Edward Thring, headmaster of Uppingham school; life, diary and letters

Chapter I

We have now seen how, through more than twenty years of patient, unflinching endeavour, Edward Thring had striven to realise in actual outward fact the con¬ ception of what a great public school ought to be as he had outlined it in the days of his earlier teach¬ ing enthusiasm. During these years the equipment of boarding-houses, chapel, schoolroom, hospital, and workshops ; of gardens, cricket fields, fives courts, and gymnasium, with many other minor appliances, had grown up around him, and into these the school fitted somewhat as the living organism fits into the curves and convolutions of a delicately complicated shell — - the one so adapted to the other that the outer struc¬ ture seems essential to the inner life.

With the limits of numbers which he had fixed long since reached and easily maintained, Uppingham seemed to have gained a secure place in public regard. Passages in his diary at this time show that even his exacting judgment was beginning to be satisfied ; that in struc¬ ture and working power the school seemed to him something near what he had so long toiled for, and about which he had dreamed. But from any pleasing VOL. II B feeling of content or security there was to be a rough awakening. The structure had been planned with the object of nourishing strong and true life ; now the strength and truth of the life developed was to be tested by rude separation from the structure. He had held that the “ Almighty wall ” was everything in moulding the moral and intellectual life of a school. He was now to prove that important as structure was it was nothing to the inhabiting spirit ; that it is not walls which make or secure a city, but the men who dwell within them ; that though machinery has to be relied on to give efficiency to the ordinary routine of work, there may come extraordinary moments when life asserts its power to perform all the functions of the highest existence and exertion without the aid, or even in defiance, of machinery. Thring used to say that to train a man to the highest capacity for teaching, and then put him into an unequipped and unfurnished schoolroom, was like preparing a person to be the captain of a great ocean steamship, and expect him, with a canal boat or lighter, to bring his goods and passengers with speed and safety to the other side of the Atlantic. As an ordinary working rule this view is true, and cannot be too strictly insisted upon, yet we know that the genius and courage of the old navigators enabled them to accomplish very great things with very poor ships, and Thring was to prove that he at least could violate his own theory with splendid results. He was to become known as the “ mobilising Head Master.”

Until 1875 Uppingham had been fairly fortunate in escaping what must always be the schoolmaster’s most serious risk in grouping numbers of boys together ■ — infectious or epidemic illness.

An elevated situation gave the place a naturallybracing and healthy atmosphere ; what were appar¬ ently sufficient precautions had been taken in house¬ building to secure sanitation ; a hospital had been built at large expense to provide for the isolation of infectious cases ; and for twenty-two years the arrangements had proved sufficient, with vigilant care, to ward off serious danger. But the school had been built up in a remote and unprogressive country town, whose tax -payers dreaded the heavy expenses of the sanitary engineer. The system of town drainage was very imperfect ; the water-supply inadequate ; in many cases when building schoolhouses cesspools had to supply the place of sewers ; later it was found that connection with the town system of drainage was the most dangerous of all, since the sewers were unflushed. Long immunity had begotten carelessness among the townspeople, and even among the masters themselves, and the place was ripe for a disaster — a disaster which from the circumstances of the case could not but fall with crushing weight upon the school.

In earlier years slight outbreaks of scarlet or typhoid fever had occurred in the town at intervals, sufficient to make the masters anxious, and leading them to bring what pressure they could upon those responsible for the sanitary condition of the town. During the early part of 1875 there are several suggestive entries in the diary.

February $th. — Much illness in the town — scarlet fever. This is anxious work. I fear we shall not escape. Most certainly in former days this perpetual fear of epidemics was not on schools as it now is. . . .

February 7 th . — There is much scarlet fever in the town. This does not lighten matters. . . .

February '6th. — We have sent in a memorial to the Guardians requesting them to have the water analysed with a view to getting a proper supply for the town.

February gth. — I saw the sanitary inspector this morning, and hope to get a step forward. The masters all signed the memorial to the Guardians on the subject.

February 13 th. — Scarlet fever very bad in the town, which makes it anxious work. We can scarcely hope to escape, but yet I will hope. God can keep us free. In spite of this and all the scheme worry, etc., I feel so full of life and spirits that I hardly know myself. God has given me back some of the old elastic work power. I can do ten times as much as I have been able to do for years, and I feel cheery in proportion. . . .

