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PREFACE.

THE Parent Establishment of Christ's Hospital, London, having been fully and elaborately described in a recent work of great research and merit, by the Rev. W. Trollope, M. A., formerly one of its Classical Masters, as well as in a less ambitious publication, by Mr. J. I. Wilson, I have been induced, from no competitor appearing in the field, to attempt, in the following pages, a description of its offspring, the branch Institution at Hertford; connecting with it incidents as they really happened, and placing before the reader the real life of a BLUE-COAT BOY.

The best reason I can give for the publication of these Recollections, is the want I myself experienced of a work of this description. Their origin is as follows. A gentleman of my acquaintance who had a son entering the school, requested of me some information respecting the

habits and customs of the boys. I committed to paper such as I possessed, and at his suggestion have enlarged and extended them to their present size.

To those kind friends who have been pleased to bestow smiles of approbation and encouragement on these, my first and feeble efforts, I return my grateful acknowledgments. I must not, however, deceive myself, and imagine that similar kindness awaits me at the hands of the critic, for my bantling is, as it were, leaving home and entering the world, to become the sport of the wind that blows, whether unfavourable or propitious. As a slight ground of extenuation, I would impress on the reader the tender age at which these Recollections became engraven on

my memory; and if I have erred in giving them to the world, I solicit pardon for my presumption.

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