ed between
Cabinet Minister and Head Master upon that eventful day which sent Caesar
to curse and swear upon the Sudbury road. The Head Master was not an
Harrovian, and on that account was the better able to perceive
time-honoured abuses. At Harrow the dominant chord among masters and
boys is a harmony of strenuousness and sentiment. Inevitably, the
sentiment becomes, at times, sentimental; and then strenuousness pushes
it into a corner. When honoured veterans are wearing out, loyalty,
gratitude for past service, reluctance to inflict pain, keep them in
positions of responsibility which mentally and physically they are unfit
to administer. It is almost as difficult to turn an Eton or Harrow
master out of his house, as to turn a parson of the Church of England
out of his pulpit. More, in selecting a house-master as in selecting a
parson, a man's claims to preferment are too often determined by
scholarship, by length of former service, by interest with authority,
rather than by ability to govern a body of boys made up of widely
different parts. A capable form-master may prove an incapable
house-master. Richard Rutford, to give a concrete example, came to
Harrow knowing nothing about Public Schools, and caring as little for
the traditions of the Hill, but with the prestige of being a Senior
Classic. Nobody questioned his ability to teach Greek. In his own line,
and not an inch beyond, the Governors were assured that Rutford was a
success. In due time he accepted a Small House, so small that its
autocrat's incapacity as an administrator escaped notice. Rutford waited
patiently for a big morsel. He wrote a couple of text-books; he married
a wife with money and influence; he entertained handsomely. It is true
he became popular neither with masters nor boys, but his wine was as
sound as his scholarship, and his wife had a peer for a second cousin.
Eventually he accepted the Manor. Within a month, those in authority
suspected that a blunder had been made; within a year they knew it. The
house began to go down. Leaven lay in the lump, but not enough to make
it rise, because the baker refused to stir the dough. First and last,
Rutford disliked boys, misunderstood them, insulted them, ignored those
who lacked influential connections, toadied and pampered the "swells."

Just before John Verney came to Harrow, the Manor was showing
unmistakable signs of decay. A new Head Master, recognizing "dry-rot,"
realizing the necessity of cutt