Issuu

Mecember, 1903.

ABERDEEN

✓AS

G.B/SSET.

Educational Books. ,

. J

JAMES G. BISSET

ONTINUES to supply all

the Class Books (New or Second-hand) suited for the Requirements of the Higher Educational Institutions in the City, at the Lowest Prices.

N.71.-BEST VALUE IN STUDENTS' NOTE BOOKS.

JAMES G. BISSET, Classical, fiDcbical, anb Ebticational iSoohseller,

85 BROAD STREET (Opposite Marischal College).

MACKAY'S, 5O- BRIDGE

The

STREET,

ABERDEEN

50.

SP0KTSIV(7CN'S DEPOT.

Telephone-21 Y 3.

Telegra ,o.—" MACKAY. Aberdeen.' One Minute's Walk from Railway Station,

patronises bp the flobilttr, Gentry, ant) .(Elite of the 'north. The University, Colleges, and leading Schools and Clubs supplied. The latest and best Goods in the Sporting and Athletic World always in stock and sent on the shortest of notice. Angling.—high-Class Tackle of every description. The Editor, " Fishing Gazette," says : " What Mr. Mackay does not know of angling is not worth knowing." Guns and Shot of the latest and best. Air-guns, etc. Cricket.—The finest selection in Bats, Balls, Guards. Tennis.—The best and cheapest. Rackets restrung. Croquet, Bowls (Taylor's). Golf Clubs, Balls, etc. Football.—Agent for the " Zug" in Aberdeen. Water-Polo Balls always in stock. MACKAY'S ANTI-MIDGE LOTION, the only sure and safe protection from Gnat and Midge bites. Inc❑liable to Anglers, Golfers, Picnic Parties, and people going to the Country or sea-hle. 1s. and 2s. 6d. Bottles ; Post, 2d. extra. Sandow's Exercisers, Whitley's Developers, Physical Culture and Gymnastic Apparatus.

50 BRIDGE STREET, ABERDEEN.

•

CONTENTS. 0, 6

SCHOOL CRICKET CLUB-1ST XL SCHOOL NOTES r.

Frontispiece.

HORACE, ODES, I., 22

NOTES ABOUT OLD BOYS

Ws,

5 6

JAMES GIBBS, ARCHITECT

RANDOM NOTES

OXFORD •

ON READING -

THE MUSEUM

CRICKET NOTES

SWIMMING CLUB

27 28

SCHOOL FOOTBALL NOTES THE ATHETIC SPORTS

" DEBATER " NOTES -

LEAVING CERTIFICATES EXAMINATIONS, 1905 OUR CONTEMPORARIES SCHOOL OFFICIALS -

31 36

THE LIBRARY (LENDING)

Typewriting Office A

Shorthand School. C. M. LAWRENCE, 19 CROWN STREET. Telephone 875.

-r-L, TEXT BOOKS ° Of ail kinds (NEW AND SECOND-HAND),

D. WYLLIE & SON,

247 UNION STREET, EE N A BERD.

JOHN C. M‘LEOD, - - HATTER, - -

UNION STREET,

'MOULD respectfully intimate to pupils of Grammar School a Large Stock of Cap and Olengarrp Zabges, as authorised; also, football 3ersers, IBMs, ties, bose, and Fat lianbs.

Great variety of Football, Cricket, Tennis, and Boating Jerseys, Sweaters, Knickers, Trousers, Shirts, Belts, Caps, Hats, Bathing Pants and Costumes. TROPHY AND CLUB CAPS MADE TO ORDER.

FOR SUMMER Straw Hats. with Club and other Fancy Bands, Guards, Puggarees, &c. NEW STYLES FELT HATS, TWEED

CAPS, &c.

TIES, SCARFS, COLLARS, BRACES, and UMBRELLAS.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL CRICKET CLUB

G. F. Cox.

J. Kelman. J. S. Giles.

•

1st XI.

Season

005.

R. Semple. W. L Gilbert. A. G. Stewart. Mr. J. Davidson (Hon. See. Games Committee). F. M. Rae F. Wishart. (Captain).

C. D. Peterkin (Secretary). •

•

G. A. Munro. H. J. Milne.

THE

6taminat School tllaga3ine. -

Vol. IX.

DECEMBER, 1905.

No. 1.

•

IT is with a feeling of the utmost trepidation that we take up the editorial pen of the Grammar School Magazine and write from it these, our first few words. We had long ago resolved not to puzzle our readers with such conundrums as--" How shall we begin? " or others of a like nature, but, alas! the difficulty of writing our first " School Note " has proved too much for us. For a long time we wandered " in secret sorrow and sad pensiveness " trying to find a solution to the conundrum we have set our readers, but as yet we have not succeeded. We can only resolve to do our best, and ask forbearance for our shortcomings. The appearance of the School in the Leaving Certificate Examinations has not been quite as good as in former years. The number of Honours gained has again decreased, having come down from five to three. We would extend our congratulations to our late Dux, Herbert J. M. Milne, on gaining honours in Greek, while we would also congratulate A. R. MacRae and R. N. Gilchrist on gaining Honours in Latin and English respectively. To those masters who have successfully piloted their pupils through these most trying examinations, we owe our heartiest congratulations.

The Grammar School Magazine.

Our Sports have once more passed, and, although the weather was most disagreeable on both days, we were nevertheless favoured with the attendance of a large body of spectators, amongst whom we were delighted to see a large number of the fair sex. The number of entries this year was a record one, and competition in all the events was extremely keen. To J. Kelman and H. T. Finlayson, as the most successful competitors in the Sports, we would extend our heartiest congratulations. We would also congratulate A. S. K. Anderson on winning the mile, and H. G. M. Kelman, Wilson the Former Pupils' hundred yards. in the record School a established have would we believe, open hurdles, had the time, unfortunately, not been omitted to be taken. The Debating Society's season began earlier this year, and is now in full swing. The meeting for the election of officials was held, as usual, in Room I.—Mr. Murison, the Honorary President, presiding. The President this year is F. Wishart, and the Secretary, J. S. Giles. The syllabus, which has now been issued, is a long and interesting one, and includes lectures from Dr. M`Leod, Mr. Middleton, Professor Thomson, Rev. F. H. Rae, Mr. J. M. Hector, and the Rev. R. Thomson. We are sure that the School is with us in wishing the " Debater " a successful season. With this issue we reproduce the photo of the School 1st XI., which, we are sure, will be heartily welcomed by all. The team achieved a remarkable and rather unlooked-for success, and worthily upheld the honour of its School. This photo has already been hung in the corridor beside those of the teams of former years. Of the many victims which the outside world claimed from us at the end of last session, C. D. Peterkin is the one whose loss we shall most keenly feel. As Editor of the 31agazin e, Captain of the Swimming Club, and Secretary of the XI., his place will be difficult to fill; while in the Debating Society and in the Library his absence will also create a gap. Such is the record he leaves behind him, and a difficult one it will be to beat, for he ever strove whole-heartedly for the honour of his School.

School Notes.

Another loss we have sustained is the departure of F. M. Rae for Edinburgh University. A general favourite, our cricket captain exerted himself strenuously to raise the fallen honours of our School in the cricket field. One has only to glance through the " Cricket Notes" to see how great has been his success. A fine, all-round player himself, he set a good example to the rest of the team, which they were not slow to follow. With such as Rae and Peterkin at the head of the XI., it is small wonder that the team prospered beyond all expectation. We are sure that the best wishes of the School follow them in their new spheres of duty. At the election of the officials of the Swimming Club, A. Wilson was appointed captain, with I. G. Bisset as secretary. The Club is in a most satisfactory condition, both as regards finance and membership. The football season is again on us, and already several matches have been played. Our captain this year is J. Kelman, who, at " half," played so brilliantly for us last year, and, so far as this season has gone, is magnificently upholding his reputation. F. Wishart is secretary. As eight of last year's First have returned to School, the XV. this year ought to be good.

•

We are delighted to see the large turn-out at football practices on -Wednesday afternoons and the keen competition for places in all three XV.'s. So far as we can judge by the matches already played, the combination in all the teams appears to be excellent. This is as it ought to be, and the highest praise is due to our captain for the untiring energy l►e has shown in getting together the teams. Our congratulations to all three teams on beating the respective three from Gordon's College.

While we are still on the subject of practices, we would impress on all, both seniors and juniors, the absolute necessity of keeping a/togethir oft the field of play while a game is in progress. Usually, some of the lower classes are playing a game on the space behind the goalposts while a practice is in progress. This is all very well were there unlimited space behind the posts, but,

The Grammar School Magazine.

when it is a matter of only 40 feet, serious inconvenience is caused to the side pressing that line, not to mention the danger to the little boys themselves. The work on the additions to the School is being rapidly pushed ahead, and we hope to see them ready for occupation when we return after the Christmas holidays. We are sure that we express the feeling of the whole School in tendering our sympathy to Mr. C. Davidson in his trying illness. Mr. Davidson's nerves have broken down, and the doctor has ordered him complete rest until after Christmas. The prizes for the Athletic Sports were distributed on Friday, 10th November, by the Rev. J. M. McLuckie. Practically the whole School turned out, and there were also a good few visitors present. Mr. McLuckie gave a few stirring words of advice to those present, and then presented the prizes, the lion's share of which were carried off by •T. Kelman. A very good programme was submitted at the F.P. Concert, held in the School Hall on 28th October, and we were surprised to see so few Grammar fellows present. The proceedings went with characteristic vigour, and all present must have thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment. We are delighted to see the interest our F.P.'s are In the taking in the University clubs and societies. literary, in the debating, and on the Alma Mater staff, we are worthily represented, while the President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, and many of the ordinary members of the S.R.C. are all of ours. The money already contributed and promised for the Byron Statue Fund now amounts to nearly £600. n,000 is needed. It is rumoured that an effort is to be made to reach the sum required, and this should not be difficult if every F.P. would subscribe what he can, from The School has the opportunity of 2s. 6d. upwards. raising the first and only statue of our city to a truly local celebrity, and that a name of world-wide fame, second only to Shakespeare's. Is Aberdeen content with a plaster bust of the great poet?

School Notes. •

We have pleasure in giving our readers an article by the eminent literary critic and Greek scholar, Mr. Wm. Keith Leask (F.P.), who has so often before contributed to our pages. Several of Mr. Leask's books are on the The advice contained in the shelves of our Library. article is good and sound, and cannot fail to benefit all who follow it. Our other article is by a well-known F.P. —Mr. George Herbert Mair, who is at present studying at Christ Church College, Oxford.

HORACE, ODES I., 22. Never shall the just and upright Need the Moorish spear or bow, Or the deadly poisoned arrows In the quiver row on row, Though they through the Syrtes' quicksands, Or through Caucasus dread land Journey, or in tracts far distant, By Hydaspes' storied strand. Far in Sabine wood I wandered, Without weapon, blithe and gay, Sudden a wolf fled before me, As I sang my Lalage. Ne'er Apulia's wide oak forests Such a marvel brought to view ; Such the barren land of Juba, Nurse of lions, never knew. Place me where on steppes snow-laden No soft, shiv'ring, summer sigh Stirs the trees, where dull and leaden Ever broods the threat'ning sky. Place me 'neath the scorching sun's rays, In that land where none may stay, Sweetly laughing, sweetly prattling, I will love my Lalage. S.

