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Near the end of autumn term 1909 Ronald and Edith ride their bicycles to the Lickey Hills on an afternoon excursion. They leave and return separately so that no one will know they are seeing each other. At the end of the afternoon they have tea at the house in Rednal where Ronald had stayed in the summer, but the woman who provides the tea mentions Ronald’s visit to the caretaker at the Oratory retreat, who mentions it to the cook at the Oratory, and so the news reaches Father Francis Morgan. Father Francis is worried that Ronald is not giving his full attention to work towards a university scholarship, and is shaken when further enquiries reveal more about Ronald and Edith’s clandestine meetings. He demands that their relationship cease.
December 1909 Very soon after this turmoil Ronald goes to Oxford to sit the University scholarship examination, staying in Corpus Christi College. He fails to obtain an award but is young enough to be able to try again next year. He must win an award if he wants to attend the University of Oxford, since his small inheritance from his father’s estate is not enough to pay the fees, nor can Father Francis afford to pay them.
3 December 1909 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That the sportsman is a better citizen than the student.’ Rob Gilson recommends the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes as an exception to the opening statement that the heroes of all school tales were those good at games. R.S. Payton makes his maiden address to the Society, stating that ‘the man with no education but sport was often bigoted and narrow-minded’, and Christopher Wiseman makes ‘reference to the battle of Eton’ and digresses ‘on to the [national] Budget’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 5, 6). The motion fails, 12 votes to 15.
10 December 1909 The Headmaster of King Edward’s School, Robert Cary Gilson, presents a lecture on ‘Memory’ at a meeting of the Literary Society.
17 December 1909 An Old Boys’ debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the awakening of the Yellow Races is a menace to the safety of Europe.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that Japan should be considered more important than China, due to its inhabitants’ intense patriotism. The motion passes overwhelmingly, 26 votes to 2.
1910
1 January 1910 Ronald writes in his earliest surviving diary: ‘Depressed and as much in dark as ever. God help me. Feel weak and weary’ (quoted in Biography, p. 42). His depression is due not only to his disappointment at Oxford, but also to the difficulty of his relationship with Edith. He is torn between his feelings for her and his duty to the guardian to whom he owes so much. Although Father Francis has not specifically ordered Ronald not to see Edith again, his wishes are clear. – During this month he finds new lodgings for Ronald and Hilary with Thomas Macsherry, the director of a whiskey distillery, and his wife Julia at 4 Highfield Road, Edgbaston. Ronald will live at this address until going up to *Oxford in autumn 1911.
Spring term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald gives a lecture to the First Class entitled The Modern Languages of Europe: Derivations and Capabilities. After he takes up three one-hour sessions and still does not finish, the master calls a halt. During the spring and summer terms, there are seventeen pupils in Class I. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class V, Section B4.
20 January 1910 Ronald feels that he and Edith must discuss what they are to do. They meet without asking Father Francis for permission. They spend part of the day in the countryside discussing plans, but also visit E.H. Lawley & Sons, jewellers, at 24 New Street, Birmingham. Edith buys Ronald a pen for ten shillings and sixpence as a belated birthday present; he spends the same on a wrist watch as a twenty-first birthday present for Edith.
21 January 1910 Ronald and Edith celebrate her twenty-first birthday by having tea together. But their meeting is seen and reported to Father Francis: he now forbids Ronald to meet or even write to Edith. By now, in fact, she has decided to move to *Cheltenham to live with two elderly family friends, Mr and Mrs C.H. Jessop. Ronald may see her to say goodbye on the day she leaves Birmingham, and then there is to be no contact until he comes of age three years later.
23 January 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald takes part in a debate on the motion: ‘That the vulgar are the really happy.’ He argues that there is no reason why this should be true of the vulgar as a class, and the fact that vulgarity and happiness sometimes accompany one another is no proof. Vincent Trought thinks that ‘the man who ate with his mouth too full could never be really happy’, Rob Gilson argues that education is ‘the direct opposite of vulgarity’, and W.H. Payton speaks briefly in the negative (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 7, 8). The motion fails, 10 votes to 17.
11 February 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That lawn-tennis is physically and socially a superior game to cricket.’ Christopher Wiseman demonstrates ‘from personal experience of “a friend,” that cricket does not provide sufficient exercise for a young boy’, while Vincent Trought inveighs ‘against those who wished to reject our national pastime and accept a foreign upstart in its stead’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 8, 9). The motion passes, 15 votes to 7.
