,. J) PASSAGES FROM THE AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF A "MAN OF KENT." " The trne every-day life of the most ordinary man is one of the most instructive and interesting of all studies. Common-place lives are more instructive than exceptional ones. The things which all men do and experience are worthy of all men's study One life of this kind may be a lesson of all lives." PASSAGES FROM THE AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF A " MAN OF KENT." TOGETHER WITH A FEW ROUGH PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES, BY THE SAME HAND, OF SOME OF THE PEOPLE HE HAS MET, THE CHANGES HE HAS SEEN, AND THE PLACES HE HAS VISITED. 18171865. EDITED BY REGINALD FITZ-ROY STANLEY, M.A. LONDON: PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS. -\ 1866. KESPECTFIJLLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY MANY FRIENDS, BIT A f- " MAN OF KENT." 1O48668 CONTENTS. Page INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR ... ix INTRODUCTORY 1 I. PARENTAGE, INFANCY, AND CHILDHOOD ... 3 II. Bmiooo: SCHOOL-DAYS, AND YOUTHFUL FOLLIES . 11 III. LRVING SCHOOL, CHOICE OF A PROFESSION, AND EVIL INFLUENCES 25 IV. MAIIIOOD: ITS STRUGGLES, DUTIES, TRIALS, RECREATIONS, A*D RESPONSIBILITIES 72 V BRIEF RECOLLECTIONS OF SOME VACATION RAMBLES, WITH THOUGHTS AND GLEANINGS BY THE WAY : Visit to Paris . . . ... . . 222 Edinburgh and the Highlands .."". . 231 Second Visit to the Highlands . . . .243 Upstreet and Chislett 291 Tunbridge Wells and its Surroundings . . 297 Dorking and Box Hill 305 Hereford and its Neighbourhood . . . 315 REMOVAL TO HAMPSTEAD 329 CONCLUSION . . . 382 INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. HESE " Passages from the Auto-bio- graphy of a * Man of Kent ' " were written at the request of a large circle of friends, and in the brief intervals of leisure, extending over a period of seven years, which the writer could snatch from an increas- ingly active life. The manuscript has been placed in my hands, as an old friend, with a request that I should say something by way of introduction. I have yielded most willingly to the request, and in looking over the pages have done little more than occasionally draw my pen through a few passages, which, from family allusions, or otherwise, would not be under- stood by the general reader. Some account of the writer, in addition to that Avhich he has himself supplied, may not be out of place here, and will moreover enable the reader to form a better conception of the idiosyncrasies of the " Man of Kent." x Introduction. My friend has been known to me for more than a quarter of a century, and scarcely a day has passed during the greater part of that period with- out my meeting him either in business, or at the fire-side. The " Man of Kent " is a Nonconformist ; not by birth and education, but upon principle and deliberate choice, as he has told us in the following pages ; and although he is one of the noble few who " Reverence his conscience as his King," he is nevertheless ready at all times, where com- promise of principle is not expected, to co-operate with all denominations of Christians in everything calculated to benefit the commonweal. In politics he was, in early life, what is termed an out-and-out Kadical ; but thought and observa- tion have in a great measure corrected and modi- fied the theories of his younger days, and he has become in what may be called the afternoon, if not the evening, of life, a moderate and progressive Reformer. I remember hearing him upon one occasion at a Debating Society, stand out most determinately for the " People's Charter ;" but though he believes the leading principles laid down in that able document to be the natural right of every well-conducted citizen, he sees also that education and moral training must prepare the Introduction. xi millions of our still unenfranchised countrymen for that which undoubtedly must shortly be con- ceded to them. The " Man of Kent " is distinguished by a love of justice, and is a thorough hater of every- thing mean and dishonourable. I have sometimes thought that my friend must have been born under the influence of the planet Mars, as he has a fiery disposition, ready in an instant to meet an oppo- nent. He is a bold, resolute, and fearless man, and would have made a good soldier, had not a hesitation in his speech have been the means of turning his early career into another channel. He is rather choleric and hasty, with a dash of sar- castic humour, and a certain impetuousness of temperament, that not unfrequently make him in danger of being misunderstood. I fear he has sometimes given offence to those who do not know him well, by his vehement manner, and the strong language he makes use of when excited. He is an intense man, and possesses an unconquerable will that sometimes appears to defy all opposing forces. He is rather impatient of reproof; but gentle remonstrances from a friend of whose in- tention and kindness he is assured, and whose judgment he approves, have often great weight with him. He is always ready for the arena of conflict, and when he is thoroughly convinced of the injustice of any wrong, he will advance xii Introduction. again, and again, and yet again, until he has con- quered. There is a marked individuality in the " Man of Kent ;" he can, when the occasion requires it, say the most bitter and withering things ; he has, however, a good deal that is genial and tender in his nature, and can comfort the sorrowful, as well as encourage the timid. As a visitor of the sick, in the later years of his life, he has always been welcome, having himself suffered repeatedly from illness. Before ill-health had told upon him he was a man of great energy and quickness. My friend would have been an orator, but for the defect in his speech acquired in his youth ; which, however, he so far corrected in his riper years as to be able to address a public assembly, when it would have been difficult to detect a vestige of what he calls his " old enemy." The " Man of Kent" never gets up to speak without being thoroughly in earnest, and, as he feels his subject intensely himself, is an effective speaker. We recollect once hearing him deliver a lecture " On Public Speaking and Heading Aloud, with Illustrations from the Throne, the Senate, the Pulpit, the Poets, and the Bar," before a large gathering, when he succeeded beyond the expec- tations of his friends. The " Man of Kent" is endowed with consider- able powers of persuasion ; is witty and piquant in Introduction. xiii conversation; and possesses no small amount of acuteness and discrimination : he has a keen ap- preciation of the beautiful in nature and art, and has a cultivated taste. He is quickly moved by objects of sorrow and distress, and is always readily induced to acts of kindness; many a bereaved family circle has been soothed and comforted by his brotherly sympathy, and cheered and en- couraged by his kindly counsels. No man had ever a kinder heart for sympathy, or a more open hand for the relief of distress ; and no mind was ever more formed for the enthusiastic admiration of noble actions. My friend delights in jovial society, has a good ear for music, though no musician ; can sing a good song, and is passionately fond of poetry, music, and dancing, though this latter accomplishment was more freely indulged in the dawn and exuber- ance of his early life. He is active and enter- prising in everything that he takes in hand ; the things he most excels in are the labours which he undertakes voluntarily. My friend is not alto- gether indifferent to applause, and he is rather ambitious of renown. I scarcely like to touch upon the domestic cha- racteristics of the " Man of Kent," though, from a long and uninterrupted friendship, extending over many years, I have had ample and frequent op- portunities of knowing what he is in the home xiv Introduction. circle. I may say, however, that he is a kind and indulgent husband, and the father-love in his heart is deep and unfailing. As a friend he is faithful, frank, and true- hearted, as many of those who read the following pages will be reminded ; and I trust that the day is very far distant when his genial company and hearty laugh will be no more heard in our social gatherings. I am sure I shall be borne out by the willing testimony of those who know him, in saying that he never grudges any amount of labour that his numerous friends exact from him. His cor- respondence is very voluminous ; and since the introduction of the " penny postage " it must have cost him a small fortune for " Queen's heads." Few private men have a larger circle of corres- pondents ; and this, combined with his every -day work, leaves him but little leisure for recreation. His kind and playful intercourse with children has made him a special favourite with them, while his natural gallantry always secures him a hearty welcome from the mothers and maidens. His manly qualities have endeared him to the fathers and brothers, so that he is always greeted with a hearty welcome by his many friends. In personal appearance the " Man of Kent " is rather above the average height, with brown hair, moustache, and ample beard. These latter append- ages he adopted some years before they became Introduction. xv so generally worn. He is of open visage, quick, penetrating dark eyes, and of highly nervous temperament. In conclusion, I may say that the " Man of Kent" has no pretensions to literary talent be- yond throwing off an occasional letter or article for some of our London and provincial journals. It is, however, believed that these rough-and-ready reminiscences of what my friend has denominated " an ordinary every-day life," told as they are with freedom and faithfulness, will not be an unwelcome contribution to the light literature of the day. I must regret that the failing health of my friend should have compelled him to retire from some of the more active duties of his busy life ; and trust that, as he is relieved from these exacting labours, he may, in a well-earned and happy retirement, be spared to his family and friends for many years. REGINALD FITZ-EOY STANLEY. Maitland Park, London, N.W. Christmas, 1865. AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF A "MAN OF KENT." INTRODUCTORY. N" sitting down to write some particulars of what may be termed an ordinary and every- day life and history, I have not the vanity to believe that I can record anything new or startling, much less that which is deep and profound. Neither is it my intention to discuss the question whether a man should, or should not, be his own biographer, as that has already been done by far abler pens, and among others by no less a writer than the late John Foster, in his justly celebrated " Essays." We all revert with an affectionate interest to our past life, " the days that are no more," and I am not without the hope that perhaps by committing to writing some of the incidents in my own history, and the mental and moral revolutions that have taken place in connection with them, I may influence some who are just entering the great arena of conflict. At all events it shall be my endeavour to point out, to our young men especially, a few of the shoals and quicksands that I have met with in my own career ; and in recording these I may retrace " Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother, Seeing, shall take heart again." B 2 Introductory, Biography has been aptly said to be " Philosophy teaching by example." A distinguished American writer tells us that " all things are engaged in writing their history. The planet, the pebble, goes attended by its shadow. The rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain ; the river, its channel in the soil ; the animal, its bones in the stratum ; the fern and leaf, their modest epitaph in the coal ; the falling drop makes its sculpture in the sand or the stone. Not a foot steps into the snow or along the ground, but prints, in characters more or less lasting, a map of its march. Every act of the man inscribes itself in the me- mory of his fellows, and in his own manners and face. The air is full of sounds, the sky of tokens, the ground is all memoranda and signatures, and every