DEIS MATRIBVS
M. INGENVI
VS. ASIATICVS
DEC. AL. AST.
SS. LL. M.
Within the garden is a capacious circular basin, in the centre of which, on a square pedestal, is the figure of a man in chains, said to be that of Atilius Regulus; and near thereto is the observatory, a building consisting of a central octagon and four projecting transepts, fitted up with every necessary scientific appliance. The kitchen gardens are on the south-east side, and eastward of them is the famous “Dark Walk,” a long avenue of firs, cedars, and yews, very patriarchs of their kind, that meet overhead, and impart a green tinge to everything around, creating a solemn and mysterious gloom, fitted for reflection and the meditations of the religious devotee—a solemn, cool, and shady retreat—a very grove of Academe, and the place of all others to dream away a summer afternoon. These trees must have budded and flourished through long centuries of time; successive generations of Sherburns have paced beneath their vernal shade; here the tender tale, the word that sums all bliss, the—
Sweet chord that harmonises all
The harps of Paradise,
has doubtless oft been breathed to the fair daughters of the house; and here, if tradition is to be believed, the last scion of the Sherburns plucked the poisonous fruit that terminated a long and illustrious race.
The college at Stonyhurst has accommodation for 300 students, and we were informed at the time of our visit that, including the pupils at the Hodder House, about 250 were receiving instruction. It does not come within our province to enter into the scholastic arrangements of the place or the educational course pursued, and the domestic life of the establishment is a subject too lengthy for our notice. It may be said, however, that everything which efficient teaching can accomplish is done; everything that skill and ingenuity and means can provide in the shape of scientific and mechanical appliances to aid the efforts of the teacher is there. As you pass along the corridors, and through the halls and classrooms, you are struck with the quietude, the order, and the perfect discipline which prevail. Morality among the students is maintained by the strictest supervision, and equal care is bestowed in the development of their mental powers, with the natural result that the institution has earned the fullest confidence of its Catholic patrons, while its pupils have given proof of the excellence of their training by their scholarly attainments, and the distinctions so many of them have earned in the competition for honours at the examinations of the London University. The life at Stonyhurst is one in which teacher and taught are in kindly sympathy with each other, and where associations are formed productive of quiet happiness to the one and joy and gladness to the other.
After our perambulation of the college we lingered for some time in the gardens enjoying the prospect from the high ground, looking across the broad fertile valleys of the Ribble and the Calder to the bleak ridges of Pendle and the wooded heights of Bowland Forest. Daylight was melting away into the soft warm haze of a summer eve, deepening in splendour the woods and meads and darkening hills beyond. A peaceful calm pervaded the scene, the stillness being only broken as now and then some feathered warbler trilled out its evening lay, or the wind rustled with plaintive cadence through the trees that waved sleepily overhead, making a dreamy lullaby. Then, as the sun circling towards the glowing west, and the chapel bell summoning the collegiates to vespers, warned us of the approach of night, we bade adieu to Stonyhurst, and, descending by a steep path that winds round the edge of a thick wood, were soon wending our way along the quiet old country lanes to our quarters at Whalley.
