HARROW’S CARVED ROOM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 17

HARROW’S CARVED ROOM.

The famous Fourth Form Room at Harrow School has been declared a national possession. Henceforward it. will not be used for work, but preserved as a show place. It is part of the original building in which .John Lyon founded the school in 1571, and it has been used continuously as a schoolroom since t.ie hem lining of the seventeenth century. Among the thousands of names carved on the walls with schoolboy knives is that of Byron, who wrote some memorable poems beneath an elm in Harrow churchyard near by. Sheridan’s _ name is also to he seen, close to the initials of Sir . Robert Peel. Numberless other famou.. names can be found on the wainscoting of the old classroom. Dr Cyril Nirwood is happily advised in preserving the carved oak walls for future generations. For many years Harrow boys have been forbidden to add . their names to the wainscoting in the Fourth Form Room, so there is no sudden - break in an old-time custom. Harrow will, perhaps, have another Byron and another Sheridan some day. but they will have to find opportunities for carving their names elsewhere, leaving the old Fourth Form Room as a place of pilgrimage for all. lovers of Harrow.