The scouring of the White Horse

Thomas Hughes QC (20 October 1822 - 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's School Days (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861). Hughes had numerous other interests, in particular as a Member of Parliament, in the British co-operative movement, and in a settlement in Tennessee reflecting his values. Early lifeHughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of the Boscobel Tracts (1830) and was born in Uffington, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). He had six brothers, and one sister, Jane Senior who later became Britain's first female civil servant. At the age of eight he was sent to Twyford School, a preparatory public school near Winchester, where he remained until the age of eleven. In February 1834 he went to Rugby School, which was then under the celebrated Thomas Arnold, a contemporary of his father at Oriel College, Oxford. Hughes excelled at sports rather than in scholarship, and his school career culminated in a cricket match at Lord's Cricket Ground. In 1842 he went on to Oriel College, and graduated B. A. in 1845. At Oxford, he played cricket for the university team in the annual University Match against Cambridge University, also at Lord's, and a match that is still now regarded as first-class cricket. Richard "Dickie" Doyle (18 September 1824 - 10 December 1883) was a notable illustrator of the Victorian era. His work frequently appeared, amongst other places, in Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century............ Best known as the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), Thomas Hughes was immensely proud of his Berkshire roots. Riding on the success of his most famous creation, Hughes accepted an invitation to write a guidebook to the customs and traditions of his native region. Deciding that a straightforward guidebook would be too dry for his readers, Hughes opted instead to compile the information into a fictional narrative. The result is an intriguing novel-cum-guidebook, in which Hughes uses the story of a London clerk who visits the Vale of the White Horse to present his readers with a wealth of information about the famous monument, local antiquities and landmarks, local songs and poems and, of course, the periodic festival in which the White Horse is 'scoured' to maintain its striking appearance. Out of print for many years, this new electronic edition of Hughes's neglected novel is a must for anyone wishing to discover more about the traditions and landscape of England's beautiful South-West.