Dulwich College

“ Dulwich is a village about 5 miles south of London Bridge. Here Edward Alleyn, or Allen, a distinguished actor in the reign of James I., founded and endowed an hospital or college, called Dulwich College, for the residence and support of poor persons, under certain limitations. On 21st June, 1870, a new college, a modern development and extension of the old charity, was formally opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The new buildings are entirely devoted to educational purposes, and they have accommodation for 600 or 700 boys. ”

“ Dulwich College, or the College of God's Gift, was founded in 1619 by the actor Edward Alleyn, who is buried in the chapel. The picture gallery was bequeathed to the college by the painter Sir Peter F. Bourgeois, and is noteworthy for its works by Dutch masters. ”

“ His foundation of the College of God’s Gift, commonly called Dulwich College, was opened with great state on the 13th of September 1619, in the presence of Lord Chancellor Bacon, Lord Arundell, Inigo Jones and other distinguished men. ”

“ Carver's energy created Dulwich College, and made it one of the great public schools of England; its pupils numbered when he left in 1883 some 600 boys. The lower-grade school, Alleyn's School, also moved into new buildings under his guidance, and its numbers soon after rise from 250 to 650. Carver gave effect to broad-minded and sagacious views on education. He saw that every subject can offer educational facilities, and that education based on one rigid formula was bad. ”

“ His hard reading was crowned in December, 1914, by a considerable achievement, for he won the coveted Brakenbury Scholarship in History and Modern Languages at Balliol College, Oxford. This scholarship, worth £80 per annum, is tenable for four years; to it subsequently Dulwich College added an exhibition of the annual value of £20. He was the first Balliol scholar in history from Dulwich. Not at all confident that he had won the Brakenbury, he went up to Oxford a second time, while the result of the Balliol examination was still unknown, to try for a less exacting scholarship. ”

“ And in a public decision, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Visitor of Dulwich College, which appears in The Times of July 21, it is directed that certain scholars are to proceed for instruction to some such place as "King's College or the London University." ”

“ The City of London School, founded in Milk Street, Cheapside, by the City Corporation in 1835, occupies modern buildings on the Victoria Embankment. Dulwich College originated in the foundation of the College of God’s Gift by Edward Alleyn in 1626, and is now constituted as one of the principal English public schools. St Olave’s and St Saviour’s grammar school, Southwark, received its charter in 1571. Both classical and modern education is provided ”

“ This monarch has been lauded as a patriot king for the suppression of the monasteries and the national emancipation from the tiara—but patriotism has often covered the most egotistical motives.
1 A fear of the restitution of these abbey-lands to their former uses appears to have prevailed long after their alienation. So late as in the reign of James the First, the founder of Dulwich College, in a dispute respecting the land, observes hypothetically—“If the State should be at any time pleased to returne all abbey lands to their former use, I must lose Dulwich, for which I have paid now 5000l.” ”

“ At Dulwich the school year is full and various. In addition to the acquisition of knowledge there is much (p. 025) else to engage a boy's interest—cricket, football, fives, swimming, the gymnasium, athletic competitions, the choir; and then those red-letter days—Founder's Day, with its Greek, French or German play, the Prize Distribution and the Concerts. Our son bore his share in every phase of this varied life. He had a warm corner in his heart for the College Mission, which maintains a home in Walworth for boys without friends or relatives and enables them to be trained as skilled artisans. ”

“ In 1619, however, the victory was finally won, for on the 21st June of that year the Great Seal of England was affixed to letters patent granting leave to Edward Alleyn 'to found and establish a college in Dulwich to endure and remain for ever to the glory of Almighty God.' God's Gift College, thus started on its long and useful career, originally consisted of a master and a warden, both to be of the same name as the founder, four fellows, six poor brethren, six poor sisters, and twelve poor scholars to be selected from four London parishes. ”

