The Council have been good enough to have the ventilators of the Racquet Courts mended, in accordance with our suggestion. They have also caused gas to be laid on in the Library. There are 73 new boys this half. Mr. Musson's old classes, vii. and viii., are now under H. M. Draper, Esq., and Mr. Draper's are taken by C. H. Jeaffreson, Esq. Mr. Jeaffreson also takes part of the French work of the Classical Department. The following is the list of the Prefects : H. S. Spottiswoode Mansfield C. Skipton C. Wood Our readers will be glad to see that Cheltenham will have its representative in the Cambridge Boat of this year. P. H. Mellor, who, in 1866, was well known here for his cricketing abilities, has now shown that he is in no way less distinguished as an oar. C. J. Naylor obtained the first prize in the Hurdle Race (120 yards), at the First Trinity Boat Club Sports, a few days ago, while J. Kinloch has carried off the Strangers' Race at the St. John's Sports, at his favourite distance, one mile. Few amongst us have never heard of J. H. Ashton; his doings for the Eleven, the Football Twenty, and at our Athletic Sports, some years back, have not yet died out. He has now been successful in a very different line. At the recent Bird Show, at the Crystal Palace, he carried off no less than 16 first and second prizes for canaries. It is also worthy of note that a painting by Mr. Ashton obtained a place in the Royal Academy, for 1867. The following obtained admissions to the R.M.A., Woolwich, last Christmas : Place. 2. A. W. Cockburn 10. W. G. Lowther Place. 28. F. Beaver The half-holiday was given on Friday, February 19th. We have received two letters from a subscriber, H. T. C.,' which we refrain from printing at length; but we should like to 1 have the opinions of subscribers on some of their contents. He says, Why is your valuable space wasted on the trash with which you nauseate us every month. At this we trembled a little, but we found it only meant that we used slang, i.e, 'such phrases as moral, my little brother, &c., &c., &c.,' and our correspondent went on to point out the extreme probability that not even the greatest patriotism of Old Cheltonians would induce them to subscribe to what must be quite unintelligible; and The Cheltonian, in the opinion of our relations, has sunk to the same level as Bell's Life in London, and rubbish of that class. To this we answered, that as to slang we had not had it noticed as superabundant, unintelligible, or offensive; but that if we found that at all a general opinion, we were quite ready to conform to our subscribers wishes; at the same time, if they differed among themselves, we could not do more than please the majority of them. To this our correspondent replied, 'Your present argument, I submit, is only worthy of the authors and editors of those penny periodicals, which are sometimes termed thieves' literature, and which have been the means of filling our Police Courts of late with so many juvenile offenders.' Our readers are our judges in this matter of slang, and we should be glad to hear the verdict from any or all of them. Correspondence. CRICKET. To the Editors of the Cheltonian. Gentlemen,-The question has often been asked why no record of the past Elevens and Twenties has been kept. When old fellows and strangers look at the boards that immortalize the College boats and Gymnasium champions, in hopes of recognising old friends who have served with honour against Marlborough and who have distinguished themselves in the Classical and Moderns of past years, they are surprised to find the two great elements of our out-door sports unrecorded. Surely the Gymnasium ought to be the representative of the whole school, and not to lead the public into the belief that the Gymnasium championship and College boat are the two honours to be won, and that none other are worthy of record. It is true the past Elevens are to be found in the eleven room : but they are not intended for the inspection of the public; and even these records we owe to the patriotism of Lillywhite, who has put them up from the first year of his engagement (1855) at his own expense. As for the Football Twenties, they pass away and are heard of no more; there is no record of them kept. Hoping the authorities will see the want of these boards of honour for the Eleven and Football Twenty, I am, Gentlemen, yours truly, THOMAS WISE. soon. CHALLENGE CUPS. To the Editors of the Cheltonian. Gentlemen,-The very close match between Boyce's and the A Day Boys for the Football Challenge Cup at the end of last half, has suggested a point which it would be well to have decided The question applies in an equal degree to the Cricket Challenge Cup. Suppose for example the final match resulted in a tie, would the former holder be entitled to retain the cup, or would they be obliged to play the match over again? I am inclined to hold to the former of the two alternatives. It seems to me that the nature of a challenge cup is such that the holders are challenged, and, if not beaten, still remain the holders. In