Ande Trembath: A Tale of Old Cornwall England

by Matthew Stanley Kemp

THE HELSTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Three weeks elapsed and Master Ande Trembath had entered upon a new life. He was enrolled upon the list of the scholars of Helston Grammar School.

For four centuries the school had been the centre of education for the west of Cornwall. Gentlemen can point to it with pride this day, as they could then, as the birthplace of their early efforts and the inspiration of their ambitions. At the time of Ande's entrance it had emerged from the obscurity of the past into the foremost school of Cornwall. This result was due much to the energetic labours and talents of the head master, Rev. Mr. Trewan, M. A., a scholar of Oxford. Stern, yet kind and affectionate to the youths under his charge, he was universally beloved by his pupils. In his dealings with his pupils of whatever age, he was of the same opinion as Quintilian that "a child too disingenuous to be corrected by reproof, like a slave, will only be hardened by continuous blows."

Though the scholars loved and revered the head, yet the under-master, a certain Mr. Sherwood, received little or no affection from them. He was sharp-featured as a weasel, sarcastic in speech, a scholarly egotist, with the garment of dignity and a predilection to the use of euphonious words.

The new scholar, entering in the midst of the year, found himself sadly handicapped. In age and size, he should have been enrolled among the fifth form. His withdrawal from the parish school after the lamentable affair of the stocks placed him in no higher position than near the head of the fourth.

The head of the sixth, a certain William Jordan, a great scholar—almost a demigod—in the estimation of the lesser forms, and one of the school monitors, took Ande in charge after his examination, and courteously showed him around the school. The schoolroom with its row of desks and forms, the cloakroom, the dining hall, the library, the dormitory, all were successively inspected.

"This will be your sleeping apartment," said Jordan, as he opened a green baize door on the second floor. Within were several beds and other bedroom furniture. A few windows that opened toward the playground gave abundance of light.

The new scholar soon became accustomed with his new surroundings and set in to study with a zeal that surprised masters and pupils. He won the hearts of his fellows of the fourth by setting out a feast for them that first night in the fourth form dormitory. Mrs. Trembath had not forgotten a hamper of good things, among them several bottles of mild herby beer. These she had sent in with his luggage. The feast was spread on one of the beds, and his fellows, after it was terminated, promptly voted him a trump and proclaimed him, then and there, "King of the Fourth Form."

The king accepted his title by giving an entertainment that night in a noiseless manner. With the aid of a little phosphorus he caused many uncouth and laughable figures to appear upon the wall, to the great wonder of the smaller fourth form boys.