The Grammar School Magazin.

two of subscribers. our of list growing on the masters retired our Mr. George Harvey, now of Grantown, and Mr. James Morrison, now of Schivas, ElIon, are names that will be read with kindly remembrances by many old boys now widely scattered over the world.

IT is with pleasure that we record the names of

We congratulate Major J. Scott Riddell, R.A.M.C., on receiving the honour of being made M.V.O. (Member of the Victorian Order), and we also beg to thank him heartily for the two silver medals he has presented for competition in the School. Another M.V.O., Fleet-Surgeon Emslie Smith, has been Director of the Marine Hospital, Chatham, for some time. His younger brother, harry, is surgeon-lieutenant in the 2nd Lancers, India. Mr. James Scott, H.B.M., Consul-General at Canton, has been made a member of the Imperial Service Order (I.S.O.). He intends to retire from the consular service soon and live in Aberdeen. Mr. George H. Mair has obtained an Open History Scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford. Mr. J. L. Thomson, M.A., B.D., has been appointed minister of the parish of Peterculter. Sir David Gill, LL.D., Astronomer-Royal for South Africa, has been made D.Sc. by the University of the Cape of Good Hope.

The University of St. Andrews has conferred the degree of LL.D. on Mr. David Masson, Historiographer-Royal for Scotland.

•

Notes about Old Boys.

We congratulate Mr. A. M. Mackay, M.A. (Aberdon. et ('antab.), LL.B. (Edin.), barrister, Edinburgh, on the extraordinary success he scored last summer in the Scottish Tennis Championship. lie won the Gentlemen's Single, and also the Doubles, along with Macgregor. With Macgregor he also won the Gentlemen's Doubles (handicap), and with Miss Ferguson the Mixed Doubles.

•

Another fine example of the " mens sana in corpore sofa " is seen in another of our distinguished "Old Boys," the Rev. Anthony Mitchell, M.A., B.D., Principal of the Episcopal Theological College, Edinburgh, who has recently had the high honour of being placed on the list of six names selected for the vacant Bishopric of Aberdeen and Orkney. Under his charge in the Episcopal College at Edinburgh, we are pleased to see that two of ours have made their mark. Mr. E. D. Logie Danson has obtained a First Class, and Mr. W. F. Harper a Second Class, in the Preliminary Theological Examination of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. J. F. Christie is captain of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Club, where Mr. W. Webster had the highest batting average for the season---35.5. Our School has lost a warm supporter through the death of Mr. James Turreft, who was for so long in the service of the North of Scotland Bank. We think we are right in saying that his three sons, " Old Boys " all, are ministers in the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

The highest position in the service of the North of Scotland Bank —that of manager—has been attained by Mr. James llutcheon, who was lately secretary of the Bank. We wish him every success. While the prizes in banking at home seem to be few, the prizes abroad are many. But then there are the risks of climate. One of our " Old Boys," Charles Mathieson, of the London and Brazilian Bank, Para, has succumbed to yellow fever at the early age of twenty-three. Yet there are others willing and ready to take the risks. We

The Grammar School Magazine.

could name three young fellows, all from the same parish, who went abroad, one to Buenos Ayres, another to Punta Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan, while the third went to Colombo, Ceylon. They all began with the same salary, £250 per annum, with first-class passage paid, and with very good prospects of an early increase, and are all doing well. The Rev. J. M`Lachlan, who was Interim-Rector of the School in 1859, has just retired from the ministry of Inveraven Church, where he served for thirty-one years. Mr. Colin Kerr, M.A., has won the Stuart Prize in Hebrew at Aberdeen University, while at Edinburgh, R. W. Lyall Grant, advocate, has won the Vans Dunlop Scholarship in Scots Law and Conveyancing. Our " Old Boys " seem to be popular at the University, judging from the fact that, in the Students' Representative Council, Mr. A. R. Williamson is president, Mr. W. W. Jameson is secretary, and Mr. J. H. Edwards is treasurer, while, as for the common councillors, their name is legion. Mr. W. M. Herd, who was lately a master here, is now assistant in the U.F. Church at Inverurie. Mr. Charles Duncan, of the Public Works Department, India, is at present on a visit to Aberdeen, and has been to see his old School several times. Mr. Duncan has been engaged in surveying work in Baluchistan and other little-known parts. For this purpose he has had to qualify in several of the native languages, and some time ago he passed first in Pushtu from among candidates from the whole of India. We had pleasure in reading in a Ceylon paper lately the biography of Mr. W. Duff Gibbon, ex-member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon, and ex-chairman of the Planters' Association there. He left the School in 1852, entering Marischal College the same year. Mr. A. F. Henderson, who is now attached to the Engineering Staff of the Bombay Municipal Trust, was en-

Notes about Old Boys.

tertained to dinner before leaving Aberdeen to enter on his responsible duties. He also got several gifts from his friends. We are pleased to hear that Mr. David Learmonth, who is in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, is liking the life in the Canadian wilds, where so many more of our " Old Boys" are engaged. We hope he may soon' Write us a letter to be published in our columns. Mr. James Strachan is mathematical master in the Royal Naval College at Osborne. 'We regret to announce the death of Mr. A. T. Wood, burgh treasurer, Stonehaven. Mr. Wood, who was an old International in football, took a leading part in public affairs in Stonehaven. The death has also occurred of Mr. George Argo, M.A., Braeside, Tarves. Mr. Argo was all his life more a student than a farmer, and to hear him expounding the views of De Tocqueville and Karl Marx was an education in itself. Dr. R. It. Alexander has received many presents on retiring from the office of Superintendent of IIanwell Lunatic Asylum. Dr. Theodore Thomson, who has been made C.M.G. for services in sanitary science, was Sanitary Officer of Sheffield. We have also to record the death, at Buluwayo, on 1st September, of Professor Thomas Kyd, who entered the School as far back as 18-14. I le afterwards proceeded to the University, and graduated M.A. at Marischal College in 1848. Kenelm R. Hood, who is now in London, running iu the hundred yards race at the " London Scots " sports held at Blackheath on Saturday, 14th October, established a record for the club in the splendid time of 10 two-fifth seconds. We hope to hear great things of our old friend "Kenny," as he was popularly known among his intimates.

The Grammar School Magazine.

Lieutenant-Colonel Prain, Director of the Botanical Survey of India, has been appointed Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He succeeded Sir George King —also an " Old Boy "—as Director of the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, the post being considered one of the most important open to botanists in the Empire. Colonel Prain is Director of the Botanical Survey of India, Secretary of the Board of Scientific Advice for India, And a Trustee of the Indian Museum. We hope that the next time he visits Aberdeen he will come to, •see our Botanic Garden and give us a few hints, so as to make it even better than it is. .)I" The Rev. T. Murray, I.A., Chaplain to the Forces, Third Class, has been made Chaplain to the Forces, Second Class. JAMES GIBBS, ARCHITECT. A PHOTOGRAPH from the portrait of James Gibbs, the architect, has been lately added to our Valhalla. The original, by Williams, is in the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, the masterpiece of Gibbs in architectural design. In addition, he was the architect of the Senate House, Cambridge, and of several famous city churches in London, and monuments in Westminster, notably that of the Duke of Newcastle. He was born in 1682, educated at the Grammar School and at Marischal College, 16961700, where he graduated M.A. Soon afterwards he left Aberdeen, never to return. The kindly interest he still felt in his native city led him to present the magistrates of it with the plans followed in the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church, of which the 150th anniversary was recently observed. Gibbs was the son of a merchant in Footdee. "At the Revolution of 1088, party feeling running high, old Mr. Gibbs, a Roman Catholic, named two dogs he had Calvin and Luther, in derision of both Presbyterians and Episcopalians. For this the magistrates summoned him to appear before them, and sagaciously ordered the unoffensive puppies to be hanged at the cross, as a terror to evil-doers, which wise and just and merciful sentence was duly executed accordingly" (" Scottish Nation "). The dogs of Aberdeen have fared ill in history. Some forty years earlier, when the Covenanters invaded the city, they slaughtered all the dogs in it, because some of them had been derisively adorned with " Montrose's whimsies," blue ribbons, the badge of the Covenant.

Random Notes.

11 •

RANDOM NOTES. IN these notes any wonderful events are recorded. We, have no miracles of the most marvellous kind to chronicle; but several distinctly strange matters have recently come to our hearing. We have yet to hear of the loss of any footballs, although play has been going on for some time. For more than a fortnight no member of the Seventh has been observed to be late for prayers: During a whole week only three windows were broken in the School. The Debating Society is enjoying a very successful and peaceful season. On the opening night one's thoughts turned instinctively to the opening night of last year, and one was impressed with the contrast. This year's President has shown himself utterly incapable of appreciating that zeal for debate which consists in shouting and in throwing peas. Wonder and dismay spread among a section of the members on the opening night, when it was discovered that the ink-wells had been mysteriously spirited away, and that a " chucker out" had been appointed. We regret that more of the Seventh do not turn up at the " Debater," especially as there is so much debating ability among them. That such there is we discovered one afternoon, when, on entering the Library, we found several members of the class engaged in a profound and acrimonious discussion on the fiscal question. The arguments put forward were all extremely convincing, and gained impressiveness by being loudly advocated simultaneously by some half-dozen stalwart Free Traders or Protectionists. Classes which remain after three o'clock, such as VI. and VII., have long been indebted to the vocal efforts of the juniors disporting themselves outside. It is wonderful how much easier it becomes to elucidate the philosophy of Plato or the quibbles of the Sophists in an unseen passage, when the senses are lulled with the strains of a deep bass voice alternating with a chorus of trebles outside. This year, however, a charming accompaniment has been introduced in the form of hammering, sawing, planing, etc., on the new buildings immediately outside Room I. Truly, " a most melodious sound." It is clear that the vast erudition of the Seventh has, in many cases, resulted in a state of grave over-tension. The nerves of many, we regret to observe, suffer a severe

The Grammar School Magazine.

shock when suddenly, as not infrequently occurs, reverberating thunders from the pipes disturb the serene atmosphere of study that is wont to reign in their classroom. The centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar was celebrated on 21st October. For some time before that date many youths were looking forward eagerly to the day, expecting that a whole holiday would be given in honour of the occasion ; when it was found that the 21st was a Saturday. The discovery aroused the greatest possible disgust, and uncomplimentary remarks were made even about Lord Nelson. We hasten to assure such as were thus offended that we learn on the best authority that it was a mere accident, and that Lord Nelson never imagined in 1805 what disastrous consequences his victory would have in 1905. Besides, they may comfort themselves with the idea that the same is not likely to occur in 2005. Why should not more effort be made to appeal to the eye in the teaching of Classics? We saw recently, with great appreciation, a text-book which a member of the School had adorned with various interesting devices. One of these struck us as being peculiarly suggestive. It represented an irate individual ejecting a junior through a doorway, while below the respective figures were inscribed the words, eortxxw, gortirrco. We are fully convinced that a series of such illustrations would be a great aid to the understanding of Greek verbs with peculiar passives. If anyone should chance to be meditating a new work on Greek syntax, we should like to draw his attention to this idea. The Athletic Sports at the end of September passed off with their usual success. The coldness of the weather on the Saturday rendered the last event peculiarly attractive, and more than one competitor succeeded in emptying the contents of the bucket on his partner's head, to the great delectation of the latter, who, however, in some cases, returned the compliment at the second attempt. The learning of a certain well-known member of the Seventh was made apparent on the " Heckling Night " at the Debating Society, when, in the course of an answer to an inquisitive elector, he made a quotation from Plato ! Such a reply filled the younger members with a feeling of mingled awe and fear. In the future we shall expect none to question the advantages derived from learning Greek, when out of the midst of us such an oracle has spoken.

