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52-454: The "Kailyard school" was first given that name in an article published April 1895 in the New Review by J.H. Millar , though its editor William Ernest Henley was heavily implicated to have created the term. The term was meant as a criticism that a certain group of Scottish authors offered an overly sentimental and idyllic representation of rural life, but it was potentially more a gripe against

104-497: A Piece in Bloom (1877): Madam Life's a piece in bloom     Death goes dogging everywhere: She's the tenant of the room,     He's the ruffian on the stair. Henley's 1887 Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves (a free translation of François Villon's Tout aux tavernes et aux filles ) was recited by Ricky Jay as part of his solo show, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants (1994). The poem

156-469: A competition known as the 'Combat of the Pen', which is still used by the school today to acknowledge high quality work. In the mid-19th century, following a serious fire, the school moved into a new purpose-built Victorian schoolroom, where it flourished under headmaster Hugh Fowler. Towards the end of the century, a period of decline set in, mainly due to financial challenges, the rise of other public schools and

208-473: A considerable influence on the literary culture of his time." For a short period in 1877 and 1878, Henley was hired to edit The London Magazine , "which was a society paper", and "a journal of a type more usual in Paris than London, written for the sake of its contributors rather than of the public." In addition to his inviting its articles and editing all content, Henley anonymously contributed tens of poems to

260-560: A correspondence of sorts did resume later after mutual friends intervened. As Andrzej Diniejko notes, Henley and the "Henley Regatta" (the name by which his followers were humorously referred) "promoted realism and opposed Decadence " through their own works, and, in Henley's case, "through the works... he published in the journals he edited." Henley published many poems in different collections including In Hospital (written between 1873 and 1875) and A Book of Verses , published in 1891. He

312-484: A journalist and publisher. The sum total of Henley's professional and artistic efforts is said to have made him an influential voice in late Victorian Britain , perhaps with a role as central in his time as that of Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century. As an editor of a series of literary magazines and journals, Henley was empowered to choose each issue's contributors, as well as to offer his own essays, criticism, and poetic works; like Johnson, he said to have "exerted

364-490: A letter of sympathy, the childless Stevenson wrote to Henley: ‘There is one thing I always envied you, and that I envy you still ’. After Robert Louis Stevenson received a letter from Henley labelled "Private and Confidential" and dated 9 March 1888, in which the latter accused Stevenson's new wife Fanny of plagiarising his cousin Katharine de Mattos ' writing in the story "The Nixie", the two men ended their friendship, though

416-457: A new base in the Old Bishop's Palace from 1955 and moving toward co-education from 1969. The school is housed in a mix of medieval, 19th century and modern buildings located next to Gloucester Cathedral in the city centre. The cathedral is used for assemblies most mornings and also for concerts, special services and whole school occasions. Junior School has its own modern classrooms built above

468-404: A piece about her impression of Henley, saying of him, "There was in him something more than the patient resignation of the religious sufferer, who had bowed himself to the uses of adversity. Deep in his nature lay an inner well of cheerfulness, and a spontaneous joy of living, that nothing could drain dry, though it dwindled sadly after the crowning affliction of his little daughter's death." Henley

520-584: A railway carriage. This accident caused his latent tuberculosis to flare up, and he died of it on 11 July 1903, at the age of 53, at his home in Woking , Surrey. After cremation at the local crematorium his ashes were interred in his daughter's grave in the churchyard at Cockayne Hatley in Bedfordshire . At the time of his death Henley's personal wealth was valued at £840. His widow, Anna, moved to 213 West Campbell-St, Glasgow, where she lived until her death. There

572-528: A second amputation was the only means to save his life, seeking treatment from the pioneering late 19th-century surgeon Joseph Lister at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh , commencing in August 1873. Henley spent three years in hospital (1873–75), during which he was visited by the authors Leslie Stephen and Robert Louis Stevenson and wrote and published the poems collected as In Hospital . This also marked

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624-496: A senior figure in the church and royal government during the reign of Henry II, attended the school in about 1160. In one of the many books he wrote, Gerald explained 'when I was in the years of boyhood and the days of my green youth I studied in the Abbey of St Peter at Gloucester under that most learned scholar, Master Haimo'. Today the King's School still cherishes the strong links it has with

676-569: A well-resourced Sixth Form Centre. The Victorian schoolroom, now known as the Ivor Gurney Hall, provides an airy and colourful base for dance and drama. Art and Design has its own designated area in Wardle House, a cathedral property which dates back to the 17th century. Music is based in the elegant 19th century former Probate Office. Pupils are divided into Houses. In Junior School the houses - Potter, Simpkin and Tailor - take their names from

