BOYISH REMIXISCENCES. 287 



'' took the stage '' with truly ideal strides. Gone, for 

 ever gone, are those bright credulous days. Never more 

 shall I see the School fa?' Scandal, or Pizarro, per- 

 formed as I saw them then. Lady Teazle will never 

 more lure me with her coquettish fan, nor Cora trans- 

 port me with her drooping ringlets. I can't believe in 

 the vinous gaity and good feeling of Charles Surface ; 

 nor think Eolla the most impassioned and eloquent of 

 beings. I know that the sentiments are as unreal as 

 the acting, or the stage wine and " property " fruit 

 of Charles Surface's banquet. Turning -with a retro- 

 spective sigh into the Market-Place, I feel the breath 

 of former years rising around me. There is the very 

 corner where we used to " toss " the pieman for epicu- 

 rean slices of pudding — a vulgar, but seductive form of 

 juvenile gambling. Close by is the spot where we 

 upset " Waddy " — an adipose comrade, much plagued 

 by his leaner contemporaries — flat into an old woman's 

 egg-basket. I see him now, rising covered with the 

 squashed yolks, utterly heedless of the furious impre- 

 cations (in unintelligible ixitois), and the furious blows 

 (in perfectly intelligible English) with which the old 

 lady responded ; I see his piteous contemplation of his 

 soiled clothes, and hear once more his pathetic excla- 

 mation, " Oh damn ! " while inextinoniishable lauo-hter 

 shakes our leaner sides. Childhood is the Ao-e of In- 

 nocence. 



Among the changes, it was pleasant to find that no 

 longer did the Pillory disgrace the Eoyal Square ; no 

 longer were criminals publicly whipped through the 