Oxford.

OXFORD. I HAVE called this short article " Oxford," because I wish to deal with no particular aspect of the University or city, but simply to jot down quite at random my impressions of both as they have taken shape in•my mind. Long before I dreamt of following in the footsteps of its hero I had read the history of Mr. Verdant Green. I still recollect the worn volume whose pages I devoured some six years ago in the Grammar School library, and on it mainly, together with a maudlin tale called "Julian Home," by that too-edifying novelist, the late Canon Farrar, my ideas of Oxford were for long based. When I went to King's College I made the acquaintance of Matthew Arnold's famous preface and Mr. Morley's account of Mr. Gladstone's undergraduate days at Christ Church. Then, too, occasionally at Christmas time some of those who had gone before would come back to the old quadrangle and with trailing clouds of glory illumine the darkness of our Northern night. From their talk and from the above-mentioned sources, as I have said, I formed my picture of Oxford a city of dreams, where the air was full of spires and the querulous pealing of chimes and the streets thronged with black-gowned undergraduates- -where city was merged in University, and an atmosphere of academic peace brooded over all— and where, at night, when oaks were sported and the college gates were shut, the proctors went about the streets seeking whom they might devour, and " the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine," came and ragged you, and occasionally, by way of variety, as in Oxford according to ('anon Farrar, put laudanum in your coffee. I believed, and I made my friends believe, that you were robbed financially right and left—that your scout was a despicable villain who acted the burglar, and that you kept him in subjection by throwing your boots at him. In all these things I was disappointed and disillusioned. To begin with, the idea that everyone wears a gown on all occasions is a vulgar error. The University regulations are, I believe, that the gown is to be worn when seeing tutors, going to lectures, and in the streets after eight o'clock at night, besides, of course, at dinner in ball. In practice this is much modified. The com-

The Grammar School Magazine.

mencer's gown is a very insignificant rag, and is nearly always carried under the arm or tied round one's neck like a scarf, ready to be produced should any of the authorities require it. The scholar's gown, which I myself wear, is much longer and larger, and is better worn Further, no one properly when one does need it. scarcely complies with the regulation that gowns should be worn in the streets after eight o'clock. I certainly don't—and though there is a risk of being " progged," it is very slight. I know very well Oxford is held up as au example at least once each winter in Alma Mater, when the Editor weeps over a degenerate generation who will not adorn themselves in scarlet. I'm looking out for it in that periodical this session, and whenever it turns up I shall sail in on the correspondence columns and destroy the chimera. Furthermore, as another F.P. indignantly remarked to me not long ago, there's not a decent spire in the whole place. No one has tried to drug me ; and a decorum is preserved which strikes one accustomed to the excitement of a Rectorial Election as tame in the extreme. As regards the scout, I went prepared for him. I intended to take him by the forelock, so to speak. A kind lady presented me with a cushion, which was to be used, partly in a chair and partly for his coercion into a fit frame of mind. All the way down in,the train I pictured myself throwing this at his head, and assuring him that though he could cheat an English public schoolboy he'd find it difficult to get on the top of me. In the morning I arrived at Christ Church. I saw my trunks put in my rooms, and went out for a walk. When I came back they were all unpacked—my clothes folded and put away, and my books put on my shelves—my cutlery and forks and spoons all in their places. Some angel, said I, has done this thing. In a short time a respectable, elderly gentleman, with a look like a retired majorgeneral, made his appearance, along with an equally refined-looking youth, who might have been his son, but evidently wasn't. The elder said—" Please sir, my name is McWillie; I'm the scout." Quoth the younger— " Please, sir, mine's Arthur; I'm the scout's boy." My heart was too full for speech, but I think I said I was glad to hear it; I have been under that man's thumb ever since. I am sure you are tired by this time of my disillusioning, and would like to hear something more of the

Oxford.

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actual life here. A certain rigour and asceticism which has lasted down the centuries as a remnant of the best days of monasticism still clings about the colleges and college life. Everyone, even in the intensely frosty weather which we have at present, has his cold bath every morning, and many, I know, do this twice a day. One rises at half-past seven, which, I may say, confidentially, is earlier than my average hour in Aberdeen, and one never gets to bed till twelve at least. Further, the purely grinding man who never takes any exercise at all—a type which in Scots Universities is by no means abnormal has no place in Oxford at all. Everyone takes some kind of exercise in the afternoon. The strenuous life is universal. Variation occurs only in the different degrees of " strenuosity." It seems to me, from what I hear, that the ladies at Somerville College set the pace in this respect. I know they work much harder than we do, and they either row or play hockey every afternoon in the week—a height of activity which very few men attain to. This monasticism of which I have spoken extends further. None of the gentler sex have any office within college walls. I believe there . are laundresses--so my weekly accounts would seem to suggest—but I don't believe anyone has ever come across them. They are like Wordsworth's cuckoo-" a mystery Still longed for, never seen."

One's Oxford day begins, as I have said, at half-past seven in the morning, when the scout knocks at your door and asks you whether you will be in to breakfast. Breakfast parties are an ordeal of University life here, which I would gladly see abolished. You are forced to eat about three or four times as much as you want, and they often last well into the forenoon and break up one's working-day, so that I am always thankful when I can breakfast by myself. After breakfast one works till ten, when lectures usually come on; and the time till one o'clock is occupied in this manner. At one comes lunch, and, after it, rowing or football or hockey or walking, every man according to his taste. At half-past four we are back and changed again and ready for tea, from which time we work till " Hall," at seven. After it some spend the evening working or reading; others go to the Union or to some college debating club, and so the day ends.

The Grammar School Magazine.

This bald and skeleton outline will serve its purpose if it acts as a frame into which the reader can fit anything else I happen to say. In sporting matters rowing takes the first place. The College rowing authorities consider themselves entitled to the pick of all the men who come up. Those who have not rowed before are " tubbed " sent out in pairs in a " tub," a clumsy-looking boat which it's nearly impossible to upset, and there, under the direction of one of the senior men who " coxes," they learn the rudiments of their craft. In perhaps a fortnight, the more or less hopeless novices are weeded out and told that they needn't come back, while the others are drafted into the junior fours, thence into the torpids (the learned in Latin will here understand a reference to fixed as opposed to sliding seats) and the eights. The University crew is made up of the best men from the College boats. In the afternoon, if one walks along the tow-path, the Isis (as the Thames is called near Oxford) is crowded with boats, and the air is rent with the raucous cries of the coaches standing upright in the stern of the fours and execrating all and sundry. Clerical gentlemen similarly engaged ride up and down the tow-path on bicycle or horseback. The unfortunate sculling-man, who can't see where he is going, has a bad time of it, winding his way in and out amongst the labyrinth of traffic. The river is made much narrower, too, by the fact that for over three-quarters of a mile the bank is lined with the College's much like the pictures you must have seen of a houseHere the members of the eight are allowed tri boat. change, and here one can rest by the fire till the time comes to go out. In summer the barges are crowded with men and their lady friends who come down to see Besides boating, however, football of both the races. kinds and hockey flourish in the winter. Certain select spirits, too, patronise the beagles, i.e., running with the hounds across country after hares, which seems to me to be a wantonly cruel and useless form of sport. In football the University are not up to much this year. The " All-blacks" swept them off the field, and gained one of their biggest victories, while only to day, on which I am writing, the Edinburgh Academicals have given them a bad beating. Perhaps the F.P.'s will oblige next. I should be very pleased to see them here. You will doubtless have seen much in the papers

Orford.

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lately about Drunkenness in Oxford. Attention was called to it by the Bishop of London's sermon to undergraduates near the beginning of term, and, ever since, the public mind has been exercised on the matter. In Christ Church, my own College, I am glad to say, there is But in Brasenose, and nothing of the kind visible. among a certain set in Merton, I believe there is a good deal of it. Of Ragging—open and undisguised—there is very little either. A lurid article which appeared in the Daily Mail last summer term on this subject was the result of a hoax organised, in part, by a friend of mine--an Aberdonian at New College. The reporter was treated to d carefully acted rag, then, I regret to say, intoxicated (Q. for Mr. Murison Can you use the verb "intoxicate" in this sense?), rolled up in a blanket, and sent down to the railway station. Next morning—well, those of you who are readers of the Daily Mail can guess what happened! On the other hand, the milder form of ragging, which consists of playing practical jokes on Freshmen, flourishes luxuriantly. A good instance of this, ending in the discomfiture of the joker, happened here a few days ago. A friend of mine, an I.C.S. scholar at Balliol (we will call him, for the sake of argument, Jones, more especially as that is his real name), is living in lodgings, being unable to get into College. One night a man called at his " digs" and asked him if he would join the " Black-letter" Society at Balliol. He said it 's rooms, and met on Saturday evenings at Earl blackened face his with there that each member went with burnt cork. Jones said he had constantly had to admire, since he came up, the kindness of seniors in introducing Freshmen to all the best clubs. He said if there was one thing he liked more than another it was blackening his face. The Balliol man thought he had got hold of a particularly " soft mark " here, and in leaving said—" Well, will you come on Saturday at halfpast seven with your face corked all right?" " Oh, yes," said Jones, and as the man was going out of the door he added—" By the way, do you belong to the Soapsuds Society ? " Talking about clubs and societies suggests to me you might like to hear a little about the sort of thing we have in Oxford corresponding to your own Debating Society. It doesn't seem long ago since I made my maiden speech in that institution. A debate was being held on the in-

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teresting question as to whether it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. My opinion was asked on the grounds that I lived next door to the boarding establishment of a ladies' school, and ought to have plenty of experience. I stood up and made my questioner withdraw his base insinuations. This, however, is merely a digression. In Oxford there is, of course, first the Union, where there is some excellent speaking—and a great deal very inferior. It takes itself very solemnly, as if the fate of the country depended from its utterances; and, indeed, I think there is a superstition among the members who speak a great deal that Government emissaries are in the gallery looking out for a likely man to lead the House of Commons. Undoubtedly the chief bore in the Union is the man who is going in for the Modern History school and drags his miserable historical details into the debate. A fortnight ago, for instance, the question was put to the House— " That the diplomatic isolation of Germany is essential to the peace of Europe." I had come in late, and was sitting pretty far back so that I could not hear all that was said, but I distinctly detected one orator, who spoke from his notes in a low and hurried manner, drag in Charlemagne and Barbarossa, and, " Sir, I ask you, if Frederick the Great had been isolated, could he have seized Silesia? No, sir "—and so on for ten minutes, equally wearisome and off the point. To do him justice, no one listened to him; the hum of conversation was too great for that. Some of the wittiest remarks occur at private business time, when the officials are questioned. One night the junior treasurer, who is a very pompous individual, was asked whether he would have the hands of the clock in the gallery front painted white for the benefit of short-sighted members. "I will whitewash nothing," was his grandiloquent answer. Straightway uprose at the back a small man, and, in a very small voice, asked—" How do you propose to do it? " Apart altogether from the Union there are College clubs, usually with a membership of about twenty. They meet in different men's rooms, the tables always piled with an immense quantity of fruit, etc., at which the members nibble throughout the evening. About an hour is taken to private business and an hour to public; the latter often leads to very good speaking, and is taken quite seriously, but the private business is conducted in the

Oxford.

