Marlborough Chalk: Reflections on the College, its history and its area

MARLBOROUGH CHALK

Reflections on the College, its history and its area

Front cover painting: Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, AmeliA S (U6)

Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, Ottilie RichaRdsOn (ih 2017-22)

Preface

Christopher Moule (CR, Head of Academic Scholars, Head of History)

This collection of essays seeks to link our great College, our town (Sorley’s ‘little red-capped town’), our grand and evocative surroundings, and the distinctive rock beneath. Marlborough Chalk refers both to this rock and to pedagogy – the chalk of the classroom. This project follows two publications that were created in lockdown: one about lockdowns and isolation, and one about Beethoven, a universal genius. So this particular collection is far more local, and – after those world-wide studies which were created by a community made disparate by the crisis –represents a sort of homecoming.

It has been authored by several academic scholars (all from the Shell, Remove or Lower Sixth), who have demonstrated the immense variety of what such localised study can yield. Some have written about the physical and chemical properties of chalk, and of its uses. Others have studied the ancient monuments, the poetry or the culture of the area; this contrasts with chalk’s appearance and uses in other parts of the world. Some have written on structures at the College, or on OMs. For some, there are directly personal connections: one scholar has written about how Marlborough College has changed over the five generations that her family has attended it; and one has commented on a variety of extraordinary links between the College and his country, Russia.

There’s a peculiar and exceptional character to Marlborough – the College and its landscape – captured wonderfully (and variously) by its poets and writers. Several of our pupil authors enjoy regular trips to explore the downland and its great places; there is a scholarly club committed to such exploration, following in the tradition of the College’s antiquaries and natural historians of the nineteenth century. The Neolithic barrows and temples, the Celtic hillforts, the broad gallops, the ancient woods and the red villages bounded by those rare chalk streams (Kennet and Og) have doubtless fed the particular genius loci of the College, and shaped its character and qualities.

There is infinite scope and it’s obvious that this is a highly partial exercise; there’s so much more to say! But I hope the articles inspire people to think again about what a remarkable place this is.

Many thanks go not only to the contributors, but also to Jackie Jordan (Head of Marketing and Communications), who helped to drive this project: the style, format and appearance of the finished work has been hugely influenced by her and I’m extremely grateful.

Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, DiyA c (hU)

The chemistry of chalk Arthur B (L6)

I would like to start with what chalk is. Chalk, also referred to as calcium carbonate, has the molecular formula CaCO3. This displays a lot more about chalk than one might first anticipate.

What do these letters mean? Firstly, ‘Ca’ is calcium. Calcium is a group 2 element also commonly referred to as the earth metals. Ca has an oxidation number of 2 which means it wants to lose 2 electrons to obtain a noble gas configuration. This is a state where an atom has a full outer shell of electrons and is therefore more stable. This forms a strong ionic bond with the carbonate ion (CO3) due to the fact that after electron transfer, they have 2- and 2+ charges. These different charges attract very strongly and so the two differently charged ions interact and stick together. CO3 has an oxidation number of 2 as well. However, the carbonate ion wants to gain 2 elections rather than lose them. The ionic compound chalk is commonly known for its large white cliffs, but it is also extremely exciting in terms of chemical reactions.

Chalk (CaCO3) is a base. This means it is an insoluble alkali with pH above 7. As a base it has useful properties such as the fact it neutralizes acids. An example of this in the real world is Rennie tablets that are used to cure indigestion or heart burn. This works as the base doesn’t dissolve in your saliva and damage your oesophagus, but only reacts with hydrochloric acid once the tablet has reached your stomach. The equation of the reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate goes as follows:

2HCl + CaCO3

CaCl2 + H2O + CO2

This basic part of chemistry has allowed a simple cure for a common discomfort.

The importance of chalk’s insolubility can be underestimated. Another example of this importance is the test for carbon dioxide. It is fairly common knowledge that if you were to pass CO2 through limewater or calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) that the limewater would go cloudy. This is to do with calcium carbonate. As carbon dioxide is passed through the limewater it forms CaCO3. This is incredibly valuable as it is a definite proof that CO2 is present. The chemical equation for this reaction is:

CO2 + Ca(OH)2

CaCO3 + H2O

This is one of the most common chemical tests and is incredibly valuable throughout testing chemicals. The fascinating thing about this experiment is that if carbon dioxide is passed through the limewater continuously then the white precipitate (CaCO3) will disappear. This may appear to be a reversible reaction but that is not the case. This is because in excess carbon dioxide calcium hydrogen carbonate forms. This is soluble and as more CaCO3 is converted into Ca(HCO3)2 the solution turns colourless again. This reaction has the chemical equation:

CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O

Ca(HCO3)2

Chalk’s chemistry is also important for the formation of chalk streams. These are incredibly pure sources of water as chalk is a very porous and pure form of limestone. This means that it filters out other sediments whilst the water rises to the surface from chalk bedrock. Chalk is a very pure calcite which is made up of fragments of small sea creature shells. This makes it soft and porous which is why any sediment is filtered out and this creates the clean and pure water that chalk streams are renowned for.

For all these reasons chalk’s chemistry should not be overlooked in its importance as it has an interesting set of reactions that, upon further understanding, can provide great use in daily life, nature, and science.

The hidden importance of chalk

Alisa A (L6)

Marlborough College is built on chalk. A white substance which seemingly is able to withstand tonnes of construction and disruption, while also crumbling on a blackboard to leave layers behind. Chalk is used in our daily lives, as it has either played a part in food production, medication or for daily activities. So, if the properties of chalk are so varied, in accordance with the use that it has been designed for, have we fully acknowledged the importance of chalk? To add, while chalk may be more familiar to some, as a substance used to write on blackboards within classrooms, does anybody know what it actually is?

From a medical perspective, chalk is also known as calcium carbonate, which has been used to relieve heartburn since 1930. Calcium carbonate is found in antacids, which is chewed to provide relief for gastro-intestinal discomfort. Calcium carbonate is a basic and insoluble compound, therefore, when swallowed, calcium carbonate will not be absorbed into the gut, rather, it will react with excess hydrochloric acid in the stomach and result in a neutralisation reaction:

CaCO3(aq) + HCl(aq) -> CaCl2(s) + H2O(l) + CO2(g)

in which the carbonate (CO32-) ions from the CaCO3, will react with hydrogen (H+) from HCl and therefore prevent the oesophagus from being harmed by the stomach acid. Antacids are the oldest and most effective form of treatment for heartburn, which is the reflux of stomach acid from the stomach into the oesophagus, which results in a burning sensation as the oesophagus lining is not suited for withstanding stomach acid, unlike the stomach lining.

Antacids are projected to reach a global market value of US$ 10.5 billion by 2027. This clearly shows the prominence of chalk in the medical world, as well as having a hold in the economic world, due to the growing Global Antacids Market.

In terms of agriculture, chalk is used to neutralise the pH of the soil. Soil can become acidic due to excess acidic rainfall and leaching, as excess water is an effective agent for removing basic ions over long periods of time. Moreover, soil may become acidic due to organic matter decay. When decaying, this matter produces H+ ions which are responsible for acidity. An example of acidic products due to decay is CO2 produced by decaying matter which will react with the water in the soil and produce carbonic acid (which is also found in acid rain). The collection of the acids formed due to the decay of organic material could lead to a decrease in pH of soil, therefore causing it to become acidic.

In order to maximize crop yield, the soil must be at an optimal pH of between 5.5 – 7. This means that when soil becomes too acidic for plant growth, powdered chalk can be used. The CaCO3 will react with the acids found in the soil such as nitric acid (due to nitrification), carbonic acid (due to decomposition) and others, which will have a similar effect to antacids: the CaCO3 will consume the H+ ions through a reaction with CO3-2 which results in a neutralised product. This will therefore raise the pH level of the soil, bringing it back to an optimum pH and increasing crop yield. This relates to our daily life, as our food must undergo these conditions while being grown, before getting to the supermarkets in Marlborough, ready to be eaten.

In daily life, toothpaste is used by a large percentage of the world, however, it may not be known that toothpaste usually contains a small amount of chalk. In the 1850s, John Harris added chalk as an ingredient into toothpaste with the aim of a more efficient cleaning agent than soap. The calcium carbonate is a mild abrasive used to rub away stains and debris from the teeth, however, it is softer than tooth enamel, which allows it to clean the teeth without causing any erosion or damage to them. Moreover, the calcium carbonate is insoluble, which allows it to be used against the teeth as an abrasive, without dissolving in the saliva in the mouth, ensuring it is safe to be put into our mouths.

This all relates to Marlborough, as the town contains a chalk source, which is clearly quite important to our daily lives. As stated in the article, we use chalk to maintain hygiene, optimise crop yield and for our medication, showing that it is a very important compound, and while seemingly simple, it has both literally and figuratively built Marlborough College, through providing foundations in infrastructure and education. Chalk has the ability to change the lives of many, and help sustain the population’s health, agriculture and infrastructure.

The lime cycle Tabitha L

(L6)

Chalk is correspondingly known as calcium carbonate, with a molecular formula of CaCO3, which is a form of limestone. It is part of the lime cycle, the process in which limestone is heated to produce quicklime, then can be hydrated to slaked lime and can be naturally converted back, by carbonation, to limestone. The cycle is one of the oldest chemical processes used on large scales and subsequently, lime products have many important uses in many industries, especially in the construction of materials. Conversely, lime products are not commonly directly sold to consumers but a study by EuLA shows that, on average, an EU citizen indirectly consumes around 150g of lime per day1. This exemplifies the wide range of lime consumption, but what opportunities and effects does it offer to a multitude of industries, contributing to the economy?

The lime cycle is composed of three main reactions, starting with limestone, which contains calcium which is the fifth most abundant element in the earth’s crust, and limestone forms about 20% of the world’s sedimentary rock. When burnt in a kiln at 900c, a thermal decomposition reaction occurs producing calcium oxide, CaO, also known as quicklime and producing carbon dioxide. The temperature at which limestone is burnt will affect its reactivity in the other stages of the cycle and the quality often depends on a multitude of factors including physical properties, reactivity to water and chemical composition. The quicklime produced can be highly beneficial due to its high reactivity and versatility, as quicklime can be modified to meet specific requirements for various applications like high surface area and lower reactivity, therefore making it a very useful product for many industries.

Quicklime can readily react with water, producing an exothermic reaction to produce slated lime, which is calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 (s). It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of quicklime is converted into slated lime in developed countries, and comparatively, for countries which do not have a large steel industry, the estimated percentage is larger2. Here an excess of water can be added to slated lime to produce limewater, Ca(OH)2 (aq), which is used to test for the presence of carbon dioxide in experiments through carbonation. Slated lime can be carbonated by being exposed to the air for long periods of time, it will absorb water-soluble carbon dioxide from the air producing calcium carbonate (a white solid) and water, returning to the start of the cycle.

As demonstrated above, the lime cycle produces three main products of limestone, quicklime, and slated lime which have various applications for numerous industries: including construction, environment, agriculture, and manufacturing. The earliest use of lime dates to roughly 10,000 years ago. Lime products are a vital part of the construction industry, with lime products being used as a filler and bonding agent in building materials, for example in lightweight materials and materials with high thermal insulation capabilities like autoclaved aerated concrete or sand-lime mortar which were being used in Roman times. Here the re-carbonation of lime-based products can act as a benefit, for when it carbonates in lime mortar, it increases the strength of the final bond and acts as a self-healing solution if any cracking occurs. It is also a useful tool for the restoration of historical buildings, and thus preserving cultural heritage, but it is also used in modern buildings due to its beneficial properties like breathability and flexibility.

Furthermore, lime products are an essential material for the manufacturing industry, being especially fundamental to steel manufacturing: lime is used to remove impurities (a flux to remove phosphorus, sulphur, silica, and manganese) giving steel the correct chemical composition. While it is also used in plastic production, to remove water from material and rubber before setting, and used for fillers and coatings for paper. Additionally, both lime and limestone are essential components in glass manufacturing, as calcium is used as a stabiliser, in order to improve quality and appearance and quicklime is used to achieve higher efficiencies and outputs. Likewise, lime products play an important role in agricultural industries, lime can be added to soils to adjust PH; for when the soil is acidic, lime products are alkali so neutralise the soil and improve fertility. Similarly, lime products are used in soil treatments at civil engineering projects, as it improves the stability and durability of the clay in the soil. Moreover, for agricultural uses, lime products are used for animal hygiene, as used to sanitise farm environments, therefore, preventing outbreaks and the spreading of diseases. Another vital and essential use of lime is in environmental remediation processes like wastewater treatments, as it regulates PH levels and removes impurities from the water, improving water quality, in addition to its use in flue gas desulfurization, to improve air quality, having a considerable influence on our environment.

Complementary to this, as demonstrated, lime has many applications which have an effect on numerous industries, but how does this all contribute to the global economy? In 2018, lime was the world’s 578th most traded product, with a total trade of $1.1 Billion3. The production of lime increased strongly from 2008 to 2014, prompted by recovery after the economic downturn, but recently has been stable, with China being the largest producing country in 2021 with a production volume of 310 million metric tonnes4. Nevertheless, lime only represents 0.0057% of the total world trade, due to the fact that lime is readily available in all parts of the world and transport costs are a large portion of the production costs. Therefore, despite large producers of lime, like the Lhoist group and Carmeuse Group, local producers with large capacities also play an important role in local markets5.

Conversely, despite the environmental benefits lime can provide, for instance in treating water, lime production, especially in thermal decomposition from calcium carbonate to calcium oxide, contributes a substantial amount to greenhouse gasses. Due to the high temperatures required in the kiln, fossil fuels are burnt to achieve this, causing the combustion of fossil fuels leading to vast carbon dioxide emissions, and additionally, carbon dioxide is given off in this reaction as a product, with on average 0.785 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of lime, having a harmful impact on the environment. In comparison though, lime is seen as a positive advantage compared to cement, considering both products give off carbon dioxide during manufacturing, however, lime reabsorbs carbon dioxide when it sets, being re-carbonated, while cement does not. Furthermore, limestone is burnt at around 900c compared to 1300c for cement saving on fuel. Therefore, it can be concluded that carbon dioxide emissions in the manufacturing of lime are a better alternative than cement. In addition, lime’s unique properties enable other industries to reduce their carbon footprint, as demonstrated by hydrated lime in asphalt which makes transport more energy efficient.

In summary, despite some of the negative effects of carbon dioxide emissions in the lime cycle, the multitude of positive benefits and uses in many industrial sectors can be argued to outweigh the negatives. Due to its unique and versatile characteristics, it has a large influence on our society and is therefore seen as an imperative and often inimitable component for many industries, contributing to the economy overall.

Notes:

1 EuLA,‘ A Competitive and Efficient Lime Industry’, published July 2014: https://www.eula.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/A-Competitive-and-Efficient-Lime-Industry-Technical-report-by-Ecofys_0.pdf

2 British Lime Association, ‘Lime Cycle’ : https://britishlime.org/education/lime_cycle.php

3 The Observatory of Economic Complexity, ‘Lime’: https://oec.world/en/profile/sitc/lime

4 Statista, ‘Lime production by country in 2021’: https://www.statista.com/statistics/657049/production-of-lime-worldwide/

5 S&P Global Commodity Insights, ‘Lime/Limestone’, Published march 2019: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/ci/products/lime-chemical-economics-handbook.html

The River Kennet

Helena C (Re)

The River Kennet is one of England’s most important chalk streams. Measuring about 72km long, it is one of the largest tributaries to the River Thames. In the summer, the Kennet can contribute up to half of the Thames flow. The source starts in Wiltshire’s Silbury Hill and joins the Thames in Reading, Berkshire. The River Kennet is quite a broad river measuring up to 40 to 44ft wide and 5ft deep. This provides the perfect habitat for a varied number of species to live. Throughout history, the Kennet has been used as a source of power for industrial activities using a water mill and in certain places of the river, it has been built to provide a strong flow of water to drive the mills. In the 17th and 18th century, the Kennet water was used to support the brewing and tanning industries in Marlborough and Ramsbury.

In July 2013, a 10 mile stretch of the river, between Hungerford and Marlborough, suffered from chemical contamination. This serious pollution was discovered by volunteers who then made locals aware. The chemicals came from a pesticide called Chlorpyrifos which affected a number of invertebrates but not the fish in the Kennet. The invertebrates play a big role in keeping a balance in the ecosystem therefore needed to be restored. Charlotte Hitchmough, director of Action for the River Kennet, said “usually rivers are left to recover naturally, but this could take years”. She conducted an experiment to help reintroduce invertebrates into the river. She moved invertebrates from healthy areas of the river to damaged areas and measured whether they recovered faster than those who were left to let nature take its course. The results, in August, revealed that the fly count in the river had increased since the pollution which meant that Charlotte Hitchmough’s experiment was a success.

During the autumn of 2022, despite the heavy rainfall in October, the water levels and aquifer levels were below normal for that time of year. The water consumption level in the Kennet was above average despite the current ban on hosepipes. Thames Water also made an application to increase abstraction which was not ideal for the Kennet as it removed essential water for wildlife and changed the rivers natural flow. Due to the low- lying surrounding area, more water is needed to feed the Kennet compared to other rivers. It was predicted at that time, that without significant rainfall through the winter, it was unlikely for the river’s water levels to return back to normal before spring of 2023. On the positive side, we now know that in January 2023, Wiltshire did experience heavy rainfall. However, the drought from before had left the ground hard and baked preventing rain from infiltrating the ground and ultimately led to the river bursting its banks. This wasn’t unpredictable due to the Kennet’s bed rock being chalk and making it more susceptible to groundwater flooding.

