Lift Up Your Hearts

The winter of 1981 was very wet. There were forty rainy days in a row in the south east of England. This led to a correspondence in the Times, and someone from a girls school (I forget which) wrote in asking whether anyone could suggest a place to build an ark.

I wrote a note to the effect that the promise given in Genesis 9:15 meant that even the current wet spell would not necessitate an ark. It was published, my address given as Hailey House, Haileybury. It caused quite a stir in those long gone days before online comments were possible.

I was reminded of that little schoolboy triumph today when the sunshine and showers produced a rainbow whose end appeared to be in Goldings Wood.

For Christians the certitude that whatever happens the God of love is caring for the world, and that beyond the clouds the stars continue to shine allows us to live in joyful hope even in the midst of the suffering of the world. This is not fools' gold at the end of a rainbow, but the living experience of millions.

Autumn Leaves

The September sunshine is making the arboretum lovely as the leaves begin to turn. At least speaking for myself I have not been terribly aware of the arboretum, which lies behind the Lightning Oak on the gound beyond Terrace Field. I took some pictures in the Summer which must do for now, though when I go to Haileybury at the weekend I shall try and get some more autumnal images.

Going Back in Time?

Number one son now has a study overlooking Quad. It has been carved out of the old Lawrence dormitory. Of course, as a Hailey boy I had little to do with the Quad Houses, but I did once or twice go into the long dorms, and those with sharp eyes can see in the new arrangements the columns which still support the roof. Originally Wilkins' East India Company College provided university style rooms. I guess one can get an impression of what they were like from Downing College Cambridge, also by Wilkins in the Grecian style, where the students live in almost square high ceilinged rooms with large windows.

That's pretty much what the Lawrence study is like - though it is shared for two. The more senior boys have smaller rooms; but at least some modern Haileyburians live in spaces like those of the Guv'nors of old.

9/11

The editors of The Haileyburian had to wait until the Summer of 2002 to comment on the events of 9/11. The (unsigned) Editorial took the form of a reflection on the passing of time and the preparation of the writer for leaving school and taking up the responsibilities of adult life. Read in the light of the decade which has passed, it still has much to say.

IN these days of carriage-less horses, one can easily forget the simpler things in life. The rush of anticipation on receiving a letter from Mama and a package of crimble cake from the stable boy's mother. But how soon 1995 sluices like a wet jelly into 2002 - in the blink of seven years, peppered only with achievement and cries of Vivat Haileyburia. How soon we forget that our end is another's beginning. 


Some of us may take the King's Shilling; some will call the City 'home'; others may yet turn to the Cloth. Whatsoever path we choose the shadow of our past will follow us like a beggar in Picadilly. 


On the wider scale it has of course been a hugely difficult year for many people. A sense of change, of fragility, of transience, is all too inevitable in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, in the state of heightening tensions in the Sub Continent and the Middle East and nearer home. The rise of the Right, the acceptance of intolerance and bigotry must be resisted. So our little lives pale against this backdrop. it has nonetheless been cheering to see the sense of camaraderie that infused the Jubilee celebrations and so far, as we go to press, the progress of the England team.


So, how will we leave Haileybury? For myself I am more and more convinced that that question must be answered in these great schools. If they are sending out a constant stream of young men and women, not only of high intelligence (because that goes without saying) but also in habits strong in principle, who have learned that lesson so hard to learn in this luxuriant and self-indulgent time, to say the words "no," and "I can't afford," then I have little fear of our Country losing her great place among the nations. Sursum Corda! Up With Your Hearts!