Votes of censure are most riotous spirit imaginable. always in the air; votes of condolence to the secretary on being yoked with such an insufferable president; votes of congratulation to the treasurer because he does not wear the president's shape of collar, and so on. •

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I am sure that I have said more than enough now, and had better stop. One more remark. The value of Oxford to a man in his career and outlook on life cannot be put down on paper or reduced to an equation. It is a value chiefly of atmosphere--the wonderful effect Oxford has of softening a man's pecularities of mind and outlook and widening his culture and the meaning which he puts into life. Professor Walter Raleigh remarked to me the other day that, in his view, the influence of Oxford lay entirely in its buildings; and I think he is right. It is these that give the feeling of community in one great commonwealth lasting through the ages, in which the great men of England are, many of them, numbered, and in which their spirit still seems to move as of old, as the buildings they looked on and lived in still The tower of Magdalen still dreams over the stand. CheSwell meadows as it did when Addison walked beHere in Christ Church, through old neath its shade. cloisters beneath the Cathedral, one can fancy the ghost of Sir Philip Sidney goes hurrying by, looking back over three hundred years to the high hopes and unfulfilled destinies of England's golden age, and after him Richard Hakluyt and Robert Burton, the mind of the one bound in the confines of a library, that of the other expanding at the thought of the promise of travel and the rich and virgin lands of the West. In the quadrangle in which I myself live, are there not memories of Wesley and Truly, we may Canning and Gladstone and Ruskin? say with St. Paul, that we, at least, are " citizens of no mean city." GEORGE HERBERT MAIR, F.P.

The Grainnurr School Magazine. . ON READING. " Then what is the use of repining, my boys, In this world of folly and pain? But oh, what a different life would I lead, Could I live my life over again!"

Before I went to the Grammar School in October, 1868, young Aberdeen was singing that song of Harry It is the composition of Dr. Edward Payne Clifton. Philpots (31.B., Aberdeen, 1868), now at Bournemouth, who of all graduates of the University has reached farthest north, and after whom Philpots Island, in the Arctic regions, is named. I often think, in the spirit of that song, that if I had my reading to do over again, it would be done in a different way. In those days we all read with such voracity and indiscrimination that nothing came amiss, and I fancy that much time could have been gained to devote to other fields. Not that I regret anything we then read : I only feel pretty strongly that we there and then lacked guiding. None then gave advice, or seemed to think it their place or duty to do so. It may have been all wisely ordered for the best. We had then strange bodily and mental tastes. We were ever ready for some fresh discovery in the way of eatables, and I well recollect how one day an old friend, now a medical man in England, came to school with the important tidings that in a shop window of a baker, the site now occupied by the Public Library, he had seen on a scouting expedition a pennyworth that would for quantity defy competition. They were what were called " Poorhoose Cloddies," and were contracted for by the baker. A crowd of boys soon cleared them out, and here I sit to-night wondering why none of us died on the spot from acute indigestion. And so with the mind : we read to suit its varying tastes. We had all fleeting and weekly desires to be pirates, highwaymen, menagerie-keepers, scouts, or engine-drivers. Buffalo Bill had not then risen to fame, and his place was taken by Seth Jones and his exploits in Beadle's "American Library." With such changing tastes it is little wonder if we could read anything. I have read more penny dreadfuls and Indian tales than any other Aberdonian, and the curious thing is that I seem to have remembered them all through life. I see the leading men of the day have

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21 On Reading. • formed a League for the Suppression of Cigarette Smoking by Juveniles, and I quite support the idea,, only here throwing out the benevolent suggestion that they will go on to confiscate the pipes and cigars of their fathers. Had such a society existed to suppress the penny novels, I fear that I must have gone to prison weekly or have run away to sea. Yet, though I then read Dana's famous story of " Two Years before the Mast," I never had any yearnings for the fo'c'sle, or an ambition to be a midshipman. We may have been saved unconsciously by the eulogy passed by Dr. Beverly in the first class upon a boy of his in the fourth. We were told that boy had shed lustre on the school, and had entered on a path of glory, which, it was He had hoped, we would earnestly strive to follow. gained a bursary from the fourth class. For a week we were overcome and repentant. Then, I remember, a little boy, Charles Sinclair, whose father was librarian of the Mechanics' Institute, came with the intelligence that confirmed us all in the belief that such a high moral tone could not do for us. " Look here," he cried, in a tone of indignation and I see him yet, for Charlie wore a wig, 's through having lost all his hair in a fever, " governor is a pawnbroker! " And we all concurred in denying the obligation to tread the path that led to glory and the bursary competition. After all, I feel pretty convinced that it is impossible to offer advice on reading, for it is frankly a case of sauve qui peat, and every one must be his own guide. What one likes, another will reject. No later than last week I experienced this by mentioning to an old friend, who had been in the first class with us, Sir Henry Yule's splendid edition, in two great volumes, of Marco Polo's travels. He is one of the best read men in Aberdeen, and he said he never was interested in travels or geography. Most people have been fascinated by Dumas' " Monte Cristo" and " The Three Musketeers," and of neither could I ever get The great historian, Thirlwall, through a few pages. said only one book had ever floored him, and I forget if it was the " Gates Ajar" or " The Wide Wide World." I have read them both, so who shall decide what a boy can read? No book that I ever read has left such an impression on me as Mackenzie's " History of Scotland." This excellent book was used in schools before the Grammar School, and I think it was written by the Rev. James

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Mackenzie, F.C. minister at Dunfermline. It has been boiled down in various shapes till it has long passed out of existence, but no more brilliant schoolbook could have been written, and its influence on Scotland has been great and abiding. Some months ago I met one of the leading publishers of the day, and I asked if he knew Mackenzie's little edition, for there was a larger book from which it was reduced, issued, if I remember, by Nelson & Co., and I had it as a prize in the Grammar School in 1869. " Know it? " said he, " here it is, and to my dying day I shall think with satisfaction on that opening chapter of ' unwritten history and how to read it.' " Its nationality was fierce and uncompromising, quite in the vigorous style we seem to have lost in these days by the maundering twaddle of the Scottish Education Department, engineered by fossils and officered by fools who think the national feeling of Scotland ungenteel, and a thing to be replaced by colourless garbage about the Saxon Heptarchy and Henry the Eighth's wives. Dr. Begg used annually to have a field day of debate in the Edinburgh School Board, over the attempts made to oust Mackenzie's History by sentimental Englishmen and renegade Scots for the treatment in the book of Mary, Queen of Scots, and King Charles I. Now the tide has turned, and it is satisfactory to know that Scottish history is to receive great attention from the Department. In our day we had a little book which I have never since seen—White's " History of Scotland" published, if I remember rightly, by Oliver and Boyd. We all thought it very stiff, and, I fear, it was rather dry. " Marmion " was our reading book, but we read it only for derivation and analysis of sentences, so that none of us could have told the difference between a donjon and a palmer. In 1869 we made the acquaintance of Longfellow, a memorable epoch. The sentence was given out for home exercise: " Homeward then went Hiawatha," and we all took it down, "high-water! " Then there was a verse of " The Slave's Dream." Nowadays we should truly estimate a man's judgment and taste in poetry by his exact appreciation of that poet in his strength and in his limitations. I have read him so often since, marking and annotating the margins, that all through those years I seem to have known personally the man Longfellow, and to see that a man is sound mentally and morally who knows his text thoroughly. He has his obvious defects, but no

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On Reading.

singer has in his lyre the peculiar strings and chords that the author of " Evangeline" has. The late Professor Nichol, of Glasgow, has some excellent stanzas to him that all admirers of " the full-toned lyrist with the gentle mind " should know :—

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Fair shrine of pure creations! Linger long Your bright example! May your fame increase! Discord nor distance ever dim your song, Whose ways are pleasantness, whose paths are peace.

I wonder if ('harles Lever is much read now. Some years ago I tried him again, and found him very hard. His animal spirits and his rollicking style may find and keep an audience, but he can hardly stand the test now. But one novel should be in all schools—Charles Reade's " Cloister and the Hearth "—a book doubtless best appreciated by the exact classical and historical scholar, but in its crowded pages there is something for all. I believe the late Rector of the Grammar School, Dr. Moir, used to cry over it; Sir Walter Besant thinks it the finest novel ever written of the kind. What might not be done if such a book—and it can now be had for sixpence—were to be boldly introduced as a text book! Erasmus, Burgundy, the Netherlands, Italy, are all in the book. Do schoolmasters really know their trade? Another book of the same rich and stimulating kind is Kingsley's " Westward Ho! " Sixpence again. That opening scene on the pier of Bideford with Oxenham and Salvation Yeo is the very quintessence of the Elizabethan period, and a generation of history scholars could be reared by the clever teaching of that book. I once lost the good opinion of an old friend, who found that I could never read " Lorna Doone," the story that glorified his old school at Tiverton, but I recovered it by his finding that I knew all about the ports and sailors of Devon in the days of Hawkins, Frobisher, and Sir Francis Drake. I love " John Halifax, Gentleman," and can almost find it in my heart to forgive its author for having written "Rothesay Bay" (though the song has one excellent stanza about Arran and its grey peaks) and caused the consequent degradation of the place, from which the fleet of poor old Scotland set sail to Darien, through the howlings and the vulgar high-jinks of the Glasgow tripper. The book may not stand two readings or mature reflection, but read once, and at the right time, it will be found to leave an indelible impression. " The Pilgrim's Pro-

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gress" and " Robinson Crusoe" I never read till I was a Tertian, and in Scotland generally both of them are not so well known as they ought to be. The first should be daily read in schools, though it has one surprisingly naughty word from its archaic English style. Christian found the lock in Doubting Castle go " damnable hard ! " But banish far away that parent of all prigs, superior boys, and the impressive moralist, the story of the man who was never floored, whose knowledge was never at fault—" The Swiss Family Robinson." How have the mighty fallen, and "The Arabian Nights" dropped out of recognition! Once upon a time no book was better known, and a reference to it was Few now have read the complete picked up at once. Aladdin and Sinbad. But it is a great book, with a great history, and demands serious reading, in big editions with a commentary. " Don Quixote ' is quite beyond a boy's comprehension, and it should be left till late in life. It is Spain's one book, one of the great books of the world---the nation and its history condensed in one. All cut-down and abbreviated editions should be avoided, as all great and famous books, as Thomas a Kempis says ' in his own very great book, " The Imitation of Christ," should be read like Scripture, in the spirit in which it was written. I see a distinguished English scientist has been saying at the recent Cervantes celebrations that he read " Don Quixote " with delight at nine, and never read it since! That is not the sort of reader for whom the great Spanish writer wrote, and I fancy he would have thought little of the remark. He had read it, no doubt, as a funny book in a small edition, and did not appreciate the great scaffolding to be run up ere one can venture on the finest contribution by Spain to the thinking of the world. It is the fashion, I fear, to scoff at " Uncle Tom's Cabin," but the book that shook America and Europe in countless translations can at least not be neglected by the judicious reader. One reading will do, as the literary workmanship is very poor, and Longfellow's " Quadroon Girl" and She dwells by green Kenhawa's side" are worth all the once-famous novel. Still, there are excellent scenes in it. If the reader remembers the death of Augustine St. Clare, and the verses quoted from the " Dies Irm," he will be repaid by learning all that great Latin hymn by heart. At school we thought " The Last

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On Reading.

