8 REMINISCENCES OF 



and here they inducted me into the mysteries of the 

 alphabet. A few months before this a second 

 brother had been born; he also succumbed to 

 meningitis in July 1822, at the age of three years 

 and nine months. Meanwhile, I was removed to a 

 more advanced dame school, kept for many years in 

 Newborough Street, near the Bar, by one, Miss 

 Bulmer. Later, I was once more removed, this 

 time to a school in which a Miss Doughty wielded 

 the ferule. 



About the time of my second brother's death, 

 at the age of five or six years, I was transferred 

 to the school of Mr. William Potter, located for a 

 time at the lower end of Huntriss Row, and later in 

 King Street. At this latter place, where the sons of 

 many of the West Riding middle-class people re- 

 ceived their education, I remained a number of 

 years. It cannot be justly affirmed that this school 

 was a bad example of the type to which it belonged ; 

 but seeing that the payment for its advantages to 

 day scholars amounted to only one guinea per 

 quarter, the type was not a high one. The usher 

 was rarely a competent man, and the educational 

 system of the period allowed him to be rather a 

 hearer of lessons than a true teacher. There was 

 no pretence of either French or German being 

 taught in schools of this class. Of English grammar, 



repeated, when a butterfly, the first of the season, caught 

 his eye, and the young naturalist, regardless alike of dame 

 and letters, darted after it. 



