Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

could not move a knee; not a joint would bend. And there was 1 suspended by the waistband, the first edition of my father's learning bound in leather-calf, but not lettered. That last finish came a long while afterwards. It certainly took a good hour and a half to get me in. The descent was not fucilis; but to get out of them was worse. This was indeed a toil and labour. "Sed revocare gradum." "Hic labor, hoc opus est." It is painful to think of it even now; so before the final tug, we must have rest, and I will take advantage of it to make what apology I can for my mistranslation.

I had taken obviis for ovibus, and ovibus I knew were sheep, and laniatis I considered to be the adjective of lana, wool, and woolly sheep is mere tautology, and the dative case is, for; and really so many verbs are omitted in Latin, why might they not be here, and so I only supplied "to look," and I now gravely declare that many a learned commentator and expositor has supplied a great deal more out of his own head, and with as little probability of being right. And what is more natural than that a wolf should go out to look for the sheep; and where should he find them but out of the camp? And now, Eusebius, I have but to call all who think differently blockheads, dolts, idiots, and so forth; and you will find the above defence not a very unfair specimen of learned annotations, if you will only put it into tolerable Latin.

Now, then, it is time to extricate my self, if not out of this passage in Livy, at least to make a passage out of my new mouse-colour leather breeches. Mr Flight caught hold of me round the body, his foreman had hold of the breeches at the knees-I kicked, I plunged; they pulled: luckily my joints held my limbs together as well as the breeches -it was a frightful endeavour-but "nil arduum est mortalibus". thing is too hard for man, and that, by-the-by, was said of a Flight. Mr Flight was a man of courage, and his foreman scorned to be outdone-so at it again they went, "like master, like man; "nothing is denied to well directed labour." I was at length free of my breeches, and they were free of

me.

― -no

And from that day there is nothing I more admire than the political axiom, that" free bottoms shall carry free goods." Mr Flight making his

exit, assured me all the difficulty was over, that a second trial was quite unnecessary, and that henceforth they would fit like a glove. A second trial I was not then equal to, and readily believed him.

I know, Eusebius, you delight to be a boy again; will you therefore go with me through the scene of my first entrance, not at a private school, indeed, but at that noble school

Winchester, whose walls are and ever will be dear to me, for to that excellent school do I owe all that I know worth knowing, and all I feel worth feeling? The generous highminded character of our public schools, I need not descant upon to you. I had known private, some ill conditioned from the masters, others from the boys; and with the latter generally is the error. I know not why it is, but there is a meanness among them totally unknown at public schools-perhaps I should say was. In my days, a petted, home-fed, pampered, indulged boy, first sent, at an early age, to a rough private school, like Lucian's private tutor, with a pot-belly that he could neither fill nor get rid of, was the most miserable of creatures on earth. The fact is, our public schools are the growth of ages, and laws have grown up with them that must not be infringed; and hence there is a government of law, not of caprice, and the boy feels himself, to a great degree, independent. The school does not take its character from a boy or two, but it is a character by time acquired, handed down, and must be maintained—and is maintained. And now, Eusebius, do you not think it is quite time for me to make my second appearance in my mouse-colour leathers? Not yet. Is it not the best time, before I put them on, to discuss a little scholastic discipline? Do not think I mean to insinuate a disciplinal attitude. Only, that when once on, as I do not mean to take them off again in a hurry, I might as well not be too proud, and strut about gabbling my say, like the turkey, expanding my tail. Of discipline-why mince the word flogging ?-according to old dictionaries, you will find it a good and wholesome exercise for man and boy, (by man, meaning master.) It circulates the blood, and that not too violently; it sets the spirits free and the brain alert. We have scarcely had a poet since Milton, and he was the last that