728-618: Is a bust of Henley in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral . During his lifetime Henley had become fairly well known as a poet. His poetry had even made its way to the United States, inspiring several different contributors from across the country to pen articles about him. In 1889 the Chicago Daily Tribune ran an article about the promise that Henley showed in the field of poetry. After Henley's death in 1903 an acquaintance in Boston wrote

780-532: Is remembered most for his 1875 poem " Invictus ", one of his "hospital poems" that were composed during his isolation as a consequence of early, life-threatening battles with tuberculosis ; this set of works, one of several types and themes he engaged during his career, are said to have developed the artistic motif of the "poet as a patient" and to have anticipated modern poetry "not only in form, as experiments in free verse containing abrasive narrative shifts and internal monologue, but also in subject matter." Forming

832-888: The Dissolution of the Monasteries . The current school was officially founded in 1541 as a direct consequence of the English Reformation , when Gloucester Cathedral was established. However, education had been an important part of the work of the cathedral's predecessor, the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter. When Abbot Serlo arrived in Gloucester in 1072, he found 'about eight little boys' in the abbey. This small medieval school took in two types of boys; some were 'child-oblates' training to become monks, whilst others were learning grammar for more secular careers. Gerald of Wales, who became

884-500: The First World War as a piece of patriotic verse, containing the following refrain What have I done for you, England, my England? What is there I would not do, England my own? The same poem and its sentiments have since been parodied by those unhappy with the jingoism they feel it expresses or the propagandistic use to which it was put during WWI to inspire patriotism and sacrifice in

936-524: The New Review (December 1897): "He was singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness even more than I needed encouragement". Nevertheless, Henley was disappointed in the school itself, considered an inferior sister to the Cathedral School , and wrote about its shortcomings in a 1900 article in The Pall Mall Magazine . Much later, in 1893, Henley also received an LLD degree from

988-564: The University of St Andrews ; however, two years after that he failed to secure the position of Professor of English literature at the University of Edinburgh . From the age of 12, Henley had tuberculosis of the bone that resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee in 1868–69. The early years of Henley's life were punctuated by periods of extreme pain due to the draining of his tuberculosis abscesses . However, Henley's younger brother Joseph recalled how after draining his joints

1040-535: The 1980s used the term. Since then, critics such as Andrew Nash have argued that it was a social construct rather than an actual literary movement. John Ashbery references the school in his book of poems, April Galleons , his protagonist lamenting mildly that "nobody I know ever talks about the Kailyard School, at least not at the dinner parties I go to". William Ernest Henley William Ernest Henley (23 August 1849  – 11 July 1903)

1092-591: The British public and young men heading off to war. The poem is referenced in the title, " England, My England ", a short story by D. H. Lawrence , and also in England, Their England , a satiric novel by A. G. Macdonell about 1920s English society. Nelson Mandela recited the poem " Invictus " to other prisoners incarcerated alongside him at Robben Island , some believe because it expressed in its message of self-mastery Mandela's own Victorian ethic. This historical event

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1144-524: The Caged Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou writes in passing that she "enjoyed and respected" Henley's works among others such as Poe 's and Kipling 's, but had no "loyal passion" for them. Joe Orton , English playwright of the 1960s, based the title and theme of his breakthrough play The Ruffian on the Stair , which was broadcast on BBC radio in 1964, on the opening lines of Henley's poem Madam Life's

1196-630: The English literary establishment including T. W. H. Crosland and from fellow Scots such as George Douglas Brown who aimed his 1901 novel The House with the Green Shutters explicitly against what he called "the sentimental slop" of the Kailyard school. Much of Hugh MacDiarmid 's work, and the Scottish Renaissance associated with him, was a reaction against Kailyardism. Ian Carter has argued that

1248-451: The Kailyard school included J. M. Barrie , Ian Maclaren , J. J. Bell , George MacDonald , Gabriel Setoun , Robina F. Hardy and S. R. Crockett . Works such as Barrie's Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1889), and The Little Minister (1891); and Crockett's The Stickit Minister (1893) considered examples of the so called 'school'. Criticism came from certain branches of

1300-460: The Kailyard school reflects a sentimental structure of feeling which has deep roots in Scottish literature and can be found in the works of Burns and Scott , and that the work of William Alexander and later Scottish Renaissance writers such as Lewis Grassic Gibbon can be seen as the assertion of a democratic structure of feeling which is in tension with it. Scottish literary criticism right up till

1352-464: The ancient woods, and the brow and eyes of the Olympians." After hearing of Henley's death on 13 July 1903, the author Wilfrid Scawen Blunt recorded his physical and ideological repugnance to the late poet and editor in his diary, "He has the bodily horror of the dwarf, with the dwarf's huge bust and head and shrunken nether limbs, and he has also the dwarf malignity of tongue and defiant attitude towards

