same level of scholarship and general reputation, the former has by far the longer history. Mill Hill school will celebrate its centenary next year, while The Leys is not yet forty years old. It was thought at one time that there was not room among Free Churchmen for two such schools, and for some years when The Leys was flourishing, Mill Hill was on the decline. At the present time both schools are well filled, and there seems no reason why they should not continue to prosper side by side. Both schools have been singularly fortunate in their situation. Mill Hill school stands on one of the northern Middlesex Heights, over 400 feet above the sea, directly opposite Harrow-on-the-Hill. The Leys, on the other hand, while not possessing such a fine position, has secured an estate without rival in the environs of Cambridge, and is spared the difficulties which have had to be overcome at Mill Hill in respect to grounds. Reference should be made to the buildings, which are very complete at both schools. Until 1874 there was only the schoolhouse at Mill Hill, containing 120 boys; but since that time two new boarding houses have been erected containing from 35-40 boys, while there are two additional waiting houses. The numbers now stand at 250, and further accommodation will have to be provided if the schools are to increase beyond that number. A junior school will in all probability be opened within the next few years. At The Leys the boys' buildings are detached, as at Mill Hill, from the head-master's house, but all the boys dine in common in the school hall, and the divisions are made on the principle of the hostel rather than of the boarding house. Two masters are in charge of each of the four houses, and there is thus full scope for the sectional oversight of the boys and for interesting inter-house competitions. A great assembly hall, a science school, a swimming bath, and a chapel, with sundry classrooms, a gymnasium, art school, music school, armoury and workshop make up the accommodation available for the Leysian of to-day. There are about 170 boys at The Leys, and there seems every prospect of further rise. No one has ever been styled the founder of Mill Hill, but to Dr. Pye Smith, F.R.S., of Homerton College, and Mr. Samuel Favell is due a very large share of credit. It was not until Mr. Priestly became head master, in 1835, that the school became really firmly established; but during his eighteen years of office, many eminent Mill Hillians were educated. He was succeeded in 1853 by Rev. Philip Smith, brother of Sir William Smith, of dictionary fame, who frequently examined the school in classics. Few of Mill Hill's head masters have educated a finer body of men than those who were boys under Philip Smith, and no one has more successfully embodied the two-fold idea for which Mill Hill was founded— scholarship and broad evangelical Christianity. After Mr. Smith's retirement, in 1860, the school declined, but Mr. Thomas Scrutton, the treasurer, succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of several prominent men, among them Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., and the school was reconstructed on a broader foundation under the authority of the Court of Chancery in 1869. When Dr. McClure took up the reins of government, in 1891, the numbers had dropped to 61. He at once threw himself heart and soul into developing the school along broader lines, and the fifteen years he has spent as headmaster have been a golden age for Mill Hill. The numbers have been quadrupled, and more buildings have been added in the last eight years than in the previous history of the school. But bricks and mortar alone do not make a school, and in all other respects as well Mill Hill has prospered under Dr. McClure's regime. In The science laboratories are well equipped, but there is not at present any engineering side. addition to the usual school routine, there are various societies to which the boys belong, such as the Reading Room, the Natural History Society, and the Debate. The history of the younger foundation is still short, to be sure; but there are great memories and definite traditions none the less. Beginning with crude and temporary accommodation, the Leys School gradually increased in size and activity, till after four years the chief permanent buildings were completed, and the numbers rose to 120. The Old Leysians have had a long standing reputation as a football and social club, and have recently built a splendid suite of settlements and missions in the City Road, opened three years ago by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, where Old Boys and others live and work to ameliorate the lot of their neighbours in the slums of the metropolis. Old Millhillians have not been so ambitious in their schemes of settlement work, but have two successful boys' clubs, one in connection with Toynbee Hall and another in St. Pancras, where an Old Boy was killed by roughs on Peace Night, 1903. There has been a chapel at Mill Hill since the foundation, and the present building is the third that has been erected. Until this year the Leys has had services in the big school, but, during the last few months, the Treasurer and Governors have been pressing to completion a very beautiful chapel, and at the same time have erected a swimming bath. At both schools the chapel forms a centre of religious life, the importance of which it would be hard to over-estimate. In spite of its small numbers, Mill Hill has trained a large number of men who have done good service in public life. There is nothing narrow about the average Millhillian, and he is to be found in almost every walk of life. The Leys, with its shorter life and roll-call, has figured less prominently by its Old Boys in various walks of life; but in many forms of activity, in the church, in the professions, and in business, Leysians have come to the fore, and have shown that in the near future there may be expected a large number of members of Parliament, eminent divines and men of importance in other spheres, who have had their early training at The Leys. |