| Description | "Arrival in London, and further details of the Newcastle Scholarship trial."
London. Thursday, March 16. 1837.
My dear Papa
We arrived here quite safe yesterday at about a quarter to 12, for I could not find any coach between the 9 o’clock one & the three o’clock one. Miss Burgess told me that you wanted to know some of the particulars of the scholarship, & as it is not a very fine day I sit down to tell you a few of them. The examiners were Mr. W. Selwyn, & Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Selwyn is brother of a private tutor at Eton, & of another Selwyn who got the scholarship, but is now dead. There were four brothers altogether, who got sent up 51 times between them. This Mr. Selwyn got a great many prizes at Cambridge, & several of the pieces in my “Cambridge Prize Poems” are done by him.
The number of boys who tried was about 35, their names as far as I can recollect are as follows.
Birch K.S. Hardisty. K.S. xPocock.
xBoulton xHerbert Rogers K.S.
Bunny Hobhouse. xRyle
xChampernowne Johnson Savile
Coleridge Kirwan K.S. Seymour
Cotton Lowndes xShadwell
Currey Mackarness. K.S xTarver K.S
Cust Ma. Mansfield. Westmacott. K.S.
Cust Mi. Molesworth. Williams K.S.
Essington K.S. Mountain K.S. Witts. K.S.
xFarrer Neville.
Frere Pickering.
xGoulburn
The examination took place in the Library, & occupied about 7 hours & a quarter for 4 days, 2 hours from 8 till 10, 3 from 11 till 2, & 2 from half past 3 till half past 5. Besides this, the Vivâ–Voce, though each boy was not examined more than 7 or 8 minutes, kept me for 2 hours in the Upper school;—The Vivâ–Voce did not take place in the same room as the other examinations, but in the flogging room. The Select were locked up in the Upper School, & the Examiners came to the door & called in each boy as they wanted him, in his order in school, dismissing him when they had done by another . . . Mr. C. Wilder has I think succeeded . . . t to Mr. Coleridge; Mountain, Birch & Witts being his pupils. Mr. Coleridge gave a grand supper on Sunday night to all the boys in his house, & about 10 out of it. There were also present 2 old pupils of his, Chisham, the head of a Scotch clan, & member of Parliament, & Allies, who got the scholarship. There were a great many toasts; the first of which was Goulburn & the Select, & I had very nearly to speak, as being the highest in the Alphabet, but I shifted this off to the captain in school. On Monday the first eight dined with Dr. Hawtrey. I am glad to hear that you are better, & hope that you will soon be able to come to us, as we are very dull. Give my love to all, & believe me to remain
Your affectionate Son,
M. P. W. Boulton.
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