“ But remember that no one would have the ghost of a chance for an Oxford scholarship on the knowledge gained from a correspondence course taken by itself. Finally, any honour gained by a Dulwich boy ought to redound to the credit of Dulwich; the school alone should have the credit of the achievements of its members. ”

“ Another of the class was doing lyceum work as a public reader. Still another had opened a kindergarten, and many more, like Beth and Dolly, were filling quietly and efficiently the little niches at home which sadly needed them.
For the most part, college life had broadened all of the girls, so that none of them were entirely content to lead a perfectly useless life of fashion and gayety. Constance herself had gone into college settlement work, just as she had planned to do long before. ”

“ Professor Newton told me the other day that the faculty was perfectly satisfied with us. We have some actually brilliant students here. Look at Amy Norton, for instance! She is a phenomenon. Our choir is fine, and altogether,” Beth wound up emphatically, “we are just about as nice a class as you can find any place.”
“We are nice,” Dolly conceded, “but, Beth, let me tell you that our pride is going to have a fearful fall in one particular.” ”

“ Professor Graydon told me that much. She is the teacher to whom you were talking when you first came in. I know I shall like her. I haven’t made up my mind about the others yet.”
“There, that is the last thing!” and Dolly drew a breath of relief, “the trunks are empty anyway. What shall I do with them now, Miss Newby?”
“In the name of goodness, don’t call me Miss Newby. I’m Elizabeth. I’ll let Patrick know that they are ready, and he will carry them off to the trunk-room at once. I’ve only been here twenty-four hours, but I’ve found out that this college would never run without Patrick. ”

“ A sudden recollection struck Dolly. “No wonder that you did not care to have me introduce you to Professor Newton that first evening; do you remember? And of course she had saved a place at her table purposely for you. Mary Sutherland, if I supposed you repeated to her all the nonsense that you have heard me talk about her, I should never let you return to college alive.”
Mary smiled, not very much overcome by the threat. “You always say nice things about her; now, if it had been Professor Arnold–you really don’t like her at all.” ”

“ While the University is thus only a union of the Colleges for attaining such ends and such status as can better be attained by united than by isolated existence, the College is a real and concrete thing, the foundation stone of the ‘Oxford System’. Each College is within itself independent; each has its own traditions and some characteristics of organization, life, and system which are peculiar to itself. With the affairs of the College individually the University is not concerned. ”

“ Well, the facts will be sure to come out some day, for this world is small, after all, and what we learned, others will be sure to learn, too. There is no harm at all in it, but Miss Dunbar and that set of 89 girls who fawn so around her, would never speak to her again. You’ll see.”
“I don’t like to think that you are a true prophet, Dolly, for the sake of our sex. Why should we be more ungenerous to Margaret Hamilton than the Harvard boys are to Mr. Steele?” ”

“ Wherever you meet a Dulwich man out here, you'll find he bears a reputation for gallantry, for character, for hard work and for what may be termed "the public-school spirit" in its best form. Our Roll of Honour and the literally amazing list of decorations bear this out. Of my own old colleagues, there is not one who has not either been hit (alas! killed in many cases) or received some decoration, or both; and that, mark you, though we are not what is known as an "Army School" like Eton, Cheltenham, or Wellington. ”

“ However, she was more ready than Beth to acknowledge that Dolly had done the only thing that could have secured class harmony and good fellowship.
On Wednesday noon college would close for the balance of the week. Those students who lived near enough could go home to eat their Thanksgiving dinners, the rest would stay at the Hall and get up such impromptu entertainments as the occasion suggested and their genius could devise. Dolly was one of the fortunate ones who could go home. ”

“ There was a moment’s pause while the fifteen uninvited guests took possession of the few chairs, window-seats and stools which the room afforded.
“Miss Alden, you may answer first. What is the chief duty of every Freshman?”
“To squelch the Sophomores,” returned Dolly promptly.
A deep groan sounded from all fifteen. “Wrong! Wrong! You have not the first idea of your fundamental duties. We shall be obliged to send you home, I fear. Miss Newby, answer!” ”