With all these disruptions to the natural habitat of the River Kennet, Action for the River Kennet (ARK),

aims to create, restore and enhance habitats to keep fish populations healthy through the river. The Kennet is a sanctuary for various plants and animals. The stretch of river between Marlborough and Woolhampton has been named a Site of Specific Scientific Interest and this status allows endangered species to being protected which is why many of those species have migrated to this part of the river.

Different parts of the river house different species of fish; however, some that can be found throughout the river such as bullheads, minnows and brown trout. The Upper Course of the river houses mostly the Salmonidae family, for example brown trout and European grayling. The occasional sighting of the rainbow trout occurs as an escapee and can be recognised by the purple band on its flanks. The Kennet did try to reintroduce the Atlantic salmon back to the river, however found that it didn’t support the necessary conditions needed for the fish to live and they could not follow their migration pattern. In the Middle and Lower Course of the river, near Newbury towards Reading, the fish species start to transition and join the Cyprinidae family. This includes bream, bleak, barbel and many more. Fly fishing in the Kennet is often overlooked, however in this part of the river it offers equally exciting fishing as the more well-known locations. The river offers occasional exciting species and with river management being a high priority, it can only mean that fishermen are getting the best quality of fish possible. Aardvark Mcleod, an international flyfishing specialist, describes the Kennet as “wonderful pristine chalk water providing an abundance of aquatic life.”. He believes that it is one of the most convenient rivers to reach as it is just off the M4 but also provides the best reward for the effort put in. A very common and easy species to spot species is pike. This is because they tend to swim near the surface towards the sun and are found in slow flowing waters and weedy stretches. On the other hand, a rarely spotted species today is the European eel, Anguilla Anguilla. A very common species historically, it is now a critically endangered keystone species. It has one of the longest migrations of thousands of kilometres. Due to its very complicated life cycle, involving both fresh and sea water, its range of threats are increased. It is more likely to face pollution, loss of habitat and hydropower developments than other species.

As seen, the River Kennet is a world of its own, housing dozens of various plants and animals in its chalk river bed. It is a one of England’s most important chalk streams and the largest tributary to the River Thames. The river has faced threats over the years including chemical contamination and droughts, however with organisations like ARK, the Kennet has been able to recover and remain the rare chalk stream that Marlborough takes pride in.

BrOwn trOUt

eUrOpeAn GrAylinG

nOrthern piKe

The Desert Blanc of Egypt

Thomas W (L6)

The White Desert National Park, also known as Désert Blanc, is a national park located in the North of Egypt. It was first established as a protected area in 2002 and stretches over 300 square kilometres West of the Farafra Oasis between the Nile Delta Valley and the Libyan border. It is renowned for its white sands, white sand rock formations, and its part in the Great Sand Sea. The park also acts as home to a diverse array of animals including fennec fox, Rüppell’s fox, red fox, barbary sheep, sand cats and the endangered Rhim gazelle.

The Origin of this spectacular desert dates back 60 million years, when, according to archaeological research, the area was a shallow seabed that extended through what is now Nubia. At the start, the seabed was covered with a layer of sandstone that formed the sedimentary rocks for millions of years. As time went by, the sedimentary rocks formed a stratum that was 300m deep. Then the Atlantic waters retreated, and the plateau broke down, giving birth to The White Desert.

But the history of Désert Blanc does not end there. According to legends told by the Tuaregs, somewhere in the desert is buried the lost army of Cambyses. The army was made up of 50,000 Persian soldiers and it is said they died from a massive sandstorm and Harmattan, a dry, parching wind. Nature took its course and buried them alive under the sands somewhere in the desert. This is a legend that enchants tourists and still leaves mystery to this day.

The iconic pillars, roughly 3-4.5 metres tall, that dot the landscape have been formed by centuries of erosion due to great sandstorms that sweep the desert. Some of them resemble foods and have been given names like Ice-cream cone and Mushroom, whereas others have inspired more imposing names like Inselberg and The Monolith. The most iconic of all the formations is the Chicken and the tree also known as Chicken and mushroom or Chicken and atomic bomb. These formations are unique to the desert and are certainly a sight worth seeing. “These are natural sculptures that greet visitors wherever they go in the desert and show that the work of nature is always more perfect than that of man.”, said Ahmed Salama, an official at the Egyptian Ministry of the Environment. I feel like his words harmoniously sum up the magnificence of these breath-taking objects.

Approximately 70,000 tourists visit the White Desert every year, making it one of the greatest attractions in Egypt besides the Sphinx and the Pyramids. There are roughly 20 hotels near the desert but perhaps the most popular form of accommodation is camping in the desert itself. This allows the visitors to enjoy the spectacle that overcomes the desert when the sun sets and the moon rises, giving the sands and chalk an eerie splendour.

Visitors hire local Bedouins as tour guides. The Bedouins earn a living cooking, setting up tents, selling drinks and imparting their knowledge onto their guests. They are the oldest Arabian ethnic group and have lived in the Farafra town in the desert for generations. The White Desert also boasts several natural hot springs, including salt-water springs, as well as ancient tombs, carvings and caves left by the Romans.

However, there are even grander sights to be seen in, for example, the Black Desert. It is a volcanic landscape with dark tones shaped in cone-like figures. The sand that forms these cones is covered with very fine layers of black stone resulting from intense volcanic activity during ancient times. Viewing this landscape from a vantage point, you will be able to appreciate the great beauty of it.

One of the most popular attractions is certainly the Crystal Mountain. The Mountain is a small arch of metamorphic limestone rock that shines brightly and glistens in the sun. Unlike the name suggests, these are not crystals. Rather it is an extraordinary rock formation that looks like crystals. Geologists consider it to be an exhumed cave, a cave complete with stalagmites and stalactites, that has been thrust upwards by earth movement and, with time, has lost its roof to erosion and almost weathered away.

Désert Blanc is not only a place but also an experience. Visitors have described it as “being like a trip to heaven” due to the mesmerising pearly white landscape. It is certainly one of Egypt’s greatest attractions and a worthwhile visit for all who are able to go. The desert is like a moment frozen in time. Not affected by modern day culture and urbanisation, it is a breath of fresh air and a place of true natural beauty, the only changes arising from the effects of the sands of time.

How is chalk used in Hindu culture?

Aoife G (L6)

Traditionally, rangoli is an everyday art of decoration using chalk that originated in India drawn on the entrances of homes. The word, rangoli, comes from the Sanskrit word, rangaavali, which is made up from two words: rang, meaning colour, and aavali, meaning creepers or lines, so the literal translation is “coloured lines”.

The most important element of rangoli patterns is their bright colour. The usage of vibrant colours is associated with Hindu festivals, marriage celebrations, auspicious observances and other important milestones and gatherings. Rangoli patterns are often symmetrical and are made up of simple, geometric shapes. They combine straight and curved lines with images taken from nature. The symmetry of these designs is a symbol of prosperity, growth, and good fortune. The designs used are passed down from one generation to the next in order to keep the art form and tradition alive. Each design varies as they are unique to each area or family, reflecting different traditions, folklore, and practices.

The major symbols used in Hindu rangoli patterns include lotus flowers, birds, and foliage. There are more specific designs for special occasions. For example, at Diwali, rangoli designs comprise of Hindu deities (Ganesh and Lakshmi), peacocks and round floral shapes. As these motifs are traditional to India, rangoli symbolises India’s rich heritage and that it is a place of festivals and colour.

Rangoli is a sand mandala. The word “mandala” in Sanskrit translates as “circle” or “centre”. A mandala is an object of meditation to aid someone

with spiritual development. The Hindu tradition focuses on the realisation of the self as one with the divine. The design of a mandala is a geometric pattern. It represents the cosmos metaphysically and symbolically. Mandalas refer to the wholeness of life itself. They act as cosmic diagrams that show the relation to infinity and the world that goes beyond to one’s own mind and body. Mandalas can also be interpreted as symbolic of a spiritual journey through the layers of the rangoli pattern.

The materials used to make rangoli can be found anywhere easily. This makes rangoli an art prevalent in all homes, both rich and poor. Typically, the main ingredients are chalk, sand, flower petals and rice. Cereal powders like powdered quartz and dried rice flour, which are some of the raw materials used to make rangoli patterns, attract insects and so stop them from entering households. Historically, rangoli discouraged insects and pathogens from coming near cooking areas so provided a way to be more hygienic. Therefore, rangoli patterns are not only for decoration but also have a more practical purpose.

Rangoli patterns are placed at the main entrance of a house to welcome guests and the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, inside and to bring good luck to the family living there. It is believed that a Hindu household without a clean entrance and rangoli is an abode for bad luck, daridra in Sanskrit. Rangoli represent happiness, positivity, and liveliness of a household.

Rangoli is an important, everyday practice for Hindus and holds a significant role in the life of a Hindu household. The posture needed when making a rangoli acts as a type of exercise and aids people to straighten their backs. Therefore, not only do rangolis have a spiritual, cultural, cosmic, and decorative purpose, but they are also useful for simpler, day-to-day uses like as exercise and to be more hygienic.

The historic area of Marlborough

Jemima G (Sh)

Marlborough is based on limestone, a salt also known as calcium carbonate. The town is near the Ridgeway, a large ridge of limestone and one of Britain’s oldest roads which travels 85 miles from Ivinghoe Beacon to Avebury. It is a ridge of chalk and it links the white horses of the area together. White horses are chalk figures created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying chalk. This process is prehistoric and some of them had great significance in their time.

The Uffington White Horse, just a 30 minute drive from Marlborough, is suggested to have held political significance since the figure dominates the valley below. It is thought to date to the British Iron Age, as coins from that time have been found around it. Wiltshire, the county to which Marlborough belongs, has nine white horses. These images are all chalk surrounded by short green grass meaning that the horse shape can be clearly seen from a considerable distance.

The Marlborough White Horse, also known as the Preshute White Horse, is a chalk hill figure on Granham Hill that was created in 1804. It is a slightly less visible white horse due to surrounding trees but it can still be seen from some points around the area. Another white horse is the Hackpen one built in 1838 on the edge of the Marlborough Downs.

The Marlborough Downs is a range of chalk hills near to Marlborough. It has great biodiversity features for wild plants and animals. It is a big landscape of nature and includes the River Kennett flowing through and forming a valley down towards Marlborough. Following the River Kennett, just a 12 minute drive away, there is a small village called Avebury. Avebury has stone circles from during the Neolithic period, estimated between 2850 BC and 2200 BC. It has one large circle that originally had about 100 stones, the biggest in Britain, and has two smaller circles inside.

UffinGtOn white hOrSe

StOneBriDGe wilD river reServe, mArlBOrOUGh

Another ceremonial sight of that time is the mysterious Silbury Hill. It is impressively the largest artificial mound in Europe and compares in height and volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids. However, the Hill apparently does not contain any burials. Though it seems important and immense, its purpose and reason remain a total unknown mystery.

All these historic things around Marlborough are supposedly part of a complex of Neolithic monuments in this area: Avebury ring, Silbury Hill, Marlborough Mound and West Kennet Long Barrow. These were all built around similar prehistoric times and during what was a time of great change with new forms of pottery and the first metalworking in Britain. These were thought to be special social and burial places. It is amazing how many ancient historic monuments are located near the College.

Second to this is the Marlborough Mound which is a monument similar to Silbury Hill that stands 19 metres tall. At its base, it has a grotto which is part of an 18th century water feature. Linked to this is the West Kennet Long Barrow.

This is a burial chamber built in 3650 BC with around 50 people being buried there: a mixture of men, women and children with a variety of ages. It is part of the Cotswold-Severn group, a localised regional variant of barrows. There is a cluster of about 30 centred on Avebury in the high hills of northern Wiltshire.

SilBUry hill

the mArlBOrOUGh mOUnD

weSt Kennett lOnG BArrOw, AveBUry

Neolithic monuments in Wiltshire

Wilf G (L6)

Wiltshire is a region rich in ancient history and legacy, including the less well-known Avebury stone circle and the internationally renowned Stonehenge. The Neolithic buildings of Wiltshire, their significance, and the long-lasting effects they have had on the county will all be covered in this article.

Stonehenge, an ancient construction made from a ring of standing stones, is one of Wiltshire’s most well-known Neolithic buildings. Its purpose is still unknown, and it is thought to have been built between 3000 and 2000 BC. Despite intensive investigation, we are still unsure of the monument’s purpose or how the enormous stones were placed. Theories of its purpose range from religious ceremonies to astronomical observations and burial sites.

The Avebury stone circle, which is around 20 miles north of Stonehenge, is another major Neolithic building in Wiltshire. Three stone circles make up the Avebury complex, which is the biggest prehistoric stone circle in the world.

The region is important for understanding the life of the people who lived here thousands of years ago since it also contains two significant stone pathways and many other Neolithic monuments.

Other Neolithic buildings in Wiltshire include the West Kennet Long Barrow, a Neolithic tomb that is 100 feet long and 40 feet wide, and is one of the biggest and best-preserved barrows in the area. The barrow is thought to have been used for community funerals for a long time after it was built in the Neolithic era around 3650 BC.

The chamber of the West Kennet Long Barrow is long and rectangular thanks to the meticulous placement of big stones. Two substantial standing stones that mark the entrance of the barrow lead into a succession of rooms that include many smaller stones that may have contained human remains. Given that the barrow was constructed more than 5,000 years ago, its design and construction are astonishing.

recOnStrUctiOn DrAwinG Of StOnehenGe

AeriAl Of the entrAnce tO weSt Kennet lOnG BArrOw

Another of these Neolithic buildings is Silbury Hill, this hill is 40m high and 160m wide and, given the tools and technology available at the time, the building of Silbury Hill is a remarkable technical achievement. Millions of tonnes of chalk from the surrounding region were excavated and piled up on the hill using shovels and picks fashioned of animal bones and antlers. The chalk was then brought to the location via an intricate network of ramps and pulleys, where it was heaped up to form the recognizable conical shape.

The function of Silbury Hill is still a mystery despite significant investigation and study. The hill is thought to have had a number of functions over the years, including a graveyard, a religious shrine, and a representation of authority and status. Also, it’s been proposed that because its shape and location may have been in harmony with the motions of the stars and planets, it is possible that the hill served as an astronomical outpost for the ancient people.

It is impossible to overestimate the long-lasting effects of these Neolithic buildings on Wiltshire. For generations, people have been fascinated and mystified by the monuments, and they have contributed significantly to the region’s cultural and economic history. They support the local economy by drawing visitors from all over the world and give locals a chance to connect with the past and learn more about their ancestry.

Finally, Wiltshire’s Neolithic buildings provide evidence of the inventiveness and imagination of the people who lived here thousands of years ago. They have held people’s attention for many years, and their significance to the history, tradition, and cultural identity of the area cannot be over-emphasized. However, these extremely important Neolithic buildings could be lost forever due to erosional processes and through the maltreatment of them by tourists and the surrounding community, so we must do our upmost to try and protect and preserve these truly amazing pieces of architecture.

the SilBUry mOnUment, michAel DAmeS

BUilDinG StOnehenGe, enGliSh heritAGe

S3

6 tiers composed of radial concentric chalk walls rubble infill

S2 chalk mound and ditch

S1 primary mound

basal tier of natural rock chalk rubble steps leading into moat

chalk rubble infilling

Avebury stone circle

Arthur D B (Sh)

Avebury stone circle is the largest stone circle in Britain and lies ‘at the centre of one of the most remarkable concentrations of Neolithic and early Bronze Age archaeology in western Europe’. It is only 25 miles from Stonehenge and six and a half miles from Marlborough.

Avebury was constructed, used, and remade over a period from about 3,000 BC for about thousand years. The around 98 stones of Avebury create a large circle of 3-metre-high stones, some weighing 100 tons, with a diameter of around 350m in diameter. There is a second wider circle and then an earth bank surrounding that.

Reconstruction

In the 1920s an extraordinarily wealthy man called Alexander Keiller came on to the Avebury scene. Between 1925 and 1929, he directed excavations at nearby Windmill Hill, which he had bought in 1924. He went on to reconstruct a portion of the stone avenue which leads into Avebury. Then, fully under Avebury’s spell, in 1935 he leased Avebury Manor and bought it later in 1937. The manorial estate included much of the village and the great Neolithic monument. Having already re-erected many stones of the avenue he decided his mission was now to restore the stone circles to their ‘original’ state. However, due to financial pressures caused by the Second World War, he had to abandon the project.

AlexAnDer Keiller, 1924.

Weird theories

There have been very few finds here compared to other sites of a similar age in the area. There is no evidence of feasting as there was at other places, where huge amounts of pottery and animal bone were recovered. Avebury is different, comparatively very ‘clean’ of evidence, making an interpretation much more difficult.

Some have interpreted Avebury and its neighbouring prehistoric monuments differently from academics. These interpretations have been defined by professional archaeologist Aubrey Burl as being “more phony than factual”. Such inaccurate ideas originated with William Stukeley in the late 17th century, who believed that Avebury had been built by the Druids, who were persecuted by Roman invaders.

In the 1720s, scholarly opinion was largely based on the idea that the stones were Roman works. Most believed that ancient Britons were “too unsophisticated” to construct an intricate architectural structure. Archaeologists since then have identified the monument as having been constructed two thousand years before the Iron Age, during the Neolithic period.  Inigo Jones was the first to suggest that the stones were built by Romans in his book. The book consisted of architectural designs, depicting the broken “Roman” construction. The English writer Thomas Hearne was unsure if the stones had been built by the Romans or the ancient Britons, but Stukeley was confident that Avebury was much older than the Roman period. He refuted Jones’ theory.