12 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Kings Norton. King Edward’s School wins, 11 to 8.
15 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Birkenhead School, Oxton, Cheshire. King Edward’s School wins, 20 to 0.
16 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary that he had prayed that he would see Edith by accident, and his prayer had been answered. ‘Saw her at 12.55 at Prince of Wales [presumably the Prince of Wales Theatre on Broad Street]. Told her I could not write and arranged to see her off on Thursday fortnight. Happier but so much long to see her just once to cheer her up. Cannot think of anything else’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43). See note.
18 February 1909 King Edward’s School student R.B. Naish reads a paper on Robert Browning at a meeting of the Literary Society.
19 February 1910 Ronald plays in 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.
21 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary: ‘I saw a dejected little figure sloshing along in a mac and tweed hat and could not resist crossing and saying a word of love and cheerfulness. This cheered me up a little for a while. Prayed and thought hard’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).
23 February 1910 Ronald and Edith meet again accidentally.
25 February 1910 The Annual Parliamentary debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the State recognises the right of its citizens to work, and undertakes the responsibility of providing it, if necessary.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that ‘the scheme would prove not only inefficient, but demoralising to the character of the community’ and advocating tariff reform as ‘the only true remedy for the evil’ (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), p. 9). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.
26 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against Bromsgrove School. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 21. – At least one of Ronald’s unplanned meetings with Edith has been reported to Father Francis. Ronald writes in his diary that he has ‘had a dreadful letter’ from his guardian ‘saying I had been seen with a girl again, calling it evil and foolish. Threatening to cut short my University career if I did not stop. Means I cannot see E[dith]. Nor write at all. God help me. Saw E. at midday but would not be with her. I owe all to Fr. F[rancis] and so must obey’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).
2 March 1910 Edith leaves Birmingham for Cheltenham, Ronald has a last glimpse of her as she rides her bicycle to the station. Although Edith will miss Ronald, she will now live in greater comfort, and she will be able to play the piano as much as she likes, a pleasure forbidden her by Mrs Faulkner.
4 March 1910 W.H. Payton reads a paper on The Ingoldsby Legends at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.
11 March 1910 In another Latin debate at King Edward’s School Ronald plays the part of a Greek ambassador, ‘Eisphorides Acribus Polyglotteus’, and speaks entirely in Greek. On another such occasion, according to Humphrey Carpenter, Ronald ‘astonished his schoolfellows when, in the character of a barbarian envoy, he broke into fluent Gothic; and on a third occasion he spoke in Anglo-Saxon. These activities occupied many hours …’ (Biography, p. 48).
12 March 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against the Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School wins, 30 to 6.
18 March 1910 Former student E. Muncaster reads a paper on ‘Witchcraft’ at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.
26 March 1910 (Easter Saturday) With the permission of Father Francis, Ronald writes a long letter to Edith. This ends with a poem, probably Morning, which he will later date to March 1910 – his earliest dated surviving verse. He encloses two devotional pamphlets, The Stations of the Cross and The Seven Words of the Cross. – At about this time Ronald begins to write original poems in English, in addition to translating poems into Latin as part of the classical curriculum at school. Much of his early poetry celebrates his appreciation of nature and landscape.
5 April 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. King Edward’s School wins, 19 to 0. – The School’s annual Open Debate addresses the motion: ‘That the party system has proved itself to be no longer compatible with the sound government of this country.’ W.H. Payton is among those who speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 20 votes to 30.
6 April 1910 The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert at 7.30 p.m. in the Governors’ Board Room. During the programme Ronald’s friend Rob Gilson recites John of Gaunt’s dying speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II.
From 11 April 1910 Ronald sees a performance of J.M. *Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham. He writes in his diary: ‘Indescribable but I shall never forget it as long as I live. Wish E[dith] had been with me’ (quoted in Biography, pp. 47–8). The play is presented for six nights and two matinees beginning 11 April.
May 1910 Ronald writes a poem, The Dale Lands.
6 May 1910 King Edward VII dies. George V succeeds to the throne.
June 1910 Ronald writes a poem, Evening.
12 June 1910 Ronald inscribes his Greek edition of The Fifth Book of Thucydides with his name and a Gothic text which he later translated as: ‘I read the words of these books of Greek history in the sixth month of this year; thousand, nine hundreds, ten, of Our Lord: in order to gain the prize given every year to the boy knowing most about Thucydides, and this I inscribed in my books on the twelfth of the sixth (month) after I had already first read through all the words carefully’ (letter to Zillah Sherring, 20 July 1965, Letters, p. 357).
