22 REMINISCENCES OF 



would do so. Had I been forwarded to the school 

 of the Abbe Montieus all had been well, I might then 

 have learnt some French ; as it was, I learnt nothing. 

 Even the classical teaching was as different as pos- 

 sible from that which a few months previously had 

 stimulated my efforts at the Thornton school. I 

 felt I was losing instead of gaining ground, and night 

 after night, miserable and disheartened, I wept myself 

 to sleep. 



A short experience showed me the social life of 

 the school was domineered by a bully of a lad from 

 Leeds, not the one for whom I should have brought ten 

 shillings. Any boy who incurred the displeasure of 

 this lad was at once by him cut off from intercourse 

 with the rest of the school, and remained so until he 

 chose to lift the ban. At first, two unfortunate 

 coloured lads from the West Indies fell victims to 

 thisioverbearing conduct. Then I and the only lad of 

 any social position in the school, the son of one of 

 the great London municipal families, fell under the 

 tyrant's displeasure and were treated accordingly. 

 We were for months cut off from our fellows, indeed 

 until the day I left Bourbourg. How great the fear 

 of this terrible lad had been, may be judged from the 

 fact, that during all this time no one dared to acquaint 

 Monsieur Montieus with what was going on. When, 

 however, he, one of the very kindest of men, learned 

 the state of things, the tyrant was deposed in disgrace. 



My own woeful experiences of a Continental school 

 induces me to give a word of warning to parents who 



