another copy of the book published in 1888 by Porter & Coates of Philadelphia, which is in poorer condition with water damage, and would not scan well, but has fewer typesetting errors.

Nineteenth century punctuation made much more use of commas, hyphens and semicolons, and these have been retained as much as possible. British spellings of words such as colour, neighbour, odour, and flavour are retained, though in some cases the American publisher seems to have made his own corrections as he saw fit, and some words such as "connection" have retained the nineteenth century spelling "connexion", but where a word was obviously spelled wrong by the typesetter, I have corrected it. The author used a few Greek words, which do not scan, and I have entered those manually using Symbol font for the rtf file, but substituted normal characters for the plain txt file and indicated [Greek text] where appropriate. The English pound symbol cannot be expressed in ASCII, so 25 pounds is rendered as 25L. Words printed in italics for emphasis are here rendered with underscores for the ASCII file.

Robert E. Reilly, PE, BSIE, BSME
Chicago, 2008

* * * * *

INITIUM

Tom Brown at Oxford

Thomas Hughes (1822-96)

Author's Dedication

To the Rev. F. D. Maurice, in memory of fourteen years' fellow work, and in testimony of ever increasing affection and gratitude this volume is dedicated by

The Author.

PREFACE

Prefaces written to explain the objects and meaning of a book, or to make any appeal, ad miseracordiam or other, in its favor, are, in my opinion, nuisances. Any book worth reading will explain its own objects and meaning, and the more it is criticized and turned inside out, the better for it and its author. Of all books, too, it seems to me that novels require prefaces least—at any rate, on their first appearance. Notwithstanding which belief, I must ask readers for three minutes' patience before they make trial of this book.

The natural pleasure which I felt at the unlooked for popularity of the first part of the present story, was much lessened by the pertinacity with which many persons, acquaintance as well as strangers, would insist (both in public and in private) on identifying the hero and the author. On the appearance of the first few numbers of the present continuation in Macmillan's Magazine, the same thing occurred, and, in fact, reached such a pitch, as to lead me to make some changes to the story. Sensitiveness on such a point may seem folly, but if the readers had felt the sort of loathing and disgust which one feels at the notion of painting a favorable likeness of oneself in a work of fiction, they would not wonder at it. So, now that this book is finished and Tom Brown, so far as I am concerned, is done with for ever, I must take this, my first and last chance of saying, that he is not I, either as boy or man—in fact, not to beat about the bush, is a much braver, and nobler, and purer fellow than I ever was.

When I first resolved to write the book, I tried to realize to myself what the commonest type of English boy of the upper middle class was, so far as my experience went; and to that type I have throughout adhered, trying simply to give a good specimen of the genus. I certainly have placed him in the country, and scenes which I know best myself, for the simple reason, that I knew them better than any others, and therefore was less likely to blunder in writing about them.

As to the name, which has been, perhaps, the chief "cause of offense," in this matter, the simple facts are, that I chose the name "Brown," because it stood first in the trio of "Brown, Jones, and Robinson," which had become a sort of synonym for the middle classes of Great Britain. It happens that my own name and that of Brown have no single letter in common. As to the Christian name of "Tom," having chosen Brown, I could hardly help taking it as the prefix. The two names have gone together in England for two hundred years, and the joint name has not enjoyed much of a reputation for respectability. This suited me exactly. I wanted the commonest name I could get, and did not want any name which had the least heroic, or aristocratic, or even respectable savor about it. Therefore I had a natural leaning to the combination which I found ready to my hand. Moreover, I believed "Tom" to be a more specially English name than John, the only other as to which I felt the least doubt. Whether it be that Thomas a Beckett was for so long the favorite English saint, or from whatever other cause, it certainly seems to be the fact, that the name "Thomas," is much commoner in England than in any other country. The words, "tom-fool," "tom-boy," etc., though, perhaps not complimentary to the "Tom's" of England, certainly show how large a family they must have been. These reasons decided me to keep the Christian name which had been always associated with "Brown"; and I own that the fact that it happened to be my own, never occurred to me as an objection, till the mischief was done, past recall.

I have only, them, to say, that neither is the hero a portrait of myself, nor is there any other portrait in either of the books, except in the case of Dr. Arnold, where the true name is given. My deep feeling of gratitude to him, and reverence for his memory, emboldened me to risk the attempt at a portrait in his case, so far as the character was necessary for the work. With these remarks, I leave this volume in the hands of readers.

T. Hughes

Lincoln's Inn,

October, 1861

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY

I—ST. AMBROSE'S COLLEGE

II—A ROW ON THE RIVER

III—A BREAKFAST AT DRYSDALE'S

IV—THE ST. AMBROSE BOAT CLUB; ITS MINISTRY—AND THEIR BUDGET

V—HARDY, THE SERVITOR

VI—HOW DRYSDALE AND BLAKE WENT FISHING

VII—AN EXPLOSION

VIII—HARDY'S HISTORY

IX—"A BROWN BAIT"

X—SUMMER TERM

XI—MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY

XII—THE CAPTAIN'S NOTIONS

XIII—THE FIRST BUMP

XIV—A CHANGE IN THE CREW AND WHAT CAME OF IT

XV—A STORM BREWS AND BREAKS

XVI—THE STORM RAGES

XVII—NEW GROUND

XVIII—ENGLEBOURN VILLAGE

XIX—A PROMISE OF FAIRER WEATHER

XX—THE RECONCILIATION

XXI—CAPTAIN HARDY ENTERTAINED BY ST. AMBROSE

XXII—DEPARTURES EXPECTED AND UNEXPECTED

XXIII—THE ENGLEBOURN CONSTABLE

XXIV—THE SCHOOLS

XXV—COMMEMORATION

XXVI—THE LONG WALK IN CHRISTCHURCH MEADOWS

XXVII—LECTURING A LIONESS

XXVIII—THE END OF THE FRESHMEN'S YEAR

XXIX—THE LONG VACATION LETTER BAG

XXX—AMUSEMENTS AT BARTON MANOR

XXXI—BEHIND THE SCENES

XXXII—A CRISIS

XXXIII—BROWN PATRONUS

XXXIV—[Greek text] MEHDEN AGAN

XXXV—SECOND YEAR

XXXVI—THE RIVER SIDE

XXXVII—THE NIGHT WATCH

XXXVIII—MARY IN MAYFAIR

XXXIX—WHAT CAME OF THE NIGHT WATCH

XL—HUE AND CRY