i CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 19 



long before the institution fortunately fell into the 

 hands of the philanthropist, the late Mr. Quintin Hogg. 

 " Shall I ever/' I thought, " attain to the position of a 

 scientific lecturer and burn phosphorus in oxygen on a 

 large scale before an admiring audience ? " 



Another of my experimental delights was firework- 

 making under the guidance of my elder cousin, Roscoe 

 Jevons. We used to spend every half-holiday in the 

 summer and autumn preparing our fireworks for the 5th 

 of November. We worked in an old stable which had 

 been converted into a laboratory, near the house of my 

 uncle by marriage, Thomas Jevons, the father of Stanley 

 Jevons. On one occasion we were drying in front of 

 a fire a quantity of rockets, squibs, and Roman candles 

 which had been packed moist in their cases when one 

 of them ignited and set some of the others off. Our 

 presence of mind in throwing the burning ones 

 out of the window saved a catastrophe, for there 

 were several pounds of blasting powder lying uncov- 

 ered on the table, and if this had ignited the roof 

 would have been blown off and we boys probably sent 

 into eternity. 



On the whole I had a very happy boyhood. My 

 cousins the Booths and I were on the most intimate 

 terms. The Booths belonged to an old and respected 

 Liverpool family. Charles Booth, my uncle by 

 marriage, and the father of the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth, 

 the eminent statistician, had built himself a house just 

 outside the Prince's Park on land that belonged to the 

 family. This park had been given to the borough 

 by Mr. Richard Yates. The Yateses were another 

 well-known Liverpool family and are connected with 

 some of my earliest associations. They were great 

 friends of Harriet Martineau, with whom they made 

 the journey to the East. Mr. Yates was a very small 



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