object covered over with hints which speak to the intelligent." Another equally distinguished man of our own time, and our father- land, tells us, in words that I am glad to transfer to my humble page " Think of ' living !' Thy life, wert thou the ' pitifulest of all the sons of earth,' is no idle dream, but a solemn reality. It is thy own ; it is all thou hast to front eternity with. Work then, like a star, unhasting, yet unresting." PARENTAGE, INFANCY, AND CHILDHOOD. " My boast is not that I derive my birth From loins enthroned, or rulers of the earth : But higher far my proud pretensions rise, The child of ptirents pass'd into the skies." MAN is rarely or seldom asked in the pre- sent age about his parentage ; but if from any cause he comes before the world, the question is at once put to him " Who are Nevertheless, it is interesting, to those more immedi- ately concerned, to know something of the origin and family of such as we are daily coming in contact with, and therefore I shall, for their information, record that my father was the son of a farmer, and was born at Bought en -under-Blean, a small village on the old Lon- don road, about six miles from Canterbury. From a family register, most religiously chronicled, and preserved in an old Bible, I find that my grandfather was born in 1739, and was twice married. Two children were the result of the first marriage ; and thirteen of the second, nine sons and four daughters. My father was the third son of the second marriage, and was born in 1782. I have often heard him speak with admiration of my grandfather as one of the best-looking men in that part of the county, " standing six feet two in height." He ap- 4 Ancestry. pears to have been a man of kindly disposition, but rather a severe disciplinarian in his family. At meal times they mustered rather a large party, and it was the custom at that time for the children to stand at the table. My grandfather kept within convenient reach a long osier stick to correct any juvenile indiscretions. The offender was spoken to once, but the second offence was sure to bring down upon him a rap from the long stick. He was quite an oracle in the little village, and was accustomed to frequent the parlour of " The Squirrel" in the evening, to read the newspaper aloud, and to discuss the political questions of the day. My grandfather's death is duly recorded in the family registry, " aged 72 years, 5 months, and 20 days." I have a vivid recollection of my grandmother, who, at the death of her husband, came to reside at Canterbury, and died there when I was nine years old. Well do I remember her kind and benevolent countenance : she was rather below the average height, a well-proportioned hand- some old lady, and in her youthful days must have been very pretty. I return, however, from this little digression, to my father. After receiving a plain commercial educa- tion, at the best school in the neighbourhood, he was ap- prenticed to a bookseller at Canterbury, who combined with that business an extensive printing establishment. Several local publications were printed and published by his master, and amongst others that might be named are " Hasted's History of Canterbury," and the second edition in octavo of that writer's famous " History of Kent."* Both these valuable county histories have been long out of print. The first edition of the latter work has now become so rare that whenever it is found in the market, book collectors and bibliographers will give a large sum for the handsome * The author's beautiful copy of the first edition of this work is in the Grenville Library at the British Museum, and contains some additional plates, which are very scarce, with a list of them in Hasted's handwriting, and his signature attached. Parentage. 5 volumes. This gentleman was also the printer and pub- lisher, for many years, of the " Kentish Chronicle," and was a member of the corporation. The young apprentice applied himself so industriously and sedulously to his duties that he soon gained the special notice and esteem of his master, who kindly encourage;! his persevering endeavours to become thoroughly acquainted with every branch of the business, and who was much pleased with his amiable and respectful demeanour. At the expiration of his term of apprenticeship, my father had become so valuable to his master that he took him at once into partnership. Shortly after this, the young trades- man was chosen a member of the Corporation, and so popu- lar was he as a citizen that he was elected Mayor the same year ; an incident, I believe, without precedent in the cor- porate annals of that ancient city. On the death of his partner he succeeded to the business, and for many years conducted the editorial department of the weekly journal printed and published at the establish- ment, of which newspaper he was one of the proprietors. He was subsequently a second time elevated to the office of chief magistrate, and continued an active member of the Corporation till his removal from Canterbury. It is not too much to say of my father, with reference to his official career as a magistrate, that he gained the respect and esteem of all classes by his frankness and amiable manners, nor less by his desire at all times to temper justice with mercy. As a master, I may quote from one who served his apprenticeship to him, and who afterwards became editor of one of the most influential and popular of our metropolitan weekly journals,* in his obituary notice, says, " It might be truly affirmed that to his numerous workmen he was indulgent to a fault, and those who were reared by him to the business of a printer, loved him as a parent and a friend." * The Weekly Dispatch." 6 A Mother's influence. In my early years we saw very little of my father, save on Sundays, when he gave himself entirely up to his family. Business, and his official duties, absorbed his time and attention during the week. My mother always made it a rule that the children should be in bed by the time he left business, as it was his custom every day to go somewhat carefully through the London papers. As we grew up he took a loving interest in all that con- cerned his family, and was especially delighted on the fine Sunday afternoons to take us boys for a long walk. Those of my readers who are acquainted with Canterbury know that the neighbourhood abounds in picturesque scenery ; and well do I now remember many of the beautiful walks with my father and brothers on those happy Sundays. My youngest brother would generally contrive to call my father's attention to what is now known as " a sweet-stuff hop," and a packet of sweeties was always readily given to add to the enjoyment of our walk. We all loved our father very much, and while I pen these brief recollections of him the beautiful words of the Poet Laureate come in- stinctively to my mind : " His memory long will live alone In all our hearts, as mournful light That broods above the fallen sun, And dwells in heaven half the night." How shall I speak of my mother ? It seems but yes- terday that her gentle face was shining on me, and I almost hear now her soft and loving voice. Oh ! there is nothing like a mother's love. Years can never efface thy memory from my heart. I loved my father, but as I write my bowels are moved at the recollection of my mother. How much do I owe to the thousand gentle in- fluences that were showered upon me from thy self-for- getting daily and hourly ministrations? Much, very much, do I owe thee, thou sweet guardian of my early days ; would that I had followed the advice of thy loving voice in the morning of my life : how many sorrows I Unhappy marriage. 7 should have thereby escaped. I, alas ! could not boast of being " A son that never did amiss, That never shamed his mother's kiss, Nor cross'd her fondest prajer." My mother was born at Ostend in 1785, and was an only daughter. My grandmother, on my mother's side, was, from all accounts, a very beautiful woman ; and this is fully borne out by a portrait in possession of one of the family, painted by a distinguished Flemish artist of that day. She did not however live happily with her husband, who appears to have been a man of harsh and severe manners, wanting all those gentle and tender qualities that make a good husband and an endeared father. My grandmother died at the early age of thirty-eight, and at her death, my mother, then only eight years old, came to reside with some relatives in London, and afterwards at Exeter ; but not being happy with these relatives, she ultimately lived with a family at Margate, and found there a comfortable and happy home. During her residence at Margate my mother was an occasional visitor at Canterbury, having a relative living in that city ; and it was on one of these visits that she was introduced to my father, then a handsome young bachelor with a thriving business, a member of the Corporation, and one who had already filled the important office of chief magistrate of the city. A mutual attachment grew out of these occasional visits to Canterbury, ending in that " consummation most devoutly to be wished ; " and in 1811 they were married. Men of Kent: INFANCY. " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting : The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar : Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home : Heaven lies about us in our infancy." Having said thus much of my parentage and pedigree, I come now to speak of myself. I was born at Canterbury in 1817, and am a " Man of Kent." It is scarcely neces- sary to remind my readers that in what are called " the good old times," that city was the metropolis of the kings of Kent. The learned tell us that Canterbury is derived from Durwhern (Dur-Gwern, river of marshes, mead, or alders), latinised Durovernum ; and it was also denomi- nated in the ancient British language, Caer dent, or City of Kent ; and in Anglo-Saxon, Cant-wara-byrig, City of the Men of Kent. The Civic Government of Canterbury is very ancient, as the city archives testify : those documents, so carefully preserved by our forefathers, offer a rich field for the anti- quarian. Not long since some highly interesting particu- lars relating to the manners and customs of the early Canterburians were brought to light by a very competent hand, Mr. Thomas Wright; and good service has also been rendered in this respect by an accomplished citizen of Canterbury, Mr. John Brent, the younger. Much has been said, and not a little written, by those interested in matters of this nature, as to the origin of, and distinction between, " Men of Kent," and " Kentish Men." Having taken some pains to examine the question, I sus- pect the real origin of the terms to have been to distinguish any man, whose family had long been settled in the county, from time immemorial it may be, from new settlers ; Infancy. 9 the former being genuine " Men of Kent," the latter only " Kentish Men." The West Kent men, according to tradition, are styled " Kentish Men;" while those of East Kent are more emphatically denominated " Men of Kent."