The Magna Carta

I was eleven. I was a good student at St. Georges Junior Boys' School in Atherton. As part of our Arts assignment, Mr. Martin had given us a special task to do. He had provided us with an extract from the Magna Carta - first signed and issued by King John in 1215. Our task - was to copy it.

Each student was given a single sheet of very stiff parchment paper; a small bottle of thick black India ink and an old stick-pen with the crudest metal nib you ever saw. I think mine had been bent out of shape several times. Someone had made an earlier attempt to bend it back to its original shape but had failed miserably in the process. Mr. Martin gave us thirty minutes to do the job.



There was no idle chatter in the classroom. All of us had our heads down concentrating hard. I remembered that the best script results from applying pressure to the pen-nib on the downward strokes and easing-up a little on the upward strokes. I even practiced a little on a scrap piece of paper before attempting to write on the precious parchment. When I felt ready, I lay the parchment down on my desk; placed weights on the corners to flatten the curly edges - and I began to write.

It took some concentration because the text of the manuscript was in olde English where “f” replaces “s”; “thy” replaces “your”; “thou” replaces “you” ...and so on. The pen-nib had a mind of its own and it had a tendency to splatter tiny ink-spots in odd places and I dared not try to erase them. Time went by ever so quickly. I realized that I had to hurry or I wouldn't get finished on time.

Hurrying turned out to be my biggest mistake. I overloaded the pen with ink which deposited an ink blot of considerable size mid-point within the second paragraph and a second one even bigger on my last paragraph. What a mess! To make things even worse, I turned around to the student behind me, Fred, to ask for some blotting paper and I smudged some of my writing with the sleeve of my school jacket as I did so. I finished the document as best I could - but it was ruined.

When Mr. Martin collected my work I told him that my attempt to copy the original extract had failed and that I preferred not to hand in what I had done. He didn't tolerate that kind of nonsense and he instructed me to hand in my work without any further delay.

During Arts class the following week, our work was handed back to us graded and with comments. I was ever so shocked and surprised to learn that I had ten out of ten - the highest mark in the class. Moreover, there was a written request from Mr. Martin asking to see me. He told me that my extract was excellent and that it appeared even more authentic than the original manuscript. Miss Taylor, the school's headmistress, made arrangements to have it framed and mounted on the wall of the main corridor mid-way between two Norman Rockwell paintings of equal size.

Some years later I re-visited my school. The wrought-iron fence surrounding the school was gone. The main corridor had been radically reconfigured. The Norman Rockwell paintings were no longer there and neither was my Manga Carta extract. Such is progress! What remains, however, is the pride I still carry with me for creating that special piece of writing. That...will never be forgotten.

Originally written August 31, 2008