February 2 6th. — Received an anonymous letter yesterday denouncing the filthy state of the town, and in a half-sneering, half-real way telling me to look to it, as no one else would. But I don’t see how it can be done. The law helps us very little, and like most weak laws is a better instrument of oppres¬ sion than of help. The Rector is more jealous of power, though unwilling to do anything, than any one I ever met, and . . . the other local authority is equally jealous of power, and represents the cheap business view. I fear nothing can be done, busy too as we are, and not united, and not rich. Altogether it is a bad job.

The Guardians seem to have taken no action on the memorial of the masters, and, lulled by the freedom of the school from illness during the winter and spring terms, the masters themselves did not realise the im¬ minence of the danger. Not till the school was again at work after the summer holiday did the blow fall. On what Thring afterwards speaks of as “ that fatal fourth of October,” he makes this note in his diary : —

Two or three cases of low fever in the school. This begins to make me anxious.

The anxiety soon deepens.

October 6t/i. — A complete change of weather, which I hope may sweep away the strange wave of low fever that has swept over us. It is cold and fine and bracing now.

October 7 th . — Much care. Two of the boys at Woodfield very ill, one dangerously so ; little Nash. Then we have two mothers and a father down here; very natural, but at the same time not likely to mend matters, as the sick boys are not kept so quiet as they should be. Then David’s baby is very ill and will scarcely recover. All this presses heavily and makes one nervous about one’s own children too, for that is one of the penalties of being a schoolmaster, that one’s own family is so much more exposed to any epidemic than under ordinary circumstances. However, this will pass as other things have passed, and God is God.

October 2>th. — The cloud still heavy, though there is now some hope, but little David, Mullins, and Nash are all in a very critical state, and Hastings at the Lower School. . . . Altogether it is very trying. The bell tolled this morning, and I was in great fear, but a man had died in the Union. I very much fear we shall not quite escape death, but no new cases have fallen.

October 10 th (Sunday). — A trying day, though the rest from work and the chapel is always a blessing. Little Mullins only just kept alive to-day, though all hope is not gone. The other is better, but poor Mullins has had three fresh cases since yesterday morning, and the pressure is very heavy. I had a very nice talk with Mr. and Mrs. Nash to-day ; they were both kind and sensible. I trust their boy will live. This is a heavy time. How soon the sky can be overclouded. “ Thou didst turn Thy face from me and I was troubled.” It is hard to prosper and not be a fool ; harder still perhaps to feel that trouble works blessing, however much one may know it is so. I do know it, but I am like a naughty child some¬ times in feeling. Just as if other people were not tried, or any good could come without training, or I myself had not been blessed again and again by these merciful lessons.

Panic had now begun among a section of the parents ; some were telegraphing that their children should be sent home ; others advising that the school should be broken up ; while the majority awaited with apparently complete trust the judgment of the masters upon the situation. How to deal with the natural fears of the more timid parents, how to act justly by the fearless, how to prevent the panic from extending to the boys, were, as they always will be in such cases, anxious questions. At first Thring’s feelings were all for presenting a firm front to the danger. To many parents, he reasoned, the return of their children was a grave inconvenience and expense ; the appliances for combating disease had proved sufficient in the past, and would probably prove so now ; to break up the school involved the risk of spreading infection far and wide through the country ; it was poor training in manliness to permit boys to run away at the first hint of peril. He spoke vigorously to the boys about what he called “ this cowardly panic,” pointing out that the greater safety lay in courage. The report was that he described as “ deserters ” those who asked their parents to remove them. The statement is probably true, and is certainly characteristic. Its wisdom will be judged differently by minds of differing temper. Thring had the soldier spirit himself, and would fain give it to his boys. Meanwhile, he and his colleagues were beginning to realise that they were dealing with something more than an ordinary or temporary outbreak.

October nth. — Mullins, before I went into school, sug¬ gested having Dr. Haviland over to inspect, and I sanctioned it. After dinner a telegram from Mr. Jacob saying that six Liverpool parents had just been closeted with him, and would not be satisfied unless a sanitary authority was called in. Sent answer to say we had already decided on it. . . . Wrote to get Dr. Haviland to come and inspect. . . .

