It is probably in this period that Mabel takes the boys on at least one seaside holiday, and Ronald begins his first sketchbook: near the beginning is a childish drawing, Sea Weeds and Star Fishes (Life and Legend, pp. 1213). At this time Mabel is still a practising Anglican. Since her husbands death, she has taken her sons with her every Sunday to a high Anglican Church.
Ronalds early reading includes the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, which amuse him; The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by *George MacDonald; the fairy books of *Andrew Lang, in particular The Story of Sigurd in The Red Fairy Book which fires his interest in *dragons; and Stories for my Children by E.H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, especially the tale of Puss Cat Mew (*Fairy-stories). He also likes Red Indian tales and Arthurian legends (*Arthur and the Matter of Britain). In later life, he will note that he did not enjoy Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, or The Pied Piper by Robert Browning; and that while he read fairy-stories he did not develop a real taste for and appreciation of them until he was about eight. Nor was it until he began to study Latin and Greek at school that he developed any appreciation of *poetry. Even in early childhood his interests are more factual or scientific (*Science): history, astronomy, natural history (especially botany and zoology), palaeontology (he liked pictures of prehistoric animals), geology, grammar, and etymology. He will note several times that he was not particularly interested in or proficient at mathematics.
18961900 Much later, Tolkien will write to a group of primary school children in *Acocks Green, some two miles north-east of Sarehole: I lived till I was 8 at Sarehole and used to walk to A[cocks] G[reen] to see my uncle. It was all country then (17 October 1966, quoted in Sothebys, English Literature, History, Childrens Books and Illustrations, London, 16 December 2004, p. 274).
1897
22 June 1897 Ronald will later recall walking through the river-meadows up the hill to the old college, Moseley Grammar School, which he saw illuminated with fairy-lights for Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee.
1898
18981899 Ronald will later recall that when he was about six or seven years old he wrote a story or poem about a dragon. I remember nothing about it except a philological fact. My mother said nothing about the dragon, but pointed out that one could not say a green great dragon, but had to say a great green dragon. I wondered why, and still do. The fact that I remember this is possibly significant, as I do not think I ever tried to write a story again for many years, and was taken up with language (letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955, Letters, p. 214). See note.
1899
9 October 1899 Beginning of the Boer War between Britain and the Boers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
Mid-October 1899 Mafeking is besieged by the Boers. Because Ronald had been born in the Orange Free State, he and his mother would have a special interest in events occurring there. On 16 November 1914, not long after the First World War begins, he will write to his friend *Christopher Wiseman expressing patriotism and a fierce belief in nationalism, but denying that he is a militarist: I no longer defend the Boer War! I am a more & more convinced Home Ruler (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).
November 1899 Ronald sits the entrance examination for *King Edwards School, Birmingham, which his father had attended, but fails to obtain a place.
Late 1899 or early 1900 Mabel Tolkien begins to take her boys on Sunday to St Annes, a Roman Catholic church in Alcester Street, Birmingham.
1900
?1900 Late in life Tolkien will recall that when he was about 8 years old he read in a small book (professedly for the young) that nothing of the language of primitive peoples (before the Celts or Germanic invaders) is now known, except perhaps ond stone (+ one other now forgotten) (letter to Graham Tayar, 45 June 1971, Letters, p. 410). See note.
Spring 1900 Mabel and her sister May, having decided to convert to Roman Catholicism, begin to receive instruction at St Annes.
16 May 1900 Mafeking is relieved after seven months of resistance. In England there will be widespread celebrations on 1819 May.
June 1900 Mabel is received into the Catholic Church. The Suffield family, especially Mabels Unitarian father, and the Tolkiens who are mainly Baptists, are shocked. Mabel is now faced with hostility and the loss of financial help. Walter Incledon refuses to continue his support and forces his wife May to recant her decision to join the Church of Rome. Undeterred, Mabel begins to instruct her sons in the Roman Catholic faith.
