6 THE EARLY DAYS OF 



commercial value, and he narrowly escaped detention as a forger; 

 and almost worse than that, on looking round, he found his dog, 

 to which he was much attached, was gone. Then our worthy 

 neighbour's brief visit to the metropolis ended ; and turning his 

 distorted visage homewards, he stepped bravely out to walk the 

 seventy miles before him, begging food and water by the way. 



Next day he reached his home ; a w'iser, if not a sadder, man ; for 

 any chagrin which still remained from his unlucky trip to London, 

 was dispelled, when with astonishment — akin to that with which he 

 viewed the note upon the ground — he saw his dog rush out joyously, 

 to welcome his return.* 



About that time, or say half-a-century ago, a scheme, which had 

 been proposed to turn the old Castle Inn at Marlborough, into a 

 College, which should give a liberal education, on very favourable 

 terms, to the sons of clergy, met with the warm approval, not only 

 of my father, who was the Rector here, but also of my brother and 

 myself, who were to enjoy the advantages set forth. The prospect 

 held out before us, was painted in rosy hues. Happiness, we were 

 told, is the special heritage of schoolboys. We should drink of the 

 fountain of knowledge freely, and thus acquire powder ; and what 

 perhaps was the most important item in our eyes, we should receive 

 a piece of silver, all of which we might fairly call our own, as each 

 succeeding Saturday came round. 



Although, as yet, our English was imperfect, and we knew nothing 

 of the language of ancient Greece and Rome, what did it matter ! 

 " Leave all that sort of thing to us," cried the interviewed 

 preceptor, with an ominous flourish of his arm; " We will soon 

 explain to these little chaps what relativtim cum antecedente concordat 

 means, and we will introduce them to those jolly rural vocalists, 

 Mopsus and Silenus ; to the fair Qinone, and the faithless Paris." 



In the August following, on the 12th day — though on this point I 



* About this time the late Lord Redesdale, the local magnate of those days, in a letter to my father, which 

 I have seen, and is still extant I believe, at the Rectory, wrote, " 1 trust you will oppose, by every means in 

 your power, this horrid railway, which will cut up many of our finest meadows." Notwithstanding this sage 

 warning, my father did all he could to promote the railway. 