1404-506: The beginning of a fifteen-year friendship with Stevenson. Throughout his life, the contrast between Henley's physical appearance and his mental and creative capacities struck acquaintances in completely opposite, but equally forceful ways. Recalling his old friend, Sidney Low commented, "... to me he was the startling image of Pan come to Earth and clothed—the great god Pan...with halting foot and flaming shaggy hair, and arms and shoulders huge and threatening, like those of some Faun or Satyr of

1456-555: The brink of human endurance. In part, the poem reads: Lack of work and lack of victuals,     A debauch of smuggled whisky,     And his children in the workhouse     Made the world so black a riddle That he plunged for a solution;     And, although his knife was edgeless,     He was sinking fast towards one,     When they came, and found, and saved him. After his recovery, Henley began by earning his living as

1508-562: The cathedral most days. The school became embroiled in the religious disputes which led to the outbreak of the Civil War. After its victory, in 1649 Parliament abolished all cathedral establishments and the school was brought under the control of the City Council. After enduring a tumultuous time in the mid-17th century, the school prospered and experienced significant growth during the 18th century. Under headmaster Maurice Wheeler (1684 - 1712),

1560-686: The cathedral that replaced the medieval abbey; these links are formalised by the fact that all Gloucester's boy and girl choristers are educated at King's. In 1540 Henry VIII closed the Abbey of St Peter. In its place, by a charter of 1541 and statues of 1544, he established the new cathedral and a school known as the 'College School'. The statutes required the headmaster of the school to be "skilful in Latin and Greek, of good character and of godly life, well qualified for teaching, who may train up in piety and good learning those children who shall resort to our school for grammar". From 1541 until 1849 this school met in

1612-426: The dining hall in the 1970s, opening onto the landscaped Paddock and providing access to the nearby Science laboratories. Senior School is based in the 19th century Old Bishop's Palace and in medieval Little Cloister House, which contains one of the oldest rooms to be used as a classroom anywhere in the country. Dulverton House originated as part of the monastic infirmary and has been imaginatively refurbished to provide

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1664-460: The famous 'Tailor of Gloucester' story. In the Senior School, the houses are Laud, Wheeler and Serlo, named after, respectively, Archbishop William Laud , Maurice Wheeler, a former headmaster, and Abbot Serlo , an important figure in the founding of St Peter's Abbey. There are House competitions all year round, including sports, music, drama and quizzes. The school owns Archdeacon Meadow , which

1716-551: The former monastic library, a room which today is used as the Cathedral Library. Robert Aufield was the College School's first recorded headmaster. In 1616 the controversial reformer William Laud was appointed Dean of Gloucester. One of the many changes he made was to insist that the school attend early morning prayers in his Lady Chapel. This decision inaugurated the tradition of morning assemblies, which still take place in

1768-469: The journal, some of which were described by contemporaries as "brilliant" (later published in a compilation by Gleeson White ). In his selection White included a considerable number of pieces from London, and only after he had completed the selection did he discover that the verses were all by one hand, that of Henley. In the following year, H. B. Donkin, in his volume Voluntaries For an East London Hospital (1887), included Henley's unrhymed rhythms recording

1820-482: The misfortunes of his father's business may also have contributed. In 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination. Soon after passing the examination, Henley moved to London and attempted to establish himself as a journalist. His work over the next eight years was interrupted by long stays in hospitals, because his right foot had also become diseased. Henley contested the diagnosis that

1872-574: The name Wendy for the heroine of his play Peter Pan (1904). Henley was born in Gloucester on 23 August 1849, to mother, Mary Morgan, a descendant of poet and critic Joseph Warton , and father, William, a bookseller and stationer. William Ernest was the oldest of six children, five sons and a daughter; his father died in 1868. Henley was a pupil at the Crypt School , Gloucester , between 1861 and 1867. A commission had recently attempted to revive

1924-575: The poet's memories of the old Edinburgh Infirmary. Later, Alfred Nutt published these and others in his A Book of Verse . In 1889, Henley became editor of the Scots Observer , an Edinburgh journal of the arts and current events. After its headquarters were transferred to London in 1891, it became the National Observer and remained under Henley's editorship until 1893. The paper had almost as many writers as readers, as Henley said, and its fame

1976-561: The popularity of the authors. The name derives from the Scots "kailyaird" or "kailyard", which means a small cabbage patch (see Kale ) or kitchen garden , usually adjacent to a cottage; but more famously from Ian Maclaren 's 1894 book Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush whose title alludes to the Jacobite song "There grows a bonnie brier bush in our kailyard". Writers who have been linked to

2028-670: The renewed availability of his work, through online databases and archives have meant that Henley's significant influence on culture and literary perspectives in the late- Victorian period is not forgotten. George Butterworth set four of Henley's poems to music in his 1912 song cycle Love Blows As the Wind Blows . There are many other musical settings, including songs by Maurice Blower , Harry Burleigh , Rebecca Clarke , Frederick Delius , Cecil Forsyth , Ivor Gurney , Fritz Hart , Roger Quilter , Ernest Walker and Charles Willeby. Henley's poem "Pro Rege Nostro" became popular during

