A FORMER HEAD MASTER OF HARROW.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.] SIR,--In the Spectator of April 25th, you published a notice upon a work of mine on Harrow School, and made an inference derived from an incomplete statement for which I am responsible. I will ask you to correct the error which your reviewer has been led into by no fault of his own, and so render justice to the memory of a distinguished man whose life it was the learned Dr. Parr's special desire to write. Unfortunately, that intention was not fulfilled, or this mistake could not have arisen.
I have lately learned that Dr. Sumner, Head Master of Harrow between 1760-1771, died of apoplexy. It is true that some cloud did embitter the close of his brilliant career, and to this fact I had unfortunately alluded, without making the cause of his death clear to my readers. Dr. Parr, Sir William Jones, and Bishop Bennet, of Cloyne, all mention vaguely a change in Dr. Sumner's happiness, but give no clue to the cause for their regrets. On the other hand, Sir William Jones and Dr. Parr each wrote a brilliant enlogium on their master's character some years after his death, proving that nothing had occurred to disturb the high respect in which they held Dr. Sumner. Reflection must have dissipated any doubts they felt when they penned the letters which compelled a faithful narrator to tell of the shadow which temporarily fell over Dr. Sumner's life, but had no connection with his sudden death, which occurred in the zenith of his fame as a schoolmaster. Sir William Jones's praise is of no ordinary description. He speaks of scholarship allied with talents and eloquence such as befitted their owner to adorn the Senate. Harrovians generally will, I am sure, thank you for inserting this explanation, and preserving the reputation of one of their most able rulers.—I am, Sir, &c., PERCY M. THORNTON. lleathlande, Bournemouth, April 271h, 1885.
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