30 June and 2 July 1910 Ronald attends the King Edward’s School Athletic Sports at the School Grounds. He comes third in the One Mile Flat Race, Open.
July 1910 Ronald takes the examinations for the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate, passing in five subjects: Latin, Greek, Elementary Mathematics, Scripture Knowledge (Greek Text), and History, and also satisfies the examiners in English Essay. – He writes a poem, Wood-sunshine, noteworthy among his earliest verse for its references to ‘fairy things tripping so gay’ and ‘sprites of the wood’, a foreshadowing of later writings (Biography, p. 47). He will later date another poem, The Sirens, also to this month.
27 July 1910 Speech Day and Prize-giving at King Edward’s School, followed by various performances. Ronald is awarded the prize for German, and plays the part of the Inspector in a performance in Greek of The Birds by Aristophanes, for which the King Edward’s School Chronicle will single him out for special praise. Rob Gilson and Christopher Wiseman appear in scenes from Shakespeare’s Henry V. – Hilary Tolkien attends his final day at King Edward’s School. At some time before April 1911 he will be given a post in Walter Incledon’s family business, as a hardware merchant’s clerk.
28 July–6 August 1910 Ronald attends camp with the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps. Sixty-four cadets parade at the School on the morning of 28 July under the command of Captain R.H. Hume before travelling by special train from Snow Hill Station, Birmingham, to *Aldershot in Hampshire. They and cadets from other schools pitch camp on Farnborough Common and spend two days drilling in preparation for an inspection by the Duke of Connaught on the Saturday afternoon. During their field training the cadets are taken in groups to visit the depot of military airplanes and airships in the neighbouring Farnborough. A battery of field artillery is demonstrated to them. During the second week, the cadets are inspected by Field Marshals Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. ‘The weather was on the whole good, but on two evenings the rain fell in torrents and nearly washed out the Camp’ (R.H. Hume, ‘O.T.C. Annual Camp, Aldershot, 1910’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 74).
Summer 1910 Ronald takes a holiday in *Whitby on the northeast coast of England. He makes at least seven drawings of the busy fishing port and the ruined abbey on the cliff above the town, including Whitby, Ruins at West End of Whitby Abbey (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 9–10), and ‘Sketch of Whitby’ (Life and Legend, p. 19). – Either this summer or in 1911 he visits his Aunt Jane Neave in St Andrews, *Scotland, where she is Lady Warden of University Hall. While there he draws a view, St Andrews from Kinkell Brae.
Autumn term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald is now a Prefect, Secretary of the Debating Society, Football Secretary, House Football Captain, and a corporal in the Officers Training Corps, each of which posts has various duties. He is also, with Christopher Wiseman and Rob Gilson, a Sub-Librarian. See note. Another future member of the T.C.B.S., *Sidney Barrowclough, is now among the twenty boys in the First Class. Despite these distractions, Ronald is (or is supposed to be) working hard for his second attempt to gain an Oxford scholarship. – During his last year at school Ronald will discover the Finnish *Kalevala in the English translation by W.F. Kirby.
7 October 1910 Ronald makes the opening speech at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society, in favour of the motion: ‘That this House considers that the Debating Society does more harm than good.’ He accuses the Society of encouraging the growth of punning and draws ‘a harrowing picture of the devastation wrought through this malpractice by members of the Society in Camp at Aldershot’. Among other speakers, Vincent Trought ultimately suggests that a debate precede every meal as an appetizer and offering a ‘sweeping dictum that “this House keeps its members from the ‘Pubs’”’; Rob Gilson explains ‘impatiently that his one and only grievance against the Society was this educational tendency’; R.S. Payton applies ‘his wit for a sentence or so to the Secretary’; and Christopher Wiseman rises ‘distorted and inarticulate with internal merriment’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), pp. 69, 70). The motion fails, 5 votes to 15. See note.
14 October 1910 Rob Gilson reads a paper on John Ruskin at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.
15 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 10. See note.
21 October 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House advocates State Endowment of the Drama.’ Although Ronald is not reported to have made any direct contribution to the debate, C.H. Richards ‘regretted bitterly the weak moment in which he had capitulated to the highwaymanism of the Secretary’ (Ronald) in persuading him to lead the opposition to the motion (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 70). Rob Gilson, Vincent Trought, and Christopher Wiseman are among the other speakers. The motion fails, 9 votes to 14.
22 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Denstone, Staffordshire, against Denstone College. King Edward’s School wins, 17 to 13. The King Edward’s School Chronicle will report that ‘Tolkien played a characteristic dashing game’ (‘Football’, n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 83).
25 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Jesus College, Oxford. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.
28 October 1910 King Edward’s School sudent F. Scopes reads a paper on Matthew Arnold as a poet at a meeting of the Literary Society.
29 October 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Oakham School. King Edward’s School wins, 9 to 8.
November 1910 As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meetings of the Society on 7 and 21 October published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for November 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number.
1 November 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match against The Leys School, Cambridge. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 6. After the match, Ronald, Christopher Wiseman, and another player receive their first team colours.
4 November 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House deplores the occurrence of the Norman Conquest.’ It will be reported in the King Edward’s School Chronicle that
in a speech attempting to return to something of Saxon purity of diction, (‘right English goodliness of speechcraft’?) [Ronald] deplored before ‘the worshipful fellows of the speechguild,’ the influx of polysyllabic barbarities which ousted the more honest if humbler native words. He finally appealed to the House’s sentiment, recalling the deaths of Harold and Hereward, but lapsed regrettably in his enthusiasm into such outlandish horrors as ‘famous’ and ‘barbarous’.
Among other speakers, Rob Gilson ‘denied the equality of Saxon to Norman in anything; Vincent Trought offered ‘the comforting theory that William never really conquered England at all’ but had visited Hastings ‘to get local colour for his new novel’; and W.H. and R.S. Payton and Christopher Wiseman ‘were eloquent upon the negative’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 184 (December 1910), p. 95). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.
5 November 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 20. It may be during this match that Ronald suffers injury to his tongue or nose, as he does not play for the rest of the term. (In playing rugby ‘I got rather damaged – among things having my tongue nearly cut out’: letter to Michael Tolkien, 3 October 1937, Letters, p. 22.) The King Edward’s School Chronicle will note that several members on the 1st XV are now on the injured list.
11 November 1910 Vincent Trought reads a paper on Romanticism at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.
18 November 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald speaks against the motion: ‘A system of arbitration would be in every way preferable to war.’ Vincent Trought, W.H. Payton, and Rob Gilson, among others, speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 5 votes to 12.
December 1910 As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meeting of the Society on 4 November published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for December 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number. – The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert. During the evening Rob Gilson recites the abdication speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II, and two scenes from Sheridan’s The Rivals are performed.
2 December 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald proposes the motion: ‘We are Degenerating.’ According to a report (presumably by Ronald himself) in the King Edward’s School Chronicle, he ‘based all his argument upon intellectual degradation, and inveighed against the artificiality and unwholesomeness of Our outlook. After appearing to proclaim himself a hedonist, he produced what proved to be the most unfortunately conspicuous part of the debate. This was his “Theory of Bumps.” Men progressed in bumps, bumping low, but never bumping as low as they had bumped before’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 185 (February 1911), p. 5). This theory is taken up by succeeding speakers, and at the end of the debate ‘the Hon. Opener thereupon adjusted his theory of bumps to one of contusions. He remained defiant in a lost cause. He knew the House had a delightful custom of invariably voting Negative. It did.’ Among others, his friend *Thomas Kenneth (‘Tea-Cake’) Barnsley speaks in the affirmative, and Sidney Barrowclough and Vincent Trought argue in the negative. The motion fails, 10 votes to 16.
Mid-December 1910 Ronald travels to Oxford on his second attempt to win a scholarship.
16 December 1910 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society the Old Boys discuss the question of whether ‘the evils of the press have up to now exceeded its benefits.’ The motion fails, 3 votes to 16.
17 December 1910 Ronald learns that he has been awarded an Open Classical Exhibition at Exeter College, worth £60 a year. He immediately informs Edith, who telegraphs her congratulations on the same day. He ought to have won a more valuable scholarship, but as he later wrote: ‘I was clever, but not industrious or single-minded; a large part of my failure was due simply to not working (at least not at classics) not because I was in love, but because I was studying something else: Gothic and what not’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941, Letters, p. 52). But this exhibition, together with a bursary from King Edward’s School and some extra finance from Father Francis, makes it possible for him to attend Oxford. He can now enjoy his last two terms at King Edward’s School with pressure removed and his future secure.
Christmas 1910 Ronald receives an unsigned Christmas card from Edith.
1911
Spring and summer terms 1911 During this period Ronald is one of seventeen pupils in the First Class.
