the offence." Thanks, however, to Mr. Pigeon, the present respected Treasurer, the rod, under his mild government, has become a rare visitor within the walls of Christ's Hospital.

77

CHAPTER VII.

"Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast."

THOMSON.

To attempt a description of Christ's Hospital, Hertford, and omit honourable mention of the Writing and Grammar Schools, would be like performing Hamlet, with the character of the Prince of Denmark omitted. It shall therefore be my care in the two following chapters to describe these seats of erudition; and in order to render the picture more natural, I shall notice them as they appeared to me on the first morning of my entrance.

The Writing School, from the prominent

position it occupies, first claims our attention. It forms the north and centre of the buildings;* and stands immediately opposite the entrance-gate. It consists of one floor only, and its interior is lofty. Over the school-door is the clock, above which the belfry rears its head. Beneath the Writing School are vaults, as gloomy and dark in appearance as those under the parliament-house during the reign of our first James, when tenanted by Guy Fawkes and other conspirators. The person to whose care these vaults were entrusted went by the name of Tyler, hence called by the scholars Wat Tyler, no doubt from the great similarity he bore to the likenesses handed down to us of that celebrated demagogue. It fell to his lot to sift the cinders, and weigh the potatoes, making himself generally useful. He was a quiet old man, the sun of whose day had set the

*See Frontispiece.

jeers of the boys, from whom he received a due share of annoyance, would, however, at times exasperate him; and the old man often lay in wait for us, dealing us, when we fell within reach, such blows, that the city mace could scarcely have inflicted when it felled his great namesake in Smithfield.

To return to the subject more immediately before us, we will at once enter the Writing School, the first object in which is the master's desk, elevated by a platform. The first and second classes stood immediately before the desk of Mr. Ludlow, while the third to the sixth stood on an elevation to his left, and the remainder to the right, the danger of falling being guarded against by an iron railing.

The system of education pursued here is Bell's, consisting of as many manœuvres as a regiment of soldiers going through a morning's drill. The first hour was devoted to ciphering, that is, from seven until eight o'clock. breakfast an hour is passed in writing, and the

After

remainder of the morning in reading. In

winter the programme is different, the first hour being discontinued from a certain period to make room for the introduction of ciphering.

The books chiefly read in the advanced classes consisted of Goldsmith's Histories of Greece, Rome, and England; Sturm's Reflections, and the Conversations of a Missionary with an Indian; while the junior classes perused the Selections of Mrs. Trimmer from the Old and New Testaments. Mr. Ludlow, since my departure from Hertford, having published a Class Book,* there is little doubt, that by the permission of the Governors, he has introduced the same into the school. The ninth, or last class, is filled by boys who on their entrance are unable to read: and the alphabet being acquired, is followed up by the script-cards of the National School Society. The rules of arithmetic, commencing with

* Published by Parker, West Strand.