78 RURAL DENMARK 



affairs before I could be allowed to study for the 

 English Bar I was called upon to show myself com- 

 petent in this particular of elementary English 

 history and some other schoolboy subjects. I suc- 

 ceeded in the effort, mastering, as I remember, more 

 Latin in a month than ever I had done in all my 

 years at school. Still, I think the Danish system is 

 wiser. If a man wishes to learn, let him learn ; if he 

 does not, who is the worse except himself? Exami- 

 nations, with their resultant system of " cramming," 

 especially if competitive, mar as many men as ever 

 they make, and in my belief are about as bad a test 

 of real proficiency, to say nothing of mental strength 

 and originality, as has ever been conceived. Still, in 

 crowded lands some means of exclusion must be found. 

 I apologise for this unpremeditated digression. 



To return. The students at the Ringsted House- 

 men's School are instructed, among other things, in 

 the theory and practice of agriculture, gardening, 

 poultry and rabbit keeping, the care of cattle, the 

 relative values and action of manures ; and in the case 

 of women, in sewing, housekeeping, and home nursing. 



By way of exercise they practise gymnastics to a 

 considerable extent. Indeed on this breaking-up day, 

 which is called the annual meeting, an athletic ex- 

 hibition was going on in the gymnasium in the pre- 

 sence of a gathering of the friends of the students. 

 The feats performed here, which I will not stop to 

 describe, were really remarkable ; indeed outside of a 

 circus I never saw anything like them. 



Leaving the gymnasium we inspected the dining 

 and teachers' rooms, and passed on to the visiting 

 room. Here were exhibited specimens of furniture 

 Resigned to suit the cottages of small-holders. Some 



