238 HULL SCIENTIFIC AND FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 



room was an aviary in which numerous canaries were reared 

 and tended, and attention to these rather than to his books 

 are Boult's only memories. Of another school he tells us 

 there was less good result to be expected, as the master was 

 too frequently inebriated. 



Of this period, however, he has one item of recollection to 

 which he never fails to refer gratefully. At a little temperance 

 meeting 1 place in Mytongate he was induced, simply by the 

 example of others, to sign the pledge of abstinence from 

 alcholic drinks, a circumstance to which he attributes his 

 general good health, and much of the enjoyment of life. 

 Although the motive for taking this step was so slight, yet, 

 like the honourable man we know him to be, he has kept the 

 pledge unbroken throughout the whole of his subsequent life. 

 When twelve years of age young Boult was again in 

 Driffield. His education now being reckoned "finished," he 

 commenced as errand boy in the busy market town. At this 

 occupation he was not eminently successful, for on one 

 occasion being sent on a short errand, the wiles of Dame 

 Nature inviting to wander with her, proved too strong, and 

 four hours, instead of half-an-hour, were occupied doing the 

 errand. Dismissal from his first post was the result. But 

 could one wonder at the escapade? Given the first warm 

 sunny days of the latter spring, the green marshy ground 

 near the trout streams, the starry flowers of the season — the 

 satiny stitchwort, "the pale primrose," the purple violet — 

 and is it a wonder that the observant and impressionable lad 

 forgot himself and and his master's errand ? 



Returning to Hull in i860, the family again settled down, 

 and Hull has been their residence ever since. And now 

 began apprenticeship to the vocation of stonemason, then, 

 as now, considered to require seven years of a youth's life. 

 In Boult's case, he had spent little over half the time as 

 apprentice when he was taken on as improver at the new 

 Town Hall of Hull. When this was finished building he was 

 sent to Garton-on-the-Wolds to help in the erection of the 

 well-known and conspicuous monument to the late Sir Tatton 

 Sykes. To two firms of Hull builders, namely, Messrs. 

 Simpson & Malone and Messrs. Quibell & Pears, he gave 

 such long terms of service — fifteen years to the last named-- 

 as to indicate that he proved himself an able and trust- 

 worthy workman. Indeed, for skill, energy, and reliability, 

 he holds a place among the foremost servants of the 

 municipality of Hull, which he has served for the past 

 thirteen years. As indirect evidence of the above, it may be 