was flogged at the university. What a disgrace, says the prater of modern times and modern nonsense? Tell the boy at Eton, at Winchester, at Westminster, after he has suffered it, that he is disgraced, and your next prating, Mr Prater, will be in a half whistle without your teeth, and you will not see very clearly through your eyes. Disgraced, indeed! and by enduring just discipline-by daring to obey! Do you think the noble captains that fought at Waterloo had never been flogged? ay, to their honour, they had-and who will say our soldiers want bottom? "Nunquam ingenium idem ad res diversissimas, parendum atque imperandum, habilius fuit." That was the character of Hannibal-and it is a true description of that acquired by the discipline of our public schools. When you are in danger, I only wish you may show half as fair a face to the enemy as they have. It is said that a man who marries has given bond to society for his good behaviour. A fine-spirited youth who submits to discipline for conscience-sake, who has been legitimately flogged, has given his bottomry bond, (as merchants call it,) both for his good behaviour and learning--I say who has been legitimately flogged-for here is a great distinction, very observable between the custom at private and public schools. At the latter there are no little, galling, tyrannical oppressions-nothing takes place as punishment but what is well understood upon entering, and by the custom; no greater disgrace than is deserved, if disgrace it can generally be called, is conveyed or implied by submission. And all is open and aboveboard-for the first thing you see on entering the noble building, the schoolroom, is a large painting at one end, a portrait of the rod, and this pithy admonition " Aut disce, aut discede, manet sors tertia, cæde. Even the rod is of a prescribed form and dimensions, and supplied by one of the officers of the schools-one of the boys. It is a turned handle, with four long twigs apple. And there is likewise a prescribed manner of inflicting punishment. The delinquent, without hesitation, kneels down to a block, and two boys, any that like the sport as it is termed, take him up; that is, standing in front of him on the other side of the block, which is, in fact, an immovable bench, the last of many in the row, on which

the boys sit while learning their les sons. The “taking up," is nothing more than the removal of the shirt between the waistband and the waistcoat, so that the space of back left open for punishment is very small, and the twigs of the rod so far apart, that often not one hits, and seldom, indeed, all; and then the master makes but. three blows-and these, generally, very lightly, and the matter is over, and little harm done. It is only in case of very great offences another punishment is inflicted, and that is by six blows instead of three; and the boy is then taken up by two officers of the school-boys on duty; and then, indeed, the space for punishment is somewhat larger. All this is, however, according to rule, by which the master is restricted; so that both are under it. For a master to punish in any other way is an unheardof thing; nor would it be submitted to. A cane, or a ferule, or any of the little uncertain tyranny of a private school, would not be borne a moment; a rebellion would break out. The boy that will be flogged will not be cuffed. His dignity would, indeed, be offended; for I will venture to say there cannot be collected a number of higherspirited, manly-minded youths, than are to be met with at our public schools; and there is nothing they show their superior manliness in so much as in their obedience to discipline. Custom gives rights, and rights reconcile to punishment. The master, even by adhering to custom, in some respects shows, by example, the beauty of obedience. They have themselves been educated at the school over which they preside; they know the youths under their care are to be passed to the universities, and thence into the world, to adorn it in every rank; and they take pains to inculcate generous sentiments. I was once discovered by the head-master out of bounds-a serious offence. A friend was with me, but I alone was known. We joined the rest just as the master, Dr Goddard, rode up. He called me out, and asked me who was with me. I was silent. The youth who was with me did not give time for the question to be asked again, but boldly stepped forward and said, "I was. "The Doctor turned his horse's head and rode away, and, I need not say, never punished either. Thanks, good Doctor, for all your kindness;

never may I be ungrateful, and here have a pride, a pleasure, in acknowledging, that many a day in after life have I remembered you with affection; and when I have felt that my taste has been improved, I have ever been thankful to you, to whom I owe that source of enjoyment. "Manners makyth man," was the college motto. There was the precept, in you we found the example. But at this rate I never shall get on my new mouse-colour leather breeches, and it is time, for they will certainly shrink in my box.

"My box!"-that of itself would make an episode; but I forbear. A boy's box on first going to school! Yet I will tell an anecdote of the return of a boy's box after his first term at the university. I knew him well, poor fellow! He had an odd stammer, that began with great irresolution of voice, and terminated most decisively with a bounce; and such was the youth, and such was his career. He came to the university quite raw from the country, where he had previously practised to be a clergyman, by standing upon stools with the tablecloth round him, marrying, burying, and christening his elderly maiden aunts. Poor boy he was quite unfit to be trusted as yet from home. He came a clown, and in two or three months returned. What did he not return? But, to his box. He was rusticated for a term or two, and choosing rather to be absent from home for a time, visited a friend. Meanwhile his box, and another box arrived; and, as they were wont, his maiden aunts thought it best to see that all was safe, and unpacked them. Never were elderly maiden eyes so bewildered so astonished coats, waistcoats without number-but the breeches, as they lifted them out one after the other, holding them up higher each time in increased astonishment, audibly counting

[ocr errors]

"Only think the twentieth pair of pale yellow kerseymere breeches what could Tom, sister Sue, want of so many? Why, his poor father will be ruined we shall all be ruined."

Then Sue took up the outcry, lifting her voice at each pair, and with emphasis "Look here, sister Kate, Twenty-one, Twenty-two, Twentythree, crescendo, Twenty-four!!!"