In this letter to Dr. Haviland, Thring says : —

It is very important to us to correct any evil if it exists, and to be above suspicion if it does not. I should be greatly obliged if you could come over without delay, and test and examine the drain system of all these houses and their water-supply, as well as the schoolhouses generally, and anything likely to be of use in putting things on the best footing. If you cannot come yourself, perhaps you would kindly telegraph to me, as it is no use to us to have the inspection of any man whose name will not carry respect and conviction, not only in this immediate neighbourhood, but also in other parts of England amongst the parents of the boys, in the great towns especially. . . .

October 12 th. — At my lowest point to-day. I trust now refreshed. This morning a long letter from Dr. Grimsdale at Liverpool, speaking in the name of many parents in a kind spirit, but also in an imperious one. Then I had scarcely finished breakfast when two mothers came in to get an arrangement made at Woodfield (the hospital) ; then the masters’ meeting ; then in school an interview with Bell about Woodfield arrangements. To Fairfield, saw Cobb, saw Mrs. Grigg, met Christian coming back, who said Nash was sup¬ posed to be dying. Mullins had already told me there was no hope of his little boy ; wrote part of another letter, went to dinner, lay down, but was sent for by poor Mullins. I found him quite perplexed about his house, overdone both in body and mind, expecting his little boy to die every minute. I did what I could, decided his questions for him, and had a little sympathetic talk. Then I came away and went out with Grade for an hour. On my return I knelt down and prayed more thoroughly — more from the bottom of my heart than perhaps I ever remember. I felt moved to pray for little Mullins and the school, and I got up from my knees with a perfect feeling of answered prayer, and of my prayer being granted. I believe the little boy will be spared us and this plague cease, but I know that God is working and has made Himself felt in my heart, and is with us, and that all will be well. So I feel since then another man. . . . Yet I have such a feeling of God being near that the whole of this great trial is for the present changed, and I pray to be kept strong in spirit through what is yet to come. Amen.

9.50. — My class gone. A message is in that little David is much better, little Cecil Mullins a decided improvement, and Nash not hopeless. God has heard me and comforted me exceedingly. But indeed, alive or dead, I had in my soul that feeling of being able to pray straight up to God, and of being answered that nothing could shake. I feel that God heard and granted my prayer.

October 13//&.— A weary day of telegrams, letters, parents, and masters. Little Nash very ill still. Heard of the Sani¬ tary Board here, and that they have telegraphed for Dr. Haviland to come and make a thorough inspection. Saw poor Hodgkinson, who is driven out of his wits by the calamity and fuss ; I fear very much that he will not stand it. . . . At four saw our sanitary inspector. Was not a little amused to hear from him that he had known nothing of any fever in the town till to-day at the Board. So I may be excused for having known nothing. . . .

I am most thankful, too, that as yet none have died, and I trust God has given me their lives. But as for me, I am getting quite indignant at the way we are badgered, and the reckless, not to say insolent, manner in which the people set on us. If schools are to be treated in this kind of way it is a bad look-out for the parents. They will make the schools something they little expect or desire. I am equally weary and indignant. It reminds me of old days. I am tied to a post, and must abide the onset.

October \\th. — A very wet day, and a very weary one. Numbers of letters this morning, not bad though. An excellent one from Mr. Jacob, which made me think more of him than ever. Before ten Earle came in with a most astounding lie coming through Dr. Grimsdale, which at present is quite inexplicable, viz. that Dr. Cayser had told him he had heard from Mr. Bell that there had been thirty-nine cases in the school. Bell denies ever having written to Cayser, ever having given any estimate to any one, and, moreover, stated that, reckoning doubtful cases, fourteen was the utmost number in the Upper School from first to last. . . .

