Headmaster, in lieu of his customary supper, not practicable at Borth,
gave a luncheon each day. On the first day, as the company rose from
table, a signal was given to the school to draw up to the tent, outside
which the guests were standing. They formed a kind of hollow square to
see what would happen, and an old Uppinghamian (Mr. R. L. Nettleship,
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford) came forward and presented an "Address
from the Old Boys at Oxford, to the Headmaster and Masters of Uppingham
School." He noticed briefly the circumstances under which it had been
drawn up, explaining why (through lack of time to concert matters with
the sister university) it had come from Oxford only, and added that they
hoped shortly to give something more substantial than parchment. "What
they could offer was a slight thing, it was true, yet one which their old
Headmaster and his coadjutors would not think valueless." He proceeded
to read the address, which ran thus:

"We, the undersigned old members of Uppingham School, now resident at
Oxford, write to express our deep sympathy with the Headmaster and
Masters of Uppingham School in the great difficulties with which they
have lately had to contend. Feeling as we do, that though we have
left the school, we still, in the truest sense, belong to it, we can
but testify our gratitude to those whose courage and skill have
carried it safely through such a crisis, and converted a great
misfortune into a proof that it is strong enough to defy accidents.
Our confidence in the Headmaster is, as always, entire and unabated,
and we are sure that the school which he has so successfully led to
Borth will come back under the same leadership, with its vigour
undiminished, to its home at Uppingham." {66}

In reply the Headmaster said, addressing himself to the memorialists and
the school, "the past and future (for what we are doing has a past and