Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/19



was born at Laleham, in the valley of the Thames, December 24, 1822. He was the oldest son of "the great and good" Thomas Arnold, so well known as the Head Master of Rugby School. His grandfather Arnold was Collector of Customs at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. His mother was Mary, daughter of the Reverend John Penrose, Vicar of Fledborough Nolls.

When he was eight years old, he became a pupil of his uncle, the Reverend John Buckland, with whom he continued at Laleham until August, 1836, when he entered "Commoners" at Winchester under Dr. Moberly, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. Matthew Arnold took such high rank in the school that he escaped the "austere system" of fagging then in vogue, and his father, who had desired him to have the full benefit of it, removed him to Rugby at the end of a year. There he had a training for which he rejoiced all his life: it was, to use his own words, "so unworldly, so sound, so pure."

In 1840 he won a school-prize with a poem, "Alaric at Rome," which was published anonymously and has since become very scarce, only four copies being extant. It has been recently republished and commended by able critics for its depth of thought and accuracy of form. Having been elected to an open classical scholarship at Balliol, he went to Oxford the following year. Before he left Rugby he distinguished himself by winning a School-Exhibition. In 1842 he won the Hertford Scholarship; in 1843 his poem on Cromwell brought him the Newdigate Prize. It was not delivered aloud, the students being too uproarious, but it was published in an edition of seven hundred and fifty copies, all of which were sold within a few days. He received ten pounds for the copyright. He was elected Fellow of Oriel in 1845, just thirty years after the election of his father. Arthur Hugh Clough, Dean Church, and other noted men were among