12 Middle-Class Education. 



that can be expected up to tliat age, when the great majority of 

 those intended lor farmers must leave school. 



Cirencester College is a very good establishment for com- 

 bining education with instruction in practical agiiculture. It is, 

 however, more suited to the wants and means of those who can 

 afford to prolong their school-days, than to the sons of ordinary 

 farmers. 



Having had good opportunities of becoming acquainted with 

 the history and working of Cirencester College, I may be allowed 

 to say that the previous education of a great many of the pupils 

 before entering the College was not, by any means, good enough 

 to enable them to profit, to any great extent, by the advanced 

 lectures in chemistry, botany, geology, veterinary science, civil 

 engineering, &c., and other means of training there placed at 

 their service. This was certainly the case during a long period, 

 and there is no reason to suppose that the educational standard 

 of the pupils lately entered differs materially from that of their 

 predecessors. 



Most of the pupils at Cirencester have been gentlemen's sons, 

 and as such have had superior opportunities for obtaining a good 

 groundwork of education. If the collegiate system of teaching 

 has not suited them, how can we expect that it will prove as 

 useful for farmers' sons as that of less pretentious schools ? No- 

 where in England can a young man with a good English educa- 

 tion learn so much of the science and practice of agriculture 

 combined as at Cirencester ; but if he be deficient in this 

 respect, the mode of teaching, chiefly by lectures, does not suit 

 him, and both time and money are nearly thrown away. A 

 practice, it appears, has lately sprung up, of having lectures on a 

 great variety of practical agricultural subjects, which are, no 

 doubt, well intended, and may do some good in certain instances. 

 But many question the policy of lecturing a body of inexpe- 

 rienced youths on controverted points, of either theory or practice. 

 The discussion of extreme thin seeding, and the comparative 

 merits of particular breeds of stock, are subjects little adapted 

 to a mere learner of the A B C of farming. 



The character of the College has always been more or less 

 measured by the supposed success or otherwise of the farm, and 

 of the teaching connected therewith. When it was first started 

 many farmers took up the notion that the College was in- 

 tended to teach them how little they knew, or, at least, that the 

 pupils would there hear much that reflected upon them. The 

 method of teaching as pursued at first did not quite dispel 

 prejudice against the College, neither has it been entirely 

 removed up to the present time. A farm is an object which 

 cannot be hidden or put to one side, when everything does not 



