Towards the end of the half there was a very disagreeable TB & QS row, which caused a good deal of disturbance in the school. It began by some small TB’s being turned out of the Racquet Courts by some Juniors, who, some of their numbers being in the shell, maintained that they had a right of doing so, in spite of their position as under Elections. Accordingly all playing in the court was stopped until 3.30 school – it was Friday afternoon – the TBB and QSS disputing & blocking up the courts. It appears that a good many TBB – mostly small fellows – disapproving of the conduct of the QSS in the matter, made a point of hissing every QS as he came up & went down school. Of course all the monitors – & Scott too – thought that some notice should be taken of such a matter: accordingly, next (Saturday) morning, every one below the Shell was summoned by a notice affixed to School doors to attend in the Upper Vth room after 12. Before we had finished enquiring of the boys in the Upper Vth, one of the VIth town boys not in authority took it upon himself to send all the fellows (who were standing outside) down school. All proceedings then had to be deferred till Monday. Of course all the QSS monitors agreed that the fellows who had hissed should be tanned, & there being a difference of opinion among the TB monitors, there was a majority in favour of tanning. Scott, however, rightly said that, it being one of the rules (vide Rules for Discipline) “that no boy should be judge in his own cause” & seeing that the offense was against the QSS, the punishment should not be administered by the QSS but exclusively by the TB monitors. Indeed he was determined throughout the whole affair to uphold his rules, & our authority, tho’ all the masters were against him, & went so far as to send a written protest against the matter being left in our hands alleging that “an offense commuted in school in the presence of the masters should not be dealt with by the boys”. The end was, that the affair was all over after Monday morning – about 12 fellows giving in their names. -exclusive of many others who were let off on the plea of being new as very small fellows, or of being low down in the school. So much for this: but with respect to R-, who had sent the fellows down on Saturday, Scott pronounced on him a sentence of expulsion, & there seemed for a time no means – tho’ all of us in authority pleaded for him as well as we could – of getting him to withdraw this extreme decision. By Monday morning, however, chiefly thro’ the very kind intervention of one of the masters, he resolved to “rusticate” him for a week & then, on condition that he did not show himself here within that time, to receive him back for the rest of the half, for the Election exams began in a week & he was one of the candidate for Election. With regards to “racquets”, Scott said that every boy in the shell possessed the same rights of turning off, even tho’ he were an under Election.
In the course of this dispute it has also come out that all so-called “rules” for racquet-courts are merely matters of tradition: a fixed written code of rules being a great desideratum.
E.G.B. Phillimore. P.O