82 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on 



throw-back in his school woi'k. Writing before the attack to his father 

 on February 2, 1835, for his foils, he appears fairly cheerful : 



"I am very happy liere, and we liave everything almost we could wish. We do an 

 immense deal of work but nevertheless I sliould like to fence as we should havc^ quite 

 3 quarters of an hour to ourselves after fencing for an hour on half-holidays. All this 

 week there have been only two boys caned and none flogged they are in such capital 

 order, but the rules are pretty strickt [sic!] and the Doctor does not allow us to make 

 a mistake in our Grammar." 



But this tone of commendation very soon ceased. Of the rest of 

 this year we have no further records in letters, but we know that the 

 summer vacation was spent at Castle House, Aberystwith^ — the second 

 visit to that place ; that the mode was shooting — in which sea-gulls 

 and water wagtails met their fate. Here too Dr Jeune was invited to 

 come for a few days' change — not wholly to the satisfaction of Francis — 

 and the family learnt how a very clever man may be ignorant of evei-y- 

 day customs*. 



One day in July the family was alarmed by hearing that a mad 

 bull had got loose and was tearing round the town. He had tossed a 

 small man onto the top of a fish-stall. 



" We all went out in front of our house, which was enclosed and so quite safe, to 

 watch. Just under our wall was a flight of six or eight steps, and some children were 

 seated on them. The bull rushed by, clearing the whole steps, children and all, without 

 hurting them, and rushed towards the sea, the men following him with pitchforks only 

 made him worse, and he darted into the sea and swam away. The butcher not wishing 

 to lose him got a boat and rowed after him. The poor beast thoroughly tired, allowed 

 them to put a rope round him and tow him back, when he dropped down on the sands 

 unable to stir. The butcher went to get something to put an end to him, when, on his 

 return, the bull jumped up and charged him. Away scampered the man and it was 

 some time before the bull was caught, I think he was shot at last for no one dared go 

 near him. Francis drew a caricature of 'All the Taflies put to flight by one John Bull,' 

 and showed it to our Welsh cook, who was very angry with him. She had offended him 

 by throwing away some rooks he had shot, instead of making them into a rook-pie, .so 

 he had taken this means of punishing her " (^Irs Wheler's Reminiscences, p. 1 92). 



Returning home Darwin drove Francis back in a "dogcart out- 

 rigger." The servants went by coach, which was overturned at Bewdley 



Francis went to Aberystwith in May — probably to recuperate — and we find him 

 on May 20, 30 and June 1 sending with brief letters to Dr Jeune long translations from 

 Cicero, Greek exercises, translations of the Medea, Latin verses, etc., and asking the 

 Doctor to forward his Donnegan, Ainsworth, and Lempriere. Clearly the terrible Doctor 

 and his classical torments followed him into his Welsh holiday! 



