In the earlier years of his headmastership Dr. Arnold had to face
a good deal of opposition. His advanced religious views were
disliked, and there were many parents to whom his system of
school government did not commend itself. But in time this
hostility melted away. Succeeding generations of favourite pupils
began to spread his fame through the Universities. At Oxford
especially, men were profoundly impressed by the pious aims of
the boys from Rugby. It was a new thing to see undergraduates
going to Chapel more often than they were obliged, and visiting
the good poor. Their reverent admiration for Dr. Arnold was no
less remarkable. Whenever two of his old pupils met, they joined
in his praises; and the sight of his picture had been known to
call forth, from one who had not even reached the Sixth,
exclamations of rapture lasting for ten minutes and filling with
astonishment the young men from other schools who happened to be
present.
He became a celebrity; he became at last a great man. Rugby
prospered; its numbers rose higher than ever before; and, after
thirteen years as headmaster, Dr. Arnold began to feel that his
work there was accomplished, and that he might look forward
either to other labours or, perhaps, to a dignified retirement.
But it was not to be.
His father had died suddenly at the age of fifty-three from
angina pectoris; and he himself was haunted by forebodings of an
early death.
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