5 NOVEMBER 1887, Page 15

THE LATE MR. TIMING.

[To THE EDITOR OF TRH SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—" Honour to whom honour is due." I am glad to read in the Spectator of October 29th the well-deserved tribute of admiration to the late Head-Master of Uppingham. I only ask permission to protest against the uncalled-for disparagement of the school before Thring came. We who were there under his predecessor, rejoice that the school should so greatly have flourished in later times; but most of us think of our old Head- Master with deep feelings of reverence, affection, and esteem. We think of Holden not only as an accomplished scholar, but as a man of refined and cultured sentiment, and high-minded Christian thought, whose influence upon our lives was of the best and purest. And when I think of many of my con- temporaries there, and of the positions they have filled and are filling, I can say with the more confidence, that although the school was small in those days, we have good reason to remember it with attachment and honour.

I left Uppingham a year before Thring came, and know little of what " rebellion " there may have been in "the handful of unruly boys " who were in the school-house when be came ; but I can well imagine there may have been considerable discontent at the radical changes—however excellent in the result— introduced under the new regime.—I am, Sir, &a., Cbeckendon Rectory, November 2nd. CHARLES J. ABBEY.