Stukeley determined that by gathering a mass of information about all known stone circles and other archaeological sites, one could build a theory to provide an accurate understanding of prehistoric sites. He formed a theory of “Celtic” stone temples. In his book, History of the Temples of the Ancient Celts, he asserted the common characteristics between all stone structures in Britain.

Stukeley was motivated in proving that the Druids had formed the stones because he could prove that ancient Britons were well-informed about science, disproving sceptics like Hearne. Stukeley was interested in providing additional information on the holy doctrine of the Trinity. He believed that the snake illustrated on the stones represented the Messiah and the circle meant ‘divine’, a symbol for God. In the remaining part of the Trinity, wings, which were not depicted on the stones, represent the holy spirit. He concluded that the absence of wings on the pattern of stones at Avebury was because of the challenge carving them onto stone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Avebury stones are a mysterious and powerful place, crumbled by time.

ABUry, A temple Of the BritiSh DrUiDS, with SOme OtherS, DieScriBeD, By williAm StUKeley, 1743.

Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge: the connections between them

Poppy G-C (L6)

Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge are sites that are all part of a large ‘Neolithic complex’1 centred around the nearby River Avon. They are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites which also includes some of the oldest recorded settlements in Britain. There are multiple links between these sites as well as just the geography, and this article will explore their history and how this is true.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the most famous Neolithic monuments in Britain. It consists of an outer ring of standing megaliths of sarsen stones connected by horizontal lintel stones and an inner ring of smaller bluestones within which are trilithons. The monument was built in alignment with the sunrise of summer solstice, but its purpose is ambiguous and the knowledge of the builders is uncertain. However, the most likely functions were as a burial site (as there is archaeological evidence for this) as well as a ceremonial site, a memorial or possibly the

site of pilgrimage for religious reasons. Stonehenge’s structure is now in ruin and some of the sarsen stones are missing, possibly having been reused in later buildings and churches in the area, but it is still visited by millions each year.

Before Stonehenge was as we know it today, there was a Mesolithic monument of ‘totem-pole like’ logs from around 8500 to 7000 BC, which it is difficult to link to the current Stonehenge2. The monument we can see now was built in stages, with the oldest part being built between 3000 and 2935 BC. Initially this was a circular structure surrounded by a ditch and a corresponding higher and lower bank which was an example of an early henge monument. This structure also enclosed the 56 pits known as the Aubrey Holes, around most of which human remains from cremation burials were found from around the same time as this part of Stonehenge was being built.

The second stage of Stonehenge’s growth began around 2640 BC and included the addition of the sarsen stones having been brought from the Avebury area about 20 miles away, and bluestones were added in a double arc formation with some that may have come from Bluestonehenge. These trilithons of sarsen were arranged in a horseshoe formation within the existing circle and the giant trilithon (the only one which still stands) was placed centrally to form a circle. Other sarsen stones were also placed through the bank and ditch by the north-eastern entrance that formed a façade (of which only the ‘Slaughter Stone’ survives) and the ‘Heelstone’ beyond was set in the circular ditch at a similar time in the same layout as the wooden posts from the Mesolithic monument. In this period the four Station Stones (of which two have survived) were also placed in a rectangle formation along the same solstice alignment as the giant trilithon and the bluestone arc. The two missing Station Stones were subsequently covered by low mounds known as the North and South Burrows.

The third stage took place between 2470 and 2280 BC and in this period the banks and ditches of a ceremonial road from Stonehenge to a smaller henge near the Avon were built. Part of this road is also aligned with the sunrise of the summer solstice as well as the sunset of the winter solstice, but excavations have proven that the avenue also follows natural chalk ridges of the area that happen to share this alignment. This adds to the confusion relating to the purpose and builders of the monument. The fourth, fifth and sixth stages of Stonehenge’s construction were much less eventful in comparison to the first three. Between 2280 and 2030 BC, in the fourth stage, the bluestones were rearranged to form a circle and inner oval (which was at one point mistaken for a horseshoe arrangement due to possible stone removal by the Romans). During the fifth stage, at some point between 2030 and 1750 BC, the ring of ‘Z Holes’ were dug outside of the sarsen circle of the monument and during the final stage of building, at some point between 1640 and 1520 BC, a second ring of ‘Y Holes’ were created.

Along with the remains linked to the Aubrey Holes, Stonehenge was used as a burial ground for at least 500 years and is therefore the largest late Neolithic cemetery in Britain. This being a purpose of Stonehenge is supported by the second, smaller bluestone circle, known as Bluestonehenge, that was also built about a mile away at the same time as the first stage of Stonehenge’s construction and which might have been used for cremating and removing flesh from the bodies which had their remains scattered or buried at Stonehenge3. However, Bluestonehenge was later dismantled, but between the first and second stages of building there is no evidence of any activity apart from continuing burials. The focus on solstitial alignment of the monument also means that the ritualistic and ceremonial aspects of the monument are still debated by many experts today, as well as the possibility it was used to help with astronomy.

The builders of Stonehenge are also debated, with there being much confusion as to how the various monoliths were brought to the site and how the trilithons were constructed in such an early period. This uncertainty is added to by many myths existing about Stonehenge having a mystical source, such as being ordered to have been made by King Aurelius Ambrosias (King Arthur’s uncle) and the wizard Merlin as a memorial, leading to the legend that Ambrosias’ brother, King Arthur’s father, Uther being buried there. Other early ideas included the building of the monument being the work of the Saxons, the Romans or even the Egyptians. However, modern historians now believe that more than one tribe contributed to the monument’s construction with the site being started by Neolithic farmers and continued by their descendants4.

Durrington Walls

Durrington Walls is one of the largest Neolithic henge sites in Britain and is located 2 miles away from Stonehenge, previously being the site of a settlement that may have housed the builders around 2600 BC. The site is made up of chalk ‘walls’ that give the site its name and have a circular shape that surround a ditch, both being common features of henges. The henge also enclosed multiple pits that are believed to have been used to create timber circles and, around 2600 BC, the ‘Southern Circle’ was created that faced the sunrise of the winter solstice. This aspect of the monument was only recently discovered because the site was remodelled as the henge we see today after an estimated 50 years. An avenue much like the one from Stonehenge is also present from Durrington Walls leading to the river Avon but this road is aligned with the sunset of the summer solstice, rather than the sunrise as the Stonehenge Avenue is. At the same time as the construction of this path, a village began to develop around the site. About 200 years after this, more timber circles were created and, immediately south of the site, the timber circle known as Woodhenge was also created. In 2015, Durrington Walls was declared a ‘super henge’ after the discovery of some 90 four and a half metre tall stones that had been buried around the site in a C-shape and that may have been contemporary to or even earlier than Stonehenge.

The first major excavation of the site began in 1966. It unearthed the ditch and outer banks and at least two timber circles as well as some stone tools, pottery, along with pig and cattle bones. The discovery of pottery and animal bones in particular mean that there is a high likelihood that the site was used for feasts rather than ceremonies or rituals such as sacrifices, which are speculated to have taken place at Stonehenge5. In 2005 another excavation uncovered the avenue as well as the foundations of several Neolithic houses. However, the original monument that stood at the site has only recently been discovered as part of further excavations and a geophysical survey that have led to ongoing research. The leader of the excavations, Mike Parker Pearson, has argued that, as analysis continues, it is increasingly likely that the postholes already discovered at the site helped to form part of the monument that is now being rediscovered6.

A popular theory linked to the purpose of the site is that, due to its perceived links with Stonehenge regarding the alignment with solstices, it was a ceremonial monument that was the site of feasts (because of the animal bones found there) and represented the land of the living whereas Stonehenge with its burial mounds represented the land of the dead. Parker Pearson believes that, with the two sites being connected by the Avon and their avenues, the ceremonial procession route between the sites could have been seen to represent the transition from life to death7

Woodhenge is a Neolithic henge made up of a timber circle monument from around 2500BC, made up of six concentric rings of timber, a surrounding bank and ditch which are all common features of henge monuments. The monument also had a single entrance to the northeast and, later in the construction of the site, at least two sarsen stones were added to the southern side of the monument.

The monument was discovered by aerial photography in 1925 and excavation began in 1926 which revealed the bank and ditch which had been filled in and concealed over time. Initially there was some debate as to whether it was an open-air structure, as Maud Cunnington, one of the leaders of the excavation, argued or that it was a communal building. However, after research at a similar site known as ‘The Sanctuary’ near Avebury, Woodhenge has been determined to have been an open structure.

The purpose of Woodhenge is unclear, however the remains of a young child and a teenager were found during excavations dating from between 1760 and 1670 BC. Previously these were thought to have been dedicatory sacrifices used as offerings when the site was first built, but further examination of the remains suggests that they were added to the monument much later during the Bronze Age. Unfortunately, however, more research into the origins of the remains of the child are impossible as the skeleton was lost in the Blitz. Other objects such as bones from domestic animals, cups and axes were discovered. The axes are speculated to have been buried in a deliberate pattern in certain areas in a form of symbolism known as ‘structured deposition’8. This suggests a ceremonial purpose or use as a burial ground.

How are the sites connected?

Before beginning to explore the connection between Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, it is worthy to note that Stonehenge is the most famous of the sites being discussed and therefore is often the point of comparison and link between the sites. With this in mind, the first and most obvious connection there is between these sites are the many geographical similarities, which are highlighted by the fact the sites are all part of the Stonehenge Avenue and the same World Heritage site.

Physical similarities also play a key part in arguing for the connection between the monuments. Around the same time the sarsen stones were erected in the second period of building Stonehenge, two sets of concentric timber circles were built within a large settlement two miles northeast of the monument. One of these circles, called the ‘Southern Circle’, was at the centre of an ancient settlement. By 2460 BC the ruins were enclosed by the bank and ditch of Durrington Walls. Outside of the south entrance of the same settlement a third concentric timber circle was built, now known as Woodhenge. This parallel between the sites in terms of structure strongly suggests a connection exists.

At Durrington Walls the avenue was built in roughly 2500 BC between the ‘Southern Circle’ of the site and the River Avon and closely resembles the one from the third stage of Stonehenge’s construction, reinforcing the idea that the sites are linked. The discovery of this road also meant that there was a possibility that Durrington Walls was part of a larger Neolithic complex that was linked to Stonehenge and Woodhenge as both were connected to the river by roads as well. The multitude of physical similarities between Stonehenge and Woodhenge was also a key factor in the naming of the site as Woodhenge9. The lone entrance of the site also faces Durrington Walls, further proving the sites’ connection.

The sites of Stonehenge, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge are linked in another way too. One of the circles at Durrington Walls, called the ‘Southern Circle’, was at the centre of an ancient settlement. This was a short-lived community but is thought to have been the camp of the builders of Stonehenge, providing yet another link between the two sites. Similarly, although origins of Woodhenge remain unknown, many historians believe it was built by the same group that built Stonehenge too10

However, more obscure links also exist. All three sites have focuses on solstitial alignments. The Durrington Walls avenue was aligned toward the summer solstice sunset, while the ‘Southern Circle’ faced the winter solstice sunrise which was the opposite to the road at Stonehenge, emphasising the parallels between the sites. This alignment based on the main solstices therefore emphasises the possibility of Stonehenge and Durrington Walls being built as parts of a single complex based around the Avon. Stonehenge and Woodhenge also share the same alignments to the summer and winter solstices as both contain either timber or stones in an oval that face in those directions. These similarities suggest all three sites had spiritual or ceremonial importance and may have been used together in processional routes or ritual ceremonies.

Currently many of these theories rely on much speculation and educated hypothesis. However, these monuments are still being explored and being further investigated, which in time may reveal more connections to each other, as well as to other sites along the Stonehenge Avenue or possibly the rest of the country (which there is some rationale for due to the similar styles of settlement that exist in the Orkney Islands in Scotland). Although, for now the main links between these Neolithic wonders is their unique focus on solstitial alignments and the closeness of their locations.

1 Naomi Blumberg, Durrington Walls (Britannica)

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Durrington-Walls

² History of Stonehenge (English Heritage) https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/

³ Stonehenge – First Stage: 3000-2935 BCE (Britannica) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stonehenge/First-stage-3000-2935-bce

⁴ Stonehenge (History.com) https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/stonehenge

⁵ Naomi Blumberg, Durrington Walls (Britannica) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Durrington-Walls

⁶ Carly Hilts, Rethinking Durrington Walls: a long-lost monument revealed (Current Archaeology) https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/ rethinking-durrington-walls-a-long-lost-monument-revealed.htm

⁷ Durrington Walls (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrington_Walls

⁸ Woodhenge (stone-circles.org.uk) http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/woodhenge.htm

⁹ The History of Woodhenge (English Heritage) https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/woodhenge/history/

10 Evan Evans, You’ve heard of Stonehenge, but what’s Woodhenge? (Evan Evans) https://evanevanstours.com/blog/youve-heard-of-stonehenge-butwhats-woodhenge/

Littlecote Roman Villa

Santiago F (Sh)

The Littlecote Roman Villa is located 10 miles away from Marlborough College and is one of the best preserved and largest villas in the UK. Made up of 60 rooms and two thermal bath suites, the villa can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who lived there. As well as being home to some of the finest mosaics in England, the villa was built during a great age for the Roman Empire and I am going to tell you some background on what was taking place as this villa was made.

In 1727, William George discovered the Orpheus mosaic while he dug post-holes and when it was discovered, it was regarded as “the finest pavement that the sun ever shone upon in England”. An engraving and a drawing were made before the location of the villa was forgotten. In 1976, it was rediscovered and the mosaics were fully restored in the year 1980. The courtyard villa is majestic and is one of the largest in Britain.

These mosaics are usually thought of in very complicated religious terms involving Orpheus, Bacchus and Apollo. The tiles are incredibly small and the whole mosaic has vast amounts of detail and elegance. Several of the other mosaics have images of a large variety of topics. From representations of creatures from mythology and snapshots of daily life, they all had immense amounts of detail and are regarded as some of the finest examples of the Romans’ capabilities in the arts.

Although the mosaics are beautiful, I would like to focus more on what was going on in the Roman Empire as this villa was constructed. This villa was created roughly around the year 170AD and during this time, the Roman Empire was at its peak. With a population of one million people, Rome was the heart of the Roman Empire. Ruled by emperor Marcus Aureilius, the Roman Empire was expanding greatly. It stretched from Europe to North Africa to the Middle East. The land was divided into smaller areas called provinces, which were ruled by governors appointed by the Empire. Though this was functional during these years, the vast size was one of the main reasons for the great Empire’s downfall.

Although it only became the main religion in 313AD, Christianity was gaining followers. As word of Jesus spread across the Roman Empire, emperor Marcus Aurelius wanted to maintain the Roman Empire’s polytheistic religion and therefore supressed Christians by doing several things. He passed edicts against Christians, ordering the persecution and punishment of those who refused to change back to the Polytheistic religion.

Finally, during this time, architecture in Rome was very impressive. Roads, aqueducts and public buildings were progressing greatly and several famous buildings such as the Pantheon were rebuilt just a few decades from this.

The villa was not used very much until between the second and fourth centuries AD, when people started living in it. The people who inhabited the villa are unknown but they presumably had some connection to Roman leaders at the time as they were very wealthy. During these years, the villa expanded greatly. Several new rooms were made and a hypocaust and a bathhouse were input, an amenity only for the wealthiest citizens to experience. This villa is an insight into the life of people 1,800 years ago, when the Roman Empire was at its most powerful, spreading across the globe. The Empire was fantastic: poetry, art, wars, myths, huge technological developments and a huge advancement of life, the Empire of the Romans had it all. The villa also shows the development of the designs of villas and how they have progressed over time.

The Roman villa is also a well-known tourist attraction, attracting people around the world who are interested in the history of the Romans. The villa is unbelievably well preserved and there is a lot of information and facts that people can learn when they visit this site. Overall, this villa is full of rich culture and history and is one of the greatest in Britain. I am incredibly interested in this genre of history and that is why I chose to write about this.

the eqUeStriAn StAtUe Of mArcUS AUreliUS cApitOline hill, rOme

Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, fleUr hAlSteAD (DA 2017-22)

Marlborough Castle

Sebastian G (Sh)

During the Middle Ages, hundreds of castles were constructed throughout the British Isles. Even today, hundreds of them dominate the landscape, the stone husks echoing a distant past filled with knights, glory, and chivalry. When the topic of castles is brought up, peoples’ minds tend to drift to the more famous instances of medieval architecture, such as Windsor, Leeds or even the ominous Tower of London. It is often easy to forget that a truly majestic fortress once proudly stood where our College campus lies today.

Marlborough Castle was built at the pinnacle of medieval architecture. A personal favourite of Henry III and King John, it was enjoyed by monarchs throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries before falling into neglect and disrepair in the fourteenth. In this article, I will attempt to shed some light on the deep and rich history of Marlborough Castle and conjure an image of its appearance.

Construction

When the first Norman lords arrived at Marlborough following the invasion of 1066, they would have found a village located on the crossroads of two significant roads. These were the Roman road between London and Bath and a subsequently constructed track between Cirencester and the port-city of Weymouth. However, what would have really caught the eye of the aspiring castle- builders would have been the presence of the Neolithic mound. It was not unusual for a natural hill to be repurposed as a castle motte, however these were a rarity in the rolling landscape of Wiltshire. It is unclear what type of building was erected upon the Marlborough Mound at first, indeed all remnants of the original construction have been obscured by subsequent projects. We can make a speculative case that the first structure was built of wood, likely a palisade wall where soldiers could take shelter. However, considering other factors it seems unlikely that this was the case; the area around Marlborough was lacking in timber supplies, and it is more probable that the founders of Marlborough Castle would make use of Wiltshire’s abundance of stone.

