Uppingham by the Sea - a Narrative of the Year at Borth by John Huntley Skrine
page 88 of 95 (92%)
page 88 of 95 (92%)
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It was "all over but the shouting:" but that was not over till some hours of dusk had gathered over school and town. For first the multitude besieged the well-known mighty gates, behind which lies the studious quiet of the Schoolhouse Quad. When they were admitted they came in like a flood, and filled the space within; but for all they were so many, there was an orderliness and quietude in the strange assemblage which made their presence there seem not strange at all, and they listened like one man to the words in which the Headmaster, who came out to meet them, framed his thanks for this unequivocal welcome. This done, they flowed out again, and streamed across the valley and up the hill to carry the same message of goodwill to the distant houses, and so with more cheering and more speeches came to an end a day of happiest omen for the joint fortunes of Uppingham School and Town. A few additional details are needed to complete our account. A friend, remarkable for his plain common-sense, reminds us that the epic vehicle we so indistinctly describe, was the Seaton 'bus, and that the music was due to "the splendid band connected with Mrs. Edmonds' menagerie, which happened to be in the town." We are not in a position to deny either statement, or another to the effect that "the conveyances which accompanied the 'bus formed a procession of considerable length," having been halted by arrangement outside the town, and formed into file for the entry. When the same friend hazards some further criticism on a confusion of dates and incidents in our narrative, in which he finds the events of two days, a Friday and a Saturday, presented as in a single scene, we feel it time to silence him by an appeal, which he does not follow, to the "truer historic sense" and the "massive grouping" of imaginative history. |
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