From staff reports
Two students from Highlands Latin School Beaufort were inducted into The Horatius Society on Tuesday night, May 14, at Community Bible Church in Beaufort.
Seventh graders Reilly Deal and Tyler Miller earned the induction by following in Winston Churchill’s footsteps and memorizing the ballad of Horatius at the Bridge in its entirety. In Latin.
The ballad consists of 70 stanzas, 16 pages, and 589 lines. They were each pinned, received a Winston Churchill Medal, and had their names etched among other students in the Horatius Society.
“It’s one of the classics,” said Leanna O’Quinn of Lady’s Island, who is in her third year teaching at the school, which is physically based at New Life Church in Bluffton, but provides a classical Christian education for students from all over the county, north and south of the Broad River. “They were challenged at the beginning of the year to memorize it. It’s a big part at the curriculum. It’s the first time anyone at our school has memorized it.”
At the school, which has more than 100 students, every student third grade and up learns Latin.
“I think it is absolutely incredible,” O’Quinn said “All of the others students have learned through 24 stanzas. I wasn’t sure it was even actually possible until I heard it with my own ears.”
