Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

Page 17 text:

TRINITY COI.I.KCiE SCHOOL RECORD. riDv Ibawl; ' Kill. IN A PRhVious number of the Rkcord mention was made of my hawk Bill, and if the writer of that article will communicate with me, I will send him a copy of the book I intend to publish in twenty years or so entitled Birds of Canada. The chapter about the red-tailed hawk refers to Bill, and as he spent three years in T. C. S. you may lind space for him in the Record. The first time I saw him he was flying over the woods near my home in Newcastle carrying a wild pigeon in his claws. I fired and broke his wing and the pigeon flew away. I took him home and applied splints to the broken bone ; in a month he could fly, and during that month all his wild nature disappeared ; he sat on the back of the car seat when I went to Port Hope, and he made his first appearance at T. C. S. on September 19th, 1875. The first night he was put into a room at the back of the Head Master ' s house. I did not notice a big black cat in the room because it was dark, but in the morning the cat was dead, and half eaten. Bill looked very proud and his crop was full ; when hungry he aUvays made a noise like the squeaking of a mouse, but when his crop was full his voice sounded like the grunting of a pig. On one occasion I saw him carry a piece of bread in his mouth to the room ; as he never ate bread I watched him through the window. He put the bread on the floor and llew up to his perch ; for half an hour he did not move but kept his eyes fixed on the bread. Then an excited look came over him (he always raised the feath- ers on his head when excited); I looked down at the bread on the floor : there were two mice nibbling at it ; they were so close together that the hawk caught them both in one claw and carried them up to his perch, where he spread out his wings and tail and devoured both the mice. On two or three occasions other boys witnessed Bill enticing mice from their holes with bread. I used Bill ' s room for stuffing birds, and several of the other boys took lessons from me. One day we missed a stuffed bird and Bill proved the culprit. I offered him some meat, but before eating it he opened his mouth and ejected a round ball of feathers about two inches in diameter ; it was quite dry ; we tore it open and found that he had digested all the quiils of the feathers and the skin ; in the centre of the the ball were the glass eyes. It was fortunate that I had not applied the arsenical soap to cure the skin, otherwise Bill would not have lived as he did to amuse the T. C. S. boys for three years. I had him for five years after I left the school ; he was then accidentally shot by a sportsman who did not know he was a tame bird. I stufT- ed him and he is looking down at me with his glass eyes as I sit in my surgery writing this account of thirty years ago. Alfred Farncomb. G. T. Hamilton is a Lieutenant of the 33th Battery stationed at present in Ireland.

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6 TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD. the songs learned were :, — True till Death, Gatty, arranged for four voices by Batchelder ; The Men of Harleck, always a favourite; Arthur Sullivan ' s Oh Hush Thee my Baby, Barnaby ' s Sweet and Low, and Auld Lang Syne, set for four voices by Henry A. Lambeth. Contrary to the experience of former years the weak point in the club this season has been the scarcity of trebles, and this was very much in evidence in several of the practices when the efforts of the basses and tenors would quite drown the soprano parts. The club however has performed its function of affording a means of recreation to the music loving boys of the school, and thus has well justified its existence. be ZiKlk. IT MAY be of interest to some of us and also the Old Boys to know something of the history of that much patronized and wholly indispensable institution, The Tuck. Like all great and noble works of man it had a small and insignificant beginning. One fine ofternoon in the Fall Term of 1885 four youths of this seminary of scholastic attainment were returning, (let us hope they had leave), from a rendezvous on the pier. They were, as per custom, ravenously hungry ; they were also, contrary to any known custom, possessors of a few stray coins of the realm ; these they natur- ally wished to rid themselves of as soon as possible. After a brief consultation it was decided to visit one of the near-by farmhouses in hope of procuring something eata- ble. As luck would have it, a field of pumpkins belonging to a certain Mrs. Philp was near. The sight of the golden fruit ( ? ) was very suggestive, so going to the rear of the house, they knocked upon the portal thereof. They were received by Mrs. Philp in person, who. on learning their pitiful tale, consented to lay bare the contents of her larder. This consisted principally, as they had hoped, of pumpkin pie, which, owing to the famished condition of the aforementioned gentlemen was devoured with great avidity. Then, effervescing with pleasure — and pumpkin pie-— they returned to the school and spread the news among their comrades. The tidings were received with joyful demonstrations, and others in their turn lost no opportunity to further their ac- quaintance with Mrs. I ' hilp. Owing to the inconvenience of having to discuss the delicacies in the open air, especially in the wi.iter, Mrs. I ' hilp fitted up a room for the accommodation of her customers. This permitted of a more extensive menu, and from time to time welcome additions were made to the bill. From that time forth the Tuck flourished until it became the establishment it is at the present day. Let us hope that for many years to come Mrs. Philp will continue to allay the pangs of hunger for T. C. S. I

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TRINITY COLLEGE SCHOOL RECORD. Z K 6 M ilonipctition. The Annual Cym. Competition was huld on Saturday March 27th, and was the best contested for some years. There were seven entries in the Senior and six in the Junior and all showed great improvement over last year ' s competition. This of course is due to having a competent mstructoi, and we hope to see McQueen hack with us again. In the Senior Competition Fisken was first, with Rhodes a very close second ; while in tiic lunior Hope easily won out. But some of the Juniors did splendid work, and there ought to be an exciting contest for the Seniors in a couple of years. The scores were : — Senior, H. P. S. 140 — Fisken 125, Rhodes 124, Lindsay I22j5 , Ings i22 ' 2, Taylor 116 1-2, Macaulay 108 1-2, C. Conyers 99 1-2. Conyers was hurt during the competition and was forced to drop out. Junior, H. P. S. ii8 — Hope 163, Luard 150 i 2, Westgate 144, Byers 132 1-2, M. B. H. Boyd 131 1-2, Spencer 109 1-2. Mr. Galky, I ' ort Hope Y. L C. A. Instructor and Mr. Garnet acted as judges and proved highly etificient. flDarriaGes. Bethune — M. NN. At Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, B. C, on Jan. 6th, by Rev. Archdeacon Scriven, Marion Constance, daughter of the late J. Mann, Esq., of St. Thomas, Ont., to Reginald Alexander, manager of the Imperial Bank of Can.ada, Kamloops, B. C, youngest son of the Rev. C, J. S. Bethune, Guelph, Ontario. OsLER — Kerr. At St. James ' Cathedral, Toronto, on Feb. i6th, by the Rev. Canon Velch, Nadine Jane Hamilton, second daughter of the Hon. the Speaker of the Senate, and Mrs. J. K. Kerr, to Mr. Edmund Featherstone Osier, son of E. B. Osier Esq., M. P. Alan Meredith of the R. M. C. was best man. ©lb 560 IHotcs. D. A. Hay is on the working staff of the North .American Bent Chair Co. in Owen Sound, and is quite contented with his lot. C. A. MacNeil has a salaried position with Robert Ward Co. in Vai ' .couver. R. A. Ball is with G. B. Murphy Co., grain brokers at Winnipeg. G. E. Ambery is on the Editorial staff of the University School magazine in Victoria, B. C. Congratulations Sunny. The management of the Record has been informed by the secretary of Connec- ticut Life of the appointment of Gordon Ramsay aud F. C. Allen as the company ' s General Agents for the state of Maryland. We extend to them onr heartiest congrat- ulations. Their address will be 306 American Bldg., Baltimore, Md.