_O summer day_, _beside the joyous sea_!
_O summer day_, _so wonderful and white_,
_So full of gladness and so full of pain_!
_For ever and for ever shalt thou be_
_To some the gravestone of a dead delight_,
_To some the landmark of a new domain_.

LONGFELLOW.

Housed, fed, and taught; what more does the school need done for it? "Is
that all?" some of the English public will exclaim. "Then you have done
nothing. What about the boys' sports?" We foresaw the question, and
when we left home some people felt uneasy as to what would happen to a
school separated from its fives-courts and playing-fields. True, there
was to be a beach, and the boys could amuse themselves by throwing stones
into the sea: but when there were no more stones to throw--what then? The
prospect was a blank one.

Well, as we have seen, things came right enough as regarded the cricket.
Players had to content themselves with fewer games, for the ground could
only be reached on half-holidays. On the other hand, the season of 1876
gained a character of its own from the novelty of its matches against
Welsh teams. One of these was the eleven of Shrewsbury School. With
this ancient seat of learning our troubles brought us into genial
intercourse, and a few months later we met them again on the football-
field. Both matches were played at Shrewsbury; in the former we gained a
victory over our kind hosts, the latter was a drawn game.

The athletics were held on the straight reach of road beyond Old Borth;