MEMOIRS OF SIX REIGNS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 185, 3 February 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEMOIRS OF SIX REIGNS.

DEATH OF A CLERIG OF THEOLD SCHOOL. „ At Bournemouth, where had gone for a winter holiday, there passed away the Rev. Sir John Hoskyns, rector of Aston Tyrrold, four miles south-west of Wallingford, in Berkshire, and ninth baronet of a family famous in English history. Born as far back as 1817, that is to say, two years after the Battle of Waterloo, Sir John Hoskyns lived, unde six English Sovereigns. When he was in his crafdle George 11. was King, a poor made old man, blind and helpless, but still remembering sometimes the victories and conquests which had made his reign glorious. 'The First-Gentleman of Europe" was Regent, and afterwards became King George IV. As a schoolboy of 13 years old Sir John Hoskyns heard the bells toll for the death of George and ring out for the new King William IV..

PANORAMA OF NATIONAL CHANGES,

He was a young man of 20 and one, of the most brilliant scholars of Ballioi College, Oxford, when all the romance in the hearts of England was stirred by the accession of a young girl to the Throne as Queen Victoria. He lived all through the Victorian era, and had been an eyewitness of all the changes that altered the social, industrial and political life of England during that wonderful reignchanges so marvellous that the world of his boyhood seems as far removed from modern life as though it belonged to the" Middle Ages. Throughout the reign of King Edward Sir John Hoskyns served his flock, and into the reign of King George V. Sir John was born at Ross in Herefordshire, wiiere his father, the eighth baronet, was a 1 great.-Country gentleman, keeping open house and living in the grand old manner of "a'fine old English gentleman, all of the olden time"—until misfortune overtook him and impoverished his estate. There were no railways or trains, in those days, and Sir John's earliest recollection was when,.as.a small boy, with''a big' box, he mounted the stage coach on his way to school. Up hill and down dale went that coach with a tantivity of the horn and a crack of the whip, and a great' bustle and fuss at every posting-house on the road, where the travellers got down to stamp their feet and stretch their legs, and drink strong beer and warm wine before the roaring (ire in the inn's parlor. '-'At every hill," said Sir John, "the guard would call upon the gentlemen to get down and walk, and we would trudge behind the lurching coach, through the snow drifts or the sleet, until we came to thee rest of the hill."

A journey like this was un adventure in the life of a small boy never to be forgotten. There was still highwaymen on the roads, and it was in the'days when many a gentleman took off his coat to light an insolent ostler, and when the roads were filled with, desperate tramps, who had served with Wellington in the I cninsiila or with kelson at Trafalgar and now found it hard to get an honest living.

Ihe industrial conditions of life in England, during the early mfnhood of ™' Jolln Hoskyns were appalling Machinery had been introduced into the factories and human lives were treated as tnougji they, too, were machine-made alkd machino-drivei.. There were thousands of child slaves in,-the cotton mills of hanoisliire chained to the looms and suf-lei-nig cruelties worse, than those meted out o the negro slaves of the ArXKrkm V antahons. It was only in 1833 that f" 1 ; I '-'-" under 10 were limited to half a days wohkvand that women had their hours fixed at not more than 12 a day In,the country districts life was as priniiW ' Sm , tlK ; worßt P eriod of < the Middle Ages, and when Sir John Hoskyns first became a clergyman he found his flock no much better than savages in their' Habits and conditions.

BEGINNING OE A NEW ERA. But the light of a. new social order was just beginning to dawn when he-became a schoolboy, at Rugby, under Dr. Arnold, the best and wisest of schoolmasters. His predecessor, Dr. Wool, had adopted the old brutal methods of education, with plenty of flogging and few ideals. Naturally such methods encouraged equal brutality among the boys, and for any sensitive youth life at Rugby was torture almost beyond endurance, as everyone knows who has read "Tom-Brown's Schooldays," by Thomas Hughes, who was a school fellow of Sir John Hoskyns. Dr. Aronld altered the whole tone of' the school.

"Ho was a man of the highest ideals and the noblest, sweetest character. I have always remembered the influence which he exercised over us. He brought . ( out all thath was best in a boy's heart. He crushed out all that was worst." He put the boys on their honor, and checke dany attempt to affirm a statement by proof., "jf you say so, that is quite enough. Of course, I believe your word," he would say, so that there grew up a general feeling that it was a shame to toll Arnold a lie. "lie always believes one," said the boys. "I remember," added Sir John TToskyns, "that one boy went to a wayside inn and made himself disgustingly drunk. Dr. Aronld Hogged him publicly before the whole; school, without mercy. We could not believe such a thing possible, and itunado a profound effect upon us I all."