Part 2 (1/2)

My dear Sir,--Ito you the very high opinion I entertain of him I fully coincide in Mr Cotton's estiht conduct His e, and I doubt not he will do himself credit in classics As I believe I mentioned to you before, his examination for the Divinity prize was one of thethe whole ti in my house, his conduct has been excellent

Believe me to be, My dear Sir,

Yours very faithfully,

AC TAIT

Public school life then was not what it is now; the atrocious syste hundreds of lines for theoffences made every day a weariness and a hopeless waste of time, while the bad discipline which was hts intolerable--especially for the small boys, whose beds in winter were denuded of blankets that the bigger oneshis ti back upon it, he writes in 1855:--

Duringof various kinds, but none of it was done _con a out impositions--this last I consider one of the chief faults of Rugby School I h Bennett (as college acquaintances we find fewer common sympathies, and are consequently less intimate)--but I cannot say that I look back upon my life at a Public School with any sensations of pleasure, or that any earthly considerations would induce ain

When, some years afterwards, he visited Radley School, he was much struck by the cubicle system which prevails in the dormitories there, and wrote in his Diary, ”I can say that if I had been thus secure froht, the hardshi+ps of the daily life would have been coe 32 was, I believe, drawn by Charles rile he was at Rugby in illustration of a letter received from one of his sisters

Halnaby, as I have said before, was an outlying district of Croft parish

During his holidays he used to aht be called _very local_ azines, as their circulation was confined to the inmates of Croft Rectory The first of these, _Useful and Instructive Poetry_, ritten about 1845 It came to an unti intervals by several other periodicals, equally short-lived

In 1849 or 1850, _The Rectory Uan to appear As the editor was by this tihteen years old, it was naturally of a more ambitious character than any of its precursors It contained a serial story of the -Stick of Destiny,” some meritorious poetry, a few humorous essays, and several caricatures of pictures in the Vernon Gallery Three reproductions of these pictures folloith extracts from the _Umbrella_ descriptive of them

[Illustration: The only sister ould_ write to her brother, though the table had just ”folded down”! The other sisters are depicted ”sternly resolved to set off to Halnaby & the Castle,”

tho' it is yet ”early, early ”--Rembrondt]

THE VERNON GALLERY

As our readers will have seen by the preceding page, we have coe of Innocence,” by Sir J Reynolds, representing a young Hippopotamus seated under a shady tree, presents to the conte union of youth and innocence

EDITOR

[Illustration: _”The Scanty Meal”_]

We have been unusually[001] successful in our second engraving from the Vernon Gallery The picture is intended, as our readers will perceive, to illustrate the evils of hoh the whole picture The thin old lady at the head of the table is in the painter's best style; we al suspicion that her glasses are not really in fault, and that the old gentle_ instead of a nonillionth[003] Her colass in his hand; the two children in front are aded, and there is a sly shly enjoyed either the bad news he is bringing or the wrath of his mistress The carpet is executed with that elaborate care for which Mr Herring is so famed, and the picture on the whole is one of his best

”_The First Ear-ring_”

The scene from which this excellent picture is painted is taken froraphy[004] of the celebrated Sir William Smith[005] of his life when a schoolboy: we transcribe the passage: ”One day Bill Tomkins[006] and I were left alone in the house, the old doctor being out; after playing a number of pranks Bill laid me a bet of sixpence that I wouldn't pour a bottle of ink over the doctor's cat _I did it_, but at that ht me by the ear as I attempted to run away My sensations at the et; _on that occasion I received _[007] The only remark Bill made to me, as he paid me the money afterwards was, 'I say, didn't you just howl jolly!'” The engraving is an excellent copy of the picture

[Illustration: Sir D Wilkie Painter The First Earring

W Greatbach Engraver _fro in the _Rectory Umbrella_ was a parody on Lord Macaulay's style in the ”Lays of Ancient Rome”; Charles had a special aptitude for parody, as is evidenced by several of the best-known verses in his later books

LAYS OF SORROW

No 2

Fair stands the ancient[008] Rectory, The Rectory of Croft, The sun shi+nes bright upon it, The breezes whisper soft

Froarden Its inhabitants come forth, And muster in the road without, And pace in twos and threes about, The children of the North