2628 June 1900 During this period Ronald sits the entrance examination for King Edwards School a second time and obtains a place.
Autumn term 1900 Ronald begins to attend King Edwards School. His fee of £12 per year is paid by a Tolkien uncle. He is placed in the the Eleventh Class under Assistant Master W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7 (i.e. group D7 for the study of Mathematics and Arithmetic). The Thirteenth Class is the lowest at King Edwards School and the First Class the highest, but after the Eighth Class there are three unnumbered classes: Lower Remove, Upper Remove, and Transitus. Above Transitus the School is divided into a Classical Side and a Modern Side, with more classes on the latter (the Classical Side did not include a Seventh Class). Pupils do not necessarily pass through all classes, but might skip ahead; nor do they spend a set amount of time in each class. According to the School curriculum published in 1906,
the nine Classes from the 13th upwards to the Transitus, inclusive, receive instruction in the ordinary elementary subjects of a liberal education, viz, Arithmetic and Elementary Mathematics, Scripture, English, History, Geography, French, Latin and Drawing. The boys are also (as far up as class 8) instructed in Botany, with the intention of training their powers of observation and evoking an interest in the objects and phenomena of nature. All boys throughout the School are required to take physical exercises in the Gymnasium, unless forbidden to do so by a medical man.
For a while, Ronald walks most of the way to school, which is in the centre of Birmingham four miles from home, because Mabel cannot afford train fares, and the cheaper trams do not run as far as Sarehole. But before the end of September 1900 Mabel and her sons will move to 214 Alcester Road, Moseley, closer to King Edwards School and on a tram route. Ronald will find being in the city dreadful after the peace and green of Sarehole (quoted in Biography, p. 25). During his first term, ill health will keep Ronald away from school on several occasions; the December 1900 class list, compiled following the autumn term, will record him as absent. Hilary continues to be taught at home by his mother.
For a while, Ronald walks most of the way to school, which is in the centre of Birmingham four miles from home, because Mabel cannot afford train fares, and the cheaper trams do not run as far as Sarehole. But before the end of September 1900 Mabel and her sons will move to 214 Alcester Road, Moseley, closer to King Edwards School and on a tram route. Ronald will find being in the city dreadful after the peace and green of Sarehole (quoted in Biography, p. 25). During his first term, ill health will keep Ronald away from school on several occasions; the December 1900 class list, compiled following the autumn term, will record him as absent. Hilary continues to be taught at home by his mother.
Late 1900 or early 1901 Mabel Tolkien and her sons move to a terrace house, 86 Westfield Road in Kings Heath, close to the new Roman Catholic church of St Dunstans but backing onto a noisy railway line. On the far side of the line, however, are green fields, and flowers and other plants grow on the banks of the cutting. Ronald is not at all attracted by the trains themselves, but becomes fascinated by the strange Welsh names on the coal trucks they pull: the Welsh language will come to play an important part in his writings. He tries to learn more about it, but the only books available are still too advanced for him. See note.
1901
22 January 1901 Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII succeeds to the throne.
Spring and summer terms 1901 Ronald continues in Class XI under W.H. Kirkby, and in Section D7. He will be ranked thirteenth among twenty-two boys in the School class list dated July 1901.
Autumn term 1901 By now, Ronald has advanced to the Eighth Class, under Assistant Master A.W. Adams, and to Section D5 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked twenty-first among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1901.
1902
Early 1902 Dissatisfied with the house in Kings Heath and with St Dunstans, Mabel looks elsewhere. She finds the *Birmingham Oratory more to her taste, and is able to find a house to rent nearby, at 26 Oliver Road in Edgbaston. Ronald and Hilary now will be able to attend St Philips, a Catholic grammar school attached to the Oratory. See note. Ronald will not have to make the long journey into the centre of Birmingham, and the fees are lower than at King Edwards School. One of the Oratory Fathers, *Francis Xavier Morgan, who acts as parish priest soon becomes a close and sympathetic friend of the family.
