The founders of Radley were determined that Chapel should be central to the life and ethos of the school. Much of the earliest funds were devoted to the construction and ornamentation of a chapel in which they could hold services in the style of the Oxford Movement. The first ‘full Cathedral Service’ was held on August 27th 1847, pre-empting the Bishop of Oxford’s permission to do so, ‘to the infinite delight of the boys.’ (Singleton’s diary). However, these liturgical innovations were regarded with deep suspicion by the local clergy and press:

Semi-Popery in Oxfordshire
… Radley House, near Abingdon, Berks, and within four miles of the University of Oxford … The mansion is to be fitted up with the due Anglo-Catholic appendages; and choral services substituted for the simple performance of Divine Worship most congenial to Protestant ideas. Let the Bishop of Oxford see to this without delay …
[Church and State Gazette]

The titlepage bears the earliest known printing of the device of St. Peter, which later featured on all College prizebooks and on The Radleian. It was designed by Edward Howard, who alongside the musician Edwin Monk and Capt. William Haskoll, was one of the first Fellows, joining Radley in 1847. He also designed the earliest College seal, and Clocktower, which was started in 1847 as a bell-tower to hold the three bells for school and chapel. Sewell later added buttresses. The wings of the fives courts were added much later. The only extant picture of Clocktower in its original state is in the Talbot Letters, 1856-57.

This copy bears the signature of H.M. Orme. Henry Orme came to Radley in 1852, when he joined his brother James who had arrived in 1850. Henry left in 1858. Nothing more is known about him.

Purchased via eBay, 2005.