Names

Borders return tomorrow and the house has been a whirl of name tapes and packing lists.

The names work differently now. we found a towel of mine which is still labeled H MILLER LJ. I got the initials because there was another Miller in Hailey at the time. For the girls the labels were the other way round, initials first then surname then House. So my sister was AF MILLER A. She took my old tuckbox (which tomorrow is off with number three to join Lower School 1), and so both patterns are painted on it.

I was foolish enough to order labels with full Christian names. It just makes them longer and mor work to sow. Imagine then the consternation to discover from number 1, who has been in Lawrence for a year that in the hags they have a pigeon hole and his is simply Lawrence 33 and all his clothes really need is L33. That's what he says anyway....

Whistling

Returning to the great work of Rex Whistler (Hi 1919) here is the self portrait he put into the great mural in the dining room at Plas Newydd.

It is an extraordianry piece full of references to the Anglesey family and places associated with them. The tromp l'oile effects are stupendous, mountains which change their aspect as you walk down the room and footprints which seem to change their direction depending where one views them from. There are all sorts of places from London to Venice to Brighton in the painting, but not Haileybury I think.

Lift up Your Hearts

It is well known that the derivation of 'Holiday' is Holy Day, for it was the Kalendar of celebrations of the Saints which determined the rest days of the labourers of Medieval England. August has now its Bank Holiday at the end of the month, but in former years the celebration of 'Our Lady of the Harvest,' the Assumption, on the 15th of the month was the day off from the back breaking labour of bringing in the grain.

The Country Round Haileybury - Walking Map

Bank holidays never seem to mean much to me since at school we just worked on through them. Twas not ever thus. FW Headley (Staff 1880 - 1919) and W Kennedy (1883 - 1919) published The Country Round Haileybury in 1920 to provide botanical, geological and historical information for excursions on Half and Quarter Holidays. Maps of the area in about a fifteen mile radius were provided for cyclists and walkers. Ascension Day was the main annual holiday within the school term.

Measuring time, and time off in our busy world has moved away from the rhythm of the church's year, though not as much as maybe we think, for of course, the school year still revolves around Christmas and Easter. The quarter days are still marked by the feasts of Christmas, Lady Day, S John he Baptist and Michaelmas. I am not sure I would ride a bicycle from Haileybury to Luton (one of the routes Headly and Kennedy suggest) to mark a holiday. But happy Holy Day, however you keep it.

Jabberochum

You know the poem.

LS Milford (L 1867) records part, but not all, of a Latin version by FB Butler. (Staff 1868 -  1883)

Torva videns, sifflata sonans, curritque volatque
Per nemus obscuviam*, burbuleransque furit

Et caput abscissum prostratae in pulvere pestis
Rettulit, exclamans, Triumphe! Galumphe! domum.
Quid? tu Jabberochum, monstrum fatale, necasti?
(Sic pater amplexus), 'lustrigerate puer!'
'O jubilosa dies,' reboat, 'Calloque calaeque!'
Laetitiaque satur chortulat ore senex."

*"Obscuviam' = obscuram, invium

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Anonymity

Discussing blogging at dinner tonight there was a question of anonymity. Some write, as I do, under their own names. Other bloggers are anonymous - or pseudonymous. There was quite a tradition of Pseudonymous writing in the Haileyburian. Letters from 'our corespondent' at one or other of the Universities were signed "Cantab" or "Oxon" or "Londin" and there were the famous letters from 'Praeteritus'. Praeteritus was LS Milford (L 1867 and staff 1879 - 1919), Haileybury's first historian.  These letters were written from memories of old boys sent to Milford, which he recast for publication. It seems to have been an open secret that he was the author, so maybe that pseudonym does not count.

Anonymity was frowned upon in the letters column, though some early editions allowed a few unsigned letters; anonymous editorials were common until fairly recently. Today this is all less the case. I cannot find a single piece (or picture) in the current issue without a by-line or accreditation.

So - is it good to say who we are? or does the hidden or alternative persona help?

Tromp l'oeil

Being the father of sons one tries to make history interesting and the anecdote of Lord Anglesey (Then still Lord Uxbridge) at Waterloo fits the bill. As the last shots of the battle were fired a stray shot smashed his leg. Turning to Wellington who was just next to him he commented with immense sang froid, "By God sir, I've lost my leg," to which the Iron Duke replied, 'By God sir, so you have." There is a story that he went on the anniversary of the battle to dine with his sons at the table on which the amputation was performed. 

He had the first fully articulate wooden leg made and would walk eight miles a day on it round his estate at Plas Newydd on Anglesy.

So on holiday we went to visit Lord Anglsey's wooden leg. The gracious House at Pals Newydd is in the care of the National Trust. One of its glories is the dining room, decorated with a superb and enormous tromp l'oeil mural by Rex Whistler (Hi 1919). In an adjoining room there is a small Whistler Museum featuring a number of his sketches, letters and designs for stage sets. There is a page of characatures similar to those he made of Haileybury beaks which you can see in Imogen Thomas's Haileybury 1806 - 1987.

Whistler's time at Prep school is mentioned and his training at the Slade, but not Haileybury. 

Back after a Long Time

It has been an extended time in which I have not posted. Holidays have been one thing, and then the riots, which started in my former parish. The carpet store with the block of flats above which became the symbol of the rioting was just opposite the church and Vicarage where I lived until February. I have been incredibly proud of S Mary's. The faithful had the church open 16 hours a day, and the positive way in which the whole community has responded has been fantastic. Enfield Town and Ponders End are also in the Archdeaconry as is Chalk Farm where there was extensive looting of shops. 

The rioters are a tiny minority of the population, but what damage they have done to the prospects and reputation of whole sections of the communities. Young people in Tottenham have said to me that they now feel much less likely to find jobs and are angry with those who have made life so much more difficult for them. 

Police and young people in Tottenham - the real story

A century and a bit ago there were fears, sparked by Chartism, of revolution in Britain. Part of the response then was the Public School Mission movement in which the great schools set up work in the poorest parts of the great cities. Marlborough founded S Mary's Tottenham; Haileybury had the Boys' Club in Stepney; others had their parishes and initiatives. In fact most of the work was initiated and led by those who felt not so much a social need as a spiritual call, but it was certainly supported by many whose motives were socio-political rather than religious. 

Visiting the Tottenham Rest Centre last week and seeing the generosity which has provided material help for those who have been burned out I was moved. Medium term help is being provided by the local authority whose advice and help is being praised by the shop keepers and others who are in need. There will be a need for the long term staying power which only commitment to living and working in the communities affected can bring about. I pray that among those whose A Level results come out this week will be some who will make that commitment for the good of us all.