Untitled - Electric Scotland

CHAPTER V.
RUGBY.
1842-1850.
TlIE summer of 1842 opened a totally new and unex
pected
field of interest and of work. In the first week
of June, Tait was spending a few days at Courteen Hall,
in Northamptonshire, with Sir Charles and Lady Wake,
who had just lost a beloved daughter.
"The visit over," writes Lady Wake, "Archie returned to
Oxford. I had gone with him to Blisworth Station to see him
off, when our attention was attracted by the sight of a multitude
of boys filling the carriages of the train, all silent and sad.
Who were they ? The young gentlemen from Rugby !
was
the reply. Evidently it was no holiday. What brought them
there ? Arnold is dead, passed from mouth to mouth. Their
hushed voices and subdued looks told evidently how suddenly
the blow had fallen, and how it had affected each one of
them."
Dr. Arnold died on Sunday, June I2th, 1842, and,
ten days later, Archibald Tait, mainly at the instigation
of Lake and Stanley, declared himself a candidate for the
vacant post. His diary has the following on June 23,
1842 :
" O Lord, I have this day taken a step which may-
lead to much good or much evil. Do Thou suffer me to
succeed, only if it be to the good of Thy glory."
my own soul, and to
The unique position held by Dr. Arnold among school
masters, and indeed among Englishmen, gave an altogether
exceptional interest to the question Who was to be his
no