other words, the challengers undertake to beat the holders, and if they fail to do so, must abide by the result. It is however, I think, quite an open question, and one which ought to be decided at once. Should such a case occur, it will place the umpire in an awkward position, and cannot fail to give dissatisfaction to one or other of the parties concerned. I would suggest then, gentlemen, that some tribunal or other be formed to decide this question before the coming House Matches. I remain, Gentlemen, yours truly, FREDERIC R. PRICE. The Cheltonían. APRIL, 1869. Apología. A recent correspondence, selections from which have been given in this magazine, has suggested to us that it might be useful and interesting to put down what we conceive to be the duties of a magazine such as the Cheltonian, in this school-what reason it has for its existence, together with such notes as may be said to belong to the subject. The matter should be one of interest to our readers, and it has this further advantage, that it may induce subscribers to intimate more frequently or more clearly what they approve in the Cheltonian, and what they dislike. But first it will be convenient to get this matter of the correspondence finally and irrevocably out of the way. The letter we print here, hoping that it is the last sample we are to receive on the subject, we cannot profess wholly to understand, but we perceive plainly that it is a final crusher to the whole argument in some way or another, and we therefore hail its advent with pleasure. Here it is: Gentlemen,-Thank you. The March number is sufficient, without a verdict from your readers also. Yours, &c., H. T. C. We do not imagine we can be called on to add any further remarks, and we have no wish to go further into a matter so fruitless and disagreeable. We leave our correspondent in all good feeling, and with as small an amount of wonder and perplexity as we can manage to feel. School periodicals at present known to us are of two kinds. The first sort is represented by the Eton Chronicle, and is the smaller class. This periodical and others of its genus consist merely of accounts of school-news, and occasionally articles on matters connected with the school exclusively. These are school-newspapers. No. 31.-Vol. IV. The other kind is the school-magazine. Our own magazine or the Cliftonian may be taken as types of it: it professes to give the school-news as the other class does, but it adds to this articles on subjects not necessarily connected with the school it represents, articles, that is, on literature, etc.; and it even allows the insertion of poetry. It naturally can hardly come out oftener than once a month. The other sort equally naturally appears about once a fortnight. The Marlburian is a school-magazine in all but appearance, and its size is not so large as to prevent its coming out once a fortnight. The Wykehamist approaches a shade nearer to the newspaper class: the Meteor still nearer. The Cheltonian, we have said, is a full-blown magazine. Of this style of school-periodical we therefore write. What are the objects or duties of a magazine like this? First of all, it ought to discharge its duties as a school-newspaper properly it should give competent accounts of all games generally played at the school it represents: all news connected with the educational part of the school: all news it can get, which are likely to be interesting, of old Cheltonians and other connections. In a word, it ought to be a record which will give to an intelligent O.C. a pretty full and correct idea of the state of things going on, and which will serve the same purpose to the generations that come after. Next, it has the duty of writing articles: the question arises -who is it to write them for? Not for one single individual, as the last letter of H. T. C. would seem to declare: nor, we think, for old Cheltonians, or for people generally, or for anybody except the present fellows. They will doubtless answer, 'We don't want them : we don't read them: they're too long: they're too dry: in fact, for us at all events; and who else is there besides us?—they're all nonsense.' We fully believe they don't want them and don't read them; but we think it is our duty to write or insert things not wholly for amusement. A school magazine has a duty to its school: it can speak to it, though it will not hear: what is more, it must speak to it, if it is to do anything but amuse it. Accordingly from time to time we insert literary articles: they may be good, they may be bad; at least they are as good as we have time to make them. I am afraid hardly anybody at school reads them, because hardly anybody at school cares for literature, or indeed anything out of school life and its concomitants of stomach-pleasure, but we cannot therefore discontinue them. We publish this month an article very kindly given us on French Schools, and another equally kindly given us on the Atys of Catullus, and we also publish this article. But we know, as we always know about some article or other every month, |