This led me to make a short statement to the masters on my principles in these matters. That under no conceivable circumstances should I break up the school; that it was a great injustice and wrong to many forcing them to have their boys home ; that, in the first instance, when a house was at all got hold of by illness, I should have parents written to to be told the fact, but strongly dissuade the removal of the boys ; then if it spread I should make the removal optional, and if it got very bad should throw the responsibility of keeping them here on the parents. That we should always stay so long as there were any boys here to teach and keep them. I said we were not in a big barrack with one common establish¬ ment, but each with his own house and separate arrangements, which renders it quite unnecessary to break up the school. I also told them I should not permit the school to be over¬ hauled by any but a competent and true authority. Had another telegram from Liverpool as to whether Haviland was here. When will it end ? I really fear it will send poor Hodgkinson into his grave, just recovering as he is from such an illness. I myself am very tired and done up. It is as bad as old days, although I am not so thin-skinned. Still, what with one’s human feelings about the invalids, and one’s human feelings about possible misfortune, which makes one dread every knock at the door, and one’s human strength which this great strain tries sorely, it goes hard with one. I mourn over the state and prospects of schools, my experience in these years is so disastrous. All one’s feelings of joy in doing one’s best, and the happy sense of unselfish working and pouring out of liberal free life on one’s work is so utterly destroyed and nothing left behind but a sense of bitterness at being kicked by fools always, and the deep low down feeling that God will judge, not man, and that one is a fool to care about man. But it is not a right condition of things, this weakness of schools which makes even a strong school a prey to an apothecary and his following, and I don’t see much hope of things bettering, indeed the contrary. I am thankful to say that this weary day, though it has not brought much cheer in the matter of our invalids, has yet passed without worse. O God ! protect and keep us. “ Give me not over for a prey unto their teeth.” And spare my boys, O Lord ! Spare them, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

IO

October 1 5 th. — God has taken little Cecil Mullins. I mis¬ interpreted somewhat His will, but not the gracious answer to my prayer in the spirit He gave me. And the revival even for a time shows me God’s will more clearly, and was a great boon both to me and, I think, his father, who was worn out and overwrought. ... A kind letter from Mrs. Spence this morning, wishing to help me in allaying the panic at Liver¬ pool. I took occasion to tell her I could not give way to it, and had rather lose Liverpool to the school altogether than be exposed to such mistrust. . . . Haviland is here, and there was a sanitary meeting, and Barnard Smith has given instruc¬ tions that the very fullest investigation is to take place into the town and school-houses’ drainage, water, etc. That is good.

. . . Eighty telegrams came in and out yesterday, and as many to-day.

October 16th. — Saw Mr. P., who was very nice, and put me up to an improvement about the hospital cooking, and also brought under my notice the wine. I have accordingly sent up some of my own. Then I came home and walked in the garden, as I did not feel very well. I had already written some letters. After dinner at 3 p.m. I attended little Cecil’s funeral. At 4 p.m. went to hear Haviland’s private report to us. He had not much to say, but he pronounced that “it was quite safe for the school to go on.” . . .

I confess that my blood rather boiled when I heard this man deliver an ex cathedra judgment, as if all he had said was gospel on a question where there "was so much to be considered. But such is English ignorance. It was very nearly gospel to us, and had he decided otherwise, I don’t know what I could have done. It was strange, too, to hear . . . fussing about the lies that had been told and following them up. I have learnt to think that about the surest test whether a fellow past thirty is a fool or not is whether he vapours about truth, and expects always that a case must be cleared by jaw, and wants to clear lies, and cannot sit quiet under a little painting, but talks big of justice and of following up the impalpable.

October 17th. — Little Richardson at Hodgkinson’s died to¬ day. A heavy blow, poor Hodgkinson is quite beside himself through sorrow, anxiety, illness, and work. I trust he may not himself be killed. The other patient is going on fairly well.

1875 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH n

But I need scarcely say my heart is heavy enough still, though less so than it was. I feel more faithful. ... I walked out with Skrine after chapel, and on the Stockerton Road, when we were about a mile out, heard the bell toll. How it did go to one’s heart, but it was for an old woman in the town. . . . I hope we have seen the worst. But I will try not to faint and be faithless. Good will come as it always has done. Good must come when all we long for is good, since “All things work together for good to them who love God.”

October \^th. — Hodgkinson came in to me. He, poor fellow, bears up wonderfully. He told me there was on Saturday a sort of small indignation meeting of parents at the “Falcon.” On a friendly parent of one of the boys going into the room, he was saluted with the question, “Whether he was come to take his boy out of the hands of these murderers ? ” Nice for poor old Hodgkinson, whose whole life has been bound up in the house and boys ; nice for me too, for I am murderer No. i. Encouraging, but let that pass.

I have sent up two stone jars of water to be analysed by Savory and Moore on my private account — one from Fairfield, one from our well here, and shall probably send another sample to-morrow.

