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.