had a silver badge and the privates a bronze one.
IN 1863 drill was introduced by Dr. Henderson, and lasted apparently till 1872: in 1898 it was revived as part of the regular curriculum.
In 1909 a Rifle Club was started, a range having been constructed below the new wing* [*NOTE—the outdoor range by the Fives Courts was made in 1915.] and in September of the same year this was merged in a contingent of the Officers' Training Corps.
The Corps—of which the Headmaster has from the first been Commanding Officer—started with a membership of 83 but in 1914 its numbers rose to 177. A good deal of time is of course given to drill, but besides this there is training in musketry, lectures and practical work in various military subjects, and field operations, sometimes in concert with other corps. The force is regularly inspected by the military authorities, and many of the senior boys have obtained “Certificate A” in which both theoretical and practical knowledge is required.
At the end of the summer term a detachment goes to some military centre for about 10 days' practical training in camp.
THIS WAS FIRST held in 1909. The object was to give the boys a week's recreation in healthy surroundings combined with a certain amount of knowledge as to botany, geology, and the ways of birds and other animals, and to show them that they could perform such ordinary duties of life as cooking, bedmaking, etc.
The place selected was Crina Bottom Farm near Ingleborough, and there the camp has been held every year except in 1913 when it had to be dropped owing to an epidemic of measles, in 1916 when by the desire of Government no holidays were given at Whitsuntide, and in 1918 when it was held at Harewood. The average attendance has been between 70 and 80, and the necessary expenses came to about 25s. a head.
The experiment has been a success. The ties between masters and boys have been drawn closer; their eyes have been opened to some of the marvels and beauties of nature, and the simple open-air life, attended as it is with a useful element of hardship, has improved their health and been thoroughly enjoyed by all.
THE “CARMEN.”
THE “CARMEN LEODENSE” was originally an experiment in the metre of the celebrated Latin ballad of Henry iii's reign.
“O comes Gloverniae comple quod coepisti,
Nisi claudas congrue muttos decepisti.”
It was contributed to the “Leodiensian” of April 1897, and Mr. Matthews asked Mr. Bernard Johnson to set it to music. For this purpose it was slightly re-arranged. A few lines were omitted, the last 4 lines were treated as a chorus, and the others were divided into 3 stanzas. The air is given here: the full score is in the “Leodiensian” of July 1897.
2
Victi nunquam cedimus, turpe hoc putamus.
Acriores ad pugnam semper redeamus.
Vulnera pro patria grata sunt et digna;
Vulnerato puero fama sit benigna.
Floreat, etc.
3
Cuique Scholae est honor maxime servandus.
Per quem crescit Scholae laus, ille est laudandus.
Si quis autem otium cupiat imbellis,
Extrudatur patria, vivat cum puellis.
Floreat, etc.
The word “Leodense,” used for metrical reasons, is defensible in itself; but if I were writing the Carmen now I should use the form “Loidense,” which has been adopted by the University of Leeds.
The phrase “vulnera pro patria” referred originally to bruises in games: at the present time (1917) the words may have a wider significance.