* Believing that nothing is trivial in the formation of cha- racter, I may mention that my parents were members of the Church of England, and that my mother was particu- larly careful to bring me up in the religious observance of all the ceremonials of that communion. While she was ever mindful to instil into me from my earliest days, in common with my brothers and sisters, the love of God and of goodness, all this was done in connection with, what I may call, the domestic requirements of the Established Church. We were all in our infancy duly taken to the baptismal font, and as soon as we could be taught anything formally, the catechism of that Church was most assiduously inculcated upon us. As soon as we were able to walk we were taken to the parish church ; and well do I now remember the high boxed- up pews that hid from us altogether the surrounding con- gregation, and only when we were lifted up to stand upon the seats, could we get a glimpse of the parson. The peculiar close and fusty smell of that old church I have never thoroughly got rid of. The morning service of the Church of England is very long and tedious even to an adult, and how little children are kept at all quiet during its performance is to me a wonder. Many a time, as the communion service and the sermon came, have I begged leave to sit down upon the reed hassock that I might lay my head down upon the comfortably stuffed green-baise seat and take a little nap. I was always sure to wake in * Should the reader be desirous of pursuing this question any further, he will find some particulars in "Notes and Queries," Vol. v. p. 615 ; and also, in a work by the late Charles Sandys, Esq., of Canterbury, entitled, " Consuetudines Kantise;" see also a highly interesting little volume lately published, " Canterbury in the Olden Time," by John Brent, junior 10 Early training. time, as I had a great horror of being left in the church. When from any cause I could not get my accustomed nap, I was much amused in looking up at the hatchments that adorned the white-washed walls of the sacred building. I recollect very often spelling out that rather long word " BESURGAM," wondering what in the world it could mean ; and when I whispered my wonderment to my mother she would put her finger to her mouth, and with a reverend shake of the head, place her hand gently on my shoulder and bid me sit still, and be a good boy. Altogether the service at church was a very slow affair ; there was no " high embowed roof," no " storied windows richly dight, casting a dim religious light," no " pealing organ," no " anthems clear : " the service was tediously long, bald, and cold ; and the attempts at psalmody were such as did not endear good old Tate and Brady to my juvenile recollections. Eight glad was I always when the vicar wound up his dry and unimpassioned sermon of forty minutes with the welcome words, " Now to God the Father," &c, which was a signal for us to get ourselves into march- ing order, and once more breathe the pure sweet air of the bright and cheerful street. The Sunday afternoons were generally spent in reading aloud the Scriptures, learning the collect for the day, and never omitting the catechism, every part of which is fresh in my recollection to this day. Sometimes my dear mother would read to us a chapter from " The Whole Duty of Man," a well-bound volume, frequently found in those days in close proximity to the Bible in most families con- nected with the Church of England. I do most cheerfully bear my willing testimony to the constant and unremitting care of my father and mother to bring us up in the faith and practice of the Church of our forefathers, and also to illustrate their teaching by consistent example. II. BOYHOOD : SCHOOL-DAYS, AND YOUTHFUL FOLLIES. "Shades of the prison -house begin to close Upon the growing boy, But he beholds the light, and whence it flows He sees it in his joy; The youth who daily farther from the East Must travel, still is nature's priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended ; At length the man perceives it die'away And fade into the light of common day." " looking back upon the home of my child- hood and early school life, I cannot but be struck with the inseparable connection ex- isting between these two important periods in the history of a child ; and yet they are for the most part spoken of and treated separately. Home itself must be a school ; and the school, if it is to be of salutary use in forming the moral, as well as the mental man, must be a home. The education of a child begins on the mother's bosom, or upon her knees, as it prattles around the household hearth, and is daily and hourly influenced by all that it hears and sees. It begins with the earliest dawning of the intellectual powers, before we perceive the difference be- tween looks, and words, and actions. How responsible 1 2 Education. then is the position of parents for the first impressions made upon the young. Streams of influence flow in upon the child, every one of which will work its own result in mould- ing the future character. Happy is the child that is born into a family where the parents are distinguished by culture and intelligence ; and where tenderness, high moral feeling, and good sense is the atmosphere breathed around. Parents are very properly careful about the food that their children partake of, but how much more careful should they be of the example placed before them ; of the books they read ; and also of the companions they asso- ciate with. I think also that children should from their earliest days have " no place like home :" suitable amusements should ever be combined with early teaching, as much of the rest- lessness which characterizes children is attributable mainly to their not being wisely instructed and entertained in the home circle. I was allowed to run about pretty much as I liked till I was five or six years old, when I was sent to what was then called a Dame's School. I have a most affectionate re- membrance of the kind and patient treatment of the lady to whose care I was entrusted for my early education. She quite won my young heart by her gentle manners and loving disposition, and was the first out of my own family to call forth that desire to please, which I have cultivated in after life, especially in reference to those whom Burns denominates " the blood-royal of life." I feel it to be strictly true in my own case, that " The earliest wish I ever knew Was woman's kind regard to win ; I felt it long ere passion grew, Ere such a wish could be a sin." Parents are not careful enough in ascertaining the character and disposition of those to whom they confide their children. Some people have an idea that the child must be treated harshly and rudely, to develope a rough Gentle influences. 13 manliness or hard womanliness, but observation will con- vince us that this is a great mistake. There is in all of us a yearning to be loved, and gentle influences tell most effectively on the springs of action. The little child has this longing to be loved ; it is that desire which prompts the tiny infant to put out the little chubby rounded arms to the mother, and purse up its rosy mouth for the sweet and tender kiss. If " every flower enjoys the air it breathes," so does the babe enjoy and rejoice in the love that is poured out upon it ; and it is my belief that every loving caress of the mother goes down deep into the heart of the child, and sounds a latent depth of feeling there, which will be developed in after years. The love that the mother lavishes upon her babe is not lost ; it goes flowing through that little form, touching the tender and infantile spirit with sweetness, and we may hope waking the most exquisite pleasure there. It is my firm conviction that harsh and severe treat- ment on the part of parents, or instructors of youth, will never succeed in education ; and that >it is love and gen- tleness that will call out the best qualities of the child. I remember somewhere to have read that " if you want your children to meet the world manfully and womanfully, fill them with love till they overflow. Begin in the cradle ; rock them into love : sing love into them. Let all things pure and beautiful speak to them from the pictures on your walls, if you can afford pictures ; let love play out upon them in the music of harp and piano, if you can afford harp and piano ; and every mother ought to know how to sing, and the child's cradle should be rocked, and the little one lulled to sleep, by snatches of melody wafted down from the very gate of heaven." But to return from this digression on early educational influences to myself. On leaving my first school, and my kind instructress, I was sent to a "Commercial Academy" at Canterbury, presided over by a man of impulsive and hasty temper, with very little aptitude for teaching. It 14 School-days. was a large school of about sixty boarders, and more than that number of day-scholars. The course of study at this school included all the branches of a sound English and commercial education : the scholars were mainly composed of tradesmen's sons in the city, and the rough and ruddy scions of the surrounding farmers. We attended at the Dancing Academy of a late celebrated and well-known professor, one afternoon in the week, and always looked forward with much pleasure to those cheerful exercises, as the girls from several boarding schools in the neighbourhood were accustomed to meet us on those occa- sions for the practice of that healthful and exhilarating ac- complishment. I look back upon those dancing meetings as among the pleasantest and purest of my boyish days, and regret much that there exists any prudential reasons why parents should deny their children the great pleasure of learning, in the morning of life, how to " trip it on the light fantastic toe." I was not so fortunate as my eldest brother in the matter of education. He was sent to the " King's School " at Canterbury, where some of the most distinguished men of the county were educated. Among them may be mentioned Lords Thurlow and Tenterden, who have re- ceived their due from the ready pen of Lord Campbell, the able biographer of the Chancellors and Chief Justices of England. Sir Egerton Brydges, of Lee Priory, was also educated at the King's School, and a host of others too numerous to mention.* The master was assisted by three ushers ; and there was scarcely a day passed without my witnessing corporal punishment, in the shape of a good caning, inflicted upon some of my schoolfellows, and not unfrequently coming in for a share of it myself. * See " Memorials of the King's School, Canterbury, by Eev. J. S. Sidebotham, M.A." A most interesting little volume that every " man of Kent " should possess. Flogging. 15 The master of the school to which I was sent appeared to love flogging for its own sake, rather than as an un- pleasant, but in some instances necessary, auxiliary to teaching. Never shall I forget the, intense feeling of indignation with which I witnessed, what may be called, in school parlance, the ultimatum of corporal punishment. The poor culprit was a boy about thirteen years of age, and had been guilty of some petty theft in the school, as well as having been a constant trouble to the master and his assistants by frequent misbehaviour. The poor trembling fellow was led by the master to a double desk, upon which he was placed. He commenced the flagellation with cruel earnestness, and proceeded for some minutes to use a new birch made for the occasion, in spite of the shrieks and writhing agony of the helpless boy. The punishment did not end till the strong arm of the master was tired with his savage work, and the poor degraded lad was led out of school to his bed-room, amid the half suppressed groans of the boys ; not so much for the crime for which the poor fellow had suffered this degrading punishment, but with a feeling of horror and disgust at the malicious and brutal manner in which this infliction had been conducted. The boy ever after had a stricken look, and even in play hours, as well as in the school, appeared always conscious of the scene he had been the unhappy occasion of. I ceased from that day to have any respect or regard for the master; and this feeling was intensified not long after, when, for some trivial offence, he struck my younger brother a violent blow on the side of the face, which brought blood from his ear, and obliged him to remain at home under medical treatment for more than a fortnight. This tyrant of a master lost so many of his pupils by his harsh and severe treatment that he was obliged to give up the school. He was succeeded by a man who, though rather fond of using his cane, never proceeded to the more degrading and disgusting exhibitions which I have felt it to be my duty to record. 