32 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



VISIT TO TWO ENGLISH COMMON SCHOOLS. 



TN compliance with our desire to visit an English common 

 * school, we were driven from the castle to a village in the 

 vicinity, in which was a school for boys under the guidance 

 of the British Foreign Society, and one for girls under the 

 control of the National, or State Church, Society. The school- 

 house of the former was a simple but tasteful stone building, 

 standing a little one side, but not fenced off, from the prin 

 cipal street, with a few large trees and a playground about it. 

 The interior was all in one room, except a small vestibule. 

 It was well lighted, the walls were plastered and whitewashed, 

 and had mottoes, texts of Scripture, tables, charts, &c., hung 

 upon them ; there was no ceiling, but the rafters of the roof, 

 which was high-peaked, were exposed ; the floor was of stone. 

 There were long desks and benches all around against the 

 wall, and others, the form of which I do not remember, filling 

 up the most of the body. The house and furniture was much 

 too small and scanty for the number of scholars present, and 

 the labour of the teacher must have been very arduous. 



The boys all rose as we entered, and remained standing 

 during our visit, a request from us that they might be seated 

 not being regarded. Classes in arithmetic, geography, and 

 spelling were examined before us. The absence of all em 

 barrassment, and the promptness and confidence of the schol- 





