School-life at Winchester College : $b or, the reminiscences of a Winchester junior under the old régime, 1835-40. — John Shaqi
School-life at Winchester College : $b or, the reminiscences of a Winchester junior under the old régime, 1835-40.Mansfield, Robert Blachford
History
School-life at Winchester College : $b or, the reminiscences of a Winchester junior under the old régime, 1835-40.
Mansfield, Robert Blachford
Students -- England -- Winchester; Winchester College -- History
Let us tread more gently as we pass through the gates of the beautiful
chapel. Here at any rate our Junior finds some rest and quiet, and is for
a period beyond the reach of the weary call of “Junior, Junior.” I feel
that it is a subject that cannot worthily be treated of by my trivial
pen. The most indifferent stranger cannot enter its sacred precincts
without being struck by the air of peaceful solemnity that pervades it
throughout; how much more, then, must he be affected who revisits,
for the first time after many years, the spot where as a boy he so
often listened to the swelling tones of the organ, or eloquent words of
wisdom—often, alas! but too little heeded! What crowds of reflections are
called forth as he gazes on the scene! How many resolutions have here
been formed, and how have they been kept? Can he flatter himself that
he is really more advanced on the narrow path than when he sat on those
benches years and years ago?
I will not attempt to describe the edifice. Let the reader imagine a
noble choir lighted with large windows of rich painted glass, through
which the slanting rays of the sun throw a many-coloured glow over the
wainscot and stalls of polished oak. How well I know every feature of
those quaint figures of prophets and apostles; and as I sit in my stall
and see the boys trooping in, it is difficult to realise that I am no
longer one of them.
But time has made many changes in the upper ranks; the clear ring of
the melodious tones of the accomplished Head-master’s voice may still
be heard, but he alone remains. In vain we look for the stalwart form
and genial countenance of the late beloved Warden, Barter, who, having
filled his responsible office full thirty years, has gone to his rest.
In the long list of his predecessors there has been none who was more
universally beloved in life, and whose death has been more unfeignedly
regretted.
On our way from Chapel we pass through Antechapel, now somewhat curtailed
in its dimensions, the screen which separates it from Chapel having
been moved in order to give room for the increased number of boys. The
beautiful font, presented by the Head-master, and some mural tablets,
(which formerly stood beneath the Tower,) have been removed to a small
side chapel, the entrance to which is under the organ; one of these,
erected to the memory of a young and lovely wife by her sorrowing
husband, bears the following beautiful inscription:—
“I nimium dilecta, vocat Deus, I bona nostræ”
“Pars animæ, mærens altera disce sequi.”
In the vestibule leading to Cloisters, immediately opposite to the door
of Antechapel, is the memorial erected by Wykehamists in memory of their
brethren who fell in the Crimean war; it is worthy of its object, being
beautifully executed in variegated marble. I have stood by their graves
in the dreary Russian Chersonese, yet it seems but yesterday that I heard
some of them answering their names at this very door.
[Illustration: THE CRIMEAN MEMORIAL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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