INTRODUCTION This outline history of the beginning and the growth of the Madras College is written primarily to tell present pupils a little about the past one hundred and fifty years of school. To keep the book to a reasonable length I have left out much which might be interesting and informative to others. The history, so far as it is known, of the grammar and English schools of which the Madras College is the descendant, the details of the long war between the Trustees and the St Andrews School Board, the changes in curriculum and methods especially in the last quarter century and the reasons - if discernible - for the changes, the social backgrounds of nineteenth-century pupils, all these and many other interesting digressions have had to be ignored. Each generation of former pupils will probably take it amiss that so little space has been found for its particular time at school. The need for brevity is my excuse. There are many debts to be acknowledged. The rector saw the need for a little history, suggested firmly that I should write it, patiently read and hinted at improvements which might be made to the first draft, and saw to the printing and binding of the book. He is, however, in no way responsible for any opinions which may have slipped in. Many former pupils have by word of mouth given me invaluable information. Mr Harry Bell, O.B.E. very kindly allowed me to use his extensive notes on Dr Bell's work. The staffs of both the Hay Fleming and the University library have been most generously and patiently helpful. Above all I must acknowledge the very great debt I owe to Mr R. Smart, the university archivist, for providing sources of information and for being himself a constant source of information. I have one regret. Untimely death prevented Mr C. Anderson, a former principal classics master, from writing this history. The occasional lectures which he gave showed that his knowledge of school and his affection for it would have made him the ideal historian.