DISEÑO METODOLÓGICO

‘Hare and Hounds’ referred to cross country runs over the hills and through the meadows of Rugby. The name reflected the influence in the region of game sports such as fox hunting and fishing. The first step in the race was to select two boys from the house as the hares. All the other boys were designated as hounds. These two hares were invariably amongst the best runners in the house. Each hare was required to carry a long canvas bag stuffed with shredded paper. This paper, or scent, was strewn on the ground for the hounds to follow. Prior to setting off, it was typically a fag’s duty to fill to these bags to the brim with paper. The hares then synchronised watches and together fled

141

Bell’s Life in London, 5 November 1855, p. 6.

142

The awarding of one’s cap to play football in major Rugby school games was a matter of great pride. See Evans House archives, Temple Reading Room. See Macrory, Running with the Ball, pp. 82, 83 117. Also Butler, The Three Friends, pp. 1-2.

143

H. Fellows, ‘Football Costumes’, Temple Reading Room, Rugby School Painting, Rugby school archives. An early picture of the School House XX in 1864 reveals an ovoid rather than oval ball; white flannel trousers; skull and cross bones emblem of the cock house school house. They are attired in caps and belts; tight lace-up boots.

144

This sentiment is expressed in student publications such as New Rugbeian. ‘Rugby Games’, New Rugbeian 1858-1861, vol. 1., September 1859, p. 288. ‘Amongst Rugbeians cricket and football are the

across the nearby fields. As the hares ran they left a trails of paper as scent. Some minutes afterwards, off would set the remainder of the house as the large pack of hounds, following the scent and in pursuit of the two hares.145

The attrition rate over the length of a course was high. Boys began in large numbers and boisterous spirits. This rarely lasted. In wet conditions the tracks rapidly became soggy and progress sluggish. Thick hedges acted as natural filters. Brooks were forded, clothes ripped and skin lacerated in pursuit of the hares. Recently ploughed fields, viscous and thick, stopped boys in their tracks: ‘The first good stiff piece of ploughed land reduced the number to one half, and the second or third found very few besides the regular set, amounting to about 8 or 10’.146 Over the course, the hounds splintered into smaller groups, stopping every now and then to pick up the scent. When one small group located the scent, they bellowed ‘forward’. At that point all the splinter groups merged into a single yelping pack. At the next point of uncertainty the hounds would disperse across the fields until the rallying call was heard again.

Wills was a prominent runner in ‘Hare and Hounds’. As a fine runner he was typically a hare. If not, he was invariably one of the first finishing hounds. The Evans House archives record the running feats of Tom Wills. He is recorded in three runs in 1851, two in 1852, two in 1853 and then he returned as an Old Rugbeian for a final run in 1855.147 Wills was at his running peak during his first three years at Rugby school. He was a champion distance runner before he made his mark in cricket and football. In 1851 Wills was the fastest runner in the school for the Churchover run, covering this in 56 minutes 45 seconds.148

period by means of hare and hounds, steeple-chase, and other devices, we nevertheless feel that they are after all, but makeshifts’.

145

See Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, pp. 130-4. For more on hare and hounds, see, The Book of Rugby School, pp. 171-81; Bradby, The Handbooks, pp. 208-9. Rouse, A History of Rugby School, p. 270; A. R. Welsh, Rugby School Hare and Hounds. Description of the Big-Side Runs (Rugby: AJ Lawrence, 1902). The runs brought the boys into conflict with neighbouring farmers, An Old Rugbaean,

Recollections of Rugby, p. 140, ‘Many were the rows which took place between the hare-and-hounds and the neighbouring farmers, who were so obtuse as not to see any just cause why their hedges should be broken down in order to allow us to pass …’. Also, The Rugby Miscellany (London: Whittaker and Co., 1846), pp. 58-60.

146

An Old Rugbaean, Recollections of Rugby, p. 139.

147

Only fragments of the Evans Manuscript remain. It is a record of runs for Evans House. This is an incomplete record of various Hare and Hound runs. It gives a list of the hares, who started as hounds and who completed the runs. When Wills runs as a hound he is usually first or second in. As an Old Boy in October 1855 he comes in a rather poor seventh in the Shawel Run in torrential rain.

148

The Evans House archives reveal that running took place between late September to mid-October. In 1852, Wills was the conqueror of the Crick, regarded as Rugby’s great running course.149 The boys’ own words summed up the chaos and obstacles:

Start from Quad Gates up the Hillmorton road, and down the road to Whitehall, on reaching which turn to the right down the Lower Hillmorton road as far as the village. Go through it and take the second turning to the left, (not the first as in the Hillmorton Run), under the railway and through a gate along a bridle road to the canal. After crossing this, turn to the right, following the road close by a hedge to the end of the field, where you go over a stile and up a long hill diagonally, following a footpath: then down the other side to a gate, just crossing the corner of the next field, and over a stile. In the next, a long ridge and furrow field, leave the regular footpath and go almost straight up, over a ditch, making for the end of a fence which juts out from the left-hand hedge near the top. Get over the railings at this corner and go straight on for two fields, keeping the hedge close on your right; on coming to a farmhouse, turn to the left through a gate of the farmyard, and then sharp to the right down a field close by the hedge. Through a gap in the hedge in front and straight on over the next field till you get over a gate into the Kilsby road, (not Watling Street, which disappears about here, but a continuation of it). Go straight across through a gap by the stump of an old tree, making for the right hand of two sets of rails in front, where you cross a brook …150

Tom completed the run in one hour 39 minutes. He was the fastest schoolboy of that year. Wills stole notice in whatever he did. When he was late for a run it was recorded; when he ran brilliantly it was underscored; when the scent was picked up quickly it was done so by Wills.151 As a sportsman and leader Wills was the defining point for all others in the house.

His last recorded run as a pupil in the Evans archives was on 29 October 1853. Starting five to six minutes adrift, having been entangled in French classes, he with ease, gathered in the other runners up the grinding ascent of Barby hill. He strode out and ran ‘beautifully all the way’. The runners ended at the Cock and Robin Public

149

Welsh, Rugby School Hare and Hounds, p. 30.

150

Welsh, Rugby School Hare and Hounds, pp. 28, 37. In 1853 he topped the runners for the Lawford run. In 1852, T. W. Wills and fellow cricketer, footballer and housemate A. H. Fairbairn shared equal fastest for the Shawell run in 51 minutes 30 seconds.

151

House.152 There were rewards for those who lasted the distance. Beer, cheese and bread, that trilogy of Rugby schoolboy delights, awaited the hares and the determined hounds that chased them home.153 A drink at the local public house was the reward at the end of every run. High quality beer was regarded as an effective incentive for the runners accustomed to the stale brew of their houses. The hares, inside a pub and drinking, left their remaining pile of scent outside the door as a final inducement to the hounds:

There was usually a great difference between the number of those who assembled at the ‘meet’ and those who were present at the public- house which formed the terminus of every run … but the muster in the back room of the ‘Crown’, seldom included more than half a dozen.154