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saturated the whole intellectual atmosphere of the poet with Christian truths. It is the poetry of the upward struggle of the human spirit, not from, but by the aid of an earthly, towards an heavenly friendship: from doubt, through sorrow, to faith and rest. It describes the religious progress of a man, who because he cannot bring himself to acquiesce in death, is driven, almost as though against his will, to lay hold on immortality and on Christ.

The short poem 'St. Paul,' written from the same standing point, is less various and less philosophical, but truer in that it confesses the presence of Christ amongst us. This poem also is occupied with a friendship: but it describes the man of strong, purely human, but more passionate intellect, beholding, longing for, and directly striving after Christ Himself; no other friend interposes between St. Paul and the Master who, once seen, possesses the whole being. Thus it is wholly free from that which is the main fault of modern thought and from which the 'In Memoriam' is not altogether exempt, i.e. that turning of the back to the sun and sometimes even shutting the eyes, whilst still clamouring for the light.

The distinguishing features of this school so far, seem to be the width and genuineness of its feeling for humanity; its subordination of feeling to intellect, and its manliness. Strong and keen intellectually, manly and passionate in affection, it appears chiefly strong in its absolute truthfulness, and in its entire freedom from conventionalism; chiefly manly in its unaffected humility. Such a school of poetry must either cease to exist, or it must attain to such a strength and completeness of faith in the living Christ as the modern churches have never seen.

One eminent modern poetess must not be quite unnamed; one who cannot well be classed with any school, but who has some points in common with this last; eccentric sometimes in thought and oftener in expression--but graceful and tender in feeling and deeply imbued with the truest Christian faith-Mrs. Browning. It would take more words than can be written here to analyse her poetry, or to enter upon a consideration of the noble pieces which flash upon us sometimes when wandering amongst the perplexing obscurities of Robert Browning's works.

WE

Mr. Wilkinson's Modern Athletics.'

E have received a little book, price one shilling, entitled 'Modern Athletics,' by H. F. Wilkinson, of the London Athletic Club. London: Frederic Warne and Co. Many of our readers will recognize the author's name as that of an old Cheltonian, and an amateur known as a walker. The book furnishes a full review of the past season's athletics. By 'the past season,' Mr. Wilkinson understands the period from the beginning of October to the last week in April; but he adds a good many meetings, Cheltenham College among the rest, which took place after that date. We are ourselves not sufficiently well up in athletic knowledge to criticise the book generally; we can only say that it should be interesting to all who take any interest in amateur running, and is evidently the result of a praiseworthy amount of enthusiasm and research.

The opening chapter, that on 'Ancient Athletics,' is not materially altered since it appeared some little time ago in our own magazine, where some will have read it; it seems a little out of place in a book so professedly popular, but is interesting.

In the next chapter, on the rise and progress of Modern Athletics, one is gratified to read, that 'To Cheltenham, however, beyond a doubt, must be assigned the merit of founding public school meetings on a large scale, with a commodious grand stand for ladies, printed programmes, roped and staked course, and thoroughly organised in all other respects. The credit of setting an example now so universally followed in all other large schools, must be ascribed to the Rev. T. A. Southwood, then as now, the head master of the Civil and Military Department at Cheltenham College, and to whom the College, in this as well as in its studies, owes a debt which can never be repaid.' On October 22, 1853, the first Cheltenham meeting was held, and we read that the old fives' courts, now in the quadrangle, were fitted up as a grand stand for the ladies, there being then no chapel to impede the view. Since the above date the meetings have been held every successive spring in regular order, and not as at other schools, where the races were occasional and unaccompanied by any public demonstration.

The chapters on the management of athletic meetings, training, walking, running, and jumping, ought to be of great use to our athletes and stewards of 1869.

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We quote the account of our last races, taking leave to amend one or two palpable misprints:

The sixteenth annual meeting of Cheltenham College was held on May I and 2. A very full programme was got through, there being upwards of 850 entries; but no criterion can be formed of the merits of the competitors in any of the sprint races, from the fact that there is a fall of 5.65 feet in the 100 yards course, of 81 feet in 114 yards, and of 8.13 feet in 120 yards. A more favourable slope could hardly be chosen, since if it were more, none but very light weights could run on it without being shaken all to pieces. B. Turner was adjudged the first place in the final heat of the 100 yards by a bare foot, many thinking J. Godfray had won; but from the situation of the judge it was hardly possible for him to correctly decide so near a thing. The actual time was 10} seconds, but would have been at least a fifth of a second longer on level ground. Turner's other performances during the meeting were finishing eight yards behind Godfray in the 'quarter,' and two behind H. Fox in the cricketers' hundred yards. W. Lawrence secured the high jump at the nominal height of 5 feet 7 inches, really some five or six inches less, as a rope was used instead of the usual lath, and the competitors frequently struck the impediment without displacing it. G. Strachan seemed well at home in both steeple-chases, as he won the 220 yards one easily in 35 seconds, besides making a dead-heat for second place with W. Hennell in the quarter mile one. In this case, also, the difficulty arose from the misplaced position of the judge. Strachan's other victories were, throwing the cricket-ball 114 yards I foot,* and putting the weight; but neither of these contests were actual tests of merit, as the former took place down hill, and in the latter the amount of run was not limited to the regulation seven feet. J. Godfray was par excellence victor ludorum of the meeting, and proved himself more at home in flat races than in those with obstacles. The Rifle Corps race fell an easy prey to him. His best distances, however, are clearly from a 'quarter' up to a mile. His times in the former and in the half-mile, 58 seconds, and 2 minutes 14 seconds respectively, were first class, considering the course was turf, and the steep hill to be ascended in both cases. The mile was completely at his mercy, but at twice that distance he seemed unable to stay, and was beaten somewhat easily by S. Grant. A race, peculiar to this public school, but one of the best tests of endurance that can be devised—viz., the 'Stone Gathering,' for a prize presented annually by the Rev. T. A. Southwood-produced a very close contest between A. Tee and W. Branson. The latter was the favourite from his well-known lasting powers, but the former had a greater turn of speed, and, spurting gamely at the finish, won by a couple of stones. In the final heat of the hurdles, C. Wood, who had met with an accident in his trial heat, won a good race from L. Griffith, in the run home; H. Ommanney coming with a rush at the finish and dead-heating the latter for second place. The badness of the time, 22 seconds, is accounted for by a turn in the course, which might easily have been avoided. A. J. Goodwin, of Merthyr Tydvil, won the strangers' race, defeating E. Fox, London A. C., somewhat easily. The distance for this event was a most absurd one—viz., a