Here the hands and breeches drop

ped together, and they were watered by a flood of tears.

"The ungrateful boy! didn't we have made for him," cried sister Sue, "three excellent pairs out of his father's greatcoat; he could not have wanted any more."

Now sister Kate could again go on, but in a low voice of despair—“ Twenty-five, Twenty-six, Twenty-seven, oh! oh! oh! Twenty-eight-then the last, Twenty-nine pair of brecches— the good-for-nothing boy!"

And so it was; in one box he had brought home with him twenty-nine pair of pale lemon-colour kerseymere breeches. Oh ye parents! who send raw youths to the university! it is quite hopeless if you think you can confine their ideas, after the first term, to corduroys, or even mouse-coloured leathers; and you may be quite sure that the turning old greatcoats, by the hands of a village tailor, into habiliments for the seat of learning, is money thrown away.

Now it was not so with me on my first going to college-though that college was but a school, a public one, be it remembered with pride-as I told you, Eusebius, I had a pair of new mouse-coloured leather breeches, and I had put them on once. Would you could have seen me in them then!-but had you seen me in them the second time of putting them on, it would have been a treat, and you would have remembered it, as I do, and therefore write this account of it. But you must be aware my place is taken per coach-Mr John Cracklatin booked for Winchester college, with one box, containing-for the present we will say no more than one mouse-coloured pair of leather breeches. Accompany me, Eusebius, my first real exit from home; that is, from within ten minutes' reach of home, with such a stock of Latin as I have certified you in this. Be so kind as to go with me, and see me safe lodged. "Comes jucundus pro vehiculo est." My father had gone the same road before me-uncles and cousins without number-all to Winchester. I was therefore taking the family recipe for learning. I had at least a great veneration for my father and his learning, and therefore, though going to school, went at least half-willingly, as much as could then be expected of any welldisposed youth-as Homer says, ixwy

asxati ye Juμx. I said my father had gone there before me. I remember his account of his first appearance. His mother took him, for he went first to a preparatory school at Winchester. She told the master, who was not the most gentle-looking of pedagogues, that she wished her son to be particularly looked to, for he was a very delicate boy.

"Ma'am," said the man, "I have no others; they are all delicate boys." And so my father found it, for the second day he was flogged, and the third burnt out of his bed, and that was the last he enjoyed in a preparatory school.

I

Do not imagine I was allowed to travel in my new clothes; not a bit of it. Any one might have been ashamed of those I wore. To make my first appear ance in them on any stage, much less at Winchester, was impossible. will not digress to describe my reception, and how very strange all things appeared to me. Every one knows all this; but it is not every one that knows what followed-"Non cuivis homini contingit." You can easily imagine me in my room in my little bed, by the side of which was my box, and in which room were eight or ten other boys, to me unknown. There I lay, with my treasure by my side; and that being the case, though a boy and after a journey, I did not sleep too soundly until towards morning. I was awakened early enough, but late for all I had to do. There is no greater offence than the missing chapel in the morning-punishment a flogging. This was announced to me before I went to bed, and as a flogging was to me an unknown thing, it went in my mind according to the Latin, "omne ignotum pro mirifico." I was therefore determined to be up betimes, and up betimes I was; but dressed betimes, that was to be quite another matter. The chapel bell goes a quarter of an hour, and it was going as I opened my box, and there was some distance to the chapel, for I was not then in college, but in the head-master's house; as it is termed, I was a commoner, not on the foundation. Now, imagine that all this while the fatal bell is going, and in such a manner as if it threatened to stop, and I am not dressed yet, nor like to be. Of all things in the world I have ever been averse to early rising; it was the chief cause of all the punishments

I ever received at school. I once wrote a paper against it, and sent it to Blackwood's Magazine, where I have a suspicion you, Eusebius, will send this. The early morning light ever creates in me a nausea. I once had a bilious fever from early rising and a pair of yellow plush-breeches, and this was on leaving Winchester once on the first morning of holidays ;— but here I find myself in another digression. It cannot be helped; so here goes my bilious fever.

I had been some years at Winchester then, and had become a pretty considerable puppy; so what must I do on going home for the holidays, but have a new pair of top-boots, which, when on, I could not get off, so I slept in them all night. Besides my new top-boots, I had a green coatee, yellow kerseymere waistcoat, and a pair of splendid yellow plush breeches. It was the height of summer, very hot weather, and, boots and all as I stood, it was very hot work before I started. There were three of us, and so we took a chaise. We had proceeded about a mile, when I found that I had left my purse, or something as important, behind me; I ran back to college, and thence to the chaise waiting for

me.

