20 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



things, I may almost say under the mere influence 

 of his presence. His photograph, which is near me 

 as I write, testifies to a personality that accords 

 with the grandeur of his character. I owe much to 

 his influence, and still remain conscious of the void 

 in my friendships caused by his death very many 

 years ago. 



When I was fourteen years old it became time for 

 me to go to a bigger school. My father had a 

 Quaker's repugnance to public schools of the usual 

 type, and it was finally decided that I should be sent 

 to King Edward's School in Birmingham, then 

 commonly known as the " Free School," to which a 

 headmaster of high attainments had been recently 

 appointed. This was Dr. Jeune (i 806-1 868), after- 

 wards Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, and 

 Bishop of Peterborough. I lived as a pupil, together 

 with a few others, at his house by the Five Ways, 

 to which a considerable garden was attached, and 

 whence we walked daily, through a mile or so of 

 street, to and from the school. I retained Dr. Jeune's 

 friendship until his death, and it was impossible not 

 to recognise his exceptional ability and educational 

 zeal, but the character of the education was altogether 

 uncongenial to my temperament. I learnt nothing, 

 and chafed at my limitations. I had craved for what 

 was denied, namely, an abundance of good English 

 reading, well-taught mathematics, and solid science. 

 Grammar and the dry rudiments of Latin and Greek 

 were abhorrent to me, for there seemed so little sense 

 in them. I was a fool to have been recalcitrant, and 

 not to have profited by what I could have had, because 

 many of my schoolfellows prospered on the teaching. 