October 21st. — I went out of second school early because Haviland was here, and have inspected the whole house and drains with him, and am now master of it. I am glad to say there is little to be altered, and that not of much consequence. He also passed both my wells officially as perfectly pure. That is very good ; we shall see what Savory and Moore say. . . .

October 22nd. — A cool telegram from Haviland curtly saying “that all boys in infected houses must go home.” . . . I sent it to Mullins and Hodgkinson, but have declined to act about Campbell, till I know what is meant by infected houses, and what authority there is for such an order. But this is pretty fair for a country official to our sanitary officer, who very properly brought it to me. . . .

October 2 $rd. — I can hardly help laughing, harassed as I am, when I think what a downfall my china jar of vanity has had these last three weeks. I thought I had done something, and that Liverpool thought so too, and lo ! Liverpool and no small portion of my world have set upon me this last three weeks, as if I had brought their children into danger by my proceedings and possessed neither sense nor honesty. It is a comical upset. Alas ! there is little laughing here. . . . Got a letter from Mr. Birley to-day. He and Mr. Jacob think my statement too dictatorial. They, however, imagined it was meant as a circular. I have written to Mr. Birley to say that, as a private document, I do not feel inclined to abate its tone of authority, as recent legislation, while it has strengthened the headmaster within the school, has broken down the school authority outside, and I do not mean to play the part of ser¬ vant to the public and bow to the Times. I was able to send Mr. Birley a letter from a man of business in Liverpool who said he thought it admirable. . . .

How utterly I feel the baseless character of my old dreams that true work would live here because the foundation was true. I now see it was only a worshipping of nets in a subtle form. Nothing will live unless the presence of God makes it. Even now I see how full of weakness and corruption and death the place is ; how a breath would upset the life in the place ; how easily in a year or two these walls might be turned into something — Oh ! how different from what I meant them ; how utterly the outer world takes the mean trade view of them ; how greatly the inner world does too.

A statement to parents of the principles by which he would be guided in dealing with the outbreak now became necessary, and it is worth giving in full.

The question has been raised as to what ought to be done when illness breaks out in the school.

The answer in our case is simple.

The school consists of eleven different boarding-houses ; each complete in itself, and in the majority of cases standing by itself.

The school is not a barrack, in which all live together under the same conditions, using the same diet, and inter¬ mingled always.

Therefore, it is not my intention under any conceivable circumstances of illness to break up the school by a public act.

It is a great injustice and wrong to many parents to send their boys home with the possibility of introducing illness into the family.

If the disorder is infectious, it is not right to scatter pos¬ sible bearers of infection all over the kingdom.

It is not right to put parents to the inconvenience of their children being sent home when they ought to be at school, or to saddle them with this additional expense.

It is not good to teach the young to run away from illness. It is likely to make them far more susceptible to infection, and liable to catch disease in after-life, as fear is no slight cause of ill-health.

On the other hand, due account must be taken of the parents’ views with regard to their children.

These considerations lead directly to the following con¬ clusions : —

First, When illness makes its appearance in only one or two cases, and is not spreading, the discipline and good of the school require that no boy should be allowed to leave the school.

Second , If the illness threatens to be somewhat more trouble¬ some, and does not remain stationary, then parents should be dissuaded from removing their boys, unless in special instances, but be allowed to do so.

Third, If the illness seems to have fastened on a particular house, the parents of all boys in that house must be written to, and the option given them of taking their sons home.

Fourth, If the illness is really serious in any house, the parents leaving their boys in that house must do it on their own responsibility, though we shall always be ready to keep them.

These four gradations mark the course of treatment that will be pursued in this school. We shall not in any instance leave our posts. As long as any boys remain to be taught, we shall remain to take care of them.

But, indeed, scattered as we are in so many different houses, each a centre in itself, nothing is likely to occur to overthrow the experience I have now had in the worst years of epidemics.

It is, however, true that a large school is exceptionally liable to infection, from the fact that upwards of 300 boys come into it from all parts of the world, and often from un¬ healthy districts. But this is our misfortune. The healthy discipline and conditions of a good school are very favourable to general health.

As a point of school order, I would mention that no boy will be permitted to go home, unless the case is very special, on the bare receipt of a telegram by us. We must first be sure on what grounds the telegram is sent, and I shall not give per¬ mission unless satisfied on this point.