(X-C^ 



PREFACE. 



OFTEN hear it said that no school turns out better 

 scholars than Marlborough ; and certainly I have no 

 reason to doubt this fact, for even in my time it was 

 by no means behind other schools in this respect. 

 Indeed there is good reason to suppose that there is 

 no better school all round, for after my time there 

 appears to have been a thorough reform and cleansing of the 

 Augean stable, effected, I imagine, chiefly by raising the terms, and 

 obtaining sufficient raw material necessary for the manufacture of 

 the sleek and happy schoolboy. In holding up a mirror of early 

 days there, I am merely giving a brief account of the place as I 

 knew it. I was unfortunate in going there in its tentative days, 

 when cheapness was overdone, for after all other expenses had 

 been paid, there could not have been much left over to provide 

 efficient masters and sufficient food out of the £15 which my 

 father paid each half-year for me, particularly as I find, on 



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