Days of Pompeii " a fine thing, but we should now think it not worth reading. We began it from finding an extract from it, on the pine branch cloud rising over Vesuvius, in our reading book. I am sure that a mistake was made in our time by introducing Collier's Histories of Greece and Rome instead of the three-and-sixpenny manuals by Dr. Smith previously in use. Collier was excellent, but it is a fundamental error in education to think that boys are impressed by easy books. The very reverse is the case, and there is such a spirit of inquisitiveness about them that keen observers have long known that it is the big book, if it is masterly, that arouses attention and interest. But with the admirable "Epoch Series" of Ancient and Modern History there can be no loss in time, and the whole set could be worked over. The Ancient is not so well done as the Modern, where Gardiner's " Thirty Years' War" and Seebohm's " Protestant Revolution " could be as go ul as novels to boys in the hands of an enthusiastic and skilful teacher. Pillan's " Classical Geography " was a real treasure, and still could be introduced with pleasure and profit. Of Hannibal, why speak? So long as Latin prose and the History of Rome maintain their just and premier place in education, the figure of the mighty Carthaginian, one of the very few men that have really altered the face of the world, can never fade. In travels and voyages it would be hard to beat Anson's " Voyage." Carlyle has eulogised the book as one of the great world-epics. I fancy now it can be read in many cheap reprints, but in those days there was nothing but the big quarto with the charts. The book is beyond all praise, and the chapter with the voyage of the Acapulco galleon between Mexico and Manilla is a triumph of adventure. All Prescott's books on Peru and Mexico, together with Washington Irving's " Columbus," should be read. If a boy wants sea books, he can turn on the advice of the great historian Freeman to Marryat's " Peter Simple" and " Midshipman Easy," and thereto he can add Michael Scott's " Cruise of the Midge" and " Tom Cringle's Log." About beasts and wild animals he will find all he wants in White's " Natural History of . Selborne" and Waterton's " Wanderings." One book more—Thomson's " Land and the Book." Why has that excellent work never been converted by extracts into a text book for schools? It is no doubt a

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large work, but it can be tackled best in the full editions. I think the late Professor Bain says somewhere that all he ever knew of travel in the East was derived from That is rather a Robinson's "Biblical Researches." severe piece of reading, and for the general mind nothing can displace Thomson's standard volume. Of geography boys cannot know too much, but it should be rational knowledge, and not the names of petty rivers and capes. I remember some years ago meeting an old friend of mine, who came up to me in a very excited state. " Where is Prawl Point? " he cried. His pupils had been sitting some local examination in Marischal College, he had seen the paper, and was in misery lest some of them should meet him and ask the question, and so he should fall in their estimation. He was certain I would know, but I hereby glory in the declaration that I did not know the whereabouts of that trumpery English headland, that I do not wish to know, and that the man that set such a foolish question was an ignoramus not fit to teach boys, and quite certainly was one that never knew the difference of a schooner from a handspike. Prawl Point, forsooth ! At that age boys should be able to know their way about in the interior of China, competent to go down the Amazon with the successors of Columbus, or get wrecked with Byron's grandfather, in the " Wager," off Chiloe. Prawl Point can be left to trawlers, but the real geography should aim at higher knowledge. But, if Art is long, Life is fleeting, and the bursary competition is ever with us. Much of the Aberdonian's scanty stock of knowledge and reading is due to that bugbear. Still, I am thoroughly convinced that much could be (lone if every opportunity were wisely and promptly seized, and turned to immediate use by naming the books to be read as the points come up. Every school could be out-classed, out-distanced, and out-manoeuvred if the tide of interest in the ordinary school-work rose high, and, with the right boys and the right books, I feel persuaded that it could rise to a flood that would bear the school on to a height never dreamed of yet. Let us remember one thing at least: We are an old school, perhaps the very oldest in Scotland, and, with the exception of the High School of Edinburgh, no other can eclipse our record in Scottish history. The quatercentenary of the University is to be held next year. Is it too much to suggest that the Grammar School should

On. Reading.

seize the occasion for holding at the same time its own sex-centenary of existence? King's College is young to us ; Marischal College but an infant in arms. We rank long before them, and everything that conduces to the welfare and prestige of the School should be considered. Why have we no History of the School, no Register of Names? It is very obvious, painfully so to some of us at times, that the School Board is not the fitting means of administration for us, and that some alteration should be introduced. I was very pleased to see my old schoolfellow for we were at Silver Street Academy before 1868—the Rev. James Smith, make some very pertinent remarks on the School and its prospects at the last Prize Day. I trust at next election the electors will call upon him to be Chairman of the School Board, for he has excellent gifts of administration, and recent University matters have shown him to be thoroughly in touch with teachers and education. Were he to organise an Advisory Committee of Old Boys—men who really do know about books, education, life, and the School—by which the Board could secure the best advice, free from the ignorant declamations of theorists and ignoramuses, he would confer on the public a real service. The School has a great heritage in the past, and it could be largely extended in the future. WM. KEITH LEASK. THE MUSEUM. Mn. W. Jackson, bookbinder, has presented the School with an interesting collection of shells and cartridges from the late war, in Natal, consisting of five British 15-lb. shells, Hotchkiss shell, fragment of the "Long Tom" shell fired into Ladysmith, Mouser cartridge clips (two of them "poisoned "), dum-dum bullets, Maxim bullets, and four pom-pom shells ; the whole handsomely mounted on a teakwood stand. A valuable collection from Ceylon has also been received from Andrew Campbell, F.P., including vases, knife, etc., of native manufacture; specimens of shells, woods, minerals, and pebbles; a boar's skull complete, articles made by the Boer prisoners, coins, etc. We hope that others, friends and F.P.'s, will remember us, and prove equally generous.

The Grammar School Magazine.

SCHOOL V. MONALTR1E.—On an intensely hot day the School journeyed to Ballater on 24th June to play of£ this fixture. Ballater had first lease of the wickets, but against the fine bowling of Rae and Semple they were all dismissed for 35. After the fall of the third wicket the home team collapsed completely, and, had it not been for C. Young (18 not out) and Leith (9), their score would not even have got into double figures. For the School, Semple bowled very well, and took seven wickets for 15 runs, while Rae, who had three wickets for 16 runs, bowled better than his figures seem to indicate. The School on going in fared little better, for the first few men were got rid of so cheaply that when the sixth wicket When Munro fell only 21 runs had been registered. joined Giles, however, an effectual resistance was made to the bowling, and, at the fall of the seventh wicket, the score had mounted to 51. By a little lively hitting on the part of the last few men, the score ultimately reached 75. Giles, with 27, and Munro, with 19, were the highest scorers for the School. Great praise is due to both Giles and Munro for the stubborn way they faced the bowling and got runs at the time they were most needed. Of the seven bowlers tried by Ballater, Young, with four wickets, was the most successful. SCHOOL V. ELLoN.—On a rather dull day. the School travelled to Ellon on 2nd September to play a match against the Ellon. club. Wishart lost the toss, and the Ellon captain elected to field. Giles and Milne started

Cricket Notes.

the School innings, but a " rot " set in right away. With the exception of Giles and Kelman, no one stayed any time at the wickets, and the score only reached 36. The School batting, as a whole, was extremely weak, all the XI. seeming to be very badly out of practice. Giles and Kelman made an effort to save the School from total collapse, but the rest of the team could do nothing. Giles, with 19, and Kelman, with 6, were top-scorers for the School. Pixie was the most successful Ellon bowler. Ellon had an easy task set them to win, but, with the exception of Fraser (31), none of them played the School bowling with any degree of confidence. The Ellon score was 60. To a certain extent the School made up for the poor batting display by their brilliant fielding, Gilbert, in particular, bringing off a magnificent onehanded catch at second-slip. Wishart was much the best School bowler, and took five wickets for 16 runs. Munro also bowled well, and took two wickets for 23 runs, while Finlayson had one wicket for 9 runs and Milne one for 10. The past season, though hardly meriting the title of a record one, has yet been a most successful one for the XI. The most of the matches were won, and it is a long time since the number of wins has been on the right side. The extremely keen fielding had a lot to do with the winning of many of the matches, and for this the team was greatly indebted to F. M. Rae, the captain, who, from the very beginning of the season, set himself strenuously to work to improve this most important branch of the game. It is unnecessary to say that he succeeded. This year we are happy to record a win over the 'Shire, a victory which we have not had the pleasure of chronicling for many years. Giles, this year, stands out prominently as the best bat in the School. His batting, though inconsistent at times, was yet very brilliant, and he possessed the happy knack of getting runs when they were most wanted. Gilbert and Peterkin were, as a rule, the steadiest players, but in an uphill game no one played so well as Rae. Rae, Wishart, Munro, and Semple carry off the bowling honours, and of the four Rae exhibited the most consistent form. Summary of matches of last season : — Won, 6; Iost, 5; not played, 1; drawn, 1.

The Grammar School Magazine. BATTING AVERAGES. Times No. of Innings. Not Out.

9 7 10 9 9 8 10 10 ' 7 10 7 5 10

J. S. Giles - W. L. Gilbert C. D. Peterkin H. J. Milne - G. A. Munro J. R. Murray F. M. Rae R. Semple - A. G. Stewart A J. Kelman - 4 F. Wishart V. Walker G. F. Cox -

Total No. Runs.

Highest Score.

130 48 73 45 43 38 39 27 18 20 10 5 13

38 29 14 19* 19 23 10 7* 10 6 6* 4 5*

14.4 9.6 7'3 5.6 4.77 4.75 3.9 3.3 2'5

0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 1

Average.

‘2)} 1.6 1.4

*Signifies not out.

BOWLING AVERAGES. °vers.'

F. M. Rae - 95.6 F. Wishart 81.1 G. A Munro 23.3 R. Semple - 44.6

Maiden Overs.

Runs.

Wickets.

Balls.

Average.

23 26 5 9

194 171 57 107

34 28 6 10

574 487 140 268

5.7 6.1 9.5 10.7

SWIMMING CLUB. The meeting for the election of the Swimming Club officials was held in Room I. on Wednesday, 11th October. The Rector presided, and read the statement of accounts of last session. After a few words on the usefulness of swimming, the Rector proceeded with the election. The results of the election were as follows :— Captain Vice-Captain Secretary and 'I reaeurer

A. WiLsoN. D. APII. SEMPLE. J. G. BISSET.

Committee— C. S. LAWRENCE, J. V. LORIMER, W. PETERS, W. WILLIAMSON, F. WISHART.