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* As a proof that the above down-hill throw was no real test of the victor's merit, it may be stated that he could not beat a winning throw of 97 yards only on level ground, at the Crystal Palace Cricket Club Sports, two months afterwards, on July 18, 1868.

120 yards steeple-chase. The wide jumping, and hop, step, and jump call for no comment, as the leaping took place down a rather steep incline.

We do not wish to discuss whether our races of last May were superintended as well as was possible, but we must be allowed to remark

(1) That it is difficult to understand how, the fall at 100 yards being 5.65 feet, that at 114 should be 8.1. Perhaps Mr. Wilkinson took the ditch into account. In the hurdle race, 120 yards, as the course was not straight down hill, we must be permitted to doubt whether the incline run on was greater than that given for 100 yards, which we suppose to be correct.

(2) That, if we were not so diffident of our athletic knowledge, we should be inclined to question the 'some five or six inches less,' in the remarks on the high jump. We should have thought two inches would have been ample margin.

(3) 'As a proof,' &c. Should I make 25 in good form one day at cricket, and o two months afterwards, would a stranger have a right to assert that the latter score was nearer my true form than the former?

(4) As to the putting the weight, we were under the impression that no run at all was allowed here: in that case, no doubt, the contest was not an actual test of merit.'

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These remarks must not be understood as detractory to the book generally. We consider it, so far as we can judge, a most useful companion for the amateur who seeks to attain excellence, and an interesting collection of facts for the spectator who is content to see the glory of others.

G

Br. Barry.

To the Editors of the Cheltonian.

ENTLEMEN,-I have been greatly surprised that so little mention has been made in the last 'Cheltonians' of Dr. Barry's work at the College. In fact, it is hardly more than indirectly alluded to, and readers of the 'Cheltonian' in future years will in vain search the back numbers for some record of Dr. Barry's régime. Surely this ought not to be. Dr. Barry's headmastership has been a most important period in the history of the school, and

I have,

his departure is not an event to be thus slurred over. therefore, written out a meagre epitome of the most important alterations he has introduced, and I trust some one will take the trouble to amplify and correct it.

Dr. Barry came to Cheltenham in the summer of 1862. Educated at King's College, he had taken high honours at Cambridge, in both classics and mathematics, and had been elected a Fellow of Trinity College. He then devoted himself to tuition, and immediately before coming to Cheltenham, had presided over the Grammar School at Leeds, which he raised to a high state of efficiency. His arrival at Cheltenham followed immediately upon the alteration in the constitution of the school. The management had been placed in the hands of a council, composed of influential men, mostly strangers to the town. At the same time it was arranged that the head master should be far more irresponsible and unshackled in the exercise of his authority than had hitherto been the case.

Dr. Barry did not long remain inactive. The chapel and the services therein were the first objects of his care, and they seem always to have occupied the most prominent place in his thoughts. Hitherto, the chapel had only been used on Sundays, and the daily morning Prayers were read by the class masters in their respective rooms. Dr. Barry, however, at once introduced the obvious improvement of taking the boys into chapel every morning. On Sunday, the services in the chapel had been almost entirely conducted by the Theological Masters. who, likewise, were the only channels by which the boys acquired religious instruction during the week. This state of things did not satisfy Dr. Barry: he always maintained that clergymen did not, by undertaking scholastic duties, abdicate their sacred functions, and he at once took the prominent part in the service himself. As a rule, he has preached once every Sunday, and the other masters have taken it in turn to deliver the sermon at the other service. Nor was the alteration confined to the masters-he was desirous that the boys also should bear their part in the service, and with that view he has always been most anxious to have, not only a good choir, but general congregational singing as well. In furtherance of the same object, he thought it well that the senior boys should take their turns in reading the lessons and collecting the alms, and during the greater part of his stay the organist has been a collegian. Inside the College too the religious instruction of his boys has always been his chief anxiety. Many as were his occupations he always found time to give lectures on the Prayer Book or on Church History, besides taking his class in the customary Greek Testament, and the practice is now general

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