1 fi Stammering. The new master was in many respects a more estimable man than his predecessor, but was deficient in firmness, and wanted that controlling and administrative talent that should characterize the head of a large school. He found out in a short time his unsuitableness, and gave up the scholastic profession for the more quiet and unobtrusive pursuits of a country clergyman. About this time I acquired a habit of stammering, which was not only a great annoyance to me at school, and fre- quently a subject of some merriment to the boys, but has also been a source of bitter mortification and grief to me all through life. It was, however, as I shall hereafter relate, the cause of altering very materially my subsequent history. Physiologists and medical men have ascribed this dis- tressing malady to various causes; but in my case the habit arose from being occasionally in the company of a relative who stammered badly, and being rather a quick and imi- tative lad, I unhappily became a most inveterate stam- merer. The subject has been one that I have necessarily thought much about, and I have carefully read everything that came within my reach relating to it, and hope in a future part of the story of my life to say something further of stammering and stammering-curers. My new school-master took rather a liking to me ; and as my impediment of speech prevented me at times from taking my usual place in the classes, he kindly allowed me to sit at a vacant desk by his side, on an elevated platform, that I might have the benefit of hearing the lessons with- out subjecting me to the pain of making an exhibition of myself to the other boys. It is however rather singular that my stammering never kept me from taking part in the elocution classes. I could always read, or recite, any composition that ran on flowingly and continuously ; I only failed in dialogue. I had always a great fondness for reading aloud and reciting poetry, and gained several prizes during my school- Attempt at Public Speaking. 17 days for elocution. .1 remember upon one occasion so far forgetting myself, as in the temporary absence of the master, to rise from the raised desk, and with a grave look, and loud voice, give out in true clerical style " Let us sing, to the praise and glory of God, the one hundredth psalm." I commenced the well-known words, "All people that on earth do dwell." The thing was so suddenly done, and the consternation of the under-masters so great, that I got fairly through the first verse before they had time to hush me into be- coming silence. A severe but kindly reprimand from the master, on returning to the school, rewarded me for this my maiden attempt at public speaking. My connection with this school was shortly interrupted by an incident that induced the master to beg that my father would remove me from his establishment. I was one day leaning over the desk at which I was at work, speaking to a boy on the opposite side', with my back to the master, when he came softly and silently behind me and gave me two sharp cuts with the cane below my jacket. I was so stung by the cowardice of the thing, and indig- nant at what I considered an unmerited punishment, that I instantly snatched up a slate before me and hurled it with all my might at the master's head. Fortunately it did not hit him, but it gave him to understand most unmistakably that I was not a boy to be trifled with, or that would quietly submit to any punishment that mere caprice would prompt him to inflict. He very properly felt that some serious castigation must follow such an offence as that of which I had been guilty, or that, for the sake of example, I must leave the school ; and I cannot but think that he acted wisely in preferring the latter alternative. On my leaving this school my father sent me to a " select academy" in Guildhall-street, Canterbury, presided over by rather a superior man in point of education ; but from his 18 Schoolmaster outwitted. bad temper totally unfit to have the care and management of boys. I took a dislike to him from the first, and an event occurred, shortly after my being placed under his care, that rendered my removal from his influence necessary. He was a tall, thin, red-haired man, with a vinegar aspect, and very passionate. He resided at some short distance from the school, and one favourite mode of pun- ishment with him was, on leaving in the afternoon, to give a boy some hundred lines to learn, and lock him up in the school for two or three hours. Three of us one afternoon had misconducted ourselves so as to come under his displeasure, and at five o'clock we were duly locked in with " a hundred lines " from " Enfield's Speaker " to commit to memory. It so happened on this afternoon that a large party of us had determined to go for a swim in the Stour at the close of the school, and we three poor unfortunates felt the disappointment very much. After thinking a little upon the hardness of our fate, I sug- gested that we should give the old gentleman the slip, and join our companions at the river. One of the fellows who was locked up with me consented to go, providing I could devise a way for our escape from the durance vile, and would lead the van ; but the other fellow, a boy of phleg- matic temperament, and who afterwards became a lawyer, and practised for many years at Canterbury, thought very naturally what we should catch in the morning, and there- fore prudentially declined to join us 'in our flight. I was determined not to be disappointed in our promised bathe, and a glance at the fan-light over the school door convinced me at once that we had only to remove one of the squares of glass, and we could get out as comfortably as possible. We collected the boxes and placed them against the door, and having raised a platform of the re- quisite height, I set to work to remove the putty with my pocket-knife, and in a few minutes the glass was out, and I was down on the other side. My plucky companion soon followed, and in twenty minutes we had joined our school- Saved from a Flogging. 19 fellows at the bathing- place. We were received with three hearty cheers, and as " stolen waters are sweet," I never enjoyed a bath more in my life. However, matters wore a very different aspect in the morning. The master had come to the school at seven in the evening to hear our tasks and to let us out ; and no small stir was made when he found that two of the birds had flown. The boy who had remained behind told the infuriated master all about how it happened, and that I had been the instigator of this unwarrantable breach of school discipline. As soon as the school was assembled on the following morning, and the customary prayers had been duly gone through, we were summoned to the desk ; and after the case had been fully gone into, and the daring character of our misconduct pointed out and dilated upon, I was ad- judged as the principal delinquent to be flogged : and the other fellow, who was my junior by a year, was let off with a good caning and a severe lecturing. This being over, I was led out of the school by the master with birch in hand into the adjoining lobby, and ordered at once to prepare for a flagellation ; I told him promptly, and with a most defiant look, that I had never made an exhibition of my- self yet, and that I should not do so then. A deadly paleness came over the master's face, and he saw at once that it would not do to lay violent hands upon me ; so I was conducted back to the school, and the old gentleman having announced that I had refused to undergo the pun- ishment awarded, I was dismissed from the school. I very soon bundled my books into my box and placed it on my head, wished the master good morning, and made my ap- pearance at home, much to the astonishment of my father and the regret of my poor mother. However, when I came to explain the nature of my offence, and had told them of the penalty that was to have been inflicted, they neither of them blamed me for refusing to submit to the brutal and degrading punishment. 20 Ashford. My father was obliged once more to look about for another school for me ; but finding none that were at all suitable at Canterbury, I was sent to an old established boarding school at Ashford, presided over by a clergy- man. As I had never been away from home before I found a boarding school presented some new phases of life to me, and I was not long before I sadly missed the constant and tender care of my dear mother. The school was pleasantly situated in the outskirts of the town, and at the bottom of the playground stood one of the most noble windmills I have ever seen. Many an hour have I spent in looking out from the fantail of that mill upon the beautiful sur- rounding country, and the mysteries of milling were always interesting to me as a boy. The master, as I have said, was a clergyman, and was a tall well-proportioned man of about fifty-five, with a kindly benevolent face and highly attractive manners. He was assisted in the school by two ushers, one of whom was his eldest son. The school consisted of about fifty boarders and half-a-dozen day scholars. The mistress was a regu- lar termagant, and when in a passion was a complete fury. She was a short stout woman of about fifty, a large white face, small nose, and very ugly red hair. She was an object of fear and hatred to the whole establishment, and I was often half inclined to believe that this feeling was shared to a great extent even by the master himself. There was an only daughter, who very much resembled her mother, only that she had the redeeming quality of being young. I used to admire the golden tresses that hung around her white neck and fell upon her plump shoulders. An usher from the adjoining grammar school was paying his addresses to this young lady during the time of my remaining at the school, and I only hope that if she ever became his wife that she has turned out better than her mamma. There was a younger son, a lad of about eight years old, who took a great liking to me, which I was glad Short Commons. 21 at times to turn to good account. Boarding schools in those days were all famous, or rather infamous, for keeping the boys short of food, and I regret to say that that at Ashford was not an exception. I soon found that the change of diet and the limited allowance hegan to tell upon me. I was a strong growing hoy of twelve, and at no one of the three meals a day which were allowed did I get enough to eat. Many a time have I played the monkey to amuse the master's little son, who, as a reward for the fun I occa- sioned, gave me some slices of thin bread-and-butter, or an extra piece of bread-and-cheese, which he had got for himself. We were rung up in the morning at six, and expected to be in our places in the school by half-past ; and studied till eight. Breakfast consisted of a buttered roll, (not by any means large,) and half-a-pint of mi]k and water, which we denominated " sky blue." Some of the boys, from a love of money, would sell half their roll ; and many a time, when the funds would allow of it, have I given a halfpenny a day for weeks together for the half of some poor fellow's allowance. School re-opened at nine and continued till twelve. An hour was allowed to play, and dinner at one. This meal generally consisted of joints and puddings, except on Satur- day, when the fragments of meat were collected together, and made into an immense pie, served up with a plentiful supply of gravy. Saturday's dinner was a general favourite with us, except you happened to light upon a bit of meat in the pie a little too gamy. No boy was expected to send up his plate for a second supply of either meat or pudding, though the invitation to do so was always politely put by the master and mistress at each end of the long table. We used to get a good deal of boiled rice, rendered very palatable by being served up with hot milk and sugar. The bread puddings were always dreaded ; as they con- sisted of all the stale pieces that had accumulated during the week : it went by the name of " stick -jaw," from 22 Amusing Incident. the fact that it clung so tenaciously to the mouth. The favourite puddings were currant, and baked plum ; the former was denominated " cat's tail," from its being made in long rolls ; and I must mention rather an amusing little incident that occurred one day with reference to the latter, which was a favourite dish with me. These puddings were made in large round flat dairy tins, and came to the table always hot from the oven. The boys had been served all round, and an extra slice or two remained in the dish. Being rather an unruly fellow, I sat always at the top of the table (the post of honour !) next the master ; his back was turned away for a moment, and in an instant I dexterously seized upon one