CHAP. XII.] RURAL SPORTS. 369 



and even all knowledge of, cards and other 

 senseless amusements ; but, they led them to 

 read and write of their own accord; and, never 

 in my life have I set them a copy in writing nor 

 attempted to teach them a word of reading. 

 They have learnt to read by looking into books 

 about dogs and game ; and they have learnt to 

 write by imitating my writing, and by writing 

 endless letters to me, when I have been from 

 home, about their dogs and other rural con 

 cerns. While the Borough-tyrants had me in 

 Newgate for two years, with a thousand pounds 

 fine, for having expressed my indignation at 

 their flogging of Englishmen, in the heart of 

 England, under a guard of Hanoverian sabres, 

 I received volumes of letters from my children ; 

 and, I have them now, from the scrawl of three 

 years, to the neat and beautiful hand of thirteen. 

 I never told them of any errors in their letters. 

 All was well. The best evidence of the utility 

 of their writing, and the strongest encourage 

 ment to write again, was a very clear answer 

 from me, in a very precise hand, and upon very 

 nice paper, which they never failed promptly 

 to receive. They have all written to me before 

 they could form a single letter. A little bit of 

 paper, with some ink-marks on it, folded up 

 by themselves, and a wafer stuck in it, used to 

 be sent to me, and it was sure to bring the 

 2 D 2 