Another mystery surrounding Marlborough Castle is the date of construction; sources do not specify a castle in Marlborough until 1138. Despite this we know that the bishop Æthelric was kept under guard here in 1070, suggesting if not a castle, a secure building belonging to the King. As well as this, Henry I stopped in the town in 1100 and once again in 1110 for the Christian festival of Whitsuntide. Due to these accounts and the presence of the mound, we can be reasonably certain that this royal residence was a castle, and potentially a substantial one.

Marlborough Castle in the twelfth century

Marlborough Castle played a key role in the Civil War between King Stephan and Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘Anarchy’ (although this is not a contemporary term). During the conflict, John the Marshal, who was the castellan at the time, chose to side with Matilda. Marlborough lay in a key position on the border between Stephan’s supporters in London and Winchester and the lands controlled by Matilda around Bristol and Gloucester. In 1139, King Stephan himself laid siege to Marlborough, implying that the castle was of a significant enough status to warrant the King’s attention. Despite this, the operation was abandoned after less than a month due to external events regarding Robert of Gloucester’s arrival in England.

The Anarchy was eventually brought to an end in December of 1153, after peace negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Wallingford. This document detailed that King Stephan would retain his throne, with the caveat that Henry II would be named his heir. Both sides kept to their word and when Stephan passed away from a disease the following year, Henry was crowned king. It was following this Monarch’s visit, in 1175, that orders were issued detailing several improvements that were to be made to the castle. This is the point in time that the

surviving records of building activity at Marlborough begin. The annual accounts of the exchequer reveal the purchase of £43 worth of stone, followed by 700 wooden boards from Winchester to build the King’s personal chamber. The King also visited Marlborough three times in 1177, subsequently leading to the order of 400 square stones, 40,000 nails, 176,200 roof tiles, and 20 pickaxes. Henry’s final visit to Marlborough took place in 1186. This was a major event as he travelled here with William the Lion of Scotland, following his marriage in the nearby town of Woodstock. Marlborough Castle was frequently made use of as a royal residence during Henry II’s reign, likely due to its close vicinity with the large deer parks of Clarendon and Woodstock. In 1189, Marlborough was the scene of a royal wedding between Prince John and Isabella of Gloucester. This clearly demonstrates the grandeur that the site must have possessed for it to be chosen over other nearby residences such as Winchester and Ludgershall.

Marlborough Castle in the thirteenth century

In 1209, the Pope placed England under an interdict. John had refused to accept the Pope’s candidate as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Fearing that the Church’s disproval might lead to a rebellion, all freemen in the country were summoned to Marlborough to pay homage to their King. This gathering was eventually dubbed ‘the Oath of Marlborough’ and was an assembly on a never before seen scale. Although King John spent a lot of time in Marlborough, he made little notable changes. Perhaps the most significant impression he left was in 1204 when he gave the town its own charter, formally making it a town. He also strengthened its defences, erecting a wall around the motte and giving it a barbican (a type of fortified gateway). After the death of John in 1216, several Barons who had opposed him offered the throne to Prince Louis of France. He proceeded to invade and took Marlborough Castle for a short while before William Marshal laid siege to it. The garrison surrendered after little more than a month, not knowing that Prince Louis was on his way to relieve them.

During his reign, Henry III held a parliament with his court to elucidate certain relations between him and his Barons. These endure as some of the oldest English laws and their founding is the last major political event to take place at Marlborough.

Edward I rarely visited Marlborough. Its strategic value had sharply diminished and in 1273 he gifted it to his mother. This was to become her dowry and Marlborough’s status declined from a King’s fortress to a retirement home for their wives. This would signify the beginning of the end for Marlborough Castle and it fell into obscurity. Over the years the castle fell into disrepair and locals took stone from the ruins to build houses in the town.

The Keep and the Mound

H. C. Brenthall, who was once a beak at the College, made an extensive and detailed examination of the Neolithic mound. In the aftermath of his investigation, he compiled his findings of the castle’s layout in an article titled ‘Castellum Merlebergensis’. This remains as one of the most comprehensive analyses on the subject. Christopher Hughes, the Head of Art at the time, would go on to create an oil painting based on his findings.

mArlBOrOUGh cAStle By chriStOpher hUGheS

reStOrmel cAStle in cOrnwAll

One controversial aspect of Brenthall’s paper was the round tower on the motte, dominating the rest of the castle. It is unlikely that the manmade mound could have supported a construction of such magnitude and weight. It is far more probable that the motte was crowned with a ‘shell keep’ as was favoured by 12th and 13th century castle-builders. These typically had low walls and contained a courtyard inside. One of the best preserved examples of a shell keep is Restormel Castle in Cornwall. This would have been slightly larger than the donjon that surmounted the Marlborough Mound. Restmoral Castle would have also acted as a mansion, focused on housing high ranking guests. The steep incline of the Marlborough motte, while acting as an effective defence mechanism, would have made any visitors more inclined to take up residence in the more luxurious buildings below. It is likely that Brenthall concluded the presence of a tower on the mound due to many sources referring to a ‘turris’. While this can indeed mean a tower in the traditional sense, it has also been used to refer to a shell keep.

H. C. Brenthall also demonstrated his belief that there was a continuous moat around the mound. This was founded on some vague accounts from the early eighteenth century and recent archeological work has found no evidence to back up this claim.

The Bailey

The walls and towers

The lack of archeological evidence makes it a convoluted task to illustrate how the castle may have looked at the pinnacle of its lifespan. The only feasible approach we can make to the topic is by analysing similar buildings. Relatively few castles from this time period remain intact, and of these Chepstow is the one most similar to Marlborough. Chepstow lies north of Bristol, near the far bank of the River Severn. Like Marlborough, Chepstow was also held by the Marshal family, following William Marshal’s marriage to Isabel of Clare. When studying Chepstow from above, perhaps the most striking feature is the layout of the outer wall. The wall in most parts remains straight with round or D-shaped towers stamped where multiple walls meet at an angle. It is worth noting, however, that the towers at Marlborough were likely significantly higher than those visible at Chepstow. As Marlborough was primarily a royal residence rather than a fortress, it does at first seem probable that it sported shorter and therefore less expensive towers. However higher battlements were more popular at the time, with lofty towers evident in many majestic castles abroad, such as Carcassonne and Coucy in France. Meanwhile, Henry III, of whom Marlborough was a personal favourite, built high towers at Windsor, Dover, the Tower of London, and Bamburgh.

The hall

The hall at Chepstow was within the Norman Great Tower, as opposed to Marlborough’s which was likely a separate structure within the Bailey. As a result, the best parallel we can draw is likely the hall at Winchester.

While the hall at Winchester is certainly on a grander scale than its Marlburian counterpart, it gives us a fairly accurate depiction of what it would have looked like. It would have stood on the mound side of the Heywood block.

the hAll At wincheSter

chepStOw cAStle

The Chapel

In addition to the Chapel of St Nicholas, Henry III also ordered the building of two private chapels joined to the King and Queen’s personal chambers. Unfortunately, we lack sufficient detail about them to deduce their appearance.

Regarding the Chapel of St Nicholas, the Sainte-Chapelle in King Louis IX’s royal palace is a good place to look. While doubtless far grander than Marlborough’s Chapel ever was, French architecture greatly inspired Henry III and the Sainte-Chapelle in particular was a great inspiration of Henry’s rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. The Chapel would have stood roughly where the book office is today.

The stone and colour of the buildings

The typical image of a medieval castle portrays the walls as an ash grey. However, in Marlborough’s case this is unlikely. Flint is by far the most common building stone in the area, meaning that the walls may have been rendered with lime-wash, causing them to appear white. This was typically used to protect the stone from the weather. Alternatively, the core of the wall may have been comprised of flint, faced with finer stone such as limestone, or more likely sarsen stone, found in recent excavations of the site.

The gardens

While most castles in the thirteenth century contained a garden within their grounds, very few had a herbarium. This word is often mistranslated as ‘herb garden’ although the word does not refer to a medicinal herb garden as such, rather a pleasure garden designed for relaxation.

The word ‘herbarium’, or the medieval English ‘herber’ was derived from the French ‘herbier’, where ‘herbe’ (grass) grows. The herber would have had turf seats, trees, a fountain and was generally square or rectangular.

Conclusion

To summarise, Marlborough Castle was a truly first class royal residence. Evidence shows that its popularity with kings was on a par with the most lavish palaces at the time, such as Windsor, Westminster, or the Tower of London. It certainly enjoyed its fair share of attention and was the site of numerous historical events. Marlborough Castle’s significance at the time cannot be understated, and it deserves to be recognised as an important aspect of British history.

the SAinte-chApelle in KinG lOUiS ix ’ S rOyAl pAlAce

the GArDenS

Marlborough Wars and the Battle of Blenheim  William

F (Sh)

The Marlborough wars were fought between 1702 and 1713 and are famous for the Battle of Blenheim and being the last and the bloodiest of the wars fought against the French King Louis XIV and the French General Tallard but also for being the first of many wars in which Britain played a major military role in the affairs of Europe. The leader of these campaigns was John Churchill, also known as the Duke of Marlborough who was famed for being a brilliant soldier in all aspects of the military. He embodied strong values of courage, skill, deception, cunning and was very handsome, and all of this gained him a spot from Queen Anne as the commander of the English/ Dutch armies and even a proposal from the French military. The war was caused by Louis signing a prohibition on all English imports and by the Spanish succession crisis whereby Britain, Austria, Holland, Prussia and the Hapsburg Empire intended to prevent Franco-European dominance. However, this was opposed by the French army with this war being ended with the legendary Battle of Blenheim.

The Duke of Marlborough

During the lead up to the battle of Blenheim, Marlborough had never lost a battle or even a skirmish whilst launching 10 successful campaigns and besieging more than 30 towns by using his admirable and strategic tactics that fed and cared for a huge army. Later in his campaign, after numerable successes in the Netherlands, the French threatened Vienna and as a result Marlborough marched 250 miles in order to confront the enemy in the central southern German town of Blindheim or Blenheim. Only a few people knew the real destination for this journey whilst in the act to keep the surprise against the French army. The battle took place on the 13th of August 1704 where Marlborough led an outnumbered army of 56,000 men (51 on-foot batallions,92 horse squadrons and 52 guns) to the town of Blenheim on the Danube river where he was opposed by an army that was thought to be 60,000 men with 90 guns.

The Battle of Blenheim

To begin the battle, the French began with cannon fire towards the neat, packed regiments of English soldiers with the fire being almost immediately returned though this still caused great destruction in the British ranks. During this pre battle momentum of drums and cannon fire, many French battalions headed towards Blenheim where they were given enough cover fire to heavily fortify the town then fill men and defences inside the makeshift walls. Soon a raid of 20 battalions were sent to destroy the makeshift fort, however, this was in vain as the army was shortly sent back after heavy fire and many casualties against the British squadron. As a result, the French sent their prestigious ‘gendarmery’ cavalry to defeat the retreating raid, which hadn’t lost a battle in 60 years. To combat this, Marlborough sent his cavalry as cover and support and, to the French surprise, the traditionally trained British cavalry sword strategies hacked away at the French who in only a few minutes were forced to return to the safety of the French line after a monumental change in the tides. As a panic response,

even more of Tallard’s men were sent into the village for support until it was so full that men could barely even return fire and were sitting ducks in the packed defence which were then mowed down by tactical volley fire and the burning of the village.

Later on, on the other side of the battlefield, as an attempt to attack the left wing of the French army, a cavalry charge of three ranks were sent over the river. However, they were suppressed after two attempts and then retreated back to their line. During this ‘distraction’, Marlborough sent his main army across the marshy stream expecting a tough assault. However, being untouched by the French, they were able to create two formations after crossing the river, and even though this was tactical by the French, as they aimed for a mass onslaught with nowhere to retreat for the British, it didn’t quite go to plan.

In order to prevent this, the Dutch prince sent his army over the river for cover but they were defeated by a perfectly timed attack from the (French) Irish catholic cavalry. Marlborough then pushed an attack on the main village at the centre of the French army which then came to a similar conclusion to Blenheim where the French were so packed that they could barely resist and were savaged by the allies. At 4 pm, Marlborough had more than 22,000 men over the river and had a new formation, composed of four ranks with two cavalry (back and front) then two infantry in the middle. Then as the French cavalry charged as planned, the two-infantry moved to the front with the cavalry retiring to the back meaning the French charge was now met by a regiment of bayonets. It led to a convincing defeat for the French that later led to the victory of the battle.

After this success, Marlborough ordered the rest of his army to cross the river then set up infantry on the brave remaining soldiers ordered to stand their ground, who were then extinguished by the fearsome cannon partridge shot. These soldiers were the final stand whilst the remains of the French army fled from the scene. Finally, the battle had been won and soon the war would be in the allies’ hands. This convincing battle was the major pivoting factor for the allies’ victory over the war and is a huge landmark in British history.

This war was vital to the peace and alliance of Britain because it united much of Europe but also quenched the forces that were stepping out of line such as France and Spain. However, it came at an extreme financial cost for England and therefore, this subject was heavily discussed in parliament due to the costs of £1,000,000 per year with a total military cost of £9,000,000, which is equivalent to almost 1 billion pounds nowadays. The victory was also thought to have kickstarted the Great British Empire’s expansion under Queen Anne as it proved to Europe the incredible strength and tactical dominance of the British military whilst also rapidly decreasing its two main competitors’ chances of global colonisation and mass empire expansion. Finally, due to the roughly equal numbers and weapon technology, this victory was a true image of the British strategic dominance on the battlefield. It proved to be a necessary war that was tactically won whilst also displaying the rise of British military power and the beginning of a new era of British imperial reign.

The history of C1

Theo W-B (Re)

The history of C1 can be split into 3 clear sections: the home of the Seymour family, the Castle Inn and C1 as a part of Marlborough College.

Seymour Family

The history of C1 starts with the House of Seymour. On the C1 section of the Marlborough College website it states: “…it was originally the home of the Seymour family…”. Following on off this information, I researched about the Seymour family and was surprised to find that they are originally from Wales. During the 13th century, the Seymour family was living in Monmouthshire, Wales. Originally the family was called St.Maur which was then later distilled into Seymour. St.Maur comes from William St Maur who was assisted by the Earl of Pembroke to seize Woundy and Penhow, a village in Monmouthshire, from the Welsh.

A later son of the Seymour family, Roger Seymour, married Cecily de Beauchamp in 1393, a daughter of John III de Beauchamp who was the feudal baron of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset. Through this marriage, Roger Seymour expanded the Seymour family south, laying claim to John Beauchamp’s extensive estates in Somerset. That is how the Seymour family made the shift to an area closer to Marlborough.

In 1590, Francis Seymour is said to have lived in C1. The Marlborough Castle was in ruins by 1403 and it is believed that Francis Seymour was the one to replace the castle with a mansion as a new home for the Seymour Family, that most likely stood in the place of C1 today, although it would have been rebuilt in the early 18th century. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in 1621 and as an MP for Marlborough in 1624, when he was 34. Sir Francis Seymour can be traced back to Roger Seymour who married Cecily Beauchamp, proving a clear link between this marriage and the expansion of the Seymour family into the Marlborough area, castle and C1. Roger Seymour is Sir Francis Seymour’s great-great-great-great-greatgrandfather. There is still evidence of the remnants of the Seymour family in the local area. In fact, one of the Seymour family members is buried in the nearby village of Great Bedwyn.

The Castle Inn

The next part of C1’s history was its life as an inn which served as a stop point for travellers to and from London to Bath. The popularity of the inn was at its highest before the construction of the Great Western Railway, the absence of which led to many coaches, estimated at about 100 a day, making this journey either way and in need of a place to stop. Marlborough, being situated somewhat in between these two destinations, served as an above adequate rest point.

The grounds of the Castle Inn went all the way down to the River Kennet. The inn was called this because of the castle previously situated around the Neolithic mound. The mound still remains here to this day and sits at the centre of Marlborough College. The construction of the railway was a direct threat to the inn and its flood of customers. In an attempt to stop the Castle Inn from shutting down “local magnates opposed the railway, and drove it away from the town to a longer route along the Thames Valley.” Despite these efforts the Castle Inn was still out of business since, because of this diversion, traffic left the road that crossed the Castle Inn to Bath and London, resulting in the customers also not staying at the Inn. The Great Western Railway’s first route was completed in 1841, two years before the foundation of the College. It was in these two years that the Castle Inn saw its demise and was eventually left vacant. However, this left an opportunity that was capitalised on leading to the foundation of Marlborough College, so the emptiness of the Castle Inn may not have been such a bad happening after all.

C1 Marlborough College

Capitalising on the vacancy of the Castle Inn at the time, a group of Church of England clergymen wished to found a boarding school in order to educate “the sons of clergy.” The College opened in August, 1843 with C1 at its centre and an admission of 199 boys. Marlborough College had an unfortunate beginning with a rebellion, by their 500 or so pupils at the time, in November 1851 not only down to the conditions the pupils went through but some outrage at the fees at the time, which were priced differently according to status. Sons of laity would pay 50 guineas a year whereas sons of the clergy paid 30 guineas. This rebellion and damaging start led to a decline in the number pupils attending and “the College sank heavily into debt, its future in jeopardy.”

