Hirsute Growth

The Haileybury Buildings by Wlfrid Blunt is a source of wondrous pleasure. This paragraph, introducing an architectural discussion of the Bradby Hall is a gem.

This is in fact the staff in 1875. Bradby (with vast beard) sits third from the left. Butler is second from the left. Dundreary Whiskers are worn by Rev H Walford, third from the left in the back row.

"A photograph of the staff, taken in 1872 and preserved in the Library, is a fine field of study for those interested in hirsute growth. There may be found the Dundreary whisker, the Mutton chop, the trimmed beard, and finally the untamed natural variety rioting with a luxuriance which would be the envy of an Athos monk: and in the centre, King beaver par excellence as it were, we see the majestic figure of Dr. Bradby. It was an age of great beards and great Headmasters. Yet great though they were, they knew how to unbend; for is it not recorded of Mr. Butler that watching a rugger match on one occasion a light suddenly gleamed in his eye and his nostrils dilated like those of a war horse scenting battle, that he flung of his mortarboard, gown and coat even, and in an immaculate shirt and a pair of pillar-box red brace hurled himself into the scrum? And was not the sedate Dr. Bradby seen to fling his top-hat sky-high after the miraculous victory over Wellington in 1872; did he not watch his august spouse tobogganing with the boys in full term-time in the Quad itself, balanced precariously on something suspiciously like a common teatray?"