Nostra Pieris audies,
Lux adest; ades O tuis
Herga[6] mater, alumnis!"

"Goddess of the leafy Hill,
Nymph, or Muse, or what you will,
With the light begins the lay,--
Herga, be our guest to-day."

The site now covered by the externally hideous Speech-room--a cross
between a swimming-bath and a tennis-court--was then a garden. In truth,
it only grew strawberries and cabbages, but to the imaginative eye, it
was as beautiful as the hanging pleasaunces of Semiramis.

Dr. Butler, with a hundred gifts and accomplishments, had no aesthetic or
artistic sense; and, under his rule, the whole place was over-run by
terrible combinations of red and black brick; and the beautiful view
from the School-Yard, stretching away across the Uxbridge plain, was
obstructed by some kind of play-shed, with a little spout atop--the very
impertinence of ugliness.

Of the various buildings at Harrow, by far the most interesting is what
is now called "The Fourth Form Room," in the West wing of the Old
School. It is the original room which John Lyon designed--"A large and
convenient school-house with a chimney in it,"--and in its appearance
and arrangements it exactly bespeaks the village Day School that Harrow
originally was. Its stout brick walls have faced the western breezes of
three hundred years, and in their mellow richness of tint remind one of
Hatfield House and Hampton Court. This single room has been the nucleus
round which all subsequent buildings--Chapel and Library and
School-Rooms and Boarding-Houses--have gathered; and, as long as it
exists, Harrow will be visibly and tangibly connected with its Founder's
prescient care.

John Lyon knew nothing of Conscience Clauses. He ordained that all his
school-boys should attend the Parish Church; and so they did, stowed
away in galleries where hearing was difficult and kneeling impossible.
In 1836 Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, was
elected Head-master of Harrow, in succession to the genial but too
gentle Longley. Seeing that Worship was practically impossible for the
boys under existing conditions, he set to work to build a Chapel. It
occupied the same site as the present Chapel, but only one fragment of
it remains, embedded in the West wall of Sir Gilbert Scott's more
graceful structure. The Chapel was consecrated by the Visitor,
Archbishop Howley, in 1839. Dr. Wordsworth, justly proud of his
handiwork, invited his b