Harrow-on-the-Hill.

Under this title, a recent magazine article gives an account of a visit to that beautiful suburb of London, Harrow, and also of its famous preparatory school. Harrow and Eton are the two great English preparatory schools, and are characterized, only to a lesser extent, by the same rivalry and spirit of contention that the great universities of Cambridge and of Oxford display towards each other. Harrow is among schools a venerable patriarch, being founded in 1571, but still is obliged to assume the humble position of younger brother with reference to Eton, which came into existence about one hundred and thirty years before its present rival.

The situation of Harrow is singularly pleasant and suitable for a school. Although the town is only ten or twelve miles from London, the green meadows and hills, the beautiful woods and streams, in fact the typical English landscape, so often set forth in the English novel, makes it seem impossible that the great metropolis should be so near. Harrow is by nature admirably suited for either recreation or study. The school buildings are located on the brow and slope of a high hill, commanding an extensive prospect on all sides. From the summit, part of six counties are visible, and the Surrey Hills, the Thames, Windsor Castle, and part of London meet the spectator's eye. Some of the buildings are very old, built in a massive style of architecture. They are filled with reminiscences, carved in wood, of many generations of youths, some of them destined to become the pride and honor of their country, as well as of their school. Other buildings of most approved modern structure, mingling with the old, form a very pleasing and striking contrast.

It was at Harrow that Lord Byron prepared for college, and he has commemorated the beauties of the place and his love for it in several poems. A verse from a poem, on the occasion of a visit to Harrow in after years, illustrates somewhat amusingly his life there :

"Again I revisit the hills where we sported,

The streams where we swam, and the fields where we fought;

The school, where loud warned by the bell, we resorted,

To pose o'er the precepts by pedagogues taught."

He says, with regard to leaving Harrow for Cambridge University : "When I first went up to college it was a new and heavy-hearted scene for me. I so much disliked leaving Harrow, that it broke my very rest for the last quarter with counting the days that remained."

In athletics, Harrow is, of course, actively interested. The Thames is convenient for boating, and Eton gives fine practice to all the Harrow foot-ball and cricket teams. There is a great annual cricket match between the two schools, which calls forth, on account of the proximity of London, a tremendous crowd of spectators. This game may be called the closing event of the London season, as the Oxford-Cambridge boat race may be said to inaugurate the season. The fashionable Londoner makes it a point to attend both events, if it be possible.