The revival that the College so desperately needed was brought by two consecutive and successful Heads, previously from Rugby School. These Heads set Marlborough College on the path that led it to where it is now. Marlborough College was eager to introduce girls into the school, in fact it was the “first boys boarding school to admit girls in to the Sixth Form” in 1968. The College proceeded to become fully co-ed 21 years later.

C1 now stands at the centre of Marlborough College and is the first thing one sees as they step into Court. It is one of the most applied for boarding houses with 52 boys currently attending Marlborough as a part of C1. This once home to the Seymour family, built up from around the ruins of the old Marlborough Castle and the Neolithic situated around it, then a successful coaching inn which came to a somewhat abrupt ending with the advancement of locomotives and public transport, was seen as an opportunity by a group of clergymen. Although it may not have been the school everyone knows today upon opening, with C1 as an integral part of the school, it eventually reached its status and standard of education that it holds today.

Bibliography

https://www.marlboroughcollege.org/full-boarding/houses/c1/ https://www.marlboroughcollege.org/explore/our-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Seymour,_2nd_Baron_Seymour_of_Trowbridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Seymour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seymour,_Lord_Beauchamp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seymour,_1st_Earl_of_Hertford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Seymour,_1st_Duke_of_Somerset

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(1474%E2%80%931536)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(died_1491)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(1425%E2%80%931463)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(died_1464)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Seymour,_5th_Duke_of_Somerset

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25100775?seq=8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway

https://www.britannica.com/place/Marlborough-England#ref709020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlborough_College

https://lifestory.group/renaissance/news-and-events/the-infamous-marlborough-college/

As well as Google scholar and other articles used in order to fact-check and acquire citations for facts and evidence used.

C1 and the supernatural: fact or fiction?

Olivia M (L6)

C1 is among one of the most historic buildings on the Marlborough College campus. It was owned by the prestigious Seymour family before becoming an Inn. Then in 1843, when the school was founded, it became part of our campus.

It was a spring morning, and the sun was flooding through the windows of the building. A man was leaving the house to go to work and to take a shortcut he left through the basement. He was walking along the corridor and approached a door with a glass window (door A in the diagram). In order to leave, he would need to pass through this door and exit through the opposite door (door C). However, when approaching door A, through the glass, he saw a white shrouded figure. The figure was moving across the hall and having come through door B, it then exited through door D. It was walking as though the floor was a meter below, so the figure could only be seen from the knees up.

Recorded in the archives of the school are many reports and sightings of certain supernatural figures dating back hundreds of years. Some stories include a soldier or even a young boy, but this one is about a sighting of “The White Lady” and is maybe an encounter that should be added to the archives.

Not processing what he had seen, he continued on his path and entered the small hall which all four doors (A, B, C and D) connected onto. A moment later he realised that both doors B and D were locked and that it would have been logically impossible for someone to pass through them unless they had the keys, however he looked after the keys and knew that they were upstairs. Confused, he called out to see if anyone was there, but he received no reply. He carried on and left through door C which led outside. Puzzled by what he had just encountered he went round the corner and looked in the window of the room which door D led to. There was nobody inside. So, what had he seen?

Due to the bright sunny morning, he thought maybe he had been mistaken and the figure he saw was in fact his reflection in the sunny windows. So, the next day, at the same time and when the sun was in the same place he went back to the place where this incident occurred to see if it could have been his reflection. He concluded that he must have seen something as when he tested it out, his reflection moved in the opposite direction to that which the figure had moved in.

Now suspecting that the shrouded figure he saw must have been a ghost and having read the archived accounts, he assumed it must have been the notorious White Lady. A ghost which was typically known to haunt the ground floor and basement and had been spotted on several occasions. The fact that this figure had appeared to be seen from the knees up, as if the floor was a meter below, did make sense as over time the structure of the house had moved and changed, therefore the floor levels would have differed between the time of this story and the time when the suspected ghost would have been alive. Before this encounter, if asked whether he believed in ghosts the man would have always replied with a definite no. Now his answer has changed.

There are some theories as to why ghosts might exist. People may believe in the supernatural due to the theory that when a person dies their spirit remains with us and it may then take on the form of a ghost. The reason people would use to say that there is no such thing as ghosts is that there is no scientific evidence for their existence, and many would put sightings down to wishful thinking or our minds playing tricks on us. So, is this sighting of a ghost fact or fiction? You decide.

JAmeS mcneill whiStler’S SymphOny in white, nO.1: the white Girl, 1861–1863 / nAtiOnAl GAllery Of Art

The Byam Family by Thomas Gainsborough

Nina B (L6)

The Byam Family by Gainsborough is a large, life size portrait which was painted in 1762. It is an important work of art, a copy of which hangs imposingly in the Adderley at Marlborough College. The original painting was initially gifted on loan to the College by descendants of the Byam family in 1942, and then in 1955 the painting was donated to the school. In 1999, the painting was sold for approximately £3 million in order to raise funds for new facilities at the College.

This family portrait celebrates the wealthy and extravagant George Byam with his wife Louisa and their daughter Selina (who was only added to the painting four years after the initial completion, once she was old enough to be included). Renowned for his portrayals of the landscape portrait genre, Gainsborough focuses here predominantly on the leafy green English countryside and silvery sky, upon which the figures appear grafted, almost as an afterthought. The charming estate that our attention is being ushered towards via George Byam’s outstretched arm, owed itself to a Caribbean slave plantation that fuelled the Byams’ financial success in the 18th Century.

There are several hints throughout the composition of the painting towards the vast extent of the family’s wealth. For example, it would not have been common at the time for men to wear such ornate, gold threaded waistcoats as George Byam, unless they were of the highest social class and affluent descent. Just as Louisa’s clothing entails an intricate system of frills and fabrics. Gainsborough would have disapproved of such indulgence; coming from a non-conformist family of protestants, he believed in egalitarianism.

The family is portrayed strolling in a poetic landscape, demonstrating their sensibility and appreciation as admirers of nature. This lends an element of the promenade portrait genre, which is reminiscent of the romantic fashion for people to parade along the sea front, in order to see and be seen.

The concern for social acceptance is also evident behind the scenes. It is hardly obvious – due to Gainsborough’s expert handling of paint – but Louisa Byam has had a closet upgrade between revisions of the painting. When little Selena was added to the family portrait in 1766, Louisa decided she wanted to present the most sophisticated, fashionable and modern version of herself, so she changed from the ‘outdated’, pale pink dress to a much more fashionable and glamorous garment. This not only shows the general concern by upper class citizens to distinguish themselves from their supposed ‘inferiors’; but also enforces the gender stereotype that women cared more about their outward appearance than men.

This leads me onto the topic of gender identity and how it is apparent in Gainsborough’s painting. Predictably we see George Byam elegantly and gently leading his family into the landscape that celebrates his fortune. He is the first person we see and takes up the most space, with his arm pointing in the direction of travel. Louisa puts her absolute trust in his arms (literally) and both female characters appear relaxed and comfortable under his leadership. Louisa’s expertise is with childcare, so she takes her daughter’s hand to show that this is her role within the family – most likely as it would have been for most households at the time. The delicacy of Louisa’s footwear and foot size lends to the stereotyping in the painting – as George wears much more sturdy, robust clothing, possibly the only one dressed in a mildly appropriate manner for their expedition into the muddy, English countryside.

This portrayal of male superiority was of course the gender norm in this time and society, as was the acceptance of the source of the family’s enormous wealth. The Byam family were landowners in Antigua, with sugar plantations worked by slave labour. They “owned” 132 slaves and were among the wealthiest families on the island. Hence this work of art itself was funded directly from the profits of slave labour. Although the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, the topic continues to be at the forefront of controversy today. It is easy now to pass judgement on how the funds realised from the sale of this painting were indeed tainted by their origins. However, we can hope that this donation has helped to improve the awareness and education of pupils within Marlborough College so that we can ensure that such injustices never happen again within our society.

White horses of Wiltshire

Talitha S (Sh)

For over 200 years, Marlborough has been home to one of Wiltshire’s thirteen white horses. Over time, five of those amazing landmarks have faded back into their natural surroundings, leaving eight white horses visible in Wiltshire today, which date from 1778 to 1999, and in total these make up half of the white horses visible in England.

All of the white horses in Wiltshire can be easily visited by the public and are a popular destination for lots of tourists. There is also the Wiltshire white horse trail, a route originally created by Wiltshire Ramblers with assistance from Wiltshire Council, providing views of the eight white horses, which are cut into the turf of the chalk hillsides of Wiltshire. This is a circular walk which is 94 miles long and has a waymarked trail running through Wiltshire. It starts at the Westbury white horse, the oldest white horse in Wiltshire, and runs through Pewsey, Marlborough, Broad Town, Cherhill, Devizes, Steeple Ashton and Bratton. The walk explores some beautiful Wiltshire countryside and also visits fascinating historical sites such as the Avebury stones and Silbury Hill. We are also lucky enough to have the oldest white horse in England, the Uffington white horse, which is thought to be over 3000 years old, only 20 miles from Marlborough and could be visited at the same time as the Wiltshire white horses.

Each white horse in Wiltshire has its own unique history and meaning and the one right on our doorstep is no different. The Marlborough white horse was designed by William Canning, son of Thomas Canning of the Manor house in Ogbourne St. George, and cut in 1804 by the pupils of Mr Gresley’s school. It is believed to have been created to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the granting of the Town’s Charter. The construction was rather crude; the turf was removed and the space filled with lumps of chalk, with the horse scoured every year. Since the Marlborough white horse has been built, it has been restored to its former brilliance multiple times. When the horse was first built, maintenance work was done on it every year to keep it in good condition.

However, following the death of Mr Gresley in 1830 the horse was neglected, with only two legs and no eye, until 1873 when a former pupil, Captain Reed, organised the repair of the horse. This must have been the time when the horse gained an eye and two more legs, and the figure also became more defined and a better representation of the original horse.

mArlBOrOUGh white hOrSe 1930

mArlBOrOUGh white hOrSe priOr tO reStOrAtiOn April 2021

The next time we can be sure that the horse was restored was 15-20 years ago by the Marlborough scouts, and since then a new restoration project for Marlborough’s white horse was launched last year by Marlborough College.

This white horse is still very important to Marlborough, as it keeps the history of both the town and the school alive and is an iconic symbol to represent Marlborough, being one of the eight Wiltshire white horses. The white horse is even mentioned in the Marlborough College school hymn where it says “Ah, then we’ll cry, thank God, my lads, the Kennett’s running still, and see, the old White Horse still pads up there on Granham Hill.”

We cannot be certain why so many white horses were built around Wiltshire, or indeed why they were built at all, but we do have some theories. One idea is that during the eighteenth century, the white horse was a heraldic symbol associated with the new British Royal Family, the House of Hanover and it is argued by some scholars that white horses may have first been carved in the eighteenth century as a symbol of loyalty to the new Protestant reigning house around Wiltshire.

Some white horses around Wiltshire may also have been built to display power and victory as the white horse was considered a rare and distinguished symbol and typically bears the hero- or God-figure in ceremonial roles or in triumph over negative forces. This theory certainly seems to work with the oldest white horse in Wiltshire, the Westbury white horse, as legend suggests it was created to commemorate King Alfred’s victory at the Battle of Ethandun here in 878 AD.

The Wiltshire white horses may also have been built as they have a special significance in the mythologies of cultures around the world. They are often associated with the sun chariot, with warrior-heroes, or with an end-of-time saviour, but other interpretations exist as well.

Finally, for the white horses built later in Wiltshire, they could just have been built to continue tradition, for their appearance, or to commemorate a celebration, like the Devizes white horse which was built in celebration of the change of the millennium and the Pewsey white horse which was built to celebrate the coronation of King George VI.

Whatever reason there is for them being there, they create an eye-catching sight on many slopes around Wiltshire and beyond and are well worth a visit. They give each place its own unique history and stories to tell and have provided many towns with their current day religious and mythical beliefs. They have been great sites for lots of town work and therefore have helped to build and strengthen many communities over the years, and many people still enjoy being part of their important and historical upkeep today. There are so many different tales behind all the white horses that there has to be something that interests everybody. Surely what makes them a site of such fascination, is that no two are the same and there are so many people who are interested in different white horses and theories behind their creation and reason for existing.

reStOrAtiOn wOrK SUmmer 2021

pOSt reStOrAtiOn SeptemBer 2021

The Master’s choice of object representing the College

Daisy D (L6)

On the sunny Friday of half-term, I met the Master in the Masters’ Lodge for her to tell me about, and show me, the artefact which she believes to be representative of Marlborough. She showed me into her sitting room, and gestured to her left. And there on the wall is a really rather lovely painting.

It has no title, and the painter in unknown. It depicts Court, but before the addition of B1, A House, and, of course, Norwood Hall, and so the painting can be roughly dated to before Chapel architect George Frederick Bodley carried out his plans. This dates the work at roughly 1845 (an estimate by Dr Hamilton, the previous head of History of Art).

The Master’s enthusiasm and enjoyment in talking to me about this painting was tangible. What I really took away from our interview was the passion she has for this place that many of us call home for five years. A passion for its spirit and ethos, traditions and customs, and for what lies ahead.

Upon asking the Master why she had chosen this object, she said to me that in 1992, when she was just 21 years old, she sat in the Masters’ Lodge, where I was then sitting, and interviewed for a job as a beak. She cannot remember what was asked, or how she answered, but she can remember this painting. When I asked her why this painting, one that had stood out so many years before, was still her artefact of the College, she said it gave her a huge amount of pride to be able to see this great school on her wall, of which she is now at the helm. And proud she certainly seems. She told me that she believed this painting captures a certain indefinable quality that sums up the school. One of respect, enjoyment, and of seizing opportunities.

It seems to show pupils walking about, with some beaks who at first sight appear straight-backed and austere. However, allow your eye to linger, and the scene is one of a bit more frivolity.

The beaks seem to be conversing, as they sashay across Court, and pupils play with hoop and ball, or play chase, or, as the Master noticed for the first time, a group of eight or so boys playing leap-frog. There is the craquelure that comes with age, with varnish flaked off, but the greens are vibrant and cut through the terracotta reds and oranges that still imbue Court with the charm that is created when old meets new. An initially strict and austere atmosphere prevails, but there is much joy in being able to spot boys talking, playing, and laughing. There is something distinctly ‘Marlborough-esque’ about this painting. Court could have been seen as an imposing place under Victorian schoolmasters, but it also seems to be a place of recreation and fun.

There is another interesting detail to note, regarding the Mound. A tradition has been created whereby the Shell ascend the Neolithic structure at the beginning of their time at the College, with a view to recreating that once they reach Upper Sixth. And this painting has inspired a resurrection of this rite of passage. On the right-hand side of the painting, we see the Mound, and, on closer inspection, little white dots curling around the path. It is believed that these are scholars, who would have had the privilege of using the structure for recreation, and so the idea has been revived to bring the Mound once more into use, bookending our experience at Marlborough.

I agree with the Master. This painting really is, in her own words, ‘charming’, and seems to encapsulate all that Marlborough stands for. It is rather nice to think of people our own age, over 150 years ago, treading the same steps, playing the same games, and making the same jokes as we do now. And beaks still strolling through Court.

How Marlborough College has changed over five generations

Daisy G (Sh)

Marlborough College was originally set up in August 1843 by a group of Church of England Clergymen, as a boarding school with the sole purpose of educating the sons of clergy. Initially, there were 199 boys, and the fees were 30 guineas a year.

Nowadays, whilst Marlborough has maintained an Anglican heritage, it has an inclusive ethos, welcoming pupils of all faith and none. Furthermore, despite Marlborough being a fee-paying school, these days Marlborough has an ambitious bursary fundraising campaign which aims to create a more diverse community.

My first ancestor, Henry Wilson, entered the College in 1877, so thirty years after it was originally formed. A huge amount has changed in these 150 years of my family’s presence. Even by this stage, you did not need to be a son of a member of the clergy, anyone willing to pay the fees could attend.

The College had encountered a tricky first 30 years with a rebellion taking place due to very harsh living conditions for the pupils, and it had run heavily into debt. However, by the 1870s, things were looking up for the College financially, and my great great great grandfather was enrolled for 5 years. Life would have been extremely tough though and boarding conditions were not as they are now.

In those days, all the College building were around the main Court, and the College was famous for its avenue of lime trees. The interesting thing about this Henry Wilson is that he became a Field Marshal and Head of the Armed Forces. Unfortunately, he was one of the first victims of the Irish struggles to become independent and he was assassinated on his doorstep, brandishing his sword, in London, by Irish terrorists in 1922. He was given a state funeral and 100 years on, a plaque to him has recently been unveiled in the Houses of Parliament. He has his name engraved in the Marlborough Chapel which you can still see today.

the newly eStABliSheD cOlleGe c1850

By An UnKnOwn ArtiSt

About the same time as Henry, his future brother-in-law also attended Marlborough. Major General Price-Davis, otherwise known as ‘Mary’ and also remembered in the Chapel, won a Victoria Cross in the Boer War.

By the late 1880’s, the College’s reputation was well established and over the next 100 years the College was seen as a school which provided a reliable stream of able young men to the professions e.g., lawyers and accountants, armed forces, the church and all walks of public life. Nowadays, Old Marlburians continue to thrive but in a much wider breadth of roles from the singer Chris de Burgh to the comedian Jack Whitehall, which reflects modern society which the Field Marshall and Major General would not even have dreamt of!

