A History of Horncastle, from the earliest period to the present time

by J. Conway Walter

The school hours were from 7.30 to 9, before breakfast; 10 to 12.30 midday; afternoon 3 to 5; while the boarders at his own house worked with the Assistant Master from 7 to 9; the day boys, in the town, preparing exercises and repetition for the next morning, at their own homes. It was an amusement, for some of the more active, to get up some quarter of an hour earlier than the others, and hurry down to St. Mary’s Church, to help old Dawson, the sexton, to ring the Grammar School bell. [100a] As the Doctor was very active in his movements, any boarders who were late in starting, could only reach the school in time, by running across the fields between the two branches of the canal, called “The Holms.” Woe betide those who were late!

From the Doctor’s energy of character it would be expected that he would encourage active healthy recreations. The days of cricket were not yet, [100b] although “single wicket” was sometimes practiced. Nor was football popular, as it is now. The game was indeed played, but we had, in those days, no Rugby rules, and the ball was composed of a common bladder, with a leather cover made by the shoemaker. In the school yard the chief game was “Prisoner’s Base,” generally played by boarders against day boys; in this swiftness of foot was specially valuable. There was also a game named “Lasty,” in which one boy was selected to stand at the upper end of the yard, while the rest gathered at the lower end. After a short interval, the one boy darted forward towards the others, who all tried to avoid him; his object was to catch one of the other boys, and when he succeeded in this, the boy whom he caught took up the running to catch another, and this could go on for any length of time. There was another exciting game called “Lug and a Bite.” In the fruit season a day boarder, from the country, frequently brought his pocket full of apples; he would throw an apple among the other boys, one of whom would catch it, and run away biting it; the others would chase him, and seize him by the lug (ear), when he would throw it away, and another would catch it, and continue the process, he being, in his turn, caught by the ear, and so on. This afforded much amusement, and many apples would in this way be consumed. There were large slabs of stone laid down in the yard, on which marbles were played with, and peg tops were spun. Hockey, or shinty, as it was commonly called, was also a favourite game; but these amusements were chiefly confined to the sons of tradesmen in the town.

Among the boarders archery was practised, and by some of them with a skill almost rivalling that of Locksley in Sir Walter Scott’s novel of Ivanhoe. A carpenter in the town made for us bows of lancewood, and arrows of poplar, tipped with spikes of iron. With these we could not only split our “willow wand” at 80 yards distant, but the more skilful deemed an arrow hardly worth having until it had been baptized in the blood of blackbird or pigeon, and some of the neighbouring pigeon cotes suffered accordingly. The writer was presented with a bow made of bamboo, and arrows said to be poisoned, which a great traveller, then residing in Horncastle, had brought from the South Sea Islands. He lent these to a brother archer, who by mistake shot another boy in the calf of the leg. Great alarm was the result, but the poison must have lost its power, for no evil consequences ensued, except that the wounded party almost frightened himself into a state of fever.

These, however, were among the less hardy of our sports. The good old Doctor’s great aim was to get us healthily engaged in the country. With this object he would say on a Monday morning to the bigger boys of the two highest classes, “Now, lads, if you will translate this book of Virgil, or Homer, or this Greek play, as quickly as you can, you shall have the rest of the week to spend as you like.” Put upon our mettle by such a challenge the work would be completed, by us perhaps on the Wednesday, and three days of varied enjoyment in country rambles would follow. In these days, when bird-nesting is forbidden as being “cruelty to animals,” it may horrify some of our readers to learn that the Doctor encouraged his pupils to collect eggs. On our excursions in early summer every hedge was carefully examined for many miles round, the tallest trees were climbed, or, as it was then called “swarmed,” in search of the eggs of hawk, carrion crow, woodpecker, &c.; those of the

