There was rather a provoking row the other day between Mr Jones & myself. Mr Ingram asked me one morning to find out who it was that had cut over his children’s governess as she was crossing the racquet court and had not had the politeness to apologise. I accordingly made enquiries and discovered that the culprit was B–. There, telling Whitlock (the T.B. monitor of Grant’s) of my intentions, I summoned him up home-boarder’s and tanned him. His excuse was that he had not seen her coming, and had cut her over accidentally, an excuse which I did not consider of much weight, and any how he should have apologised.
However the next morning Mr Jones sent for me, and accused me of breaking two (6&7) of the rules of discipline of 1873. He talked in a very high blown strain of the support which he had been graciously pleased to accord to the Monitorial authority, and after informing me that B—was a most gentlemanly boy, ended by saying he presumed I had no objection to the matter being referred to Scott. I of course had one. Ingram told me that he thought I had been right in what I did, but that he was sorry to have been the course of B—being tanned. When I left Jones I took Macpherson & went to Scott & laid the case before him – he said B—deserved his punishment but that we had broken the letter, although not the spirit of the law, in not having a School Council, and that he thought such offences as that would be better treated as house matters. Jones also told Scott about it, but could get out of him nothing more than what I have related.
Acting on Scott’s distinction between House offences & School offences, a little while afterwards I asked Reeks (Head of Rigaud’s) to tan N—for making a disturbance coming down school. N—appealed & showed up to James, who insisted on the offence being a school matter since it had not happened in the boarding house. Scott’s decision was that it was very ridiculous of James to make such “a tempest in a teapot”, but that as far as the letter of the law went, he was in the right, and the only thing to be done was to call a meeting of the School Council & give it him harder. I accordingly summoned a meeting in the Library after school & tanned him.
L.S. Bristowe Prin Opp