68 "MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE!" 



Between Oakfield House and the town proper there 

 was about half-a-mile of street, at one part of which, in 

 1865, I saw a man in the stocks, and it was, I believe, 

 one of the last occasions when this very salutary form of 

 punishment was resorted to. It is easy to mention many 

 cases for which the stocks would afford an effective remedy. 

 Conscientious objectors, for example, could be most 

 properly treated in this way. The case I saw, however, 

 was merely that of a drunkard, with whom the public 

 seemed to have some sympathy. There is a reference 

 to it in the Encyclopedia Britannica under the heading : 

 " Stocks." 



I suppose boys at preparatory schools seldom differ 

 from a few conventional types, and I had early experience 

 of a friend who attached himself to me because I had a 

 fair supply of pocket-money. This youth I need not 

 name, but he was just like the greedy boy we read of in 

 story books. He introduced me to Jacomb's and to 

 Hobley's, the two rival shops where ices and other delights 

 could be bought, and he stuck to me like a leech as long 

 as my cash lasted for the two of us. The excesses in which 

 we indulged may be judged from the following passage 

 in a letter, undated, in 1864 : 



The Ices are most delightful now. There are strawberry, 

 lemon, orange, greengage, pineapple, cherry, raspberry, apricot, 

 vanilla, coffee, etc. 



Fortunately my money did not last long for the purpose 

 of such outlays, and then my friend had no further use 

 for me. 



There was a rather dreadful French master at Oakfield 

 House, who had a habit of smiting offenders across the 

 back of the hand with the sharp edges of a book bound 

 in boards. Moreover, he considered everyone an offender 

 who could not answer some question which he would 

 occasionally propound. It was an anxious time when the 

 question was asked of some fellow five or six places above 

 you and he could not answer it. Consciousness of your 