In 1918, when my great grandfather, Gordon Wilson, arrived in Cotton House, there was no still Memorial Hall. This was built a little later in honour of the 749 masters, pupils and staff who died in the First World War. Gordon did not enjoy his time at Marlborough as the food was terrible and there was a huge number of beatings. Plus, most of the masters were extremely old as the majority of the young masters had not returned from the war. There was definitely no child safeguarding and I understand that it was quite brutal at times!

I’m pleased to say things have changed a huge amount in this respect. Currently, Marlborough prides itself on the quality of relationships throughout our community. Young people at Marlborough thrive through their interaction with adults and peers in ways that go far beyond the traditional formal relationship in the classroom. Our houses provide us with supportive pastoral care. They are like a second home, where we can form friendships and develop our social leadership skills needed for our future.

My grandfather, another Henry Wilson, arrived here in 1960 which was another period of change for the school. He remembers studying a lot of art. To start with the Art School was on the top floor of the Bradleian Hall.

cOUrt 1905 lime treeS DOUBle rOw

St michAel AnD All AnGelS chApel

However, when the Norwood Hall opened in 1961/62, the space between the Hall and A House became the Art School which he recounts was a huge improvement. Art obviously wasn’t as good in those days - well, my grandfather only got E Grade at A level!

The current Art School replaced this in 2005. The College continues to evolve and now offers an outstanding range of academic and cocurricular activities, for example, I recently had to choose up to 2 activities from a list of over 60 from robotics to mixed martial arts.

It was just after my Grandfather’s time here, in 1968, that the Master, John Dancy, started introducing girls into the school. Marlborough College became the first single sex boarding school to admit girls into the Sixth Form.

My uncle Patrick Wilson arrived in Preshute in 1985 and during his time here the College finally became completely co-ed (in 1989), completing what the previous Master, John Dancy, had started in the 60’s. It was quite revolutionary to the public school system and was one of several changes that eventually helped transform the whole independent senior school sector.

Aside from this, Marlborough College has developed in size massively and architecturally.

Though my father and uncle witnessed the great Memorial and Norwood Halls, there has been a great deal of new buildings since, for example Dancy House, Heywood Block and Mill Mead to name just a few. Today, we have 16 boarding houses, and it is the UK’s largest co- educational full boarding school. For example, my house, Elmhurst used to have only 20 boy boarders in my grandfather’s time, but now has 60 girls! The College even has a school in Malaysia which adds a global aspect.

So, my cousin, Woody (current Senior Prefect), my sister Tilly and I are proud to be the fifth generation of our family to attend the College and, as such, we and our ancestors feel extremely privileged to have both witnessed and been part of the long and distinguished history of the College.

Who knows what the future will bring, but it is certainly very exciting!

mASter JOhn DAncy with the firSt in-tAKe Of Sixth fOrm GirlS 1968

the memOriAl hAll

cOlleGe cAmpUS, AeriAl frOm 2020

Marlborough and the formation of rugby football

Catriona M (L6)

Rugby, created by William Webb Ellis, is not something majorly attributed to Marlborough College and instead is rightfully dedicated to the Rugby School. The game’s history is connected to an old version of football, where the rules were relaxed and there were limitless players on each side, with players being able to catch and throw the ball but without running with it. It soon became common to run with the ball and the Rugby School began to spread their game with the wider nation in 1823.

Eventually, this would reach Marlborough College in 1864, when they would play Clifton College in their first inter-school game. Not many schools played rugby and Marlborough was a prime mover in the formation of the popularity and influence of the sport.

Marlborough College first formed their team in 1861, and the Marlborough Nomads, a team made from masters and OMs as well as personnel from the army, was formed in 1868. They played in red, white and blue stripes. It is argued that Marlborough, although not often mentioned is only second to the influence Rugby School had in early rugby, and their rules were those by which the rugby laws were influenced.

the 1864 mArlBOrOUGh cOlleGe fOOtBAll xx; the cAptAin wAS JA BOyle (B1 AnD pr 1858-65)

At this time, Cambridge wanted to draw up a list of rules to set the game. In 1848, there was a meeting that took place at Cambridge University. Representatives from Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster gathered and produced what would be known as Cambridge Rules. Some of the rules were that goals would be awarded for balls kicked between the flag posts and under the crossbar; players of the same team should wear the same colour cap; and thrown ins must be taken with one hand only, only when the ball went out of play. It was then that rugby transcended from a sport that school boys played to an actual game that men would play.

The first rugby meeting was attended by the Marlborough Nomads, along with 20 other clubs, including Wellington, King’s and St Paul’s. They were dubbed the founders of Rugby Union, and many more would join this movement in the coming years, such as Brighton, Liverpool and Bath.

In the future, perhaps Marlborough could be the beginning of girls’ rugby at public schools, just as it was for boys’ rugby when Marlborough was a boys’ school. As more and more women and girls are getting into the sport as it grows worldwide, hopefully Marlborough can spark another movement where girls are involved in such a wonderful game.

the Only phOtOGrAph in the cOlleGe Archive Of the mArlBOrOUGh nOmADS c1880S

The work of Charles Hamilton Sorley

Saul T R (L6)

Charles Hamilton Sorley was a young Scottish poet, killed in action during World War I at the age of just 20. Despite his short life and brief career as a poet, Sorley’s work is regarded as being profoundly influential and has been universally celebrated in the years since his death. His poetry is notable for its combination of traditional poetic form and modernist experimentation, themes of war and loss, and powerful use of language and imagery.

Sorley was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1895, and spent much of his childhood in Germany, where his father was a professor of philosophy. His secondary education took place at Marlborough College, and his higher education at Oxford University, where he was a contemporary of many other distinguished British poets of the time, including Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon. It was during his time at Oxford that Sorley began to deepen his poetic voice and style, experimenting with traditional forms and structures while also incorporating modernist techniques and ideas.

Sorley’s poetry is often characterised by its strong and vivid imagery and attention to the natural world, as shown in Rooks. His language is precise and carefully crafted, with a strong emphasis on rhythm and sound. While many of his poems are set in the landscape of his childhood, with its rolling hills, forests, and rivers, his own experiences in World War I are also often reflected, particularly with clarity, precision, and emotional depth.

One of Sorley’s most famous works, When You See Millions of the Mouthless Dead, exemplifies many of these qualities. The poem is a powerful indictment of war and its senseless destruction and is notable for its striking use of metaphor and symbolism. Sorley compares the dead to “shadows” and “phantoms”, emphasising their insubstantiality and the sense of loss and absence they leave behind. The image of “millions of the mouthless dead” is particularly powerful, evoking the horror of war’s mass slaughter and the sense of speechlessness and powerlessness it engenders.

Another eminent aspect of Sorley’s poetry is his engagement with traditional poetic forms and structures. Many of his poems use rhyme and meter and are constructed according to strict formal rules. However, Sorley also incorporates modernist techniques such as fragmentation, free verse, and stream of consciousness into his work, giving his poetry a sense of innovation and experimentation. This combination of traditional and modernist elements is evident in poems such as All the Hills and Vales Along, which uses traditional ballad meter and rhyme, but also incorporates fragmented and disjointed imagery and a sense of uncertainty and disorientation.

Sorley’s poetry is also notable for its focus on war and its impact on individuals and society. Many of his poems were written during the early years of World War I when he himself was serving in the British army. Sorley’s experiences as a soldier are evident in his poetry, which frequently deals with themes of death, loss, and the brutal realities of warfare. His anti-war sentiments are also clear in his work, as he frequently critiques the idea of heroic sacrifice and emphasises the senselessness and tragedy of war.

A good example of this is in one of Sorley’s most famous war poems, To Germany, which was written shortly before his death in 1915. The poem is addressed to the German people and is a powerful critique of the nationalist rhetoric and propaganda that had fuelled the war on both sides. Sorley emphasises the humanity and commonality of all people, regardless of nationality, and argues that war only serves to dehumanise and destroy. The poem’s closing lines, in which Sorley writes “We’ll grasp firm hands and laugh at the old pain / When it is peace. But until peace, the storm / The darkness and the thunder and the rain” are a powerful reminder of the human cost of war and the need for empathy and understanding in the face of conflict.

The Memorial Hall, 1921-25

Christopher Moule (CR, Head of Academic Scholars, Head of History)

‘as near to the American campus style of the same years as anything this side of the Atlantic’ (Pevsner and Cherry 1975)

Marlborough was entirely typical of public schools – large and small – in wishing to construct a major memorial to those pupils and staff who were killed in World War One. Indeed, there was of course a spectacular outpouring of memorials in all different shapes and sizes up and down the land: every village has one, and (probably) every institution, because the war touched every place and every institution. I suspect there was something of a competition between public schools for war memorials which were dignified, appropriate, and of suitable scale. A book, detailing school war memorials, was published in 1927; by this time there were certainly many spectacular examples.

Discussions about a memorial were already in progress during the War. After the War, Lieutenant-Colonel W.G.Newton (himself an old Marlburian) was chosen as the architect (and indeed he was the College’s architect for the next two decades).

Initially some believed a cloister would be appropriate (this is what the famous architect Herbert Baker built at Winchester College). But at Marlborough it was decided that a building with a clear function would be more appropriate. Finally, an assembly hall was agreed upon. Other schools built classroom blocks, for instance Taunton, where the science block is a war memorial.

Though village war memorials sometimes took the form of Gothic or Celtic crosses, and though some schools employed other kinds of architecture (like Taunton’s Tudor science block), most war memorials (including Newton’s) are classical in style. I don’t know of a modernist war memorial built after World War One (as opposed to later ones), though the kind of classicism favoured in the 1920s tends to be pared down and simplified, and often hints at modernism (an example of this is the brilliant ‘Cenotaph’, London’s main war memorial, designed by the great architect Lutyens).

Newton’s initial design was for a larger hall (seating around 1250), but not enough money was raised in the subscription, so he scaled it back. Moreover, the watery ground on the Kennet floodplain posed further challenges.

He built his scaled-back version on a concrete raft, but most of what’s visible is brick (typical of Marlborough, which is in the heart of a stoneless area) and York stone (which is completely atypical).

Its classical architecture

Newton’s building is based on classical theatres. Here is a plan of the theatre of the Roman city of Aspendos, built in the 2nd century. It’s clearly similar to Mem Hall.

This is typical of a Roman theatre (the most perfect Greek ones, eg Epidaurus, tend to have a (relatively) smaller – and more open – scaenae and the seating area often exceeds a semi-circle).

The austere lettering of the names of the 749 is also Roman in style and spirit.

However, the façade of Mem Hall is more strikingly ‘Greek’ than Roman, due to its simplicity and the use of the Ionic order rather than the Corinthian (which was usually preferred in Roman theatres).

The Ionic order is associated with Ionia, across the Aegean from Athens in the Greek lands along the Anatolian coast. The most famous ancient temple in that area was the temple of Artemis at Ephesus (6th century BC). It’s very ruined now, but here’s a model in Istanbul, and you can compare it with Mem Hall’s façade.

Mem Hall’s details are heavy, dignified, and simple. This is in tune with the better classical buildings of the 1920s across North America, Europe and colonial centres like Delhi. There’s nothing that foreshadows Newton’s strikingly modern Science Blocks at Marlborough (right next door – what a contrast!) or Radley.

It’s a fine building, but there were problems: the acoustic was appalling and the service spaces (especially around the stage) pokey and not very functional. The recent refurbishment by the celebrated Canadian architect Jack Diamond has made Mem Hall ‘state of the art’ and far improved these shortcomings. A long Financial Times article celebrated Diamond’s involvement: Marlborough’s architecture recently made international news!

The great architectural historian Pevsner compared Mem Hall with university campus buildings in the States. I don’t know much about these, but look at the Low Memorial Library (Columbia University, 1895), and the (rhyming) Doe Memorial Library (Berkeley University, 1911). (There are memorials for benefactors, not war dead!).

Quadrangle and Rose Garden, also Newton, and contemporary (ie early 1920s)

I feel that the ‘landscaping’ around the Mem Hall is at least as impressive as the hall itself. There’s the quandrangle immediately in front of the hall, stunningly paved in red, with a fountain in the centre (now filled in); a grand staircase up to the Chapel; and the Rose Garden in the dip between the Chapel and the Mound.

The formality and grandeur of the paved quadrangle and staircase matches the formal gardens popular in Edwardian times. It’s neatly done, though I don’t think the staircase really suits the Chapel with its noble Gothic façade more romantically amid trees at the top of it… the respective mood of the two monuments – one of them Gothic, romantic and Victorian, the other open, classical, international – contrasts strongly. Never mind: both are very fine.

But I think the Rose Garden is a great creation, with great dignity and beauty. Newton’s design roughly follows the design of the chapel above, with an eastern ‘apse’. But the greatest moment is at its understated entrance. There’s a small off-centre ‘gatehouse’, connecting the larger formality of the hall and its quadrangle with the intimacy of the valley garden. It has a Greek inscription which translates as ‘Within this quiet garden-close, Though o`er all lands our graves lie spread, Still do we live and walk with those Whose thoughts are with the dead’,

and a nearby pergola stands along the west end of the garden, like a church’s entrance. The Rose Garden is an amazing place to be, even by Marlborough’s high standards: apart from its intrinsic beauty and atmosphere, it is towered over by two first-rate religious monuments, of very different kind: the great Neolithic Mound (whose function is completely mysterious) and the great Victorian chapel (whose function is completely understood!).

Appendix: for contrast

Like Marlborough’s hall, the Memorial Cloisters at Winchester College had to be scaled back from its original plan (which included a hall) because of lack of funds. But it’s said to be the largest private war memorial in Europe, and also has a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, the most famous gardener of the day.

wellinGtOn cOlleGe, memOriAl hAll, lUtyenS 1921-8

memOriAl clOiSterS, wincheSter cOlleGe, herBert BAKer, StArteD 1922

Marlborough through the eyes of poets Sorley and Betjeman

Lara R (L6)

The experiences of Old Marlburian poets Charles Hamilton Sorley (C1 1908-13) and John Betjeman (B2 1920-25) were wildly different. Their time at Marlborough greatly impacted both, with Sorley reminiscing of the Downs’ splendour whilst fighting in the War, whereas Betjeman was scarred from the discipline, team sport and emphasis on classicism that the public school imposed on him.

Sorley’s affection for Marlborough stemmed from his love of the Downs. Writing to the Master of Marlborough in July 1914, Sorley stated “I know it’s wrong of me, but I count myself as Wiltshire”. Sorley would go for walks and runs alone in the Downs and found the stillness amid only the rain and wind deeply stimulating. Like Wordsworth, Sorley saw the affinity between nature and man as a way of understanding life. A parallel can be drawn between Sorely and Adam Nicholson, who recently delivered a talk at the College, urging us to “see the validity in the small”. Whilst the Downs offered a starting point to his poetry, Sorley addressed wider views of the world. It seems that Sorley found such happiness through his lifestyle at Marlborough because he decided to leave the College at the end of 1913 as he believed it “cushioned him from life”. It wasn’t all pessimism for Betjeman, for he too traversed the Downs; describing sketching expeditions into the Wiltshire countryside, and wrote of “the golden downs” as he sat upon Silbury Hill.

However, on the whole, Betjeman was miserable at Marlborough and remembering those five years, wrote “Thank God I’ll never have to go through them again”. It seems the strict routine and enforcement of games and studying Classics were the most vivid traumas that remained when he wrote of his school days in the poem Marlborough:

Doom! Shivering doom! Inexorable bells

To early school, to chapel, school again: The dread of beatings! Dread of being late! And greatest dread of all, the dread of games!

Whilst it appears that Betjeman enjoyed dramatising his experiences, his dislike of Marlborough was clear. Contemporaries of Betjeman too described the College as “closer to a concentration camp than a school” suggesting a rather brutal education for those that didn’t enjoy the ‘regular’ activities. Betjeman felt happiest in the Chapel and admired the “greens and browns” of the stained glass:

For safe in G. F. Bodley’s greens and browns, Safe in the surge of undogmatic hymns, The chapel was the centre of my lifeThe only place where I could be alone.

Furthermore, whilst at Marlborough, both poets first experienced the power of the pen with Sorley and Betjeman publishing work in The Marlburian magazine. Together with Anthony Blunt (Art Historian and Soviet spy), Betjeman worked on another magazine, The Heretick “to express their disapproval of the Establishment”, often targeting the dreaded team games. Betjeman’s writing career can be traced to Marlborough where he first experienced the effect of his writing on others, describing “Court alive with the orange covers on black suits”.

Sorley’s and Betjeman’s writings of Marlborough provide an insight into their respective experiences and views, albeit contrasting, about the College. I urge you to look for the same greens and browns in the stained-glass windows next Chapel service as Betjeman did too. It seems fitting to finish with Betjeman’s line:

Marlborough was a lonely place; The old Bath Road, in chalky whiteness.

Chalk as a military term

Oscar P (L6)

A slightly obscure but fascinating correlation one can make with chalk is to the military, where chalk is a commonplace term used to refer to a group of paratroopers or other soldiers deployed from an aircraft. A chalk most frequently refers to a platoon sized unit (usually 20-50 soldiers and commanded by a lieutenant) for air assault operations (referring to soldiers being deployed from a helicopter) or a company sized unit (roughly 80-250 soldiers and commanded by a captain) for airborne operations (referring to being deployed from a plane.).

In modern military usage, the term “chalk” has broadened slightly in meaning. It has expanded to allude to a specific grouping of soldiers who are scheduled to be transported together.  In some cases, equipment can even be called chalks so that it can more easily be loaded in the order it will be needed on arrival. For instance, one could say “You are in chalk six, but your gear will be shipped in chalk three.”

