The deserted Grammar School 71 



quarter of a century; and melancholy indeed are the silent 

 hollow halls and dormitories. The whitewashed walls are 

 yellow and green from damp, and covered in patches with 

 saltpetre efflorescence; but they still bear the hasty in- 

 scriptions scrawled on them by boyish hands some far 

 back in the eighteenth century. The history of this little 

 kingdom, with its dynasties of tutors and masters, its suc- 

 ceeding generations of joyous youth, might be gathered 

 from these writings on the walls : sketches in burned 

 stick or charcoal of extinct monarchs of the desk ; rude 

 doggerel verses ; curious jingles of Latin and English words 

 of which every great school has its specimens; dates of 

 day and month when doubtless some daring expedition 

 was carried out; and here and there (originally hidden 

 behind furniture, we may suppose) bitter words of hatred 

 against the injustice of ruling authorities arbitrary ushers 

 and cruel masters. 



The casements, broken and blown in, have permitted 

 all the winds of heaven to wreak their will ; and the 

 storms sweeping over from the adjacent downs beat as 

 they choose upon the floor. Within an upper window 

 now obviously enough a wind-door two swallows' nests 

 have been built against the wall close to the ceiling, and 

 their pleasant twitter greets you as you enter ; and so 

 does the whistling of the starlings on the roof. But 

 without there, below, the ring of the bricklayer's trowel as 

 he chips a brick has already given them notice to quit. 



