Extracts from the Note-Book of Gregory Greathead, Esq. 261 



state of convenient collapse ; a long waistcoat with flaps, an heir-loom 

 I believe ; black knee-breeches, rather threadbare ; grey worsted 

 stockings, and most creaking and sensible shoes. A cane, the symbol 

 of dignity only, for never, in the memory of the " oldest'' boy, had it 

 visited the shoulders of any recreant, his better hand adorned, but 

 was quickly laid aside to welcome his new pupil. Moreover the fea- 

 tures of this truly excellent man underwent no change, while he pe- 

 rused the letter which I have kept too long from my impatient readers. 



Greathead Hall, April 1st. 



My dear Friend, 



You will not, I think, be sorry to hear 



that our little riotous boy is gone to school. His talents, young as he 

 is (just seven, you know), really develope themselves so rapidly, that 

 his father and I have agreed upon the necessity of giving them some 

 proper channel in which to expand themselves. He is gone where do 

 you think? to Mr. Oldstyle, his father's old tutor, a gentleman whose 

 ideas, like the cut of his coat, made a stand some half-century back, 

 and have not since moved an inch in the direction the world is taking. 

 He is literally a most bigoted member of that wise clique yclept the 

 " old school." Still, as he is an excellent man, most careful of his 

 boys, and much respected by William, he will do, at least for the 

 present, faute de mieux. 



Thank you for the delicious cream-cheeses. Kindest love to your 

 dear girls. Yours affectionately, 



CECILIA GREATHEAD. 



P. S. The sweet bonnet you wore on Sunday! was it from ' Le 

 Magasin ? I could not get near enough after service to ask you ; it was 

 raining, and Mr. G. hurried me away to the carriage, lest the horses 

 or myself (T don't know which he most dreaded) should take cold. 



Worthy Mr. Oldstyle bore this little contretems with great equani- 

 mity ; not so my mother, who was dreadfully shocked at the solecism 

 she had committed, and made a stern resolution never again to write 

 two letters together without directing the first before she folded the 

 second. 



The* excellent pedagogue was indeed all she had painted him. 

 Innovation was his bugbear : change, the demon against which he 

 was always prepared to contend, and without an equal or superior in 

 his own little sphere, except indeed his wife (and who doth not 

 cheerfully admit such gentle exception ?) Mr. Oldstyle, like the mad- 

 cap prince of Wales, and his companions, though not precisely in the 

 same fashion 



" doffed the world aside, 

 And bid it pass." 



" Abroad '' the schoolmaster might be as much as he pleased, but Mr 

 Oldstyle was determined that he should also be at home. 



W. H. S. 



