Long Chamber 



"Still I think it possible for a very good, and prudent, and 

 earnest-minded man (let us say one man in ten thousand) 

 to be a good schoolmaster ; and depend upon it, it is a very 

 noble ambition to be that man. The more so, as he may 

 be one of the greatest and most useful men in his country, 

 without being distressed by the stupid blockheads whose 

 voices make the noise of Fame, finding out that he is any- 

 thing more than ' a very good schoolmaster — a most excel- 

 lent man to trust with one's boys ! ' 



" And this, I hope, will be the report I shall hear from 

 some great blockhead, when I am determined to take up 



two or three of my little blockheads to Dr, B , then 



head-master of Eton. And as I hand you my envelope of 

 ten-pound notes (as if it was a letter of parental instruc- 

 tions), I shall refer you, for my wishes with regard to my 

 children, to a conversation some five-and-twenty years ago 

 in the gardens of Aranjuez. And my eldest little boy, as 

 we come out of the door at the bottom of the tower, where 

 we had been registering our names, will say, — 



" ' I think Dr. B looks rather a good old boy, papa, 



but where is Arrang-hweth, papa ? ' 



"'Aranjuez, my son, is the Windsor of Spain, or rather 

 the Versailles.' 



" ' Was it built by Louis Quatorze, papa ? ' " 



We wandered about among the leafy avenues and glades, 



while B told us amusing stories about life in Long 



Chamber, where all the collegers used formerly to live in a 

 sort of prison republic ; but it is now cut up into separate 

 bedrooms, and glazed : in my time there were only iron 

 gratings in the windows. There used to be fancy balls and 

 theatricals, and masquerades and hot suppers, up in that 

 Long Chamber, and there was a tradition that, in earlier 

 times, an old sow had been carried up the narrow stairs, and 



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