of the tempting piece's of pudding, and slipped into my pocket. The boys on the opposite side were not a little amused at the movement. It was, however, so terribly hot in my pocket, that I could not possibly endure it, and began to be very uneasy in my seat, and to hold the bottom of my stomach, as if I had been suddenly attacked with spasms or cramp. I tried in vain to shift the stolen morsel from place to place. The master, seeing my restlessness, in- quired if I was unwell, and this remark produced a burst of laughter from the boys, which led him to insist upon knowing the cause, and I was obliged very reluctantly to produce the precious morsel. Never shall I forget the look of the mistress ; she did not speak, but her worthy husband saw in a moment that it must not be passed over as a joke, so I was desired to leave the table. I beat a retreat, sadly mortified, not only at losing the pudding, but I knew that I should get a regular roasting from the boys, as well as being punished for the offence. When school assembled in the afternoon I was called up to the master's desk, and seriously talked to on this breach of decorum ; the lecture ended in my being awarded four strokes from the " flapper." This instrument of juvenile correction consisted of a piece of thickish leather, about six inches long, rounded Turning-point in School-life. 23 off at the top, and attached to an old ruler. It very much resembled the flappers seen in butchers' shops for destroy- ing blow-flies. When applied rather sharply to the palm of the hand, it produced not an altogether unpleasant tingling feeling, and would, I should imagine, be a good thing to promote a sluggish circulation of the blood in those who are troubled with chilblains. When I had duly received the appointed number of strokes, I held out my hand for another and another ; the master saw at once that this mode of punishment would not succeed with me. It was the first time since my arrival at the school that he had administered corporal punishment upon me, and it was the last. He led me into his study, took me by the hand and spoke kindly, and reminded me in gentle words how grieved my mother would be should he be obliged to inform my father of my bad behaviour. Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, and from that afternoon I was an altered boy. The good man had found out what others might have done before him, that gentleness and kindness will generally succeed, where severity and harshness totally fail. This was the turning-point in my school life ; the kindness and confidence thus wisely manifested wrought so powerfully upon my better nature, that I began to love the master, who told my father at the end of the quarter that I was the most manageable boy in the school, and that he had not the smallest trouble with me. I soon became a special favourite with the little son ; but I was not so fortunate as to get into the good graces of the mistress : she was a cruel and passionate woman ; she had none of the qualities, either of mind or person, that were at all likely to tell upon such a nature as mine. I may just mention one instance, among many that come to my recollection, of her cruelty and spitefulness. Our heads were carefully inspected once a week with a small- tooth comb ; and this not at all agreeable operation was always performed by the mistress, assisted by the house- 24 " Midnight-meetings" keeper, a good, kind creature, by the name of Rachel, and one who was beloved by every boy in the school. The boys who had for any reason fallen under the dis- pleasure of the old lady during the week were selected and told off for a combing, and upon them she would scrape away so unmercifully that many a time have I been ready to scream out at the pain inflicted. Numerous are the tales of fun and frolic that recur to my memory while thinking of this period in my history, and the time would fail me to tell of the usual gambols which boys at school indulge in. We were always sent off to bed early, and the apartment I slept in contained about twenty boys. We used to hold concerts with an orchestra constructed with our boxes piled up, and frequent were the spouting meetings held in that room upon all sorts of sub- jects, to say nothing of leap-frog, blind-man's-buff, and other games. I was often called upon to mount the rostrum, consist- ing of boxes, and hold forth upon some given subject, and it was not a little singular that at these oratorical displays at our " midnight meetings," I never found my stammer- ing an impediment. I used to hang fire most of all when I stood up in class, and had not spent overmuch time upon my lessons. I must, however, now take leave of this period of my history, and I do so with the feeling that the last two years of my school -days spent at Ashford were among the pleasantest of my early life. III. LEAVING SCHOOL, CHOICE OF A PKOFESSION, AND EVIL INFLUENCES. " Look not mournfully into the Past; it comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present; it is thine own. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear and with a manly heart." COME now to speak of one of the most important periods in my life and history that of leaving school, and before entering upon any employment. , It would, I think, be well if parents thought more carefully of what they intended doing with their sons on leaving school. I have often found, on con- versing with fathers on the subject, that there has been no decision arrived at as to the future destination of their boys ; but in many cases they have imagined that something would turn up when the time for their leaving school arrived. Surely it is a subject of very great importance, that a youth should have selected for him some trade or profession that he may enter upon at once on leaving school, and for which his previous education shall have prepared him. Although the taste and predilections of a youth should be considered in a matter so deeply affecting his future welfare, and care should be taken not to make a boy a tailor or a tinker, if he is better qualified for an architect or a civil engineer; yet it is, I think, desirable that a father should thoughtfully and wisely select that oc- 26 Printing-office. cupation for his son that he deems most in accordance with the leading tendencies and characteristics of the boy, and in the pursuit of which he would be most likely to succeed. I fear in my own case that my father was so absorbed in his large business, together with his public and official en- gagements, as to have had little time for observation to study the individual character and tendencies of my brothers and myself, and to select the occupation most suitable for us. I was accustomed to spend a good deal of my time in my father's printing-office, and had rather a liking for some branches of that business. My sympathies, how- ever, were more with the pressman than with the more quiet and sedentary work of the compositor. I have many an hour when a boy stood and watched the snowy sheet laid carefully upon the block of type, and envied the man who, with the turn of a handle, and a hearty pull, could produce the ample printed page. I greatly admired the pressman, whose work in those days of printing was very different to that which obtains in the present day, when machinery has almost superseded manual labour. I re- member that the person referred to was a tall, thin, wiry man, with shirt sleeves turned up above the elbow, show- ing an arm with unusual muscular development. He sometimes would allow me to pull an occasional sheet ; but these were generally cast aside as waste, for though I was a strong and sturdy boy, there was needed the length of arm, and the firm footing to produce the good impression. My mother had a very strong objection to my becoming a printer, as the language and habits of those employed in that business were not such as to improve the moral status of a boy who had a decided leaning to imitate whatever he deemed manly in those around him. I was very partial to the bookselling and stationery branches of my father's business, and many an hour did I spend in looking carefully through the new books, par- ticularly the "Annuals" that were so numerous at that period. My father dealt largely also in patent medicines, Juvenile Predilections. 27 and I was very fond of going through the long series of drawers containing these certain and infallible cures and remedies for all the ills that flesh is heir to. My eldest brother was in the shop acting as an assist- ant, together with a young man who had served his ap- prenticeship to my father, so that my services were not much needed in the business. I was, however, useful on " Magazine days" in tying up and delivering the monthlies and quarterlies which were distributed among my father's numerous customers. When not engaged in the shop I used to visit the estab- lishments of our neighbours, and so got an insight into " the art, trade, and mystery" of a good many businesses. Among these was a pastrycook's, where there were three very pretty daughters ; and I have stood by the hour to- gether to watch them make up the tarts and puffs, and " three-corners," &c, until I got quite to like, not only the pastry, and the company of the young ladies, but could also roll out the paste and manipulate some of the fancy articles manufactured pretty well. There was also a large drapery business directly oppo- site to my father's, and I was allowed to have the full range of that establishment, and used not unfrequently to assist them in " taking stock." The haberdashery and the glove departments were the favourite branches with me. I was a frequent visitor also at the shop of a chemist and druggist near us, who allowed me to gum the labels on the perfumery bottles, and sometimes to roll up the pills into swallowing order. A butcher who lived within a few doors of us came in for a share of my help, for I thought chopping sausage- meat and filling the skins a very pleasant diversion, and I soon became quite an adept at the work. The slaughter- house adjoining was not an uninteresting place to me, and I have for many an hour looked on at the operations tak- ing place there. To see an ox led to the slaughter, and the noble beast felled to the ground by a single blow of 28 " Old Tom." the pole-axe, has often inspired me with awe and fear. These sanguinary exhibitions were, however, always re- pulsive to me, and I could not help regarding the man who killed the poor beasts, and dressed the carcases, with a kind of instinctive feeling of horror. I have sometimes gone into the pen where ten or a dozen sheep have been awaiting the knife, and watched with tender interest the affrighted look and beseeching eye of those gentle crea- tures, who would " lick the hand just raised to shed their blood." Some members of my family proposed that I should become a butcher ; but though I was often a visitor at this place of death, it was for the most part because I had nothing else to do. At the back of my father's house was a large gin dis- tillery, and as I was well known to the proprietor I was often there, and have witnessed many a time the process of converting the juniper-berry into " Old Tom." The fragrant smell of the pure and unadulterated liquor was to me far more agreeable than the taste. There was also a wholesale wine and porter establish- ment hard by, and I have for days together helped to bottle off many a pipe of sherry and hogshead of London porter. The owner of the business, an old bachelor, dealt largely also in ginger beer and lemonade. A nephew lived with him as chief assistant, and for whom I formed a strong attachment. He was a fine young fellow of about two-and-twenty, and under his tuition I became quite a first-rate hand at bottling off, corking, and tying down the ginger beer and lemonade. Poor fellow, it would have been well for him had he confined himself to these cooling^ and refreshing beverages, but the temptation was too strong, and he became at length an habitual drunkard. His end was very painful and tragical. He had taken upou one occasion more than his usual quantity and became up- roariously intoxicated, he was seized with an attack of delirium tremens, and died in the greatest possible agony. The death of this young man made a great impression A sad Story. 