Marylebone, and from the pyramidal termination of its front; but I looked in vain for those accompaniments, which had rendered it so interesting to my careless childhod. The memorable bow-window was no where to be found; a flat wall and modern casement occupied its place. The neat little garden into which it opened, at whose further end, was anciently the spot devoted to the exercise of my horticultural skill, appeared to have been covered with unseemly workshops: and the noble meadow immediately behind it (a part of Wellan's farm), where the kite had wont to fly, the cowslip to be gathered, and better than all, the bowl of milk to be quaffed, pure, warm, and foaming from the udder, was covered with a long succession of gigantic streets and gorgeous mansions, in comparison with which, my residence in times of yore, whose front I used fondly to regard as the most comely in the neighbourhood, was a diminutive hovel ! The incident, however, just related, is, as I before remarked, an anticipation, it having occurred (during my holidays) some months after I had been initiated into the mysteries of systematic education; or, in other words, sent to a boarding-school, on the completion of my fifth year. Ill betide the fame of that poet, who could transgress so grossly against common sense and common experience, as to sing, "Happy! thrice happy! is the school-boy's lot! disguising, in a mendacious couplet, some of the sorest miseries of human life. Assuredly he must have been some hapless orphan, to whom the Limen amabile matris et osculum were utterly unknown; or some more miserable varlet, who had endured, at his own wretched dwelling, all the capricious tyranny of an irascible stepmother: for, independently of those "ills to come," which Gray so pathetically enumerates as "awaiting" the school-boy in after life; the present sufferings of a little Tyro, like myself, of only five years' standing in the world, suddenly severed from a home of peace, and a circle of love; from countless tender offices, and well-timed soothing caresses; and thrown among a tumultuary rabble of seventy or eighty stranger-lads (like all other crowds), rude, insolent, and inhuman: - the state of feeling, I repeat, excited in such a tiny exile from home, by so sad a reverse in circumstances, — is as. unlike a state of happiness, as the condition of the writhing toad, under the sharp teeth of the scarifying harrow. To experience this miserable contrast, however, an imperious propriety demanded that I should now be called; and on one one murky Monday morning, I started from my home, with heavy heart and tearful eye, accompanied by a trusty domestic, to a large boarding-school in the immediate vicinity of London, which was not then without "a name of honourable note." A celebrated facetious clerk, who far excels most of his brethren of the cloth in the brilliant talent of conversational wit, and is fortunate in the possession of the two-fold faculty, of melting a congregation into tears, and " setting the table "in a roar,”—in speaking to a friend of mine, of one of his acquaintance who had determined to devote himself to the profession of a player, observed, that the plan of this gentleman's debut was greatly conceived; "for," said he, "he made his first step on the stage, in the leg of an elephant."* My entrance, however, on the * Another instance of the same gentleman's witty parlance, which occurred in the conversation above alluded to, is too good to pass unrecorded. Mr. *had just taken possession of a country living. said my friend," that you, **** "How is it possible," should ever be able "to endure a rural life? You, who have hitherto consorted "only with the gay, the sparkling, and the great? You, "who have basked for years in the sunshine of popular "favour, and been perfumed with the incense of admiration, " even to satiety. Oh! you'll die the first year of your rus"tication with ennui."-" Pardon me, my dear sir," returned the wit; " you quite mistake the matter. I am passionately "fond of the country. I had always a little green spot in my heart; and long tired with being a white-pocket-hand"kerchief preacher, I have, for years, been anxiously looking "forwards to the future in rus." 66 proscenium of a numerously-peopled school, was by no means of such an imposing description: for, being somewhat short in stature, and crestfallen in mien, I neither felt, nor appeared (though clad in my Sunday's suit) likely to excite the admiration, or ensure the respect, of the uproarious crowd by which I was immediately surrounded. In fact, my utter inability to participate in, or relish their boisterous mirth, entirely prevented, on their part, the slightest sympathy in my too visible sorrow. The older boys regarded my tears with an eye of silent scorn; the younger ones with a quizzing or malicious grin. Various nicknames, neither of the most courteous nor creditable signification, were speedily applied to me. My being the youngest and the shortest boy in the school was made a matter of reproach: divers impertinent liberties were taken with my person and best clothes; and I know not to what extent these petty persecutions might have reached, had not a fine youth, of the first form, pitying my forlorn condition, voluntarily become the champion of the mannikin in the sky-blue coat; dispersed the nest of hornets that infested me; and declared himself to be my protector and avenger, both in present and in future: a pledge which, from that moment, he conscientiously fulfilled. The name of George Jackson, the first friend whom I found when fairly launched on the sea of life, will never fade from my recollection, while memory "holds its seat" within my brain. His after-lot well became the nobleness of his character. He entered into one of the most generous of all professions, the naval service; and, in rank of lieutenant, fell, bravely fighting the battles of his country, in a desperate action which occurred with a French ship of war, towards the close of our first contest with America. There are, perhaps, few establishments in our country, which have more improved in their respective systems of management, within the last fifty years, than our private boarding-schools; for the public seminaries of the empire have, with little variation, been always regulated by the same excellent principles, and conducted according to the same judicious arrangements, as those on which they were originally instituted. To say nothing of the frequent incompetency of those who undertook the direction of such places of juvenile instruction, at the period alluded to; their domestic economy was then, too often, of a character by no means calculated to provide for the reasonable comfort; to invigorate the good principles; or improve the lesser morals of the urchins received under their roofs. The diet was, generally speaking, coarse and scanty; sometimes offensive and unwholesome: frequently three, and never less than two unfortunate lads, |