CHAPTER VIII. 



T LENGTH the time arrived when I was to spend 

 my last half-year at school ; and when I arrived at 

 Marlborough, in August, 185 1, I knew no more of 

 the subjects which formed the curriculum of the 

 school, than 1 did when I first arrived eight years 

 before ; and what otherwise might have been the 

 joyous spring-time of my life had been, with a few 

 bright intervals, little better than a dreary winter of chronic hunger 

 and fear of impending evil in and out of school. No one had ever 

 made the feeblest effort to teach me anything, and the cane had 

 completely failed to drive the Latin grammar into my head. Nor 

 was I alone in this misfortune, for most of the other boys who 

 arrived at school without having been previously "grounded," rowed 

 in exactly the same boat with me. 



I can't imagine why the head master did not direct my father to 

 remove me and to try some other school, for all along it was clear 

 I should never be a credit to the place, without a deal more 

 attention than my so-called preceptors felt inclined to give to me. 

 But it was high time that I should make a start, for my uncle, who 

 was a Director of the East India Company, had given me a 

 nomination for the Civil Service in Bengal, and there was clearly 



