Clive Lewis - Collected Letters Volume One - Family Letters 1905–1931

Now as there is not much news I must stop.

your loving

son Jacks

On 28 July 1909 Warnie won his release from Wynyard School, and on 16 September he arrived in Malvern, Worcestershire, to begin his first term at Malvern College.

TO HIS FATHER (LP III: 185-6):

[Wynyard School]

Postmark: 19 September 1909

My dear Papy,

I arrived safely (as you heard in the telegraph), after a pleasant journey. Oldy met me at Euston as you said, but as his train was late, he was not at my platform. However, I got my luggage attended to all right, and met him on the Watford platform. Euston is not nearly so muddling as I thought, and coming back to here next term I don’t think Oldy need meet me here.

I am sorry to say that there are no new boys this term, but there is a rumour that Oldy is going to have a private pupil (whatever that may mean) later on. He is over sixteen and stands 6 ft. 2., according to Oldy, but then I don’t believe that.

There are thirteen weeks this term, which sounds a lot, but it will soon go past, at least I hope so.

Have you heard any more from Warnie, and if so how is the old chap getting on? I hope to send an epistle to him today. I have not seen the day boys yet, as school does not begin in earnest until tomorrow morning. ‘And now as the time alloted for correspondance is drawing to a close’ etc. But now I must stop, with love and good wishes,

yours loving son,

Jack

P.S. Don’t forget to write very plainly in your letter which I am expecting tomorrow.

TO HIS FATHER (LP III: 195-6):

[Wynyard School

16? December 1909]

My dear Papy,

This time next week I will be at home with you. Isn’t it just splendid? One of the causes of writing this letter to you is to remind you to send the journey-money (not that I think you would ever forget); but last time it came just in the nick of time, which made Warnie rather anxious.

I don’t think I will have the microscope for Christmas. In order to study entomological specimens, it would of course be needful to kill them: and to go about exterminating harmless insects, with no other motive in view than the gratification of one’s own whimsical tastes does not seem to me very nice, when I look at it in that light. Of course it must be said that death to the insect is painless and quick; and that certain kinds of beetles (and other insects as well), when turned on their backs, cannot move. One could study these species through the microscope without killing them. However, the arguments against practical entomology are, I think, much stronger than those for it. Consequently I have decided not to have the microscope for Christmas, and it would be nicer not to know what I am going to get. 23

Yesterday (Wednesday) we went for a paper chase. Mears and I were the hares, which was rather absurd, seeing that we are the two worst runners in the school, and know less about the country than the others. Both you and I know that I have got hardly any ‘puff, and so you will be surprised to read as I was to find, that I kept up all right. We ran for a good long way, and however got caught in the end. I can tell you I slept well afterwards. Today we are all very, very stiff.

As the end of term draws nearer and nearer, we must soon decide all about the journey home. I think I had better go by Liverpool; for if I could arrange to meet Warnie at Lime St. Station, it would no longer be necessary for you to come over.

Now I must stop: with much love,

your son,

Jacks

TO HIS FATHER (LP III: 209-10):

[Wynyard School]

Postmark: 21 May 1910

My dear Papy,

I am writing to you today (Saturday) because we are going to St. Alban’s to see Wyn ordained tomorrow.

We have quite settled down to the term here, and the time is beginning to fly: I hope it will go quickly with you too.

I have been thinking about the school question, but the more I think the more difficult it seems to arrive at any definite conclusion. Of course half formed, nebulous, impossible ideas will bubble up spontaneously.

Yesterday (Friday) we went to church in the morning and afternoon; in the afternoon a great many boy scouts were present. Somehow I don’t think ‘Wee Georgie’ (minus the Wood) will be very popular at first: but what is this to Shakespearian students like you and I who know what happens–

‘After a well graced actor leaves the stage.’ 24

The other day we had a general knowledge examination: it was very exciting. I got 62 marks out of 100, and was second, Bowser was first. Thank goodness Squiffy came out miles below Bowser and I. If I cannot triumph over Squiffy in games and out of school, I will do my level best to triumph over him in work (which I can do), and which is perhaps a far better way of getting my own.

If you are ‘thinking long’ because this is a long term, remember that the holidays are long in proportion.

your loving

son Jacks

P.S. Have you seen the comet? We have not.

1See Albert James Lewisin the Biographical Appendix.

2See Florence Augusta ‘Flora’ Lewisin the Biographical Appendix.

3See Warren Hamilton ‘Warnie’ Lewisin the Biographical Appendix.

4See Robert Capronin the Biographical Appendix.

5Miss Annie Harper was governess to the Lewis boys from 1898 to 1908.

6Jack’s canary.

7Maude and Martha were housemaids at Little Lea.

8Tim was the family dog of whom Lewis said in SBJ X: ‘He may hold a record for longevity among Irish terriers since he was already with us when I was at Oldie’s [1908-10] and did not die till 1922…Poor Tim, though I loved him, was the most undisciplined, unaccomplished, and dissipated-looking creature that ever went on four legs. He never exactly obeyed you; he sometimes agreed with you.’

9Grandfather was Richard Lewis (1832-1908), the father of Albert. See The Lewis Familyin the Biographical Appendix.

10Boxen was a world invented by Jack and Warnie a year or so before this time, and about which Jack was to write many stories and histories involving the characters mentioned here–King Bunny, General Quicksteppe and others. Much of this juvenilia has been published as Boxen: The Imaginary World of the Young C.S. Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper (1985).

11See the Biographical Appendix for Joseph Arthur Greeves, a boy who lived across the road from the Lewises.

12This ‘History of Mouse-Land’ is found in Boxen, op. cit, pp. 39-41.

13This was to be the last holiday Jack and Warnie took with their mother. They travelled to London, and from there they went on to Berneval in France, where they were on holiday from 20 August until 18 September.

14Jack was here on holiday with his mother.

15Lord Big, a frog, is the most memorable of the Boxen characters.

16Warnie Lewis wrote: ‘“chains memorial” is a lighthouse at the entrance to Larne Harbour, erected to the memory of James Chaine, a prominent local landowner; he is buried in an upright position, in unconsecrated ground, overlooking the harbour’ (LP III: 105).

17Robert Capron was assisted in his teaching by all the members of the family, his wife Ellen Barnes Capron (1849-1909), his son Wynyard Capron (1883-1959), and his three daughters, Norah, Dorothy and Eva. See Robert Capronin the Biographical Appendix.

18Annie Sargent Harley Hamilton (1866-1930) was the wife of Flora’s brother, Augustus ‘Gussie’ Hamilton, who undertook much of the care of Jack and Warnie following their mother’s death. A Canadian by birth, she married Augustus Hamilton in 1897, and was thereafter Flora’s best friend. Lewis said of her in SBJ III: ‘In her I found what I liked best–an unfailing, kindly welcome without a hint of sentimentality, unruffled good sense, the unobtrusive talent for making all things at all times as cheerful and comfortable as circumstances allowed. What one could not have one did without and made the best of it. The tendency of the Lewises to reopen wounds and to rouse sleeping dogs was unknown to her as to her husband.’