The term was first conceived in World War II for airborne operations during Operation Overlord, which was also known as the infamous Battle of Normandy. This was the Allied invasion that kickstarted the successful invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. It was launched on D Day (June 6th 1944) with the Normandy Landings, where a 1,200-plane airborne assault was followed by an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 ships, making it the largest seaborne invasion in history. To achieve this massive logistical undertaking, the US military put in place a system of chalks to organize and transport the troops, where the aircraft flight number was placed on the troops’ backs with chalk. Each chalk represented a specific grouping of soldiers, who were designated to board a specific transport aircraft. This system allowed for the swift and efficient loading of troops, which one could argue was crucial for the success of the invasion.

A chAlK Of Army rAnGerS (75th rAnGer reGiment)

Later the term was further popularised during the Vietnam War, when it was very common practice to number with chalk the sides of the helicopters involved in an operation. Commercial aircraft chartered by the US military were often used by the military to transport troops into Vietnam. Each flight would carry several chalks, with each chalk being made up of around 30-40 soldiers. In addition to transporting troops, chalks were also used to transport equipment and supplies. As the US military grew its presence in Vietnam in the early stages of the war, this was particularly important. In this way, similarly to the Battle of Normandy, the ability to transport large amounts of equipment and supplies quickly and efficiently was critical. Since then, the term chalk has been used as an official military term and as a result it is important to note that it is not slang.

Overall, chalks are a critical component of military transportation operations with a fascinating history. They allow soldiers to be quickly and efficiently transported to their destination, whether it be for combat operations, training exercises, or humanitarian missions. Using chalk, streamlines loading and unloading processes and ensures soldiers arrive at their destination together, which is particularly important in combat.

here One cAn See the nUmBer ‘5’ chAlKeD OntO One Of the AircrAftS USeD DUrinG D-DAy

A chAlK BeinG extrActeD DUrinG the vietnAm wAr

Lord Hunt and the first successful Everest expedition

Philip M (L6)

Introduction

Mount Everest has always had a special place in British mountaineering, being first measured in the British survey of India in the 1850’s where it was identified as the tallest mountain in the world. For a whole century, only the British were allowed anywhere near the mountain because of their ties with Tibet, and then when it was invaded by China, Nepal. Throughout all this time every attempt to summit was unsuccessful, but slow progress was made.

However, when a Swiss team of explorers were granted a go at the mountain by the Nepalese government, the race for Everest was on. On their first attempt they achieved much more than any of the British teams, getting within 150 meters of the south summit. It was decided that it was time for a change of leadership, and so George Everest was replaced by Colonel John Hunt (C2 1924-28). He was a suitable leader due to being a serving army officer and mountain warfare expert. Hunt had a charismatic personality and was quickly able to quell the issues among the team upon his appointment.

The expedition was to be in 1953 and this would be Britain’s last chance to summit Everest first, as Nepal was granting more and more countries permission to attempt the mountain. Only one team could attempt the mountain every year, and France and Switzerland were to take up the years 1954 and 1955 and the chance that they would summit then was high. Hunt spent months ensuring they had the best equipment possible, for example collecting research from 30 different companies to decide on their footwear. Eventually they started the trek with 3 tons of supplies carried by a small army of Sherpas.

Sherpas are Himalayan people living on the border between Nepal and Tibet and they were used by all teams who attempted the mountain and are still used today as they are incredibly skilful navigators and mountaineers with the benefit that they can survive at extreme altitudes with seemingly no adverse effects to their health. Also, Sherpas can carry very heavy loads of equipment and supplies up the treacherous paths hence why they are invaluable to Everest expeditions.

JOhn hUnt, nAtiOnAl pOrtrAit GAllery

Obstacles overcome on the mountain

Even with all the research done into the equipment they took, Hunt concluded that in the boots they were wearing it was necessary to cut steps out of the ice all the way up the 1,125m Lhotse Face which was a huge waste of supplies and especially time as there is only a window of a few weeks every year that a summit can be attempted due to the foul weather conditions. Even today, the Lhotse Face is one of the most dangerous parts of the ascent of Everest, but modern crampons mean that it can simply be walked up with caution.

Supplementary oxygen is required above 8,000m (26,000ft). The chosen apparatus was a self-sustaining system where the CO2 the climbers breathed out was passed through a soda lime canister which turned it back into O2. This was used alongside oxygen cylinders as this system was not 100% efficient. The first attempt for the summit from their base on the South Col at 7,900m by Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans failed due to their oxygen supply being insufficient for them to be able to return from the summit so they had to painstakingly turn back with the summit only 300ft above them.

Then on the 29th of May, Edmund Hillary (from New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Sherpa) made the second attempt, this time starting higher up the mountain, therefore preserving oxygen supplies. The final obstacle that opposed them was a 40ft high rock spit which they had to traverse by shimmying up a chimney shaped crevice with 20 pounds of oxygen equipment strapped to their backs. To this day that cliff at nearly 29,000ft is known as the Hillary step and is arguable the hardest obstacle for conquering Everest today as only one mountaineer can climb up the chimney at one time. After that it was a short climb to the top, and Hillary and Norgay became the first two men to summit the tallest peak in the world, masterminded by the OM, Sir John Hunt.

Controversy upon returning

Once they had returned to camp, the group then raced down the mountain as they realised that if they got down that day, they could get the news back to England in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The message was encrypted to prevent the scoop being stolen, and read: ‘SNOW CONDITIONS BAD. ADVANCE BASE ABANDONED YESTERDAY. AWAITING IMPROVEMENT’ which when decoded was ‘Summit of Everest reached on 29th May by Hillary and Tenzing’.

When Tenzing and Hillary were descending they did not realise they were about to be thrown into the middle of a hotly debated argument with the pride of India, Nepal, England and New Zealand all pitted against each other. This was because the press wanted to be able to name one person who had actually been the first upon the top of Everest, and of course each country wanted it to be their own man. Both India and Nepal wanted to claim Tenzing for their own and make it out that he was unequivocally the first there, meanwhile Hillary received death threats demanding he admitted Tenzing was there first. However, as both men did not want to say that the other was not the first atop the mountain, nobody was satisfied. Unfortunately, on the mountain everyone had worked together, but back down below politicians and the press had pulled them apart.

the lhOtSe fAce

Why are Russians so good at Maths?

Maria Julia R (L6)

Mathematics being the most frequently and widely studied subject at Marlborough and Russian being a more niche but interesting subject, I thought that it would be interesting to find and explore a connection between the two.

Russia has had a long-standing history of mathematical discoveries, from the Solution of the Poincaré Conjecture in 2006 to the development of Non-Euclidean Geometry. Many of these discoveries have advanced the understanding of Mathematics as a whole. So, what makes Russians so good at Maths?

One of the main reasons is Russia’s strong emphasis on mathematical education. Mathematics is introduced to students from an early age, with students learning basic arithmetic and geometry. Furthermore, the curriculum is focused on rigorous problem-solving and the development of mathematical thinking skills. This teaches students to think logically and to understand the underlying principles behind mathematical concepts, allowing them to think in a different way and develop strong foundations for future learning and research. The teachers also receive rigorous and challenging training before being allowed to teach Mathematics which is a very respected profession in Russia.

Besides, there is a strong culture of Mathematics as it is highly regarded and mathematicians are often celebrated as heroes. This encourages students to strive for excellence in this field. The Soviet Government played a big role in the development of such a prominent culture by investing in education, infrastructure and research. One example is the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, which was founded in 1934 in Moscow and is one of the largest and most prestigious Mathematics research institutes in Russia.

In addition to institutions, they established programs such as the Mathematical Olympiad which allows students to develop their skills and the winners receive the opportunity to attend specialized Mathematics schools. These continue to help create a culture of excellence in Mathematics as they are nowadays very popular and some are even International. Since 1989, Russia has won the most gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad of any country with a total of 178 as of 2021.

Nowadays, their educational approach to Mathematics is being copied and adapted for other parts of the world. In the United States particularly, “Russian Maths” is becoming more popular as more and more parents send their children to the program which has expanded to over 50 different locations.

Finally, there are numerous reasons why Russians are good at Maths and the legacy of the mathematical culture is still evident today as their discoveries and theories continue to make significant contributions to the field of Mathematics.

vlADimir A SteKlOv 1864-1926, mAthemAticiAn

Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, iSABel rAper (ih 2017-22)

Marlborough College’s Russian connections

Dmitri M (L6)

Introduction

Whilst leafing through Thomas Hinde’s Paths of Progress, a History of Marlborough College, I came across a photo of the ‘Brasser’, the College’s wind orchestra, with its long-serving Head of Wind, Robert Peel, as conductor, in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in 1980, when they gave the first Western world premiere of Khachaturian’s The Battle of Stalingrad. Khachaturian had composed the music for a 1949 Soviet war film on the epic battle which portrayed Stalin as a military genius. The photo attracted my curiosity because my mother is from Stalingrad which is now called Volgograd. Many people in this country will recall that this city on the mighty Volga was the venue for England’s first group stage match in the 2018 World Cup. As my contribution to this scholars’ project on Marlborough, I have put together some anecdotes about connections which Marburians, and people associated with Marlborough, have had with Russia. I have also included a piece on the 1851 pupil rebellion seeking the odd parallel with the Russian Revolution.

Diplomacy in Russia

No Marlburian has ever served as British ambassador to Russia. There is an unusual disclosure from Sir Roderic Lyne who served as British ambassador there from 2000 to 2004. A BBC Radio 4 profile published on 11 January 2010 reveals that, “ Sir Roderick refused to go to Marlborough College because, he says, there were no doors on the lavatories. Instead, as he puts it, ‘I went to Eton by accident on a bursary for intelligent boys too stupid to get a scholarship, and too poor to pay the fees.’ “

Marlborough did produce one Foreign Secretary at the height of the Cold War. RAB Butler (CO 191620) served as Conservative Education Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary before being appointed Foreign Secretary in 1963. On 27 July 1964, Butler made his first visit as Foreign Secretary to Moscow where he met with Premier Khrushchev. Accompanied by his second wife Mollie Courtauld, he found to time to visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts where he was able to admire some of the masterpieces of Van Gogh, Picasso, Renoir, Matisse, Gauguin and Monet which Lenin’s Bolsheviks had seized from leading private collectors. Ten weeks later, the Russian dictator and the Marlburian Foreign Secretary found themselves out of office. Khrushchev was deposed in a coup on 14 October while the next day Butler’s ministerial career came to an end when Harold Wilson’s Labour won the general election.

Blore’s Crimean Palace

The iconic photo of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt seated at Yalta in Crimea is where the victors of the Second World War met to decide the fate of post-war Europe. Stalin went out of his way to impress the British and American leaders, so Roosevelt was housed at the Tsarist palace in Livadia whilst Churchill was made to feel at home in the grand Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, the work of Victorian architect Edward Blore who also designed the main facade of Buckingham Palace and various buildings at Marlborough College including Morris House, B1 House and the Master’s Lodge, as well as the original chapel and dining hall (both subsequently demolished and rebuilt for lack of size). Prince Mikhail Vorontsov (sometimes spelled Woronzow), who chose Blore to design his palace, mixing various Oriental and British architectural styles, was an Anglophile having spent his childhood and youth in Britain where his father Count Semyon had served as Russian ambassador from 1784 to 1800 and from 1801 to 1806. Semyon’s daughter Ekaterina had married George Herbert, the 11th Earl of Pembroke, in 1808, becoming chatelaine of Wilton House in Wiltshire (her son Sidney Herbert was Secretary of War during the Crimean War. Her Russian sleigh is displayed today in the Old Riding School at Wilton House). Blore would have been known to Mikhail as he had done work for his sister Ekaterina, the Countess of Pembroke, at Wilton and also for Sir Walter Scott, a friend of the Russian Prince.

Semyon resided in Britain for the last 47 years of his life and is buried in the Pembroke family vault in Marylebone. Woronzow Road, the street where he lived in St John’s Wood, London, was named after him and has a plaque commemorating this. Mikhail, the 1st Prince Vorontsov, was a successful Russian commander in the war against Napoleon, later becoming field marshal, governor-general of New Russia, a region containing South Ukraine and Crimea, and viceroy of the Caucasus. The Alupka Palace was intended to be his summer palace and was built under the supervision of Blore and his associate William Hunt between 1830 and 1848. A portrait of Prince Mikhail by Sir Thomas Lawrence hangs in the Hermitage Museum.

In April 1919, children of the Russian aristocracy with their English nannies assembled around the white stone lions which grace the terrace of the Vorontsov Palace as they waited for a Royal Navy warship to rescue them from Crimea and bring them to safety in England. (Churchill, who greatly admired the lions, asked Stalin if he could take them home to Britain, to which Stalin said no. The Soviet dictator could have been more generous, given that he was granted half of Europe at Yalta, but he did send Churchill 400 bottles of Armenian brandy.)

Russian studies at Marlborough

Thomas Hinde writes that ‘acquiring teachers of exotic languages has not been easy and some have been sent abroad to study them,’ so in 1937, George Turner, the ninth Master, sent one of his beaks, Leslie Coggin, to Russia. Coggin was Housemaster of A House (now Morris House) between 1938 and 1941. His wife Mary also taught at the College. Going to Russia in the middle of Stalin’s Great Purge (or Great Terror as it is also known) would not have been an easy assignment. Nevertheless, the College’s Russian Department was born that same year. In 1987, Marlborough celebrated 50 years of Russian teaching with a Russia Day.

In the early 1960s, Oxford-educated Russianist, John C Q Roberts, was appointed head of the Russian Department at Marlborough College, spending over a decade teaching at the school. He left Marlborough in

1973 to take over as Director of the Great Britain-USSR Association, a British government funded organisation designed to promote cultural contacts between the UK and USSR, and remained in this position for 20 years retiring from the body in 1993 (the Great Britain-USSR Association having been renamed the Britain-Russia Centre in 1992).

In 2000, Roberts published a book called Speak Clearly into the Chandelier with a foreword by John le Carre. The book deals with cultural politics between Britain and Russia 1973-2000, and has a number of references to the author’s Marlborough days, describing how in the mid-1960s Roberts accompanied groups of Marlburian O level and A level Russian language candidates on two trips to Russia, where on one occasion the boys were taken to meet Lord Brimelow at the British Embassy in Moscow. The Independent’s obituary of Brimelow claims that he was the best Russian-speaker in the Embassy in Moscow during the Second World War and recounts how the young diplomat was sent to cope face to face with Stalin, who after drinking his vodka, was in the habit of summoning the Embassy late at night to convey his views to Churchill. Marlborough has a long tradition of organising foreign trips and exchanges for language students. For instance, in 1987 there was a joint visit to Russia with St Paul’s of 35 pupils. In 1990, exchanges began with School No 57 in Kiev which was still a largely Russian-speaking city at that time.

In his foreword, John Le Carre writes that he invited Roberts to accompany him to Moscow in May 1987 and be his guide there, since he was researching material for his book the Russia House. Le Carre pays tribute to Roberts’ considerable knowledge of Russia and concludes that “he wasn’t a spy, though I suspect it took the Russians a long time to believe this, as it did me.”

In 1976, Roberts organised an evening of recital for the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko at the Royal Festival Hall, and wrote to John Betjeman inviting him to be the guest of honour, ‘mentioning his old connections with his old school.’ Betjeman replied with a nice letter dated 29 July 1976, which is published in full in the book. The last paragraph reads; Dear Mr. Roberts… My goodness Marlborough is a more cheerful place now those glorious girls like your daughter have entered it. I feel I wouldn’t mind going there myself. Give your daughter my love and tell her how sorry I am she had to be kept all those hours in the Chapel. I hope the Master gave them all a reward for their labours. When I was at Marlborough to get off games was the best reward available. Yours sincerely John B.

The Secrets of one Marlborough College Girl

This is the title of a novel that I recently came across on Amazon. First published in 2016, the book is a work of fiction by Elena Gogh, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian author who, in 1991, came to England at the age of 16 to study at Marlborough College. She is now a London-based lawyer. Elena was at New Court for the Lower Sixth (1991-92) and Littlefield for the Upper Sixth (1992-93). Apparently, she had only come for one year but received permission to stay for a second year. Since New Court, which had just opened, had no room for her, she moved to Littlefield.

I quickly skimmed through the book and was impressed with her seductive writing style. Most of the story is set inside the school, inevitably influenced by the author’s own experiences there, so there are countless references to life at Marlborough on virtually every page which former and current pupils will recognise and enjoy. The author was clearly struck by the beauty and atmosphere of our school which has inspired her debut novel. The book begins with 16-year-old Russian heiress, Sasha Emelyanova, arriving from Moscow at Marlborough College in September 1991 to attend the Upper Sixth along with her best friend, Alka Gromova, secretly a witch who harbours sinister plans. There is Sasha’s oligarch father, a habitué of London’s Lanesborough Hotel, who is ensnared by a beautiful young mistress, 30 years his junior, and is exposed to great danger. I will not give the plot away. It is quite a thriller, with unexpected twists, featuring intrigue, love and the occult. Much of the novel centres on Sasha’s romances with Quentin Taylor, an Oxford scholar and with Robert Lambert, an undercover CIA agent. I will stop there. My fear is that I may not have presented the book in the way it deserves, particularly as I have not yet read it properly, but it certainly looks like a most entertaining read and would be good material for a film.

