Untitled - Electric Scotland

1842-50] CANDIDATE FOR RUGBY in
successor ? Among Rugbeians, and not among them alone,
the excitement as to the appointment was immense ; and
when, on July 28th, 1842, it was announced that Archibald
Tait had been elected, his friends scarcely knew whether
to congratulate him or not upon the perilous inheritance.
Amone the unsuccessful candidates were several whose
o
qualifications in some particular respect were superior to
his own. Mr. C. J. Vaughan, besides his high Cambridge
reputation as a scholar, had been one of Dr. Arnold s
foremost pupils ; while Mr. Bonamy Price had not only
been his pupil at Laleham, but had successfully served
under him as an assistant master ; nor could Tait lay
claim to the technical and accurate scholarship of such
men as Mr. Merivale, Mr. Kynaston, and Mr. Blakesley.
Mr. Lake, who had been one of the first to urge him to
become a candidate, and whose intimacy with Dr. Arnold
gave special weight to his opinion, was fully aware of
Tait s weak points. A few days before the election he
writes :-
" O my dear Tait, I do not envy you if you do it. get I
quite quake for the awful responsibility, putting on that giant s
armour. However, I really believe you are far the best. My
main fears are for your sermons being dull, and your Latin prose,
and composition generally, weak, in which latter points you will
have, I think, hard work. But I earnestly say, as far as we can
see, God grant he it ! may get
According to the account given by Lady Wake,
who had special opportunities of knowledge, it was found,
when the trustees met for the election after study of the
testimonials, that some of them had Tait s name first
upon their lists, while all the rest, without exception, had
placed it second. The issue was finally narrowed,
it is
said, to the consideration of the relative merits of two of
\
the youngest among the eighteen candidates, Archibald