CHARTERHOUSE.*
Ma. GERALD DAVIES, the present Master of the Charterhouse, has dedicated his most entertaining History to " All who bear or who honour the name Carthusian." They are indeed happy in a chronicler who has had unique opportunities for first- hand observation and research, and who also has a very pleasant gift of writing. The author follows the fortunes of the great foundation from its monastic beginnings down through his own day at the school to its removal to Godalining. He gives a curious picture of the Spartan Carthusian rule, and quotes some amusing extracts from its G.R.O.s " The Kitchener is to avoid waste, and if guilty of it to make confession prostrate. The Shoemaker greases the shoes of the monks, but is on no account to grease those of the Conversi. The Master Shepherd is enjoined to avoid all oaths, lies and frauds which are wont to attend such business. Also the shep- herds are to keep silence when milking."
The rule, of course, absolutely forbade the eating of flesh in any form or on any pretext whatsoever, a breach of this order entailing instant expulsion.
" When in the fourteenth century Urban V., who troubled himself not a little about Carthusian seventies, sought to abolish the restriction against flesh, the Carthusian, failing in other arguments, sent a deputation of twenty-five hale old men whose ages ranged from eighty years to near upon a hundred. The argument prevailed."
The Spartan Carthusian tradition had not entirely died out in Mr. Davies' own schooldays, when it was no light matter to be a lower boy or " under," and therefore a fag-of-all-work. His statutory duties included coal and water-carrying, valeting, housemaiding, and cooking of a primitive order. There must have been hot competition between the " uppers " for the ser- vices of the young Davies, as he tells us that his wise mother
before sending him off to school had had him taught all the utilities of household life, including the art of the shoeblack.
The grotesque conservatism of some of the institutions of his day is typified by the strange tale of the unpopular pudding:— "Nothing was ever allowed to vary the routine. Thus there was a certain plum-pudding, known as ' stodge,' which was served on Sundays. I may at once admit that it was quite good food. But-at some time or other it had been condemned by one of the influences that be in a House. And for years and years no one touched it. One might have thought that— though its rejection was on its merits unjustifiable—some occasion might have been seized by the authorities to have withdrawn the much maligned dish, say for example the begin- ning of a new quarter or a new year. But year in and year out that pudding came in and went forth, and no official suggested a change. At last, one day a certain person of independent character (I may not name him), and of a position to carry it through, ate that pudding while the House had to wait patiently and watch him. He repeated the process Sunday after Sunday. Somebody else fell in with his fancy, and then somebody else ; and then everybody. And the pudding—always religiously served in full bulk as for the entire House—which had year after year gone out uneaten, came at last to its own."
Sometimes it was the boys themselves who resisted reforms, even to the point of mutiny ; and one way and another changes came slowly to the Charterhouse. Up till 1805, for instance, the boys continued to sleep two in a bed.
We get glimpses of some of the old Head Masters. Of Dr. Saunders :—
" Carthusians of his day were full of good stories of his doings and sayings, marked all by a certain quaint humour which was among the valuable assets of his personality—witness, for example, his offer to two boys who were anxious to fight, that though he could not oblige them in that respect, he would flog each of them as long as the other desired, and it would come to the same in the end."
Of Dr. Russell I- " John Russell was a man of exceptional vigour and capacity,
• Charterhouse in London. By Gerald S. Davies, M.A. London : John Murray. 125s. net.] a born reformer, and possessed of imagination and of original ideas. Perhaps he may have lacked somewhat that intimate knowledge of the human boy, without which all other knowledge is as naught in value fora Headmaster. His endeavour to meet the needs and the loud call of that age for cheap education is an object-lesson for all time. It was obvious, then, as now, that a great school, officered by men of first-rate capacity and in due proportion to the numbers of the school, must always be expensive. The problem of securing men of the best quality in proper quantity, who are ready to make school-mastering their profession, can be solved only by paying them. Russell endeavoured to meet that difficulty, which stood in the way of a cheap education, by resorting to a system which was then much talked of, and was known as the ' Madras System ' or the ' Bell System.' This was nothing more or less than a glorified system of pupil teaching. As the numbers of the School went up the number of masters almost stood still. Thus, in 1818, for 238 boys there were 5 masters, or 1 to every 47. In 1821, for 431 boys there were still 5 masters, or 1 to every 86. But the place of masters was supplied by praepositi,' the picked boy of each form being set to teach the rest of his form, and keep order as best he could. I have heard Thackeray, at a Founder's Day dinner, tell the story—which was also told by Dean Saunders --how once Russell entered a classroom where chaos appeared to be ruling, and there being no sign of a praepositus,' Where is your praepositus ? ' cried Russell. ' Please, sir, here he is,' and they fished out, from under the desk, the very small boy who had been set out to rule over them. They had placed him there to be out of the way."
But the story of the Charterhouse is more than the story of monks, masters and boys : it is very nearly a History of England. Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, the House of Howard, the notorious Ridolfi, Cecil, Lord North, Northumberland, Thomas Sutton (" the Founder "), Oliver Cromwell—they all had their histories more or less entwined with that of the old foundation. Charterhouse has already been well served in the writings of Thackeray, as an old boy, and of Dr. Haig Brown as its renowned Head Master, but every Carthusian and every good Londoner will welcome Mr. Davies' delightful addition to the bibliography of Sutton's Hospital."
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