“ Westover ranked so high among colleges, that its graduates were in demand every place, and each year brought the faculty scores of letters, from both public 245 and private schools, asking that one of Westover’s graduates be sent them.
Constance would take a couple of years of post-graduate work before going into the College Settlement. Several of the others expected to be back for one year at least, Hope Brereton, Hazel Browne, Ada Willing and Florence Smith. Some of the others, too, perhaps, but neither Dolly nor Beth felt that they could be spared longer from home. ”

“ A little dash of unconventionality like that is wanted in Dulwich and in all Public Schools. They, like other national institutions, are terribly prone to get into a groove. Though that groove be a good one, yet an occasional lift out of it can do no harm. But there's no doubt about it that, conservative though they may be, our Public Schools have done marvellously in this war. The system has proved its value ten thousand times over, and never so much as on these gory plains of Flanders and the hilly crags of Gallipoli. ”

“ Beth repeated the remark with much delight 248 to Margaret. “It has been a great success, girls, and we owe it all to Margaret. She has put soul and life into it. In fact, I think we can be proud of our record all the way through college; we have the largest class ever graduated; we certainly have some of the brightest students that were ever within these walls, we have the most unique entertainments of any class, and the Chronicle has never been as good as it is this year.”
“How we apples do swim!” said Dolly mockingly. ”

“ I know that I said Hertford twice and I finished up with All Souls, who only have about three undergraduates, so if they had rowed at all they would have been several men short.
"I should like to write the colleges down if I had a pencil," she said; "you rattle them off so fast. Didn't you say that one flag belonged to the University, but the University flag is surely dark blue?"
And then I had to explain that University was a college and not the whole place, and she replied that she knew so much more about Cambridge than Oxford, and complained that our colleges had very confusing names. ”

“ Please come!”
“You do not know that you are inviting the daughter of a coachman and a housekeeper, Miss Alden. It is time for people to know exactly who and what our class president is. She has been sailing under false colors long enough.”
Margaret stood pale and cold during this tirade. The room was full of sophomores–Abby Dunbar’s sympathizers, as was very evident.
“Oh, yes,” said Dolly carelessly, “of course I’ve known all about Miss Hamilton’s parents since early in our freshman year, but I didn’t see what difference it made. ”

“ This is my room. Let me introduce you to two more of your classmates–my room-mate, Miss Alden, and Miss Sutherland, our star student in biology. No, don’t go, girls.”
“I thought that I was to keep intruders out.”
“We will just lock the doors, and pay no attention to any knocks. Now, Miss Van Gerder, if you please, we will tell you first, what we know about Margaret and how we learned it; we are the only ones in the college who do know anything more than she has seen fit to tell. ”

“ These smaller colleges fulfil a special mission, therefore, and they do their best when they do not try to seem more than they really are. There was the danger that the colleges would think themselves improved by introducing some fragments of research work into their curriculum, and so spoiling a good humanitarian college by offering a bad imitation of a university. ”

“ The term was a busy one for all the girls. They had come to college, for the most part, at least, because they were inspired by a genuine love for knowledge. They had their times of recreation, of course, and their merry evenings in Dolly’s room when they again made fudge and tea. Nevertheless, there was plenty of good, hard work done, and the 129 Easter holidays found them all ready for a brief rest again. Mary went home with Dolly, and Beth would stop for one night on her return to college ”

“ Constance Van Gerder, who will one day be one of the richest women in this country–have chosen to befriend me, and so asked those girls to vote for me. If it were not a cowardly thing to do, I should go away from here to some other college. I would take care to proclaim my full history the very first day I was there, and I would not attempt to make a single friend.”
183“That would be a cowardly thing to do. Next year neither Abby Dunbar nor Grace Chisholm will be here. They will never manage to get through the sophomore work. ”