I never shall forget that return-for by this time the sun was very hot-and as I generally look down when I run, the hot sun, reflected from my yellow plush breeches, and the heat and pressure of my new tight top-boots, so stirred the bile, that by the time I returned home I was ac tually in a fever. It gave me a disgust to foppery, and I really believe I must date my slovenliness as to dress from that day. This came of deserting the old original mouse-colours, which, with the exception of the first day of actual wearing, served me in good stead.

But, dear me! Eusebius, imagine that all this while the bell has been going" tempus fugit”—every toll threatens a flogging, and I cannot for the life of me get on my breeches.

[ocr errors]

Why, they don't fit," said one boy. "Pull at 'em," said another. "Let us all take a pull at 'em," said a third, who was dressed.

"I shall be flogged, if I do, said a fourth.

"What the d-1 do you call 'em ?” said a fifth.

"Leathers," said I.

"A pretty leathering you'll have," said he.

"Tuck your shirt above them un. der the waistcoat," said a sixth, "and they may slip on easier."

This was a good thought, and I did so-still it was very hard work to get them on at all.

"Bell will be down in a minute," said a seventh.

"Do be so kind as to wait for me," said I, beseechingly; " for I do not know the way."

[ocr errors]

"Wait and be flogged!" said they. Here was a state of trepidation for a poor boy just from his father's house, within three tolls of a bell of a flogging-dire and unknown thing! and he standing with his breeches, new mouse-colour leathers, not quite one quarter part on. The thoughts of a flogging at such a time, and in such a situation, may be a very jocose thing to witness, but to have them rushing into the mind, in a torrent of cold-sweat, at the early age of some twelve or thirteen years, is not very jocose to the sufferer. I never knew of but one boy that actually was, as it were, case-hardened, and took a flogging himself for diversion, and as a joke. It is a singular thing, and therefore, though another digression, I must tell it. The boy's name was Smith, a good family name for casehardening. Somehow or other, he was insensible in the flogging parts. There was no communication between them and the brain; and here let me observe, obiter, that it is a very absurd practice at private schools to punish one part for another; at public schools they scarcely ever flog for learning, or the lack of it. But why, if the head fails of doing its work, the tail should suffer, I never could hear any good reason given. And why should a dunce be called a blockhead, when it is quite the contrary part goes to the block? But this belongs to the philosophy of schools, and has nothing to do with my breeches, which will never be on-and I had nigh forgotten the flogging story. This Smith did not care a pin for a flogging, and used to put himself in the way of them, for mere amusement to himself and others.

"Smith, again!" the master usually called out at flogging-time, and with a groan. Smith was always ready, affected to kneel down, then rose up again, and said facetiously—

"Allow me, sir, to put my handkerchief under my knees these breeches cost my father five-and-twenty shillings, and he gave me particular charge not to soil them."

Then would he begin only to kneel down, the master all the while vociferating-"Take him up, take him up!"

"Sir," Smith would say, "be so kind as to hit high and gentle." Then, when fairly down, he would look round, and at every stroke make most horrible faces, as if in dreadful agony, and, when the matter was over, jump up with alacrity, make his bow, and say, "I thank you, sir."

It is evident such a boy must have been incorrigible-and he went away as such he did not remain more than, if so much as, a half-year.

The bell is 'most down, and in what state am I now with regard to breeches? By dint of great exertion and help I have them just up to my hips-a little more exertion may get them an inch higher -more than that is hopeless. The boys are quitting me fast. One kind soul remains to show me the way. Hurrah! I have contrived to get them over, and to button one button; but then how am I to get my shirt in again? That must be inevitably tucked under my waistcoat.

"Here," said the boy, "pull it down a little, just to meet, and button your waistcoat over, and nobody will see it-so let's be off." And off we were, as well at least as I could move my knees. I think those who fought in ancient armour must have run, if it is not a bull to say those who fought ran, pretty much as I did. When we arrived at the chapel-door I was donequite out of breath-and all the boys were just kneeling down. In I shuffled, and down I attempted to kneel directly in front of the master. I had not calculated upon this difficulty. I made a desperate effort, and so far succeeded as to my knees-but in that effort the button burst, and the upper part of my mouse-colour leather breeches, which had been continually stretched, dropped-and discovered to the gaze of eyes sacred and profane, of masters, chaplains, and some hundred or so of boys, my poor unshirted, unshrouded personification of innocence. Could the service go on?Did it go on? I know not. The following half-hour was so like a dream that I have forgotten it; but I believe

« ForrigeFortsæt »