A vote of thanks to the Rector for presiding terminated the proceedings.

Football Notes.

SCIIOOL V. 2ND NOMADS.—After very little practice, owing to the Sports being so late, the School met the 2nd Nomads on the 21st October. The Nomads turned up with a very strong team, including some of their 1st men. After the kick-off, the School pressed, and Anderson almost scored ; but a sudden change came over the game, for the Nomads scored three tries in quick succession. This disheartened the School, and, for the rest of the first half, they had to defend their line. The second half was a repetition of the first half, and the game ended : —2nd Nomads, 23 points (1 goal 6 tries) ; School, nil. In this match the School did not work well together, although, individually, they were very good. Giles played magnificently at back, but the back division, as a whole, was woefully weak and ineffective. SCHOOL V. 2ND 'SHIRE.-In fine weather the School turned up to play this match. We were almost at full strength, and the 2nd 'Shire seemed to look forward to this game, for they turned up with eighteen men. In the first half the School gave an exhibition of fine passing, although it was rather slow. Milne, Anderson, Murray, and Kelman had fine runs, but' score the School could not. It was hard lines, after pressing the whole half, to see one of the 'Shire, just as the whistle was about to blow, intercepting a pass and scoring. The try was not converted, and the 'Shire were in this way three

The Grammar School Magazine.

points up. In the second half the School again pressed, a free and about the middle of the half we were awarded the received Wishart .goal-post. the under kick, just in 'Shire the kept kick, but muddled. The School still Kelman time, from minutes ten about their own half, and, managed to score. Milne took the kick, and just missed the goal by inches. No further scoring took place. The School forwards played exceedingly well, but the backs were again weak, being far too slow in seizing an opportunity to score, many of which were given to them. The game thus ended in a draw : —School, 3 points (1 try); 2nd 'Shire, 3 points (1 try). Mr. Ogston acted as referee. SCHOOL v. 2ND XV.—To give the School a little practice in combination before the Gordon's match, we played The a match with the 2nd XV. on 1st November. School played down the first half, and began to press Kelman opened the scoring, and was right away. quickly followed by Milne and Murray. Wishart added a fourth try, and was followed by Anderson with a fifth. From the kick-off, the 2nd XV. came away with a rush, and, from a scramble at our line, Fyvie got over. This was all the scoring in the first half, which ended : 1st XV., 23 points; 2nd XV., 3 points. In the second half the School three-quarters gave an exhibition of exquisite In this half the passing, and did most of the scoring. Kelman (2), (3), _Milne were: scorers for the School MacGavin (2), Anderson (1), Macleod (1), and Murray (1). The scores at full time were: School, 59 points (5 goals, 1 drop goal, 1 penalty goal, 9 tries); 2nd XV., 3 points (1 try). The 1st XV. combined excellently, and the 2nd XV., though out-manoeuvred at every point, played up pluckily, and never lost heart. a SCHOOL V. GORDON'S COLLEGE.-After raining for whole week, the weather cleared on Saturday morning, 4th November, and enabled us to fulfil this fixture, but the pitch was in an awful condition. Of the three games, it was arranged between the two captains to make this the friendly. Both teams were at full strength. In the first half the School played towards Westfield School, and pressed for the first ten minutes. Then Ogston cleared for Gordon's, taking the ball up to our twenty-five. The game after this became very fast, first one side pressing Anderson, Wishart, and Gerrard and then the other. were conspicuous on the School side. When half-time arrived, there was no scoring. At the beginning of the

Football Notes.

second half the School played brilliantly, and confined Wishart and Butchart Gordon's to their twenty-five. ended in the School almost which had a fine dribble, scoring, but Johnstone cleared for Gordon's. Then Massie was given offside, and Milne received the kick, which he converted by a magnificent drop-kick from about thirty yards out. This seemed to rouse Gordon's, who pressed, but Kelman cleared, finding touch far up the field. Then followed some mid-field play, Gordon's trying all they could to score, but Giles always came to the rescue. The game thus ended in a win for the School : School, 3 points (1 penalty goal); Gordon's College, nil. The Grammar forwards played a magnificent game, and, if it is fair to particularise anyone, Macrae, Wishart, Gerrard, and Butcloirt were best. The halves were good, Murray being a very hard worker. The three-quarters were much improved, and Giles, at back, was safe. Mr. Cruickshank proved himself to be a very able referee. ScnooL v. INvEaunm.--This match, which was to have been played at Inverurie on 11th November, had to be declared off, as the ground at Inverurie was unplayable. CLASSICAL v. )JODERN.----This match was played at School on 15th November, and ended in a big win for the Classical team. The Classicals kicked off, and, through good forward play, soon got up to the Modern line. Kelman started the scoring, and was followed by Lawrence and Murray. With 11 points against them, the Moderns wakened up, and made a rush down into the Classical twenty-five. They were quickly driven back, however, and Milne, and, afterwards, Lawrence, scored for the Classicals. Half-time arrived with the score In the second half Classical, 17 points; Modern, nil. the Classicals were all over the Modern team, and increased their score to 38 points, while the Moderns scored once through Bisset. Giles, Kelman, Milne (2), Murray, and Lawrence scored for the Classical XV. in the second half. The game ended with play in the Modern half, the scores at full time being : Classicals, 38 points (2 goals 10 tries); Moderns, 3 points (1 try). The Classical forwards scrummed their opponents as they pleased, and the back division was much superior to that of the Moderns. SCHOOL V. 2ND QUEEN'S CROSS.-Our fixture with the 2nd Queen's Cross was played off on the 18th November at the School. The School were without five of their

The Grammar School Magazine.

usual fifteen. The ground was frost-bound, and, if it had not been that both teams were light and eager for the game, the match would have been put off. The Queen's Cross at first pressed the School, but were not at all dangerous, and Milne, by finding touch with a long kick, transferred play to the other twenty-five. There Murray got the ball out of the scrum and scored smartly. He himself took the kick, and converted it. This seemed to rouse the Queen's Cross, and they at once pressed the School, and Johnston managed to scramble over the line for them. The try was not converted. The School then pressed, and Stewart got over, but the ball slipped out of his hands. The second half was the same as the first, the School having the best of it, but the ground was so hard and slippery that we could not score, although Bisset got over, and, for the second time in the match, the ball slipped out of one of our XV.'s hands. The game thus ended in a win for the School: School, 5 points (1 goal) ; 2nd Queen's Cross, 3 points (1 try). SCHOOL V. GORDON'S COLLEGE 2ND F.P.'s. The School always looks forward to a match with any team connected with Gordon's College. We turned up, therefore, with a strong team, although Anderson, Murray, and Johnston were absent. As soon as the match began, the School showed their superiority, and confined the Gordon's F.P.'s to their own twenty-five; but the ground was so muddy at this end that we could not keep our feet to score. Gerrard and Macleod had good tries, but both were tackled on the line. Then Milne caught the ball from a throw-out from touch and scored. Giles converted this kick, the only one which was converted during the match. Having the advantage of the wind in the second half, the School had it all their own way. Wishart was the first to score, from a touch. Soon after we received a free kick, and Wishart converted it. Next, Kelman scored four times in succession. The F.P.'s by this time were thoroughly disheartened, and put no life into their game. Giles was the next to score, running through the whole team and scoring. Just on the call of time, Stewart, who had some very clever runs during the match, scored. The game thus ended in a fine victory for the School: School, 29 points (1 goal, 1 penalty goal, 7 tries) ; Gordon's College 2nd F.P.'s, nil. Mr. Ogston acted as referee. By this it is clearly seen that the School has settled

Football Notes.

down, and has, so far, the best record for years, having This is mainly lost one, drawn one, and won three. owing to the energy of Wishart in bringing out the team to practise. J. K. 2ND XV. FIXTURES. 2ND SCHOOL V. 2ND GORDON'S COLLEGE.—Ill ideal football weather this match was played off at the School on Immediately after the kick-off the 28th November. School began to press, and soon scored, through Walker. The drop-out brought no relief to Gordon's, and soon after Robson scored. Robson himself took the kick, and converted. The School still kept Gordon's penned up in their own half, and, just before half-time, Copland scored. Robson converted. The scores at half-time were : —School, 13 points ; Gordon's College, nil. In the second half the School kept Gordon's pretty much in their own twentyfive, and increased their lead by 16 points. Bisset was the first to score, and MacGavin converted the try. Shortly afterwards, Walker ran through the whole team and added another try. Bisset again scored, after a good run ; and, shortly before time, Lillie scored a good try. MacGavin converted with an excellent kick. For the last few minutes the School pressed hard, but failed to get over again. The scores at full time were : —School, 29 points (4 goals 3 tries) ; Gordon's College, nil. I. Stewart, at forward, Bisset and Copland, at three-quarters, and J. Stewart, at full-back, perhaps played best ; although Adam and Fyvie, at half, combined excellently with the threequarters. 2ND SCHOOL V. 3RD 'SHIRE.—This match, which ought to have been played on 11th November, had to be declared off owing to rain. 3RD XV. FIXTURES. 3RD SCHOOL V. 3RD GORDON'S COLLEGE.—This match was played at School on 18th November on a frost-bound pitch. The School played up the first half, and play was fairly equal, the School, if anything, having the most of it. At half-time there was no scoring. In the second half, however, the School only once let Gordon's out of their own half, and scored first through Marshall. Williamson converted. About ten minutes from time,

The Grammar School Magazine.

Ghee scored three tries in succession, the first of which he converted. The game ended : —School, 16 points (2 goals 2 tries); Gordon's College, nil. Amongst the forwards, Ghee played a dashing game, and, with a little more knowledge of Rugby, ought to develop into an excellent player. Duncan, at full-back, was safe, and MacIntosh and Reid played well at half. FOOTBALL OFFICIALS, 1905-06. Secretary.

Captain.

Classical VII. & VI. Classical V. Classical IV. Classicai III. Modern VI. & V. Modern IV. Modern II1. (A & B) Middle II. A Middle II. B Middle I. Lower IV.

R. T. Seivwrighi. 1). H. Halliday. H. T. Sorley. R. I). Lawrence. A. T. Adam. J D. MacGavin. A. Davidson. W. Bannochie. H. Potter. P. Potter K. Robson.

J. Clarke. C. Reid. W. Mackintosh. J. Mackintosh. .1. G. Bisset. 1). C. Duncan. J. E. Law. A. Gordon. T. O. Robson. G. Sutherland. P. Gray.

THE ATHLETIC SPORTS. THE Annual Athletic Sports were held on Friday and Saturday, 29th and 30th September. The weather on both days was bitterly cold, with showers at intervals, and, from a spectator's point of view, most unpropitious. As usual, the Trial Heats and Jumping took place on the Friday, and the Finals on Saturday. On the first day, the only events of importance were the Open High Jump and the Open Broad J ump, the former being won by J. S. Giles, the latter by Kelman. One o'clock on Saturday came round, and, with it, the Oakbank Band, which gave the proceedings a lively aspect throughout the afternoon. At the outset, some diffiThe culty with regard to the pistol was experienced. weapon refused to go off when wanted, and went of£ when not wanted. It was no unusual thing to hear the report just as the competitors were entering on the last lap of their race. But such little inconveniences are easily put right, and the Sports proceeded under a different method of starting. Despite the inclement weather, we were delighted to see a large turn-out of spectators, amongst whom were: Rev. J. Maxwell Wright, Rev. R. Semple, Rev.