Bruce Chatwin (B2 House 1953-58) is widely regarded as one of the greatest travel writers and most elegant and erudite storytellers of the twentieth century. On leaving Marlborough, he spent eight years at Sotheby’s becoming one of its youngest directors. He later worked as a journalist at the Sunday Times Magazine which allowed him to travel more or less wherever he liked. Just before his death in January 1989, at the age of 48, he put together a collection of his profiles, short essays and travel stories which was posthumously published and entitled What am I doing here (no question mark). Russia figures prominently in this anthology.

Chatwin begins with an account of a hilarious official trip to Russia in 1968 where he and Bolivian art collector George Ortiz meet with Soviet archaeologists and visit the Deputy Director of the Hermitage Museum. In Chatwin’s view, ‘Russia’s revolution is the outstanding intellectual event of the century, and her painters, sculptors and architects rose to the occasion.’ Some of his most interesting writings are about a project to track down survivors of the Soviet avant-garde of the early 1920s, when the centre of artistic gravity shifted to Russia for a few years. In January 1973, ‘on a morning of Stygian gloom,’ he calls on Konstantin Melnikov, the Constructivist architect at his celebrated house in Moscow, which he himself had built in 1927, and which Chatwin describes as ‘one of the architectural wonders of the 20th century.’ One evening, after several weeks in the Russian capital, he has supper with Vavara Rodchenko, the artist’s daughter. Chatwin also profiles George Kostakis, the Greek chauffeur who rescued from obscurity and amassed the greatest collection of Soviet avant-garde art, and examines the conflicting views on art within the Bolshevik elite. He considers the suicide of poet Mayakovsky in 1930 as marking the disillusionment and final defeat of the avant-gardists, or leftists as they called themselves, and the triumph of

realism over abstract art. Chatwin concludes that the Russian population was not receptive to the radical message of the leftists who ‘ decided what the people should want, not what it did want. And it should be said, the people wanted to possess the monumental architecture, opulent decoration, and gilt-framed pictures with which the old rulers of Russia had encrusted their lives.’ Chatwin concurs with Lunacharsky, Lenin’s Commissar for Education, when he said: ‘The People too have a right to colonnades.’

There is his colourful account for The Observer of ten September days in 1982 spent on a cruise boat, full of Germans, sailing down the Volga which Chatwin describes as ‘the nomadic frontier of modern Europe, just as the Rhine-and-Danube was the barbarian frontier of the Roman empire.’ Along the journey he stops over in Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Togliatti and Volgograd before turning southwest through the Volga-Don Canal, and on down the Don to Rostov. Among the highlights of this trip are his visits to the house in which Lenin grew up and the gigantic Motherland statue that commemorates the victory at Stalingrad.

He describes his 1978 meeting in Moscow with the aged Russian writer, Nadezhda Mandelstam, widow of poet Osip Mandelstam. “ Her hair was coarse like lichen, and the light from the bedside lamp shone through it. White metal fastenings glittered among the brown stumps of her teeth. A cigarette stuck to her lower lip. Her nose was a weapon. You knew for certain she was one of the most powerful women in the world, and knew she knew it......She waved me to a chair, and as she waved, one of her breasts tumbled out of her nightie. ‘Tell me,’ she shoved it back, ‘are there any grand poets left in your country?’ “

There are humorous recollections in Chatwin’s writings. Andre Malraux, the French writer and culture minister, told Chatwin the following anecdote of how he and de Gaulle took Khrushchev to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. “De Gaulle (tapping one foot on the parquet floor): ‘This is the famous parquet de Versailles.’ Khrushchev (bending down): ‘We have exactly the same at the Hermitage in Leningrad, but ours is made with ebony.’ De Gaulle to Malraux: ‘This man is starting to bore me’.”

Red November: the 1851 Rebellion

In the pantheon of revolutionaries, the Marlburian rebels of 1851 deserve a special place. Whilst It would be a little far-fetched to suggest that the uprising had echoes of Lenin, the events that unfolded might provide an interesting case study for Marxist historians.

In his book, The Old Boys, David Turner writes that ‘the 1851 Marlborough College mutiny, timed by the rebels for Guy Fawkes night, and announced to the world with fireworks and the explosion of a barrel of gunpowder behind the head’s back, took place only eight years into the school’s history.’ Thomas Hinde describes it a shade differently, “On 5 November, a rocket fired into the night sky above the buildings of Marlborough College signalled not just the start of normal Guy Fawkes celebrations, but of a school rebellion.” It was a very theatrical beginning worthy of an Eisenstein film. A.G. Bradley, author of the 1893 history of the school, recounts that “ for the whole of that evening despite every effort of the authorities, the entire Court was ablaze with fireworks. Not content with this, the boys carried them into school, let them off under desks, tossed them into the fires, hissing and stamping, and shouting down the futile efforts of the form masters to quell the disorder. All that night the row continued, and the echoing corridors of B House rang with continual detonations. The whole College for the next two days reeked of gunpowder. Authority was paralyzed.”

The immediate trigger for the revolt was a local peasant’s complaint that three boys had stolen his donkey for a joyride. When the culprits refused to own up, the Master, Matthew Wilkinson, an uncompromising disciplinarian, responded by imposing a curfew and, according to Hinde, ‘ordered the gates of the school to be shut at dusk each night, so penning up all 500 boys in Court for many evening hours with nothing to do.’ The hated College Porter soon became the focus of the boys’ anger, provoked by this mass gating. A missile attack, with stones and brickbats, on the Porter’s Lodge followed, resulting in the expulsion by the Master of the boy suspected of being the ringleader. It was then that the boys started to amass fireworks in readiness for the outbreak of the rebellion. The disturbances lasted on and off for more than three weeks. The climax came on the last day of

November when the boys broke into the masters’ desks and threw the contents into two large fires. The final act of sacrilege was a raid on the Master’s class room where a manuscript of Sophocles, which Wilkinson had been preparing, was burnt. After mass floggings and several expulsions order was finally restored. One boy, the future Field Marshal, H. Evelyn Wood, was flogged twice, the first of which for an offence he had not committed. As a result, he ran away from school soon afterwards and, at the age of 14, joined the Royal Navy. The young Wood was one of 50 Marlburians who fought against Russia in the Crimean War. After winning the VC, he finally mustered the courage to return to school in 1888 where he spoke at Marlborough’s Prize Day.

The real causes of the rebellion were the poor and overcrowded conditions in which boys were kept in the first decade of Marlborough’s existence. Edward Lockwood, a boy who arrived in 1843, remembered ‘suffering from almost chronic hunger’. And J.S. Thomas, the future Bursar, remembered as a boy that the carving ‘was done by the two biggest fellows at the head of the table! Think what the mangled meat was like when our turn came at the remote end of the table! Though that was the only meal of three at which we had anything beyond bread and butter, it was often impossible to eat it. It was a rare event to go to bed without feeling a positive craving for food.’ Besides, one parent complained that ‘the bread was often mouldy, and that the meat of late was only half-roasted.’ Like the mutinous sailors of the Battleship Potemkin, it seems that the Marlburian boys were driven by their bellies to take up arms.

It was inevitable that the 1851 rebellion would peter out since the boys, despite their courage, lacked a clear ideology and leader figure like Malcolm McDowell and failed to set up a Soviet-style council. Thankfully, they did not get their hands on the kind of weaponry-machine guns and mortars- used by the vodka- fuelled revolutionaries in If.... Their only real success was the departure of Wilkinson and the arrival of George Cotton as the new reform-minded Master. The Marlborough rebellion did have one thing in common with Lenin’s seizure of power; both occurred in November. The so-called October Revolution actually began on 7 November, according to the Gregorian calendar that is used in most parts of the world today. So Red November is really a more appropriate term than Red October.

Marlborough’s spies

Espionage has been a major feature of Anglo-Russian rivalry ever since the Great Game in Central Asia in the nineteenth century. The exploits of dashing British army officers, like Colonel Frederick Burnaby, who volunteered for secret spy missions, are well covered in books by Peter Hopkirk and John Ure. The spy war became more intense after the Bolshevik seizure of power and continued throughout the Cold War, right up to today. Two Marlburians have stood out in this history; Sir Alex Younger (SU 1976-81) was until recently head of MI6 and, together with MI5, had to deal with the Skripal affair, whilst the brilliant art historian Anthony Blunt (C3 1921-26), Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures and Director of the Courtauld Institute, was a notorious Soviet spy, who, after being granted immunity in return for confessing to MI5 in 1964, was publicly unmasked and shamed by Thatcher in 1979.

Miranda Carter’s much acclaimed biography of Blunt has a highly informative chapter about his schoolboy days at Marlborough where his contemporaries included John Betjeman (B2 1920-25) and Louis MacNeice (C3 1921-26). Blunt, the son of a vicar, arrived in January 1921, spending his first 5 terms in A House, before moving to his senior House C3 in mid-1922. The living conditions he encountered were tough. Carter describes how the classrooms were freezing, the insanitary lavatories doorless and “the food was either bland or disgusting, and there was never enough of it.... MacNeice didn’t go to the lavatory for his first three days because he was too frightened to ask where they were” and “after 2 weeks at the school wrote home, ‘I have been beaten three times in the dormitory for inefficiency in water fagging and time fagging’ “. Games players hogged the hot water in the showers before it ran out. Carter reckons that it is quite likely that Blunt did not have a hot bath for five years.

Betjeman and Blunt, in particular, hated compulsory games and the Officer Training Corps as well as the bullying and beatings which included a barbaric practice called basketing. In 1924, Betjeman and Blunt edited two issues of a magazine called The Heretick, where they mocked the establishment, the dominant games culture of the

day, as well as the teachers they disliked. To some of the more inquisitive and intellectual boys like Blunt, some of the teaching was dull and overly conservative. Carter quotes the Marlburian writer Beverley Nichols who wrote that Greek was taught at Marlborough, ‘as though it were not merely dead, but as though it had never lived at all.’

At Marlborough, Blunt developed a passion for Modern Art and the French seventeenth century painter Poussin which would last his whole life. In 1923, he founded a school Art Society and invited George Turner, the future Master, to be its President. Academically, Blunt was outstanding at Marlborough and won eight scholarships. However, the most important event in Blunt’s life at the College was the life-long friendship he established with Louis MacNeice. They became inseparable, sharing a study in their final year and going for runs and walks together over the Downs in the Summer Term. Blunt would feature as at least three characters in MacNeice’s later works. In 1926, Blunt won a Maths scholarship to Trinity College Cambridge whilst MacNeice went to read Classics at Oxford. Blunt soon switched to French at University and graduated with a first in 1930.

In the 1930s, partly in response to the rise of fascism, Marxism became fashionable among British intellectuals. Trinity College rapidly established itself as the centre of communism at Cambridge. Four of the five members of the notorious Cambridge spy ring, (Philby, Burgess, Cairncross and Blunt) were Trinity College men. After Blunt became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1932, as a researcher in French Art History, he started to frequent Marxist circles. In 1935, together with his older brother, Wilfrid Blunt (C3 1914-20), he joined a party of left-wing Cambridge undergraduates on a pilgrimage to the USSR, and returned full of praise for the industrial achievements of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans and the newly-opened Moscow Metro. During a stay lasting several weeks, Blunt found time to see the Hermitage’s masterpieces, including a Poussin, and admire the grand buildings of the former Tsarist capital. He also managed to visit medieval Novgorod.

AntOny BlUnt

In March 1936, six months after his return from Russia, Blunt, together with MacNeice, made another left-wing pilgrimage, this time to Spain where a month earlier the Popular Front, a coalition of socialists and communists, had won the general election. It was around this time that Blunt joined the KGB (then known as the NKVD). It appears that he was recruited by the Etonian, Guy Burgess. Blunt’s main usefulness to Soviet intelligence, whilst a Cambridge Don in the 1930s, was as a talent spotter. Michael Straight, an American communist undergraduate at Trinity College, who agreed to spy for the Soviets, was recruited by Blunt and would later expose him. Blunt may even have identified Philby, Maclean and Cairncross as potential spies for the Russians, although it is not entirely clear who recruited them.

In 1940, Blunt joined MI5, as did Victor Rothschild, one of his closest Trinity College friends, who had bought him a Poussin for £100 in 1933. Blunt, Rothschild, Burgess, Straight and Cairncross had also been members of the Apostles, a secret intellectual society with left-wing leanings at Cambridge. During the Second World War, Burgess and Philby joined MI6, Cairncross worked at the Allied code breaking centre at Bletchley Park, whilst Maclean achieved a high-ranking position at the British embassy in Washington. Although Rothschild’s London flat was shared with Blunt and Burgess, there is no evidence that he himself was a member of the Cambridge spy ring. As a high-ranking double agent, rising to No 3 in MI5 according to the Sunday Times, Blunt’s contribution to his Soviet spymasters was huge, supplying them with hundreds of secret documents about German military plans throughout the duration of the war.

In 1945, Blunt returned to civilian life and was appointed the Surveyor of the King’s Pictures following the resignation of Kenneth Clark. From 1947 until 1974, he also served as Director of the Courtauld Institute, helping it win recognition as one of the best in the world for the study of Art History. His writings, which included works on French Art and Architecture, William Blake, Poussin, Borromini, Picasso and Neapolitan baroque, also established Blunt’s reputation as one of the finest art historians internationally. In 1963, he was made Slade Professor of Art History at Oxford.

Although Blunt was no longer in a position to supply classified information to the Soviets after 1945, he did tip off Burgess and Maclean in 1951 that British security agents were closing in to arrest them, enabling them to escape to Russia. In the middle of this drama, Carter describes a bizarre dinner which Lord Hartwell’s wife arranged for Burgess where the guests included Sydney Butler, daughter of Samuel Courtauld and wife of Rab Butler, John Betjeman and Russian-born Isaiah Berlin. Blunt, who also attended, looked ill at ease according to Berlin whilst Lord Hartwell noticed that ‘Blunt went noticeably white’ as the party waited for Burgess to arrive, presumably knowing that he was already halfway to Moscow.

In 1964, after evidence emerged that he was the Fourth Man of the Cambridge spy ring, Blunt was granted immunity from prosecution and confidentiality in return for confessing and revealing what he knew about the Soviet spy ring. Carter writes that the heads of both MI5 and MI6 convinced the Marlburian Home Secretary, Henry Brooke (LI 1916-22), and the Attorney General, John Hobson, to authorise the offer of immunity, because to take any action would have alerted the Russians that Blunt had confessed. The hope was that the KGB might one day reactivate Blunt, and that this might lead British intelligence to some important Soviet agents. It later came to light that Brooke had not informed Prime Minister Douglas-Home about the immunity deal with Blunt, although apparently the Queen was told about it.

The offer of confidentiality was, however, limited to fifteen years, so Thatcher was entitled to reveal Blunt’s treason in 1979, in response to a question in the Commons and after growing public speculation that Blunt was, indeed, the Fourth Man. Although Thatcher and others may have felt that the lenient treatment of Blunt, which had allowed him to go unpunished for so long, reeked of establishment collusion, the reasoning of the British security services back in 1964 made a lot of sense. What is extraordinary about the Blunt affair is how such a talented man, in positions of trust at the heart of the British establishment, could have betrayed his country. For instance, in the 1960s Blunt would often spend Christmas together with Dick White, head of MI5 and MI6, and Victor Rothschild. He was also on friendly terms with the Queen Mother, very occasionally sharing a box at the opera with her according to Carter.

Disgrace followed his public exposure, Blunt was stripped of his knighthood and was deprived of a number of academic honours. He became a recluse and died of a heart attack less than 4 years later. His memoirs reveal how he regarded passing British secrets to Soviet Russia “as the biggest mistake of my life”. Three months after his death, Blunt’s ashes were scattered by his brother Christopher Blunt (C3 1919-21) on Martinsell Hill, overlooking Marlborough, where he had walked with MacNeice as a schoolboy.

One former KGB colonel, who has achieved respectability in Britain, is oligarch Alexander Lebedev who acquired the Evening Standard in 2009 and The Independent in 2010, although control of both newspapers was subsequently passed to his son Evgeny Lebedev. Emily Sheffield (MM 1989-91) was editor of the Evening Standard until last year. Her sister Samantha Cameron (B3 1987-89), wife of David Cameron, was also at Marlborough. Emily Sheffield was preceded as editor by ex-Chancellor George Osborne, whose former wife Frances is another Marlburian. The Guardian has reported that in 2014, Alexander Lebedev publicly announced his support for Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and that, in 2017, he held a media symposium, at his hotel in Crimea, to correct the false impression of Crimea put out by a ‘biased’ Western media. Earlier this year, Canada sanctioned him for ‘directly enabling’ Russia’s war in Ukraine although no other Western country has followed suit. The day after winning the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson and his wife went to Alexander Lebedev’s 60th birthday party in London, which The Guardian described as awash with vodka and caviar, and where, according to the same newspaper, guests included David Cameron, former Tory and Labour ministers, royalty and numerous celebrities from the world of entertainment and the arts. It has also surfaced that, in April 2018, one month after the Skripal poisoning, Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, attended a party at the Lebedevs’ palazzo in Umbria, where he met with Alexander Lebedev without officials being present and without subsequently informing officials that the meeting had taken place. In July 2020, Evgeny Lebedev was nominated for a life peerage by Johnson, in recognition for his services to the media industry and charity work. Reflecting his Russian roots and his adopted home in London, his full title is Baron Lebedev of Hampton in the London Borough of Richmond on Thames and of Siberia in the Russian Federation.

Art Scholars’ Mound Project 2022, SOphiA e (l6)

Spy cartoon of GC Bell (Master 1876-1903) fOr vAnity fAir