2080-401: The school by securing as headmaster the brilliant and academically distinguished Thomas Edward Brown (1830–1897). Though Brown's tenure was relatively brief ( c.  1857 –1863), he was a "revelation" to Henley because the poet was "a man of genius—the first I'd ever seen". After carrying on a lifelong friendship with his former headmaster, Henley penned an admiring obituary for Brown in

2132-487: The school housed about 80 boys and a series of reforms were instituted. Cathedral choristers were fully integrated as pupils rather than being educated in separate classes. A proper library was created and, alongside the rigours of Latin and Greek, the curriculum was extended to include Physical Education and gardening. It was in Wheeler's period that the school began to be referred to as "The King's School". Wheeler also initiated

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2184-454: The subject matter of the "hospital poems" were often Henley's observations of the plights of the patients in the hospital beds around him. Specifically the poem "Suicide" depicts not only the deepest depths of the human emotions, but also the horrid conditions of the working class Victorian poor in Britain. As Henley observed firsthand, the stress of poverty and the vice of addiction pushed a man to

2236-520: The unwillingness of the Dean and Chapter to maintain more than a 'music school'. At the time of the First World War the school was a very small one with just 30 or so pupils, the majority of them choristers. A modest recovery occurred in the 1920s, but the striking revival of the school's fortunes came in the 1950s and 1960s inspired by the reforms of headmaster Tom Brown. The school expanded rapidly, gaining

2288-627: The world at large. Moreover, I am quite out of sympathy with Henley's deification of brute strength and courage, things I wholly despise." Henley married Hannah (Anna) Johnson Boyle (1855–1925) on 22 January 1878. Born in Stirling , she was the youngest daughter of Edward Boyle, a mechanical engineer from Edinburgh , and his wife, Mary Ann née Mackie. In the 1891 Scotland Census, William and Anna are recorded as living with their two-year-old daughter, Margaret Emma Henley (b. 1888), in Edinburgh. Margaret

2340-404: The young Henley would "Hop about the room, laughing loudly and playing with zest to pretend he was beyond the reach of pain". According to Robert Louis Stevenson 's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by Stevenson's real-life friend Henley. In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island (1883), Stevenson wrote, "I will now make a confession: It

2392-448: Was a British poet, writer, critic and editor. Though he wrote several books of poetry, Henley is remembered most often for his 1875 poem " Invictus ". A fixture in London literary circles, the one-legged Henley was an inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson 's character Long John Silver ( Treasure Island , 1883), while his young daughter Margaret Henley inspired J. M. Barrie 's choice of

2444-547: Was a sickly child, and became immortalised by J. M. Barrie in his children's classic, Peter Pan . Unable to speak clearly, young Margaret had called her friend Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", resulting in the use of the name "Wendy" for a feminine character in the book. Margaret did not survive long enough to read the book; she died in 1894 at the age of five and was buried at the country estate of her father's friend, Harry Cockayne Cust , in Cockayne Hatley , Bedfordshire. In

2496-664: Was captured in fictional form in the Clint Eastwood film Invictus (2009), wherein the poem is referenced several times. In that fictionalised account, the poem becomes a central inspirational gift from actor Morgan Freeman 's Mandela to Matt Damon 's Springbok rugby team captain Francois Pienaar , on the eve of the underdog Springboks' victory in the post- apartheid 1995 Rugby World Cup held in South Africa. In Chapter Two of her first volume of autobiography, I Know Why

2548-463: Was confined mainly to the literary class, but it was a lively and influential contributor to the literary life of its era. Serving under Henley as his assistant editor, "right-hand man", and close friend was Charles Whibley . The journal's outlook was conservative and often sympathetic to the growing imperialism of its time. Among other services to literature, it published Rudyard Kipling 's Barrack-Room Ballads (1890–92). In 1902, Henley fell from

2600-427: Was known as a man of inner resolve and character that transferred into his works, but also made an impression on his peers and friends. The loss of his daughter was a deeply traumatising event in Henley's life but did not truly dampen his outlook on life as a whole. While it has been observed that Henley's poetry "almost fell into undeserved oblivion," the appearance of " Invictus " as a continuing popular reference and

2652-649: Was set to music and release with a video in July 2020 by the folk band Stick in the Wheel . King%27s School, Gloucester The King's School is a co-educational private day school in Gloucester , in the county of Gloucestershire , in South West England . It traces its heritage to a monastic school founded in the 11th century in the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral . It became one of seven 'King's Schools' established, or re-endowed by King Henry VIII in 1541 after

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2704-527: Was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver ... the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you." Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "... a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet." Frequent illness often kept Henley from school, although

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