The Athletic Sports.

J. Smith, Dr. Selbie, Mr. J. Craigen, Mr. Finlayson, and a large number of the staff. The ladies also turned out in force, and all appeared to take a lively interest in the proceedings. During the afternoon displays were given by a team of gymnasts from the Aberdeen Gymnastic and Rowing Club, under Instructor Josephs. The Refreshment Tent was, as usual, set up behind the wire, and was well patronised. We were glad to see that the annoyance caused last year by its being set up too close to the wire was done away with, for this year it was set well back from the ropes. It is not often that we have to record an accident at our Sports. This year, however, G. A. Munro, whilst engaging in the Open High Jump, fell and broke his arm at the wrist. The accident proved to be more serious than was at first thought, and, after getting it temporarily dressed by Dr. Croll, Munro was taken to the Infirmary in a cab. W e are glad to see, however, that he is getting on all right, and hope to see him quite fit again soon. In the Open Events Kelman carried everything before him, while in Class II. Finlayson eclipsed all the other competitors. The Mile, this year, was won by Anderson, who kept up a good pace throughout. In the Tug-of-war, the VII. gained the first two pulls in about three minutes, and pulled the School with ease. The F.P. 100 Yards was won by H. G. M. Wilson in the excellent time of 11 seconds. Several of the spectators have desired us to thank those few officious individuals, not on the Games and Sports Committee, who added such a charming and enlivening aspect to the course by showing off their mannish forms thereon. Mr. Charles Davidson (F.P.) acted as referee, Mr. J. C. Knox and Mr. A. Speirs as judges, Mr. J. Clarke as time-keeper, and Mr. Josephs as starter. We owe our best thanks to Mr. James Davidson, who, as lion. Secretary of the Games and Sports Committee, carried out in such an able and efficient manner all the arrangements connected with the Sports. A list of the prize-winners and prize-donors is subjoined : PRIZE-WINNERS. Class VI. (under 7).--G. C. Grant, 1st (equal) 80 Yards; J. H. Peters, 1st (equal) 80 Yards. Under 8.--W. J. Johnston, 2nd (equal) 100 Yards ; J. M`Leod, 2nd (equal) 100 Yards; W. W. Scott, 1st 100 Yards (15 three-fifth seconds).

The Grammar School Magazine.

Class V. (under 10).—A. H. P. Ferguson, 3rd High Jump ; R. G., Nicol, 3rd 100 Yards •' C. Saunders, 3rd 300 Yards; N. K. Robson, 2nd High Jump, 3rd Sack Race ; M. Wright, 2nd 100 Yards, 300 Yards; J. S. Ross, 1st High Jump (4 feet 8 inches), 100 Yards (13 one-fifth seconds), 300 Yards (51 two-fifth seconds). Class IV. (under 12).—W. R.. Wyllie, 2nd 300 Yards, 3rd 100 Yards; D. Laing, 1st Sack Race; J. Bannochie, 1st (equal) High Jump (3 feet 6 inches), 2nd 100 Yards ; D. M. Bisset, 1st (equal) High Jump (3 feet 6 inches), 2nd Sack Race, 3rd 300 Yards ; A. P. Gray, 1st 100 Yards, 300 Yards (51 three-fifth seconds). Class III. (under 14).—G. Davidson, 3rd Sack Race; W. Griffith, 3rd 300 Yards; R. R. Cook, 2nd (equal) High Jump; A. Ledingham, 2nd Sack Race; W. Mackintosh, 2nd (equal) High Jump, 3rd Obstacle Race; A. M. Chalmers, 2nd High Jump, 100 Yards, 300 Yards; J. Wilson, 1st Hurdle Race (17 threefifth seconds), Sack Race, 2nd Obstacle Race, 3rd Broad Jump ; W. Bannochie, 1st High Jump (4 feet inches), 100 Yards 2 inches), Broad Jump (12 feet (14 seconds); K. A. M. Tomory, 1st Half-Mile (2 minutes 56 seconds), 300 Yards (46 seconds), Obstacle Race, 2nd Hurdle Race, 3rd 100 Yards. Class II. (under 16).--J. G. Brown, 3rd Half-Mile, 3rd (equal) Three-legged Race (Open); E. W. Fenton, 2nd Broad Jump; G. M. Johnston, 2nd Half-Mile; S. S. Stewart, 2nd Hurdle Race, 3rd High Jump; J. Simpson, 1st High Jump (4 feet 7 inches); J. E. Law, 2nd (equal) 100 Yards, 3rd Broad Jump, Hurdle Race, 3rd (equal) Three-legged Race (Open); W. G. Walker, 1st (equal) Tilting the Bucket (Open), 2nd High Jump; I. A. Clarke, 1st (equal) Sword Feats (Open), 3rd Quarter-Mile; E. Main, 1st Half-Mile (2 minutes 37 seconds), 2nd Quarter-Mile, 2nd (equal) 100 Yards; H. T. Finlay-son, 1st Broad Jump (16 feet 1 inch), Hurdle Race (15 four-fifth seconds), 100 Yards, Quarter-Mile (62 four-fifth seconds), 2nd Throwing Cricket Ball (Open), 100 Yards (Open), 3rd Obstacle Race (Open). OPEN. R. E. Butchart--3rd (equal) Three-legged Race. R. Lyon-3rd (equal) Tilting the Bucket.

The Athletic Sports.

J. M. Reid--3rd Sword Feats. W. Gilbert-1st (equal) Tilting the Bucket. . I. Bisset--2nd Obstacle Race. A. T. Adam-2nd Broad J.ump. . J. Ewing 2nd Throwing the Hammer. B. Saunders-1st Three-legged Race. W. MacGavin 1st (equal) Tilting the Bucket, 3rd Drop Kick, 3rd (equal). Three-legged Race.. . A. Wilson-1st' (equal) Sword Feats, 3rd (equal) Tilting the Bucket. J. R. Murray-1st Drop Kick. C. Reid -1st Obstacle Race, Three-legged Race. F. Wishart-1st Throwing the Cricket Ball (71 yards. 1 one-third feet), 2nd Drop Kick. J. S. Giles---1st High Jump (4 feet 8 inches), 2nd HalfMile, Three-legged Race. H. Duncan 1st Putting the Weight (26 feet 4 inches),. Throwing the Hammer (65 feet 9 inches). A. Anderson —1st Half-Mile (2 minutes 371 seconds), Mile (6 minutes 18 four-fifth seconds), 2nd Quarter-Mile, 1st (equal) Tilting the Bucket. T. Kelman --1st Broad Jump (14 feet 8,1- inches), Hurdle Race, Quarter-Mile (61 four-fifth seconds), 100 Yards (11 one-fifth seconds), 2nd Three-legged Race. TITG-0F-WAR. VII v. School.--Won by VII. FORMER PUPILS. RACE. H. G. M. Wilson-1st 100 Yards (11 seconds). PRIZE-DONORS.

Miss Adam, Mr. A. Allan, Mr. P. G. Allan, Miss Anderson, Mr. John Beaton, Sheriff Henderson Begg, Mr. J. Bell, Rev. A. Billing-ton, Mr. A. J. Brander, Mr. J. Brown, Mr. Wm. Brownie, Mr. T. P. Cameron, Mr. J. Younger Collie, Mr. James Conner, Mr. C. Davidson, Miss E. Davidson, Mr. H. Davidson, Miss J. B. T. Davidson, Mr. J. Davidson, Mr. C. Duncan, Mr. P. Edward, Mrs. Ferguson, Master Finlay Finlayson, Mr. T. Fotheringham, Mr. and Mrs. Grant, Mr. J. A. Hadden, Mr. II. A. Holmes, Mrs. Hyslop, Professor Tapp, Mrs. Kelly, Dr. and Mrs. Kevt, Mr. J. C. Knox, Master D. Laing, Miss Ledinghani. Mr. A. Ledingham, Mrs. Mliain, Mr. J.

The Grammar School Magazine.

M'Bain, Miss Mackie, Mr. M. H. Mackie, Mr. W. Mackie, Mrs. Maitland, Mr. C. Mann, Miss Maydon, Mr. J. M'Kenzie, Rev. J. M. McLuckie, Dr. C. M`Leod, Mr. A. Meffet, Mr. G. Middleton, Mr. J. M. Morrison, Mr. W. Murison, Mr. J. Murray, Mrs. Nicol, Mr. J. S. Peters, Mr. S. Pope, Mr. W. Reid, Mr. W. P. Robertson, Mrs. Robson, Mr. B. Saunders, 1)r. Scholle, Dr. Selbie, Mr. and Mrs. II. F. Morland Simpson, Mr. A. Speirs, Mr. .1. T. Sorley, Mr. James Spence, Mr. J. Stewart, Rev. J. I. Still, Mrs. Tait, Dr. A. Walker, Mr. L. Wilson, Mr. W. W. Wyllie.

TIIE LIBRARY (LENDING). Tux position which the Librarians hold this year is a merely nominal one, for, on account of the alterations to the School buildings, the Library will not be opened this session. Instead, therefore, of boring our readers with a complaint of poor membership, we gratefully beg to acknowledge the donation of twelve volumes by James Rae, Esq., M.A. (F.P.). " Midshipman Easy," " The Poacher," " Newton Forster," " Frank Alildmay, ' " Poor Jack," and " Japhet in search of a Father "- --all by Captain Marryat ; " Peter the Whaler," by Kingston; and, by Dumas— " Queen's Necklace," " Twenty Years After," " The Son of Porthos," " Marguerite de✓ Valois," and " Chicot the Jester " make up the donation. We also beg to acknowledge with thanks the presentation by Wm. Keith Leask, Esq., (F.P.), of " The Lion of the North," by Henty.

Debater Notes.

