Tom Brown's School Days

1906 - NOTE THE best story of a boys schooldays ever written, the present book is now being read by a third generation of school-boys. It is thought by many that Thomas Hughes, its author, has more or less told his own story in it, and that he was in fact LTom Brown, but he has denied that this is so. He went to Rugby under Dr. Arnold, however. His father, John Hughes, was a Berkshire squire, and the author of at least one travel-book, and of one well-known political ballad, The One-Hoss Shay Thomas Hughes was born on October 20,1822, at Uffington, near Faringdon Berks and his first and best book, this same story of Tom Brown, appeared anonymously in 1857. He formed warm friendships at Rugby, and again at Oxford, with some famous other writers and men-Matthew Arnold and Arthur Hugh Clough author of the Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich among the rest. But his own brother, George Edward, of whom he wrote in the Memoir of a Brother, was still his nearest friend and true master at this period he became a disciple of Frederick Denison Maurice afterwards. Charles Kingsley, too, was another close associate. Like many families in the midlands and west-country, the Hughes were of Welsh stock and the memorable passage in which Thomas Hughes sings the praise of the Browns, if it is given his own name, has a double significance. He carried the story of Tom Brown to Oxford and he wrote fondly again of his native county, Berkshire, in a book full of local tradition and rural reminiscence, The Scouring of the White Horse or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk. Thomas Hughes followed the law as a profession, and became a county-court judge, and lived then at Chester. He died at Brighton on March 22,1896. The following are his published works Tom Browns Schooldays, 1857 l The Scouring of the White Horse, 1859 Tom Brown at Oxford, 1861 The Struggle for Kansas Lecture, 1862 The Cause of Freedom, 1863 Religio Laici Tracts for Priests and People, 1861-1868 Alfred the Great, 1868 Memoir of, a Brother, 1873 The Old Church What shall we do with it 1878 The Condition and Prospects of the Church of England, 1878 The Manliness of Christ, 1879 Rugby, Tennessee, 1881 Life of Daniel Macmillan, 1882 Gone to Texas, 1884 Life of Bishop Fraser, 1887 Life of Livingstone. 1889. A fragment of Autobiography has been privately printed several addresses have been published separately, and his letters to the Spectator are collected in Vacation Rambles, published by his daughter, Mrs. Cornish, 1895. CONTENTS PART I CHAP. I. THE BROWN FAMILY 11. THE VEAST . 111. SUNDRY WARS AND ALLIANCES. IV. THE STAGE COACH V. RUGBY AND FOOTBALL . VI. AFTER THE MATCH . VII. SETTLING TO THE COLLAK . VIII. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE . 1X. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS . PART I1 PAGE I . 18 . 40 . 61 79 I01 . 122 . 45 . 167 I. HOW THE TIDE TURNED . 11. THE NEW BOY . 111. ARTHUR MAKES A FRIEND . IY. THE BIRD-FANCIORS . V. THE FIGHT . VI. FEVER IN THE SCHOOL . VII. HARRY EASTS DILEMMAS AND IIELIVERANCES VIII. TOM BROWNS LAST MATCH . 1X. FINIS . ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE THE JINGLING MATCH . 27 TEA O R COFFEES, IR . 7 0 EAST SHOUTED FROM HIS WATCH-TOWER 105 NOW COMES A BROOK, WITH STIFF CLAY BANKS 135 ARTHUR T, O M, A ND EAST W ERE TOGETHER ONE NIGHT . . 216 THEF ARME A R ND HIS MEN ARE MAKING GOOD RUNNING A FIELD BEHIND m 2 5 TO MRS. A R N O L D OF FOX HOWE THIS BOOK IS WITHOUT HER PERMISSION Debicatet BY THE AUTHOR WHO OWES MORETHAN HE CAN EVER ACKNOWLEDGE OR FORGET TO HER AND HERS A s on the one hand P should ever be remembered that we are boys, and boys at school, so on the other hand we must bear in mind that we form a complete social body . . ...