ABSTRACT
Rogers’ successor, Bonamy Price, was born in Guernsey in 1807.1 At the age of 14 he became a private pupil of the Revd Charles Bradley (1789-1871) of High Wycombe, from whence he proceeded to Worcester College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 14 June 1825. Price distinguished himself in 1829 by winning a double first-in Greats and mathematics. While an undergraduate, he had studied with Dr Arnold, and when the latter became headmaster of Rugby he offered Price the mathematical mastership.2 In 1830, Price accepted Arnold’s offer, switching in 1832 from mathematics to classics. In 1838 he was put in charge of a division of the upper fifth form, known as the Twenty, consisting of the best boys from amongst whom vacancies in the sixth form were filled by competition. Consequently, for twelve years, the best Rugby boys, including G.J.Goschen, A.P. Stanley, George G.Bradley, son of his old tutor, and future dean of Westminster, Richard Temple and W.S.Seton-Karr,3 ‘came under his moulding hand’ before entering the headmaster’s form. Price had been described by A.C.Tait as ‘one of the most successful teachers in England’,4 and had he taken orders he, rather than Tait, may well have succeeded Arnold. Instead he resigned in 1850 and moved to London, ‘devoting himself to business affairs’.5
