I went into the examination _solely_ depending for
any hope of pre-eminence above the Shrewsbury men on three points,
Greek history, one particular kind of Greek verses, and Greek
philosophy.... It so fell out, however, that not one of these three
points was brought to bear on the examination, though, indeed, it
is but a lame one without them. Accordingly from the turn it seemed
to take as it proceeded, my own expectations regularly declined,
and I thought I might consider myself very well off if I came in
pretty high. As it is, I am even with the great competitor, Scott,
whom everybody almost thought the favourite candidate, and above
the others. Allies, an Eton man, Scott and I are placed together;
and Short, one of the examiners, told us this morning that it was
an extremely near thing, and he had great difficulty in making up
his mind, which he never had felt in any former examination in
which he had been engaged; and indeed he laid the preference given
to Brancker chiefly on his having written short and concise
answers, while ours were longwinded. And in consideration of its
having been so closely contested, the vice-chancellor is to present
each of us with a set of books.... Something however may fairly
enough be attributed to the fact that at Eton we were not educated
for such objects as these.... The result will affect the
scholarship itself more than any individual character; for previous
events have created, and this has contributed amazingly to
strengthen, a prevalent impression that the Shrewsbury system is
radically a false one, and that its object is not to educate the
mind but merely to cram and stuff it for these purposes. However,
we who are beaten are not fair judges.... I only trust that you
will not be more annoyed than I am by this event.

Brancker was said to have won because he answered all the questions not
only shortly, but most of them right, and Mr. Gladstone's essay was
marked 'desultory beyond belief.' Below Allies came Sidney Herbert, then
at Oriel, and Grove, afterwards a judge and an important name in the
history of scientific speculation.

He was equally unsuccessful in another field of competition. He sent in
a poem on Richard Coeur de Lion for the Newdigate prize in 1829. In 1893
somebody asked his leave to reprint it, and at Mr. Gladstone's request
s