18 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK oh. 



the better to understand the second of the two 

 following letters from his tutor, which seem to 

 suggest characteristics that we know from 

 other sources to have been absolutely foreign 

 to his mental nature. This is the first of the 

 two, written immediately on the boy's entry 

 into the school. 



Eton Coll., Wednesday. 



My dear Sir John — I am happy to tell you that 

 your son has passed a good examination and is placed 

 in the Lower Remove. He seems to have settled very 

 comfortably into Eton ways, and I hope that his career 

 may prove an honourable one. Perhaps you will have 

 the kindness to let me know whether you wish him to be 

 a Private Pupil or not. — I remain, my dear Sir John, 

 yours faithfully, H. M. Birch. 



Both the above brief note and the following, 

 which is by the same hand, are without the 

 date of the year, but it is apparent that the 

 second is written after the tutor had gained time 

 to become acquainted, as he supposed, with his 

 pupil's character. 



Eton, December 7. 

 My dear Sir John — Your boy returns to you safely 

 landed in the Fifth Form and with a very tolerable 

 place in his Remove, but I am disappointed that he does 

 not improve in his composition prose and verse more 

 than he does. I think that his natural quickness leads 

 him to put down what comes uppermost without 

 analysing his thought, and in consequence of that he is 

 exceedingly inaccurate. However, I hope that time 

 and pains will remedy these defects. In his conduct and 

 dealing with me he is most amiable and pleasant and is 

 just the same natural boy that he was when he first came 

 to Eton, but I want to make him a sounder scholar. 

 I quite agree with you as to the impropriety of his 

 dabbling into other languages before he has acquired 

 more knowledge of the ancient ones, but I think that it 

 is worth consideration whether he had not better com- 



