He was a serious person, and not what Alec Waugh called 'the average boy'. He was not 'in the highest degree conventional', and he was suffering for it. For him there had to be a reason for everything; it had to make sense – and to make one sense, not two. But Sherborne was no help to him in this respect, except in making him more conscious of himself. To be independent he had to work his way through official and unofficial rules alike, and there were certainly no 'ready-made sentiments' for him. At Sherborne the two natural wonders of his life were 'Stinks' and 'Filth'.

艾伦是个严肃的人，不是艾力克所说的「普通男孩」。对他来说，每件事都必须有个原因，必须在逻辑上能讲通，必须要有道理。但是，舍尔伯尼完全不是这样，这里对他的唯一帮助，就是让他产生了更加强烈的自我意识。为了保持独立，他必须在官方和私下的种种规矩中，找到自己的对策，没有人能帮助他。

If Nowell Smith sometimes had reservations about the public school system, no such doubts assailed Alan's form-master in the autumn of 1927, a certain A.H. Trelawny Ross. A man schooled at Sherborne, who had returned there immediately from Oxford in 1911, he learnt nothing and forgot nothing in his thirty years as a housemaster.18 A stern foe of 'slackness', he shared none of the headmaster's qualms about slavishness. His style of English also contrasted with that of Nowell Smith, his 1928 'house letter' commencing thus: I have a bone to pick with my Captain of the Dayroom (height 4' 11”). He has been telling people I am a woman-hater. This fib was started some years ago by a dame who did not find me gushing enough. My view actually is that a woman-hater has a mental kink, just as a female man-hater has, of whom there are plenty about. …

如果说史密斯校长对公学体制仍有一些保留意见，那么艾伦在1927年秋天遇到的老师，特劳尼.罗斯，则是一个彻头彻尾的公学体制支持者。他曾就读于舍尔伯尼，1911年从牛津毕业，然后又回到这里。在三十年的舍监工作中，他什么都不记得，但又什么都没忘。他是一个苛刻的对头，丝毫没有校长那种对于缺乏独创性的困惑。

A narrow nationalist, who had not properly learnt the lesson of loyalty to school as well as to house, Ross was little interested in his form. However, he gave them the benefit of his knowledge and experience of life. He taught Latin translation for a week, Latin prose for a week, and English for a week, this consisting of spelling, 'how to start, write, and address a letter, ' 'how to make a précis, ' 'how a sonnet is built up, and by a typed summary of the main points, to show how to get good sensible, well-arranged written essays.'

罗斯对他的年级，并不怎么感兴趣，但他的知识和生活经历，却让学生们受益匪浅。他教了一星期拉丁语翻译，一星期拉丁语散文，一星期英语，这些都包括拼写，还有如何开头、写信和写收寄地址，如何列提纲，如何写十四行诗，如何总结摘要，如何做报告，如何写论文。