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No. 36

The Town boy & Queen’s scholars football match was played on Tuesday the … of February. We unluckily had a very weak eleven & were beaten easily by 3 games to one. The elevens were as follows.

T.B.

Giles

Preston

Whittaker

Dowdeswell ii

Dowdeswell iii

Vidal

Lucas

Bovill

Wylde

Hurley

Short

 

Q.S.

Chepmell

Yates

Lane

Besly

Pember

Sim

Nicholls

Circuitt

Taylor

Harrison

Mackey

They played for a couple of hours. The T. B. played very pluckily, & did all they could but the superior weight & play of Q. S. S. won the day. The following players were honourably mentioned.

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No. 34

The play this year was ‘Andria’. The acting was pronounced to be first-rate by all the Old Westminster enties. The characters were as follows:

Simo = N. Bosanquet

Sosia = A. Downie

Davus = G. T. O’Brien

Mysis = J. M. Yates

Pamphilus = W. Phillimore

Charinus = A. Stewart

Byrrhia = N. Egerton

Lesbia = A. Winter

Chremes = J. Chepmell

Crito = G. Bonney

Dromeo = G. Pember

Mutes

Servi Semonis = A. Mure, C. Biscoe

Bosanquet, O’Brien, Stewart were especially to be praised. The cap was very ball.

E. R. Dowdeswell

Prin. Opp.

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No 33

On the following Friday the Eton eleven came down. They played hard for more than [an] hour without any success on either side, till a length just as they were going to finish, one of the Eton men (Lyttleton) was thrown heavily. He fell with his arm twisted under him and was helped up with a broken arm. A doctor was luckily on the ground, who bandaged it up temporarily then advised his immediate removal to the hospital. It seems, that the poor fellow has broken the small bone of the arm, which, though not as bad as the main one, is sufficient to keep his arm in a sling for some time to come. I can only add that the game was immediately stopped; that we (the Westminsters) were unutterably grieved at this accident, it is unnecessary to say. The pain must have been awful, but he bore it like a trump, and was not heard to utter a single complaint. I must not close this article without saying how pluckily and well our eleven played. There was not one under the mark. Everyone did his best, and I think the Etonians did the same. I don’t think an accident of the kind has ever occurred before at Westminster. At any rate not within the memory of any of the Old Westminsters who were looking on at the time. However it can’t be helped, accidents will happen, and I am sure that in this case, if it was nothing more than a pure accident, it was a bona fide ‘Spill’ shoulder to shoulder. No tripping up, or pushing. I hope Eton will come down next year. When we will show them again that we don’t mean them to consider themselves invincible. This match was a great improvement on last year’s, and those next year’s will improve on this, and that we shall lick Eton at football, and on the water.

E.R. Dowdeswell

Prin. Opp.

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No 32

On Tuesday the 9th of December, the Harrow eleven again appeared up fields to play us at football. After about an hour’s play, in which neither side kicked a game, the two elevens dispersed, the Harrow men hurrying off to the train, our men to the bat room to spend the next hour, till lockhours, among old Westminsters and friends.

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No 30

Scott handed a fellow the other day for his imprudence to a master & on caning him in the Library expressed a wish (in my absence) that the Q.S.S. would look after the discipline of the Townboys a little better. On the strength of this O’Brien, head monitor, sent for the fellow who had been tanned & told him that if it happened again he should tan him up school. This I could not stand. So, as they seemed determined to stick to what they said, we went to Scott & laid the case before him. He seemed to think it very trivial & said his words had been somewhat misunderstood. That a monitor had a perfect right to tan a town boy, for break of discipline, indecency, or lying, but always with the full consent of the head town boy. Phillimore (the captain) waged that if VIth T.B.s might tan, seconds could also, since they ranked about town boys, but Scott said that his meaning was that there should always be more than one boy in authority among the town boys, adding that if there were as many T.Bs as Q.Ss in the VIth he should limit power to the first 4 town boys. So we altogether came off victorious, since no Q.S. may tan without the head town boy’s leave, & the precaution concerning the seniors & VIth T.B. is put to rest forever.

 E.R. Dowdeswell

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No 28

The captain wrote to the Archbishop [Loughley?] the newly made [Private?], an Old Westminster, asking him to come down & beg for an early play for us. He wrote to say that Saturday (29th) was the only day he could come & as Scott had done away with early plays he did not come till 10.10 so we only gained an hour and a half.

 E.R. Dowdeswell

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No 27

Two days after the above had happened Bandinel a VIth T.B. told me his gold watch was gone from his cupboard in Chiswick. We consulted together & determined to examine everyone’s drawers, which we did on the following morning, but found nothing. The same day I was informed that a fellow named Bray had lost 2/6 from his drawers. Suspicion again pointed to T– who had been seen by one of the maids with a gold watch, which evidently was not his own. Worsley too (a shell T.B.) had his suspicions about him stealing the half crown. He gave his reasons, which are too lengthy for insertion. I sent for T– & heard the whole case & at length after telling innumerable lies he said he wished to speak to Marshall. We of course thought he was going to confess his crime, & so were very glad, thinking our business in the matter would end here – but not so. Instead of confessing he seems to have told Marshall that we were unjustly making him answer to charges of which he was innocent. Marshall sent for me & I gave him the true account, reading off the evidence which I had taken down on paper. The consequence was that he had T– in with him for a couple of hours, at the end of which he had confessed to both stealing the money & the watch. After progress we were surprised to hear that Marshall had sent for T–‘s hat and that he had gone down to the cloisters. Of course we thought he had gone to the Dean but it turned out the next morning that he had hidden the watch in a hole in Fighting “Green”. He was expelled, or rather taken away privately, & now I think we may be quite sure we have no more prigs. So much for T–. But we had not finished the matter. Marshall called the first four of us into his room the next day & instead of thanking us for doing out best to clear up this mystery, began by telling us that looking into the fellows by telling us that looking into the fellows drawer was illegal, & that we ought to have brought the case to him sooner. Now we thought this very hard for without us the thief would never have been found out, & as for its being illegal to search the drawers, it was done with the consent of everyone, as a means to clear them of all suspicion. I hope to God such a case may never happen again in the house, but if it does, I strongly advise the head of the house to have nothing to do with any investigations whatsoever, but leave Marshall to find out for himself.

E.R. Dowdeswell

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