29 upon me. His uncle, a most kind-hearted man, was very fond of him, and was deeply grieved at the sad event. Knowing the intimacy that subsisted between his nephew and myself, he was desirous that I should take warning by his dreadful death. The day before the funeral he took me into the room in which the body was laid, and never shall I forget the sight when he slowly removed the lid of the coffin, and revealed to me the disfigured, almost un- recognizable countenance of him who had been my friend. When in health he was a noble fellow, with an open, frank, and manly face ; but the fearful disease from which he died had so disfigured that countenance that I could hardly discern the well-known features. That sight, and the look of his poor weeping uncle, I have never forgotten. We stood silently gazing upon the now repulsive form that lay before us for some minutes, not a word was spoken. The broken-hearted uncle took my hand with a gentle pressure, and I retired with a sorrowful and a heavy heart. I was among those the next day who followed him to his early grave, and I never now think of him without lifting up my heart to God that I may be preserved from that damning habit which destroys body and soul, and in the present instance removed from a wide circle of friends one of the noblest young men I have ever met with. In leavingthis sadstory the words of the poet recurtome " When cold in the earth lies the friend thou hast loved, Be his faults and his follies forgot by thee then ; Or if from their slumber the veil be removed, Weep o'er them in silence, and close it again." I must here digress a little from my personal history to of my native city as it was at the time I refer to. Canterbury in my youthful days was the principal city in the high road from London to the Continent, and a stream of private carriages and post-chaises, containing the gentry and great celebrities of the day, were con- tinually rolling through the narrow streets of the old city, on their way to Dover and the Continent. 30 " -Sam Wright" The " Fountain Hotel," kept at that time by one that was always spoken of as " Sam Wright " peace to his memory was almost a little town in itself, and that worthy gentleman made a large and well-earned fortune from his business. He was well known and highly respected by all the distinguished personages who visited his establish- ment en route to the Continent, as well as by the gentry of the surrounding neighbourhood. I was very intimate with this gentleman and his family, so that I could run in at any time. I was a special favourite with Mrs. Wright, and her only daughter presented me with my first watch and chain. I recollect watching with much admiration the graceful manner in which this " fine old English gen- tleman " would lift his hat, and bow to the inmates of the carriages as they left his hotel. I don't think that Simp- son, of Yauxhall notoriety, could have performed this salu- tation with more ease and grace. The stage coaches at this time running between London and Dover were as well horsed as, or better than, any in the kingdom ; and the coachmen were famed both for their intelligence and gentlemanly bearing. It will occur to many of my readers who were acquainted with Canterbury some thirty-five years since, that the Tally Ho ! coaches, corresponding in coaching to " express trains " on the rail, wei'e among the finest sights of the kind to be seen in all England. The vehicles themselves were smart and elegant, built by a first-rate London coach-maker : the horses were selected from a large and well-chosen stud, and caparisoned in such a manner as to give the turn-out more the appear- ance of private carriages than of public conveyances. These two splendid four-horse coaches, alas ! now among the things of the past, were driven by gentle- men who are even now well known and most highly re- spected all through from London to Dover, and therefore I shall be guilty of no impropriety in mentioning their names in my humble pages ; I shall do so in the terms they were spoken of when I was a boy. " Ned Clements" Canterbury. 31 and " Tom Bolton," of the " Rose Inn," Canterbury, are names that will not soon be forgotten, at least by the generation in which they lived, though the iron horse and the hissing rattling train have long since taken the place of the Tally Ho ! coaches. With both these gentlemen it was my happiness to be well acquainted when a boy, and hundreds of times have I stood opposite the " Eose Inn " to see the horses changed, and have admired the masterly manner in which those noble animals were led off and managed by these accom- plished whips. The father of Mr. Edward Clements kept the " Eose Inn " for very many years ; and I do not forget, even at this distant period, that Tom Bolton married one of the daughters, who was moreover one of the prettiest of all the pretty girls in Canterbury. Canterbury, at this time, was anything but a place to improve the moral and intellectual status of a youth of ardent temperament just fresh from school. Of what was going on in the upper classes I know but little, but the state of society among those of my own rank at that period was most deplorable. The tradesmen, for the most part, spent their evenings away from their families, at the parlour of some inn, where the newspapers of the day were read aloud by the best reader that could be selected ; and the scandal and talk of the city formed the topics of conversation over their grog and pipes. No provision whatever was made to find suit- able evening amusement for the young men. At the time referred to there were no " Young Men's Associations," or " Societies for Mutual Improvement," at least not of the character which obtains at the present day. A young man has only himself to blame now if he gets into bad society, and forms improper connections. Every- thing is done now-a-days to benefit this deeply interesting class, and to bring them under good influences. Associa- tions are to be found in all our provincial towns, as well as 32 Young Metis Associations. in London, to provide entertainment, and furnish oppor- tunities for mental culture, that were never thought of in the days of my youth. Let any one glance at the handsome series of volumes of lectures issued under the auspices of the Christian Young Men's Association in London for proof of what I say. Among the lectures in that series are to be found some of the foremost literary men in the country ; as well as not a few of the most distinguished preachers of the day ; and each successive session does but show the desire on the part of the Committee, and the zealous and intelli- gent Secretary of that most admirable association, to give the young men of the metropolis ample opportunities of improving their minds. The Dublin Young Men's Christian Association is not so well known on this side the Channel ; but the Commit- tee of that Association have also issued an annual series of volumes, not so handsome in point of typography and get- ting-up, but numbering among its lecturers some of Ire- land's noblest sons, and most accomplished scholars, with the late revered Archbishop Whately at their head. Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Norwich, Sheffield, and many other of our large provincial towns, have also noble institutions, where young men engaged in business may find a home for their leisure hours, and opportunities of improving their minds, which, alas ! in my younger days, never existed. We young fellows at Canterbury were allowed to find any amusements that offered, and I was very soon drawn into a circle of acquaintance and companionship, the boast of which was that one should outstrip the other in ribaldry and licentiousness. At the period I am writing of harlotry and concubinage obtained to a fearful extent at Canterbury. Few, indeed, I fear, were the married men who did not indulge in licentious habits ; and as for the young men of that day it was a reproach not to have gone to " the same excess of riot." Evil Influences. 33 Just at this very critical time I formed an acquaintance with a man of fascinating manners and good address, who took a great liking to me. He was a man old enough to be my father, and obtained great influence over me. His conversation chiefly turned upon women, of which he pro- fessed to be a great admirer. He put into my hands some filthy and abominable books, profusely illustrated, and cal- culated to excite within me, and prematurely to develope, all that was bad in the nature of such a temperament as mine. Oh ! the injury, the irreparable injury done by' this man. I curse his memory down deep in my heart of hearts even now. He was the means of inflicting upon me one of the greatest curses that can be borne by a think- ing being, that of an unhallowed imagination. Those pictures of wickedness have never passed away. They haunt me like ghosts wherever I may be, and beckon me often into forbidden paths. The inflaming and damnable letterpress accompanying those illustrations has been so imprinted in letters of living fire upon my mental being that the foul, filthy, and blasting characters will never be erased from my mind. Would that I could put upon these pages the bitter bitter grief these abominable books have occasioned me in after years. Oh, my young bro- thers, guard most jealously your moral purity, for if you lose it once, it is gone for ever ! You may, by God's grace, be rescued and delivered from the terrible abyss, and be- come a husband and a father ; but you can never hope to enjoy the pure and blissful pleasures which those have who have kept their garments white. Believe me when I tell you that the man who in his youth has indulged in forbidden and licentious pleasures never can have the en- joyment of him who is innocent of " the great transgres- sion." Should these pages meet the eye of some youth just entering upon life, full of hope, and with " a heart as merry as a marriage bell," and should he be tempted to purchase for himself, or borrow from another, books of this 34 Moral Purity. character, oh ! I would say to him, I entreat you, I pray you, as you value your immortal soul, and that body which has been given you for far nobler ends, shun these books as you would an accursed and damnable thing. Do not look at them ; fly from them as you would from a deadly serpent; turn away from them as you would from one covered with a foul and loathsome disease. No defilement is so bad ; no physical evil that can come upon our poor fallen humanity is at ah 1 comparable to this leprosy of the soul, this defilement of the inner-man, this that will follow you like a horrid ghost wherever you may be, into the family circle with all the domestic sanctities of life ; into the fair and beautiful scenery of nature, which can never be thoroughly enjoyed by a polluted mind. An impure imagination I feel to be, even now that " my days are in the yellow leaf," my greatest curse. I hope and believe that I am a forgiven man, yet I cannot rid myself from it. If it was intolerably loathsome to be tied and bound to a putrid and stinking corpse ; oh ! my young brothers, believe me, when I say that an impure mind is a far greater curse. No words of mine can ever adequately convey the intense grief that those books have occasioned me ; and no greater and more terrible damna- tion in a future world could, I think, be endured than that of being compelled to carry such a mind through the end- less ages of eternity. I never see books of this character (though those that I more particularly refer to are not allowed to be sold in public) exposed in the shop windows of some well-known localities, made justly infamous by this vile traffic, without feeling a very strong inclination to smash the window, and tear the accursed thing into a thousand fragments, and crush it beneath my feet as I would an adder's egg. Pardon me, my gentle reader, if I have spoken strongly upon this unwelcome subject ; but if you are a father or a mother, your son could not be warned against anything that could do him so great an injury as that of which I " Mountain-Pecker Club." 35 have