31 May 1902 The Boer War ends with the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging. The Boers accept British sovereignty.
?Summer 1902 Ronald having outpaced his classmates, Mabel removes him and Hilary from St Philips School and once again teaches the boys at home.
9 August 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII.
November 1902 Ronald sits the entrance examination at King Edwards School and is awarded a Foundation Scholarship; therefore no fees will have to be paid for his education. The Scholarship will be renewed in 1904, 1906, and 1908.
1903
14 April 1903 Frances Bratt dies. In her will she has named her brother, Ernest William Bratt, and her solicitor, Stephen Gateley, as executors, and has set up a trust on behalf of her mother, Jane Bratt, for and during the term of her natural life she thereout maintaining educating and bringing up my Child Edith Bratt by Alfred Frederick Warrillow until she marries, and with monies held in trust for Edith until she is twenty-one, or marries at a younger age, for her sole and separate use and free from marital control. She further allowed that if, at the time of Jane Bratts death, Edith should be living, under the age of twenty-one, and unmarried, then the monies held in trust should be paid to her guardian to and for the maintenance and education of my said Child until she shall attain the age of twenty one years or marry under that age and any unapplied income shall be accumulated at interest and added to the said capital monies. The net value of Frances estate is £3,797 2s 11d.
With the death of Jane Bratt in 1904 (as it seems), Stephen Gateley will become Ediths guardian, and will send her to Dresden House School, a boarding school run by two sisters named Watts who place a particular emphasis on music. There Edith will develop her talent for playing the piano.
Spring term 1903 Ronald re-enters King Edwards School in January 1903. He is placed in the Lower Remove Class under Assistant Master R.H. Hume, and in Section D5.
July 1903 In the School class list of this date, Ronald is placed eleventh out of twenty-four in the Lower Remove.
Autumn term 1903 Ronald advances from the Lower Remove. After leaving one of the Removes or Transitus, pupils have a choice. The School Curriculum of 1906 states that
above Transitus, the average age of which is about 14, though an able boy will usually pass through it quite a year earlier than that, the School is divided into a Classical or Literary, and Modern, or rather Scientific Side. The Modern Side do not learn Greek, nor (except in a Voluntary Class) do the Classical Side learn Science. The amount of time given to Mathematics on both sides is the same, and Modern Languages are also studied on both Sides. Boys who have any prospect of proceeding to Oxford or Cambridge should take the Classical Side, and it is especially desirable that boys who show mathematical promise should do so. All who contemplate a Degree in Arts at any University will naturally take this Side.
Ronald is on the Classical Side, and since there is no Seventh Class on that Side, he moves into the Sixth Class, under Assistant Master *George Brewerton. There he will begin to study Greek, he will be introduced also to *Shakespeare and *Chaucer (and encouraged to read the latter in the original), and with the aid of a primer lent him by Brewerton, he will begin to learn Old English (*Languages). During this term he is in Section B6 for Mathematics and Arithmetic. He will be ranked eighteenth among twenty-three boys in the School class list dated December 1903.
Christmas 1903 Mabel Tolkien sends drawings made by Ronald and Hilary to the boys Tolkien grandmother, and comments on how hard Ronald has worked on them since school broke up on 16 December:
Ronald can match silk lining or any art shade like a true Parisian Modiste. Is it his Artist or Draper Ancestry coming out? He is going along at a great rate at school he knows far more Greek than I do Latin he says he is going to do German with me these holidays though at present [with a lingering illness] I feel more like Bed. One of the clergy, a young, merry one, is teaching Ronald to play chess he says he has read too much, everything fit for a boy under fifteen, and he doesnt know any single classical thing to recommend him. Ronald is making his First Communion this Christmas so it is a very great feast indeed to us this year. [quoted in Biography, p. 28]