Читать книгу The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 1: Chronology - Christina Scull - Страница 27

1905

1905 Aunt Beatrice gives the boys board and lodging but little affection or consideration for their feelings; one day Ronald discovers that she has burned their mother’s personal papers and letters. In many ways, the Oratory is Ronald and Hilary’s real home. In the morning, they serve Mass for Father Francis, and they eat breakfast in the refectory before leaving for school, either on foot or by horse-bus or bicycle. Ronald will later describe this period in his life as having ‘the advantage of a (then) first rate school and that of a “good Catholic home” – “in excelsis”: [I was] virtually a junior inmate of the Oratory house, which contained many learned fathers (largely “converts”)’ (letter to *Michael Tolkien, begun after 25 August 1967, Letters, p. 395). – Having access to books in Spanish belonging to Father Francis Morgan (who is half Spanish), Ronald tries to teach himself that language.

Spring and summer terms 1905 With the permission of the Oratory, for otherwise they would have to go to St Philip’s, Ronald continues to attend King Edward’s School, now together with Hilary, who enters in January 1905 in Class XIII, Section D7. Ronald is still in the Sixth Class under George Brewerton, in Section B6. He is also now in the Third Division (b) of the French course taught by Assistant Master A.L. Rothe. Father Francis will also allow Ronald to attend classes on the New Testament in Greek, offered by the Head Master of King Edward’s School, *Robert Cary Gilson.

6 and 8 July 1905 Athletic Sports are held at the King Edward’s School Grounds.

August 1905 Jane Suffield and Edwin Neave are married in Manchester. They settle in *Gedling, near Nottingham, where Edwin now holds a more senior position with Guardian Assurance.

2 August 1905 Speech Day and prize-giving at King Edward’s School. Ronald, who has tied for first place among fifteen boys in the Sixth Class, receives as a prize the book Roman History by W.W. Capes (1879).

Summer 1905 According to Humphrey Carpenter, Father Francis Morgan took Ronald and Hilary on holiday to *Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England, every summer after their mother’s death; and ‘later in childhood’ Ronald went on a railway journey to *Wales (Biography, p. 26).

Autumn term 1905 Ronald is now in the Fifth Class at King Edward’s School, under Assistant Master C.H. Heath. There he meets Christopher Wiseman, who will become a close friend and friendly rival. At the end of term Ronald is placed first and Wiseman second in the class of nineteen boys. Other pupils who also will become close friends are *Robert Q. ‘Rob’ Gilson, the son of the Head Master, and *Vincent Trought. During this term Ronald is in Section B5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic under Assistant Master Charles Davison, and in the French Third Division (a) under Assistant Master J.W. Smyth. Hilary Tolkien continues in Class XIII, Section D7.