been speaking. If you are a sister, oh ! pray that those noble brothers of yours, whom you love so much, and are so proud . of, may be preserved from this great evil ; and if you are a youth just opening into manhood's prime, oh ! my young brother, turn away and flee from this damnable and accursed thing as you would from the gulf of hell. I was introduced to many places by the man I have just referred to, and among others to a house where were held the meetings of what was called " The Mountain-Pecker Club." The members of this association, chiefly composed of tradesmen and young men of the city, held their meetings weekly at a well-known inn at Canterbury. The meetings commenced at eight o'clock in the evening, and any mem- ber had the privilege of introducing a friend. It was a kind of free-and-easy debating society, interspersed with a little singing, and concluded with a supper consisting of sheep's heads (from whence its name) baked and boiled, with sausages (for which Kent is famous), and mashed potatoes. The members of this club were a set of jolly fellows, and I was the youngest among them, and as happy as a king. The subjects discussed were chiefly political and social ; but occasionally a religious question came before us, and I remember on one occasion standing up, with all the effrontery and boldness of a young precocious youth of fifteen, and delivered an oration, which was much ap- plauded, against Christianity as a thing not at all in har- mony with a fellow enjoying life in any and every way he pleases. The songs at these meetings were for the most part of a questionable character, as songs almost always are where women are excluded from the company. I thought, even then as a youth, that there was some- thing extremely disgusting and revolting in a number of men, some of them hoary-headed, meeting together to excite each other by loose conversation, double-entendres, 36 A Kind-hearted Man. and lewd and licentious songs, to all sorts of wicked- ness. It may readily be imagined what an effect such meet- ings as these produced upon a youth of my age and tem- perament full of life, and buoyancy, and health and ready to indulge in anything and everything which would minister pleasure and gratification. It was proposed, after some little time, that I should be admitted a regular member of this club ; but my eldest brother, who was also a member, objected to my admission on account of my extreme youth, and also because he did not like my being a witness to scenes and society which I might at any time enlighten the home circle about. The landlord of this inn, a very kind-hearted and bene- volent man, took a great fancy to me, as also did his wife ; he invited me one evening to take a walk with him, and I found it was for the purpose of having some conversation with me upon the subject of my becoming a member of the " Mountain-Pecker Club." He put the fact of my being so young, and the grief that it would occasion to my father and mother (he had lived with my father as a news- man in his early life) at my associating with men so much older than myself at an inn, together with the injurious in- fluence it would have upon my morals. All this was laid before me so kindly and wisely, that I was induced to give up the desire I had so readily expressed of becoming a member. I never think of this kind-hearted man but with gratitude and thankfulness, and always make a point of calling upon him whenever I visit my native city. He has retired from public life for many years, and lives now in one of the pretty little cottages in the beautiful neigh- bourhood of Harbledown. The annual return of the fair at Canterbury, held in the Cattle Market, was an event always looked forward to with much expectation. I need not remind any of my Kentish readers, acquainted with Canterbury at this "period, that there were at this fair Canterbury Fair. 37 many attractions for both old men and maidens, as well as for young men and children; perhaps foremost among them was Madame Tussaud's unrivalled collection of wax figures, in which were depicted, with life-like faithfulness, the great and illustrious men and women of ancient story. With me the favourite gi-oup of the collection was that of Cleopatra and Marc Antony. I remember to have gazed admiringly at these figures as a boy, and to have almost envied the great Roman warrior as he reclined by the side of Egypt's beauteous queen. Now my country-cousins may, on visiting the great metropolis, gain the entree not only to the general collec- tion, where will be found the ail-but breathing effigies of the mighty and illustrious dead, but also obtain an in- troduction to men and women that you have perhaps for the most part only read and heard of, yet whose names are as " familiar as household words." Men and women of whom England may be justly proud. Then there is the hall of kings, where you may study at your leisure the countenances, and forms, and costumes bf all the monarchs that have reigned over our beloved country. Those who are interested about the great Napoleon and where is the Englishman who is not ? may here see an unrivalled collection relating to that name, at which once " the world grew pale ; " and such as are fond of studying humanity in some of its less attractive forms may have their taste gratified to the full in the " Chamber of Horrors." But it was not my intention to have dwelt so long upon Madame Tussaud ; and lest I should be open to the charge of puffing, let me assure my readers that I have no con- nection with that establishment further than occasionally visiting the collection with my family, and paying my shilling as other people do. To return, however, from this digression to Canterbury fair ; there was Wombwell's menagerie with " the famous lion Wallace," and the " real Bengal tigers," leopards, 38 Shows and Booths. laughing h yaenas, monkeys, together with birds of gay and gorgeous plumage ; the never-tiring elephant picking up the sixpences dropped by the delighted spectators, and which were carefully handed by the noble creature to the keeper, to find him in tobacco and beer. In addition to Madame Tussaud's and Wombwell's menagerie, must be included " Richardson's theatre" and " Middleton's puppets ;" the last-named has I believe of late years passed off the scene, while Eichardson still flourishes at our country fairs in all the bloom and freshness of his early fame. To these must be added the " Pig-faced Lady," and dwarfs before Tom Thumb and his sweet little wife of Barnum reputation were even heard of ; the " Real Mermaid " and the " Learned Pig " came in for a share of the patronage ; and then lastly, but by no means the least attractive, were the "peepshows," where for a penny you might see the battles of Waterloo, the Nile, and Trafalgar, with the " dreadful tragedy of Maria Martin and the Red Barn." Though in common with my young fellow-citizens I was not a little delighted at the annual returns of the long- looked-for fair, yet the thing of all others that charmed me most was " Algar's Crown and Anchor dancing booth." There, as soon as the shades of evening came down, was a blaze of variegated lamps in every conceivable device and form ; and about nine o'clock might be seen pouring into this attractive place almost all the (I was going to say respectable) well-to-do male population of my native city : to the honour of the matrons and maidens of Canterbury, no woman with any regard to propriety and decency would be seen at such a gathering ; and so my readers may well imagine the character of those of the other sex that fre- quented this fascinating place. Here indeed " was a sound of revelry by night, and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily; and when " Crown and Anchor" 39 Music arose, with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'cl love to eyes which spoke again, And all went merry as a marriage bell." The moral atmosphere of such a gathering was not one for the matrons and maidens of Kent, and would ill ac- cord with the sanctities of domestic life. At the Crown and Anchor dancing booth there was no restraint ; and every one seemed for the time to be forgetful of all the decencies and proprieties of life, and bent only upon plung- ing into the whirlpool of pleasure. It was at such a scene as this, which I have been at- tempting to reproduce and to describe, that I first met with a girl that afterwards exerted a great influence upon me. I was introduced to her by one of my boon companions far older than myself. She was a fair and frail young creature of seventeen, with well-formed figure, a face not remarkable for beauty, though what may be called good- looking. " She was not pretty, many said, To me she was far more One of those women women' dread, Men fatally adore." She danced like a Taglioni, and it was long after the hour of midnight ere we gave over that fascinating and dangerous amusement. At the time referred to I had only just turned fourteen, but was far older in appearance and manners : it was not a little flattering to my vanity that a good-looking girl, some years older than myself, should take a liking to me. Oh ! it is a dangerous, and sometimes a damning thing for a woman to look approvingly into your eyes. It needed a strength of virtue, and a control of self that, alas, did not be- long to me then, and even in late years such a temptation must not be tampered with, there is safety only in flight. This fair young creature had fallen into the hands of an officer belonging to one of the infantry regiments at that time stationed at Canterbury. He was a very hand- some man of about forty, and he allured his victim from 40 Man's Wickedness. school to his base and lustful purposes. He kept her away from her home with him in his quarters in the bar- racks for more than a week before he could break down her virtue, and effect his wicked and selfish ends. He only succeeded then, as many other villains have done, and are now doing, by promising to make her his wife. Is it to be wondered at that young girls fall victims to such wiles ? Here was a man in the meridian of life, handsome and fascinating, a soldier, an officer, using all the artifices of a pretended affection to allure this young maiden to yield herself to his lustful embraces. Oh ! my readers let your indignation and scorn rest upon the man who looked into those eyes, and gazed upon that soft cheek, mantling in elo- quent blushes, and as he breathed out what she, alas, believed to be his heart's love, in tender and tremulous words, gained the heart and the person of that innocent and unsuspecting girl. Blame her not, ye matrons and sisters, she was once as pure as any of yourselves, and but for this designing man might have been a faithful loving wife and a happy mother. My readers ! these are the men that help to fill our streets with poor unfortunates, and then tax our pockets to provide " homes " and " refuges " for such as we can persuade to avail themselves of them. Should any maiden read these pages, and I trust there is nothing in them that shall really defile any pure mind, may she take warning from the fall I have just adverted to; and if any man assures her, either in burning words, or in elo- quent letters, with protestations that he will love her for ever, to obtain possession of that priceless thing which, in a woman, when once lost can never be repaired, oh, believe him not let her not say in her heart, he cannot betray me ! Believe me, my dear young fair reader, that such tender words, such burning words, such melting words, have been uttered in every generation since the first bad man be- trayed, and since the first unsuspecting victim fell. These lines may reach the man who effected the ruin of the young creature that has given occasion to these remarks, for he Womarfs Weakness. 41 yet lives, and is now honourably married, is the father of children, and is a clergyman holding a dignified position in a well-known and memorable parish in the west of Eng- land. What must be that man's reflections when he thinks, as he must do occasionally, of the pain and misery he has inflicted not only upon those whom he drew away from the home circle to gratify his base and grovelling appetite, but also upon the families involved in their ruin. I know from the best authority, himself, that this was by no means a single instance of his seductive power. Let him think of the broken-hearted fathers who through his infamy have hung their heads for very shame, and upon the mother's curse that rests upon the man who has ruthlessly torn from her heart and home the child she so tenderly and lovingly reared. What terrible revelations of this nature will the world to come make known ! But to return to the narrative. She lived with this officer, as his mistress, for a few weeks only, when he em- barked for India with his regiment, leaving this young trusting creature to mourn his absence> a ruined and de- graded girl. The result of this cruel amour was the birth of a child before the poor girl was sixteen years of age, and for which no provision whatever had been made by the man who had so basely allured her from the path of rectitude. For anything he knew to the contrary, she might have been turned out of doors, as many are, to find a home for herself and his child in the wide wide world, shunned by her own sex, who, in their desire to show their abhorrence of such a fall from innocence, too often forget to denounce the scoundrel who has brought about the ruin of their fallen sister. I became well acquainted with the father and mother of this girl afterwards, and was a welcome and frequent visitor at their fireside. The father was a horse-breaker, and I was a special favourite with the mother, who looked upon me almost as her own son. 42 A Fall It is not to be wondered at that this intimacy with the daughter led to that which should have been avoided. To the honour of her father and mother be it recorded that no countenance was given by them to anything of an im- proper nature ; they looked upon me as a young man fond of their daughter, and were pleased with my genial com- pany. I fell, as thousands had done before me ; and who could wonder that I did so ? Just imagine for a moment an ardent youth, full of life and lusty vigour, with an imagi- nation inflamed by those blasting and pernicious books and prints to which I have before referred, and coming in daily contact with one very attractive in person and in address, older than myself, and you will, my gentle reader, I think come to the conclusion that had I escaped it would have been almost a miracle. Oh ! that I could make this fall of mine a lesson of warning to others : true indeed that " stolen waters are sweet" and there are " pleasures of sin for a season :" yes, the gratifications of illicit love snatched in this way are intoxicating to a fearfully dangerous degree ; yet in after life the recollections will be sad and the results irremedi- able. Young man, keep yourself, or ask God to keep you, pure, if you would be really happy and truly manly. Yield not to the voice of the charmer, charm she never so enchantingly. Hear, my young brother, the voice of Wisdom, "Attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes ; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health unto all their flesh For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil : but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death ; her steps take hold on hell Re- move thy way far from her, and come not nigh to the door A Warning. 43 of her house : . . . . and now mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me." Prov. iv. 20, &c. Let these weighty words be pondered by you, my dear young brother and " Flee youthful lusts :" for there is only safety in flight ; parley not with them, or you will be overcome : to listen to solicitations from without, or to yield your heart to the more subtle and dangerous prompt- ings from within, is to be overcome is to fall. Unlawful gratification of those instincts, which God has endowed us with for nobler purposes, are and may be for the time most intoxicating and pleasurable, but in after life they will " sting like a viper and bite like a serpent." One who had his fill of all this, and who died in the flower of his manhood, said mournfully at its close " My days are in the yellow leaf, The flowers and fruit are gone ; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone." Oh ! what would I have given to have been preserved pure in the days of my youth. The moment you yield to these unhallowed pleasures you lose your self-respect. Self-respect is one of the noblest virtues that a man can cultivate, and to cherish it heartily will inspire you with the most elevated feelings. The man, or the youth, who habitually keeps this in exercise will not defile his body by sensuality, nor his mind by low and servile thoughts. This noble sentiment carried into daily h'fe will foster all other virtues. To think meanly of one's self is to sink in one's own estimation, as well as in the estimation of those by whom we are surrounded, for " as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The feeblest among us may be sustained by the proper indulgence of this feeling, and there is no condition of life in which we may find ourselves that may not be lighted up by self-respect. Oh ! my brothers, it 44 A Conveyancer's Office. is a truly noble sight to see a young man hold on in a course of purity and integrity amidst all the allurements around him of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and reso- lutely refuse to demean himself hy low and unworthy actions. My father now began to see the immediate necessity of my being employed, for " Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do." As I wrote a tolerably good hand, he made an arrange- ment with a conveyancer in the city, who was also well known to him, and who wanted a clerk, to take me as his scribe. The gentleman with whom I was placed was a little dark handsome man of about forty-five, and lived in one of the quiet lanes in my native city, the like of which is to be found in all our cathedral towns. Although he kept but one clerk, he had a good business, for most of the en- grossing was put out to a law-stationer to be copied. The drafts of the leases and conveyances were drawn up by himself, as were also the long abstracts of title. The fair copying of these last-named documents was given to me ; and I was much delighted with the work, as they had to be written upon nice smooth rolled paper ; the pen used to glide over the broad and ample page so quickly and pleasantly, and the phraseology of these necessary ac- companiments to a conveyance was so similar that I soon learned it by heart, and had only to take a glance at the leading word of a sentence to know all that was to follow. I was glad when we had a conveyance in hand, as it made the little master very good-tempered, and it was a kind of work that one could do almost mechanically. I was always particularly fond of writing, and furbished up my German text that I had learned at school. I soon did so well in my German text as to be entrusted to engross a deed of conveyance with a heavy stamp affixed. I was Conveyancer's Daughter. 45 a little nervous at starting ; but I dashed into it, and gained the commendation of my master for this my first attempt at engrossing. I was allowed to attach the skins of parch- ment together with the green ribbon, and append the seals myself, and also to fold the skins and endorse the outside title, and was not a little proud to lay it before my master in its finished state as my own " act and deed." The salary I was to receive was 10 a-year, and never shall I forget the first quarterly payment. My master gave me a cheque for the amount, and I ran home all the way to present it to my father. I think I now see his quiet smile as he congratulated me on the event. I duly presented it at the Canterbury Bank for cash ; and as it was the first money I had ever earned, I felt that I had a stake in the country. I was my master's only clerk, and he had an only daughter, a fair-haired girl of nineteen. She had just returned from Boulogne, where she had been sent for two years to complete her studies. This young lady's return was not only welcomed by her father and mother, but helped very much to gladden some of the dull afternoons when there was not much business in hand. She used to look in at the office occasionally to see how I was going on, and her presence always filled the room with gladness. She was rather below the average height, but was well proportioned, and had the prettiest little feet I ever saw ; they remind me, even at this 'distant period, of Words- worth's lines " Her feet beneath her petticoat, Like little mice stole in and out, As if they fear'd the light." Oh ! there is something very beautiful in a fair young girl of nineteen, with " Kosy cheeks and lips of coral, Snowy neck and rounded arms." And that man is not to be envied who, whatever else he 46 Maidenly Beauty. may possess, has no appreciation of maidenly beauty. What is more beautiful in this world of ours than to look upon a young and innocent girl in the early morning of life, " a graceful maiden with a thoughtful brow?" There is a distinctiveness of character which cannot be mis- taken, arising from a natural ingenuousness, mental re- pose, and the absence of everything which gives to more advanced age the impress of influences unfavourable to beauty of character, and also beauty of form. Some one has said, I quote from memory, that " cha- racter is more visibly impressed on the faces of women than of men ; the former rarely wear a mask ; the latter, from the struggles, and toils, and anxieties of life, are often compelled to assume a countenance totally foreign to their feelings and nature, till it becomes almost habitual. Youth has this advantage over both ; time and care have graven no furrows on the cheek nor lines on the brow ; passion has not given a false lustre to the eye, nor grief a rigid and angular expression to the play of the mouth." Another writer upon this subject says truly, " It is not the smile of her pretty face, nor the tint of her complexion, nor the beauty and the symmetry of her person, nor the costly dress and decorations, that compose woman's loveliness ; nor is it in the enchanting glance of her eye, with which she darts such lustre on the man she deems worthy of her friendship, that constitute her beauty. It is her pleasing deportment, her chaste conversation, the sensibility and the purity of her thoughts, her affability and open disposi- tion, her sympathy with those in adversity, her comforting and relieving the poor in distress, and, above all, the hum- bleness of her soul, that constitute true loveliness." Jean Paul Bichter, a high authority on matters of this nature (for I confess I love to linger over the theme), says, " We do not discriminate sufficiently, when we imagine that the source of woman's power arises principally from the beauty of her countenance. For, although it may be- gin there, yet the charm and fascination is also manifested Lessons in Singing. 47 in a whole kingdom of gentle influences, distinguishing her from the other sex such as the soft and graceful move- ments of her person, the tones of her voice, the loving moderation evinced in every action and expression, her yielding courtesy, her serene repose, the complete suppres- sion and concealment of her own independent wishes and will, where they would clash with those of others. All these and such like qualities inspire us with that love and admiration which we wrongly suppose to be excited alone by the more tangible and unvarying charms of feature and face." But to return from this rather lengthened digression to the conveyancer's pretty little daughter. Sometimes when her father was out, and her mother engaged in her do- mestic duties, and business did not particularly press in the office, she would give me lessons in singing. She had a soft and melodious voice and could play skilfully upon the piano. I was always fond of music, and with such an instructress it is not to be wondered at, that, in her esti- mation at least, I made some progress in my singing. She taught me, among other ballads and songs of that day, " The beautiful maid of my soul," " Love's young dream," " Meet me by moonlight alone," " I've been roaming," " Bid me discourse,"