Ascension Day thus
falling, if I may so express myself, within the Octave of "Cock-
hat Sunday," I decreed that the customary ritual must be observed
with the school caps, and my little flock obeyed me implicitly. So
eager were some of the boys to do honour to this religious
festival, that their caps were worn at such an impossible angle
that they kept tumbling off all the way to church. It is the only
time in my life that I have ever wielded even a semblance of
ecclesiastical authority, and I cannot help thinking that the
Archbishop of Canterbury would have envied the unquestioning
obedience with which all my directions were received, for I gather
that his own experience has not invariably been equally fortunate.
At thirteen I said good-bye to the pleasant Grange, and went, as
my elder brothers, my father, and my grandfather had done before
me, to Harrow.
In the Harrow of the "seventies" there was one unique personality,
that of the Rev. John Smith, best-loved of men. This saintly man
was certainly very eccentric. We never knew then that his whole
life had been one long fight against the hereditary insanity which
finally conquered him.
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