28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



being greeted with shouts of laughter by my false friend 

 Gpnett. 



'•, I can say in my own favour that I was as a boy humane, 

 but I owed this entirely to the instruction and example of my 

 sisters. I doubt indeed whether humanity is a natural or in- 

 nate quality. I was very fond of coUecting eggs, but I never 

 took more than a single egg out of a bird's nest, except on 

 one single occasion, w^hen I took all, not for their value, but 

 from a sort of bravado. 



I had a strong taste for angling, and w^ould sit for any 

 number of hours on the bank of a river or pond watching 

 the float ; when at Maer * I was told that I could kill the 

 worms with salt and water, and from that day I never spitted 

 a living worm, though at the expense probably of some loss 

 of success. 



Once as a very little boy whilst at the day school, or be- 

 fore that time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy, I believe, 

 simply from enjoying the sense of power ; but the beating 

 could not have been severe, for the puppy did not howl, of 

 which I feel sure, as the spot was near the house This act 

 lay heavily on my conscience, as is shown by my remember- 

 ing the exact spot where the crime was committed. It prob- 

 ably lay all the heavier from my love of dogs being then, and 

 for a long time afterwards, a passion. Dogs seemed to know 

 this, for I was an adept in robbing their love from their 

 masters. 



I remember clearly only one other incident during this 

 year whilst at Mr. Case's daily school, — namely, the burial of 

 a dragoon soldier ; and it is surprising how clearly I can still 

 see the horse with the man's empty boots and carbine sus- 

 pended to the saddle, and the firing over the grave. This 

 scene deeply stirred whatever poetic fancy there was in me. 



In the summer of 1818 I went to Dr. Butler's great school 

 in Shrewsbury, and remained there for seven years till Mid- 

 summer 1825, when I was sixteen years old. I boarded at 



* The house of his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood. 



