154 HENRY DEACON 



(Hannah Bentford) was always very much 

 thought of by her sons, and there is an 

 interesting letter of hers extant which gives a 

 curious insight into the life of four generations 

 since. Henry Deacon, of Appleton, was 

 grandson of two of these brothers, one being 

 his father's father, and the other his mother's 

 father. His father and mother were therefore 

 cousins. 



Henry, when quite young, was much with 

 his mother's father, Daniel Deacon, with 

 whom he was a great favourite, at Tottenham, 

 and went to a Quaker's school." 



The whole system of education in those 

 days widely differed from that in vogue to-day. 

 Schools in the subjects of instruction, in the 

 methods of imparting knowledge, in the 

 discipline, in the buildings and appliances, in 

 the very aims and ends of all school-life, were 

 totally unlike anything which has fallen to 

 the lot of the present generation. 



The mass of the people were densely 

 ignorant, the key of knowledge was not to be 

 entrusted to the custody of the common folk, 

 they would admit themselves to paths in which 

 Providence never intended them to walk. 

 Book-learning would unfit the working classes 



