18 SCHOOL-DAYS AT BEADING. [1827. 



there, though I was occasionally called upon to hoist better 

 scholars than myself. The doctor was noted for his flogging 

 propensities; but having the authority of my father to run 

 away in case I had to change places in this performance, the 

 thought of it gave me but little anxiety, otherwise the discipline 

 was not strict. In fact, it was too much the contrary at least 

 on the side where I was boarded. 



Dr Valpy was a noted classical scholar, and doubt- 

 less found that the boy's education had been sadly 

 desultory. We do not hear of Joseph having taken 

 a good place in the school ; his dancing, drawing, 

 and fencing, his Italian and French, could not have 

 helped him much. He was said to be " a quiet, shy 

 boy, but full of energy, and always the leader of his 

 companions." His letters from Reading find him in- 

 variably in the same financial position as he found 

 himself when in Paris : when pocket-money was sent 

 it was spent directly in presents for those at home, and 

 always included a gift for his old nurse, thus leaving 

 him penniless. The thorough way in which in one 

 Reading letter the schoolboy makes a financial state- 

 ment to his father, when he had not the means to 

 pay his debts, and the method by which he shows 

 every side of the case quite dispassionately, either for 

 or against himself, were characteristic of him through- 

 out life. He entered with zest into all the fun among 

 the boys, who used to buy of the day-boarders black- 

 birds and thrushes, which they roasted and ate with 

 relish. They also made custards in private, and ex- 

 cellently well they made them. 



The urgency of the postscript in this Reading letter 

 will provoke a smile : 



READING, May 1827. 



DEAR FATHER, I received your letter about three weeks ago, 

 which I intended to have answered the next day had not a 

 cricket-ball knocked off the top of my little finger, which has 