owl were found in the thick fir plantations, or those of the jackdaw in old ruins; the rarest specimens being presented to the Doctor himself, while commoner kinds were hung in festoons from the ceiling of our study at his residence. The two chief holidays at this season were the Queen’s Birthday, May 24th, and “Royal Oak Day,” May 29th. On these two days the boys were expected to decorate the school in the early hours of the morning; a sine qua non being, that, on the Doctor’s arrival at 7.30 a.m., he should find his desk so filled with floral and arboreal adornments, that he could not enter it; whereat he would make the remark, repeated annually, “Well, boys! you have shut me out of my desk, so we must give up work for the day.” He also, on these occasions, often brought with him a daughter, and the two carefully looked into the decorated desk, when they were rewarded by finding the nest and eggs of a “feather-poke” (long-tailed tit), or some other rare bird, which he always took home and preserved in his study, as a trophy till the following year. No questions were asked as to how the decorations were obtained, but in practice the process was as follows. On the day before, between school hours, certain of the younger boys were sent round the town to beg flowers, and then, later on, followed what, as we should have said, the present hypercritical generation would call, at the very least, “dishonest pilfering.” After retiring to rest, and when the final visit of the Assistant Master had been made to the dormitories, all became excitement; boots and caps had been carefully concealed under the beds. The elder boys were quickly re-clothed, booted and bonneted; and we crept down, by back stairs, to the kitchen, with the connivance of the cook and housekeeper; those good souls also providing some refreshment for us, to be taken either before we went out, or after we returned; and then, stealthily emerging by the back door, we separated into small companies of twos and threes; some re-visiting gardens in the town, and taking without permission further flowers; others going into the country; sometimes even taking a light cart from one yard and a pony or horse from another, and then visiting gardens or parks in the neighbourhood, and returning laden with branches of horse-chesnut flowers, pink may, &c., which were quietly conveyed to the school; and by the appointed hour the work of decoration would be completed; and we, having returned to our dormitories, refreshed through the cook’s kindness the inner man, and washed the outer, were ready to greet the good Doctor and his daughter on their arrival. The only difference between the decorations on the 24th and 29th was, that on the latter day oak leaves and acorns were a distinguishing feature, some of the sprays having been gilded on the previous day for presentation to the young lady.

There was another great day called the “Treasurer’s holiday.” Once a year the one of the Governors, who held that office, was entitled to ask the Head Master to give us a whole holiday, which he was always pleased to grant. The custom was for one of the senior boys to call upon, or write to, the Treasurer, usually after some period of extra hard scholastic work, asking him to exercise this privilege. The way in which these holidays were spent varied. Sometimes we had a “Paper Chase,” or “Fox and Hounds.” One boy was sent out as fox, sometimes accompanied by another boy, both carrying in bags a supply of paper, torn into small shreds, which formed the scent. In this sport the Doctor sometimes offered a reward of five shillings to the “fox” who should manage to elude his pursuers until he had reached the bank of the river Witham, a distance of about six miles, but increased to 10 or more miles

by the different ruses practised to escape capture; a similar reward being offered to the “hound” who should effect his capture after a run of a stipulated number of miles.

Sometimes we had a picnic to the Tower-on-the-Moor, going there on foot, through “the Wilderness,” and other woods, and having our luncheon brought to the Tower in the carrier’s cart, which passed daily on its way to Kirkstead wharf. This was usually a bird-nesting excursion. More than one of us accomplished the hazardous feat of climbing to the top of the tower, whence a fine view could be obtained, on a favourable day, across the Wash into Norfolk. On one of these occasions we extended our ramble to Kirkstead wharf, some adventurous spirits took forcible possession of the ferry boat, and carried over women returning home, with their marketings, free of charge. The owner of the boat was, however, compensated by our calling at his small hostel close by, and patronising his lemonade, bread and cheese. Sometimes the excursion was to Tattershall Castle, and if this was in the winter we skated there in the morning, along the canal, returning on our “runners” by moonlight; the Doctor being himself a good skater, encouraged it in his boys. On these occasions we sometimes amused ourselves on the return journey by firing pistols, to disturb the inhabitants of houses near the canal; when, if anyone put his head out of a bedroom window, some one of us would shout, “your money or your life;” the usual response being “Go along, ye bulldogs,” the name by which we were commonly known throughout the country side.

On one of these return journeys, while skating in single file, we approached the third lock, and the boy in front forgetting that there would be no ice for a few yards below the lock, because the water there was kept in agitation by the stream always falling from the lock, suddenly found himself floundering in an icy cold bath, while himself in a state of great heat. The shock, and the fact that he was cumbered by his skates, made him almost helpless, and he would probably have been drowned, but that a fine fellow (I give his name, Edward Sharpe, for he has long ago put “off this mortal coil”), who was a great athlete, plunged in, skates and all, regardless of the risk, and like a Newfoundland dog, panting brought his friend to shore, with no worse effects than the drenching to both. And here I may say that one of the accomplishments specially encouraged by the Doctor was that of swimming; the very youngest were taught to swim by the Under Master, in a small pool in the river Bain, called “Dead Man’s Hole,” about 100 yards from the first lock of the canal. After gaining proficiency we bathed in the canal and lockpit itself. The Doctor gave a reward of 5/- to any boy who could dive across the canal, the same sum when he could swim 100 yards on his back.