cloth. Nor let any one laugh at this; for considering the propensity of the multitude, and especially of the small multitude, to ridicule anything unusual in dress; above all, when such peculiarity may be construed by malice into a mark of disparagement; this reserve will appear to be nothing more than a wise instinct in a Blue-coat Boy. That it is neither pride nor rusticity, at least that it has none of the offensive qualities of either, a stranger may soon satisfy himself by putting a question to any of these boys; he may be sure of an answer couched in terms of plain civility, neither loquacious nor embarrassed. Let him put the same question to a parish-boy, or to one of the trencher-caps in the cloisters; and the impudent reply of the one shall not fail to exasperate, any more than the certain servility and mercenary eye to reward, which he will meet with in the other, can fail to depress and sadden him. The Christ's Hospital boy is a religious character. His school is eminently a

religious foundation. It has its peculiar prayers, its services at set times, its graces, hymns, and anthems following each other in an almost monastic closeness of succession. This religious character in him is not always untinged with superstition. That is not wonderful, when we consider the thousand tales and traditions which must circulate with undisturbed credulity among so many boys, that have so few checks to their belief from any intercourse with the world at large upon whom their equals in age must work so much, their elders so little. With this leaning towards an over-belief in matters of religion, which will soon correct itself when he comes out into society, may be classed a turn for romance above most other boys."

The author, after alluding to the thirst displayed for books of fiction, and others of a still wilder class, mentions a circumstance as an illustration of the crude ideas they implant in the minds of the scholar, and which I give in his own words:

"I remember, during my stay at Christ's Hospital, some half-dozen boys setting off from school, without map, card, or compass, on a serious expedition to find out Philip Quarll's Island."

This character of a Blue-coat Boy applies more particularly to those on the foundation in London. The idea of starting off on such an expedition as the one just mentioned, must have taken place on a holiday or leave-day; the boys at Hertford being prohibited to venture outside of the gates without the escort of the nurse or beadle: the onus of this piece of simplicity must therefore rest upon the children of a larger growth, viz., their brethren in town. Hertford not being mentioned in the writings of the essayist of Elia, we may safely conclude that he spent no portion of his school-days at this delightful nursery.

The name of Charles Lamb possesses a kind of fascination with every Blue, among whom, while life remains, his memory will

be cherished, and though he is no longer with us, his writings still remain to us, sweet as the lute of Orpheus,

"Who made the lofty trees,

And the mountain-tops that freeze,
Bow their heads when he did sing."

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CHAPTER XVIII.

"The school's lone porch, with rev'rend mosses grey,
Just tells the pensive pilgrim where it lay.

Up springs, at every step, to claim a tear,
Some little friendship formed and cherished here;
And not the lightest leaf but trembling teems
With golden visions and romantic dreams!
And hence this spot gives back the joys of youth,
Warm as the life, and with the mirror's truth."

ROGERS.

In the middle of the year 1827, the Rev. F. W. Franklin resigned the situation of GrammarMaster, and was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Cotton. The first endeavours of the new master were meritorious. Mr. Franklin had been contented to let the boys remain in precisely the same state in which he received them from his predecessor: the energies of Mr. Cotton were directed to arouse them from the lethargy in which they had been so long suffered to remain,