Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

5

past 7

11

[blocks in formation]

{Poesis Græca - see List of Text Translation from the stars

Books.

THURSDAY.

Repetition of Greek Grammar.
Excerpta from Virgil and Horace.

of Dr Butler, of Shrewsbury.

There is also a weekly Exercise in Geography, viz., a modern map to be copied, and shaded.

[blocks in formation]

Having thus given a synopsis of the course of instruction pursued at Harrow, and the distribution of lessons in the

school hours, we should observe that the hours of school are solely appropriated to saying the lessons, and receiving instruction from the master of the form on subjects connected with them. The lessons are prepared out of school, and are rehearsed to the private tutor in his pupil room, previously. The exercises are likewise corrected by him before they are shown up to the master of the form. The preparation of the scholarship examination is likewise carried on in the pupil room.

Head master hears Lower Forms once a week.

It is the duty of the head master to hear some one lesson of each form in the upper school once a week. He hears the shell form say a Greek or Latin lesson at twelve every Wednesday; the fourth form say their Poesis Græca to him at twelve on Fridays; the fifth form their Thucydides or Hist. Romana, at twelve on Saturdays. This makes him well acquainted with the abilities and proficiency of every boy in the upper school, and is of service to him in the general examination for removes and places, which takes place at the end of every second term, i. e. every eight months.

Trials for Removes and Places in Removes.

The examination papers for the fifth form show the nature of this trial in that part of the school. The shell are tried in Latin Lyrics and Hexameters; in Latin Prose, sometimes Greek ditto; in Questions on Paper in Divinity, Ancient History, Geography, Criticism, and Arithmetic; viva voce examinations in some part of the Musa Græca and Historia Romana, set for that purpose. The fourth form are tried in Elegiac Verse; Dr Butler's Praxis; Questions on Paper in Divinity; Arithmetic; viva voce examinations in some part of Poesis Græca and Excerpta set for the purpose; Examinations in Geography.

This trial for places is conducted exclusively by the head master, who looks over every exercise, and hears every form in the cica voce part of its examination. When he has gone through the whole of it, he arranges the order of places afresh; and this order continues till the next trial, eight months afterwards-excepting

(Discipline.)

In case a boy is degraded by way of punishment. For a

serious moral offence a boy would be put down into a lower form; for a less serious offence of the same character, he would be turned down to the bottom of his own form; but the ordinary method of punishment in those forms which are considered as liable to corporal punishment, (the sixth and fifth forms being exempted from it) is as follows:-when a boy is sent up by the master of his form for idleness, the head master sets the offender three hundred lines to transcribe; if he is sent up a second time, he is flogged and degraded one place in his form; for the third offence a heavier punishment in the way of transcribing; for the fourth, he is flogged, and turned down another place. It is not often that a boy is sent up a fifth time in the course of the term. After the holidays a new score commences.

Monitors.

The discipline is also supported in part by the monitors,they are the ten senior boys of the sixth form; and they have the power, which they exercise, of setting punishments to all boys below the fifth form for violating the rules of the school.

School Library.

There is a library attached to the school which is considered as the peculiar property of the monitors; it is supported and increased by private donation; and it is customary for every boy who leaves in the upper part of the school to make a present of books to the library. The books are placed in an upper room of the school building, and the library is accessible to the monitors at all times; they may either read there or take the books to their own houses; they have likewise the privilege of lending the library books to boys in the lower forms.

Prizes.

There are four prizes annually proposed for the best compositions in Latin and Greek.

Sir R. Peel's and Governors' Prizes.

1.-A Gold Medal, by Sir Robert Peel, for the best Latin Prose Essay.

2.-Books of the value of five guineas, by the Governors of the School, for the best Latin Lyric Ode.

3. Ditto for the best copy of Latin Hexameters. 4.-Ditto, for the best copy of Greek lambics.

The subjects for these prizes are proposed by the head master immediately after the Easter holidays, and the successful compositions are recited on the specch days.

Head Master's Prizes.

The head master also gives prize books for compositions on the following principle. The master of each form selects from time to time the best compositions of the boys in his form, and sends them up to the head master, who reads them aloud before the assembled form, the next time he hears them their lessons. For each composition thus sent up the author receives a pecuniary reward, varying according to his rank in the school, paid by his tutor or dame, and charged to his parents. For every third composition thus sent up he receives a prize book from the head master.

Governor's Speech.

On the annual audit day of the governors, which generally takes place towards the end of June, the captain of the school makes a Latin oration before them, in which he touches upon the various events that have occurred during the past year, whether of a public nature, or such as are more immediately connected with the interests of the school. The captain receives a book from the governors, of the value of two guineas. No boy is permitted to make this speech two following years, in order that the succession may be quickened.

Speech Days.

There used to be three speech days in the year, viz.—in the months of May, June, and July; but the speeches in May have been discontinued for the last two years, and they now take place on the first Wednesday in June and the first Wednesday in July. The Peel Prize Essay is recited on the first speech day, the three other prize compositions on the second.

In the foregoing account reference has been made to the examination papers of which we shall give a few specimens from the papers of the sixth form for the year 1829. The papers for the November examination of that year, in the

sixth form, are eight in number, being headed respectively-Scriptural Modern History-Grecian History-Latin into English-Greek into English-English into Latin ProseEuclid-Philology.

Scriptural.

State the object of our Lord's temptation, with the practical inferences to be deduced from it.

What seems to have been our Lord's principal object in the Sermon on the mount?

What is the Christian doctrine of justification? How does St. Paul vindicate it from the imputation of encouraging sin? What is a Christian's motive to obedience?

How were both the ceremonial and moral law of Moses conducive to the reception of the doctrine of the atonement?

Grecian History.

Who were the earliest inhabitants of Greece? Who were the Hellenes, and how came they to give their name to Greece?

Whence came most of the early colonists of Greece? What is likely to be the effect upon a small number of persons coming from a civilized country to colonize a barbarous one?

What were the leading principles in the legislation of Minos and Lycurgus?

What change took place in the Peloponnese on the return of the Heraclida? Who were the founders of the new dynasties?

How did Solon divide the Athenian people? Were all the citizens, according to his constitution, eligible to the highest offices of the state? What change did Pericles effect in this respect? What other means did he take for securing his popularity?

The functions and power of the Areopagus at the time of Solon? What was the state of Sicily at the period of the invasion of Xerxes? Give the dates of the earliest Grecian colonies sent to Italy, Sicily, and Asia Minor.

Contrast the characters of Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles. The causes of the Peloponnesian war.

Give the dates of the foundation of Athens, Argonautic expedition, accession of Atreus, return of the Heraclidæ, first Messenian war, capture of Babylon by Cyrus, battle of Enophyta, and Thirty Years Truce?

Philology.

Hic putat esse Deos et pejerat, atque ita secum:
'Decernet quodcunque volet de corpore nostro
Isis, et irato feriat mea lumina sistro,

Dummodo vel cæcus teneam quos abnego numos.

Et phthisis, et vomica putres, et dimidium crus
Sunt tanti? Pauper locupletem optare podagram
Ne dubitet Ladas, si non eget Anticyrà nec
Archigene.'

Translate this? What distinction does Cicero point out between

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »