Rambles and Adventures OF OUR SCHOOL FIELD-CLUB. CHAPTER I. Oswestry-The Grammar School-Baptism-Woodpigeon's Nest"Possum up a Gum Tree." HE pleasant little town of Oswestry nestles where THE the uplands of the Welsh borders meet the rich plain of Shropshire. The country around is very beautiful, and it is of events which happened among its bowery woods, its shady lanes, and its breezy hills, that we write. The following pages treat of schoolboy life and adventure; of rambles through forest and park, over glen and mountain, and by stream and lake. We shall have pleasant boy friends to accompany us, to find us the nests of rare birds, catch us beautiful butterflies, discover strange wonders of the rocks for us, dive into science, and perform experiments with electrical machines and galvanic batteries, and show us streams where the big trout lie, and pools where huge carp and fierce pike are waiting to be caught. There A will also be sailing and canoeing adventures, and we shall learn how to use tools, and make ourselves nearly all the implements of sport and science we shall need. If this is not a tempting programme then shut the book and read no more, for it shall be faithfully carried out. As there will be a great deal of natural history contained in these pages, it behoves us to say a word or two on the advantages of its study. First and foremost to a boy's mind is the great additional charm a knowledge of, and a love for, the wonderfully beautiful world we live in, its birds, animals, reptiles, and insects, its plants of the present and its plants of the ages long gone by, give to the adventurous and sporting rambles that boys delight in. It needs no argument to prove this. Let a boy make the experiment of keeping his eyes open and noting what he sees around him of the habits of wild creatures and the beautiful forms of tree and flower, and if he does not find a great pleasure therein, it argues ill for that boy's chance of obtaining happiness out of his future life. The same qualities that are necessary to the perfect enjoyment of a country ramble are needful to soften down the asperities of his future life and make him a contented and happy man, gathering grapes where other men see nothing but thistles, and never at a loss how to fill up an idle hour and drive away the discontent that attends the lacking of an object in life other than the quickest means of getting rich. The same impulse and energy that make a man a naturalist in the summer will make him interest himself Oswestry-The Grammar School. 3 in science in the winter, when long dark evenings have to be spent, oftentimes alone. When we were young it was our greatest delight to get hold of some book in which we could learn what we wished to know respecting our schoolboy pursuits, not with much painstaking and an effort that reminded us too closely of our lessons, but easily and pleasantly and with the interest of a tale and stirring adventures to lead us on. For the author of such a book we experienced a feeling of reverence and personal regard, and now that we have climbed some way up the hill of life, it is as great a pleasure to us to teach our younger friends those "wrinkles" which we were once so proud of knowing. Hence this book is a labour of love, and we hope, boys, that you will come to consider us as a friend and companion rather than a teacher. Now that we have explained our object and our motive, we must describe the town and neighbourhood of Oswestry. In the centre of the town is the "Cross" and market-place, and from it radiate the four principal streets-Church Street, Willow Street, Cross Street, and Bailey Street. The fine old church, surrounded by lime trees and yews, stands at the further end of Church Street, and then if you turn sharp round by the church and go along the Carneddau Road for a quarter of a mile you come to the Grammar School, a large plain, brick building, with the master's house at one end of it. The playground is a large one, with some fine chestnut trees in it, around which, when the nuts are ripe, the boys have some famous battles. Now there is a well-built chapel close to the schoolroom, where the boys troop in to service every morning, but at the time of which we write this chapel was not in existence, and its place was supplied by some huge holly bushes, of which we shall presently have something to say. At the upper end of the playground, in a clump of trees, is Saint Oswald's Well. Here, Oswald, an ancient king and the patron saint of Oswestry (Oswaldestree, softened into Oswestry), fell in battle at the foot of a tree, which has long since disappeared. On the spot where he fell a spring of water arose (so it is said). Anyway there is a well of the purest water, enclosed in a stone arch, at the back of which is a shapeless projection that was once a bust of King Oswald, but, presenting a capital mark, has been defaced by generations of stone-throwers. The water of the well is said to have healing properties, and if you wish when you drink of it, taking care not to divulge your wish to anyone, what you wish will come to pass. Above the well is a small open space, where the pugilistic encounters of the school used to take place. From this spot you can get a very good idea of the nature of the surrounding country. To the westward are the Welsh hills, rising one above another, and clothed with dark fir and oak woods here and there; woods that shelter pools and tarns where fish, and big ones too, are to be caught. To the eastward there is a flat, well-wooded plain, with the rivers Morda, Virniew, and Severn winding through it, and the seven lakes of Ellesmere waiting to be boated on and fished |