OVIRREIIIRIMIKUNIEBENIPIIMIRAWAINIERNIBIENELl'AIN

momisATzEt"

Tzs

'I'IIE General Meeting for the election of the Society's officials was held in Room I. ---Mr. Murison, Hon. PresiThe results of the election will be dent, presiding. found on the School Officials' page. Friday, October 6.--On this evening the season was opened by Professor J. Arthur Thomson with a lecture— " Some Bird Stories." The Rector presided over a wellattended meeting. The Professor divided his lecture into two parts. The first part consisted of a series of anecdotes about birds, and the second, of a number of excelThe lecturer lent lime-light illustrations of bird-life. was well attended to by his hearers, and often caused great amusement. In concluding, the Professor said he hoped that his lecture would influence some of his hearers to study birds. On the motion of the Rector, a hearty -vote of thanks was accorded the Professor, and a similar compliment was paid the Rector, on the motion of R. M. Porter. Friday, October 13.--The Society met on this evening in Room I. -the President in the chair. The business for the evening was the debate—" Is Modern Civilization The affirmative side was supported by -a Failure? " R. T. Seivwright, while W. P. Selbie took the negative side. Seivwright, in the course of his paper, said that there was a great deal of sham about modern society, and that people nowadays cared less for the simple beauties of nature than for the garish life of the city. Selbie's chief argument was that in days gone bye people were much less careful of their fellows than they are now. He contrasted slow-progressing Russia with enterprising Japan. Only A. M. Macleod spoke when the debate was

The Grammar School Maga:inc.

thrown open to the Society. The vote resulted : —Aff., 11; Neg., 18. While paper was being prepared for a " Hat Night," R. T. Seivwright delivered a few remarks on " Mesmerism." The chief speakers in the debates were W. P. Selbie, A. M. Macleod, R. T. Seivwright, and H. .1. Milne. Friday, October 20.--The business for this evening was "Impromptu Debates." The President occupied the. chair. The members had not turned up in large numbers, and, at first, they seemed to be very bashful. After a little, however, they began to find their feet, and entered into the debates with some show of zeal. The most interesting debate of the evening was proposed by Watson._ It ran something like this: A captain, an old lady, a man in the prime of life, and a young girl were left on the deck of a wrecked vessel. The question was :----" To• whom should the single remaining life-belt be given? " This was well discussed, and, in the end, it was agreed that the young lady should be given it. Another debate, proposed was : —" Is a Limited Monarchy the best form of Government?" This was spoken on by only four or five members. A "Rat Night" which was proposed seemed to arouse little interest. Friday, October 27. Since the F.P.'s were having a Concert in the School Hall on this date, the Society held no meeting. Friday, November - On this evening the Society met in Room I. F. Wishart in the chair. The business for the evening was the debate: " Was the Roman System of Colonization better than our own? " Former, R. M.. Porter; Latter, A. M. Macleod. Porter gave a sketch of the growth of the Roman colonies, and pointed out the advantages this system possessed over ours. Macleod, in his paper, said that Rome made her colonies a source of revenue, while Britain aims at uniting her colonies to herself in a bond of sisterhood. W. P. Selbie and R. T.. Seivwright were the chief speakers when the debate was thrown open to the Society. The vote resulted in a win for the " Latter " side. A " Hat Night " which was proposed and accepted did not produce many good debates. That ever-fruitful debate--" Are Ghosts Real or Imaginary ? "- --cropped up, and, for the rest of the evening, the Society was entertained to a series of blood-curdling. stories.

Debater Notes.

43.

Friday, November 10. -- -On this evening the Society met in Room I., in order to hold " Heckling Night." The candidates for the F. Wishart was in the chair. T. Seivwright and Ward—R. Woodside wards were : —For G. F. Cox; for St. Clement's Ward—R. M. Porter and speech W. Peters. Seivwright had scarcely begun his enthusiastic the to owing retire, to obliged was he when demonstrations of his supporters. Cox was then called on to deliver his views to the electors until Seivwright Cox's reforms were few but should have recovered. the unemployed work by give urgent. He proposed to houses. Seivwright then old down pull to them setting resumed his interrupted speech, and, after dealing with every possible point, as he imagined, on which the elector could be doubtful, he awaited questions. These were of very varied description, ranging from the Corporation When Lodging House to the signing of the pledge. to forward came Cox answered, they appeared to be all easily, escaped however, Ile, process. same the undergo and the vote which was then taken resulted in a win for Seivwright by four votes. Peters, the first candidate for St. Clement's Ward, then came forward and delivered his views. He dealt chiefly with the " Deputation to HamHe did not get a burg" and the " Golfers' Quarrel." was called on to Porter M. long heckling, and so R. a long list of the went:through He platform. the mount improvements he thought necessary, and then stood ready for questions. In reply to a question about the Avon Water Scheme, he thought its adoption would be a good The vote resulted :—Porter, 18 thing for Aberdeen. The chief hecklers were J. votes; Peters, 10 votes. Gelman, G. A. Munro, and W. P. Selbie. As there was a little time left, the unfinished debate about " Ghosts" was resumed, and a good many members joined in the discussion. Friday, November 17.—The Society met on this evening to hear the debate : --" Ought we to prohibit Vivisection? "—Alf., F. W. Gerrard; Neg., F. Wishart. A. M. Macleod occupied the chair. Gerrard began his paper by giving a sketch of the history of vivisection. In the course of his remarks he said that vivisection debased With reference to morality, and was utterly useless. the use of anaesthetics, he said that they were merely used to throw dust in the eyes of the public. Wishart began his paper by giving a definition of vivisection. In

The Grammar School Magazine.

his paper he said that vivisection has done a great deal of good to the world, and that the end in view, to allay the sufferings of mankind, justified the means. He contended that vivisection was NEVER cruel, and that the cruelties we hear of cannot be regarded as a branch of scientific vivisection, but merely as the works of brutish natures which delight in the sufferings of weaker animals. Very few members criticised when the debate was thrown open for discussion. The vote resulted :—Neg., 16; Aff., 11. " Impromptu Debates" occupied the rest of the evening, and the chief one was--" Ought we to adopt Conscription? " This was well debated, and many members spoke at considerable length on the subject. The chief speakers were F. W. Gerrard, R. T. Seiviwright, and F. Wishart. J. S. GILES, Secretary.

LEAVING CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS, 1905. THIS year the School took 244 ('ertificates, including 3 Honours—R. N. Gilchrist in English, Alfred R. MacRae in Latin, and Herbert J. M. Milne in Greek; 74 Higher Grades, 122 Lower Grades, 4 passes in Higher Mathematics, 5 in Book-keeping and Commercial Arithmetic, 10 in Science (1 with distinction), 9 in Drawing, 8 (Group) Leaving Certificates, and 9 Intermediate Certificates. The Group Leaving Certificates were obtained by R. N. Gilchrist, Fred. W. Hardie, Geo. H. Macdonald, A. R. MacRae, H. J. M. Milne, John W. Robertson, Hugh R. Souper, and Vane Walker. On the Higher Certificates the results were not up to the level of some previous years, but the marked increase on the Lower Grades gives promise of better results again in the near future.

" Die Vorsehung hat dem Menschen drei Dinge zum Trost in den Mfiliseligkeiten des Lebens mitgegeben, die Hoff/lung, den Schlaf and das Lachen." KANT.

Our Contemporaries.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES. THE Editor begs to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the following magazines : —" Edinburgh Academy Chronicle" (2), "The Glasgow Academy Chronicle," " Yellow Dragon " (3), " C.A.I." (2) (Coleraine Academical Institution), "The Scotch Collegian" (2) (Melbourne, Australia) ; " The Tooter " (4) (South Omaha High School, South Omaha, -Neb.); " The Nelsonian " (2), " The Olavian," " Mercer's School Magazine," " The Portmuthian " (Portsmouth Grammar School), " St. Andrew's College Magazine " (Grahamstown, S.A.), " St. Andrew's College Magazine " (Dublin). From the " Yellow Dragon " we learn that in " Human Mathematics " the following definitions may be taken as pretty accurate :-A unit is a single person. When two units form a couple, each unit is called a married person. More than two units form a crowd. Mathematics is the science of couples and crowds.

Under the writer's treatment of addition we find that Addition is the forming of matrimonial binomials or any polynomial. If the algebraic values of he and she are equal, the binomial is said to be symmetrical.

From the July issue of the same magazine we cull the following :-To shave your face and brush your hair, And then your Sunday clothes to wear— That's preparation. And then upon the car to ride— A mile or two to walk, beside— That's transportation. And then before the door to smile, And think you'll stay a good long while-That's expectation. And then to find her not at home— That's thunderation.

" The Tooter" (The S.O.11.S. Magazine) is brimful of School news, and gives us a very vivid impression of American Rugby Football. A poem addressed to its Football Captain runs as follows :- — Lives of football men remind us That they write their names in blood; And, departing, leave behind them Half their faces in the mud.

The Grammar School Magazine.

" From the New Arithmetic " is the title of another delightful item :10 mills make one trust. 10 trusts make one combine. 10 combines make one merger. 10 mergers make one magnate. 1 magnate makes all the money.

From the same magazine we learn that when one has been put on" for an unprepared lesson, the best course to pursue is--" If at first you don't succeed, bluff, bluff, bluff again." It is a pity that we have to " crib " all our humour, especially seeing that there are some famous wits in the School. The worst of it is that, while these humorists bestow their wit unstinted on the Debating Society (where, by the way, it is not always appreciated), they leave the. Magazine out in the cold. We would urge these gentlemen to drop their lucubrations into the Editor's Box the next time they pass it, and not, through a feeling of shyness, deprive posterity of some of the finest examples of .44 pawky humour " of the age.

Three graces Providence bestows To ease the load of human woes: Hope, sleep's oblivion, and, after Trouble, the saving grace of Laughter. Dat tria dona Deus prudens mortalibus aegris, Spe, somno, risu fallere tristitias. S.

%cboot Officials. SESSION

1905-6.

(lames Committee. - -The RECTOR. Mr. JAMES DAVIDSON. Mr. J. C. KNOX (representing Lower School). J. KELMAS (Football, Cricket). J. P. CAMERON. W. MACGAVIN (Football). A. S. K. ANDERSON (Football). F. MACRAE (Football). R. E. BUTCHART (Football). H. J. MILNE (Cricket). G. F. Cox (Cricket). W. L. GILBERT (Cricket). G. A. MUNRO (Cricket). J. S. GILES (Cricket, Football). J. R. MURRAY (Football). F. WISHART (Cricket, Football, Magazine). Football. Captain, J. KELMAN. Seiretary, F. WISHART. Swimming Club. A. WILSON. Captain, D. M`H. SEMPI.E. Vice-Captain, J. G. BISSET. Secretary and Treasurer, Committee. W. PETERS. G. S. LAWRENCE. ,I J. V. LORINIER. W. WILLIAMSON. F. WISHART. Debating Society. President, F. WISHART. A. M. MACLEOD. Vice- Pr I R. M. PORTER. J. S. GILES. Secretary and Treasurer, Committee. J. KELMAN. G. F. Cox. F. MACRAE. A. M. GARDEN. W. P. SELBIE. Library. F. WISHART (Lending). J. P. CAMERON (Reference). I R. M. PORTER (Lending). A. M. MACLEOD (Lending). F. MACRAE (Lending). Magazine. F. WISHART. Editor-in-Chief, J. KELMAN. Editorfor .tipart, W. P. SELBIE. Literary Editor, F. MACRAE. Business Manager, The Hon. Secretary of the Former Pupils' Club is Mr. ALFRED W. EDWARDS, 29 Union Street, Aberdeen.

President, Hon. Secretary,

•

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL MAGAZINE. Published three times during the School Year. The Magazine may be obtained from the Janitor, at the School ; James G. Bisset, Bookseller, Broad Street; and D. Wyllie & Son, Booksellers, Union Street. The Annual Subscription to the Magazine is 2s.; or, post free, 2s. 6d., at home and abroad. All subscriptions should be forwarded to the Business Manager of the Magazine, Grammar School, Aberdeen. Back numbers of the Magazine since 1885 may be had on application to the Business Manager.. All literary communications should be sent to the Editor, Grammar School, Aberdeen. Correspondents must enclose their names, not necessarily for publication.

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