MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 141 



Marlborough College. When I left school the first Head-master's 

 reign there ended, and the only occasion on which I saw the second 

 master, Bishop Cotton, he met his death before my eyes, in the 

 treacherous river Ganges.* 



The holidays arrived, the rebellion came to an end, and my school 

 days ended also ; but before I had passed the iron railings leading 

 to the town, I stopped to have a last look at the old place where I 

 had grown from a child almost to a man. 



The prisoner of Chillon regained his freedom with a sigh ; but 

 though no sound like that escaped my lips, the recollections of more 

 than eight long years came crowding in my mind, and as generally 

 is the case when looking back, the dark side of the mirror vanished, 

 and the bright side seemed to turn before me ; I was not able how- 

 ever on reflection to deny, that on the whole I had passed an 

 unhappy time at school, and that this was due almost solely to two 

 causes. 



First, not having ~being properly "grounded" before I went to 

 school ; and second, Suifering from almost chronic hunger. 



I hope I shan't be accused of sounding my own trumpet, when I 

 mention that I found the letter "E." tacked on to my name, when 

 my character for the last time arrived at the Rectory ; Undoubtedly 

 so far as looks went, it did very well, for it was better to have 

 begun my school days with " Reprehensible," and finished up with 

 " Exemplary," than to have gone up like a rocket and come down 

 with the stick. But I knew each character was equally undeserved, 

 and when my father demanded an explanation, the only one I could 

 suggest was, that as I had read hungry jurymen invariably give 

 their verdict for the plaintiff in order to save time ; so the Marl- 

 borough jurymen, who, as I had good reasons to suspect, were kept 

 on short commons like myself, stuck down any letter which came 

 first to hand. 



* I gave a brief account of this extraordinary accident in my " Natural History of Monghyr." 



