Rugby

a market town of England. It is situated pleasantly on the Avon a few miles northeast of the Shakespeare region. It is noted as the seat of the Rugby public school, a university preparatory school for the sons of wealthy families. The school was founded in 1567 by a wealthy London merchant. The principal buildings are Elizabethan in style and form an imposing quadrangle. The football and cricket grounds for which Rugby is noted lie in a beautiful park of eleven acres. Rugby football rules originated here. The school accommodates about 500 students. The school attained prominence under the headmastership of Thomas Arnold. Among his successors were Archbishop Tait and Dean Bradley of Westminster. Matthew Arnold, Dean Stanley, Landor, Clough, and Thomas Hughes, the author of Tom Brown at Rugby, were Rugby students. See Arnold; Hughes