University of Virginia Library

No. XXII.

Episcopal High School.

This institution, the diocesan school for boys, is situated at Howard,
in Fairfax county, three miles west of Alexandria, and within a quarter
of a mile of the Theological Seminary. The situation is perfectly healthy
at all seasons of the year, and from its elevation commands a beautiful view
of the Potomac, the cities of the District of Columbia, and the surrounding
country for many miles. The play-grounds are extensive and adorned
with trees of inviting shade. They are immediately adjoining the school,
and with the fields of the enclosure (containing about seventy acres) afford
ample room for exercise and recreation. The Potomac and other small
streams in the neighbourhood furnish opportunities for bathing and skating.
The buildings, erected expressly for the purposes of the school, are large,
furnished with every convenience for the wants of the students, and
capable of accommodating about eighty boys.

The object of the Church in establishing the High School was to provide

EPISCOPAL HIGH-SCHOOL, FAIRFAX CO., VA.

an institution of learning, where youth could be thoroughly educated on
Christian principles, and where their morals and habits could be preserved
from the dangers of evil association. Students can here fully complete their
studies; or they can be prepared for advanced classes—the junior and
senior—at any of the colleges or universities of the country; or be fitted
to enter upon the study of a profession or the active business of life.
During their entire course, the most wholesome moral and religious influences
are sought to be exercised over them.

It is a fixed and unvarying rule, that every branch taught at the school
is to be studied faithfully and well. To effect this object, every effort is
made to insure ability and faithfulness on the part of the instructors and
diligence and improvement on the part of the scholars. Great pains are
taken, by the internal regulations of the school, in each particular department,
to train the students to habits of method, neatness, and punctuality,
so important in every business or profession and so indispensable to the
comfort and convenience of individuals.

Education of the mind, however, and the formation of business-habits,
are by no means the sole or most important aim of the school. Whilst
these receive constant and proper attention, it is at all times borne in mind
that the morals and the manners of the students are by no means to be
neglected.

To make mere scholars or exact men of business is not the sole duty of
the Christian teacher. He has much nobler ends in view. No exertions
are to be spared to secure those just named; but at the same time he is to
be diligent to bring those intrusted to his care under the influence of religious
principle. He is not only to labour to make them useful men, but,
so far as in him lies, he is to endeavour to make them Christian gentlemen,—gentlemen
as well in feelings and principles as in outward conduct
and manners.

For these important ends the school was established by the trustees of
the Theological Seminary, in 1839, in obedience to a resolution of the
Diocesan Convention, and placed under the care of the Rev. William N.
Pendleton, who opened it in October of that year. The number of pupils
soon became large; and, besides superior intellectual training, the blessings
of divine grace were very richly bestowed upon them, about forty having
in the first few years made a creditable profession of religion, and some of
these having afterward entered the ministry of the Church. This prosperity
continued until the years 1843-44, when, chiefly through a general
pecuniary embarrassment, which injured almost every literary institution
in the country and ruined some, it became necessary to close the High
School for one year.

In the fall of 1845 it was reopened by the Rev. E. A. Dalrymple, who
had been appointed its rector at the Convention in May preceding, and
whose energy and skill, under the blessing of a good Providence, soon
restored it to its former prosperity. After a most laborious devotion to

his duties for about seven years, the failure of his health constrained him
to resign, leaving the institution in a condition promising permanent
success. In the summer of 1852, the Rev. John P. McGuire, its present
rector, was appointed his successor, and is now nearly at the close of his
fifth session. The number of pupils—between seventy and eighty—is
about what it has been for years; it is still among the very first as an
institution of learning; the fruits of grace are still gathered to an encouraging
extent, some twenty having been added to the Communion of the
Church during the last session, and others now expecting soon to be confirmed,—thus
in the highest sense accomplishing the purpose for which
the school was originally established.