Now I do assure you ruin is a
hard thing to look on after a life-work of many years of labour--not a
less hard thing because the sun rose as usual, and it was all peace, and
the buildings looked as of old, and the fields were just as they had
always been; but an invisible barrier had risen up, and we had no place
here any more. To see the four-and-twenty years of life go at a
touch--indeed it was hard to think of. "For my part, I have built my
heart in the courses of the wall"--(cheers)--and nothing short of this
impelled us to that dire necessity of leaping in the dark, to go we did
not know where, and when we found the _where_, not knowing who would
follow us. But it was worth while to run any risk--to face any danger--to
keep together the life of this place, and that its name should not go out
in England. (Loud cheers.) We did not know who would follow us, and it
was a day to be remembered--a day of much cheer, though full of labour
and trial and fear also, when on that 4th of April three hundred came in.
(Loud applause.) Not above two or three that night were wanting of those
who were going to remain at the school.
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