QUICK PROGRESS 69 



own ignorance on the subject would create a fervent hope 

 that someone would give the proper answer before your 

 turn came, each failure being marked by the paralysing 

 crack of the book across the back of a hand. The position 

 was similar to that of the Philistines when Samson asked 

 his riddle, but somehow all such troubles are as nothing 

 when you are young. 



On the whole I think I was very happy at Oakfield 

 House, and the methods of rapid tuition adopted by my 

 Coxwold tutor, Mr Williams, had so far succeeded that 

 I passed out into the IVth form after my first half term, 

 and was soon head of the school, but I have very grave 

 doubts as to whether the rapid system of learning by 

 cribs and so forth " cabs," we called them at Rugby 

 can possibly be a good one, though in my case it happened 

 to strike a lucky subject, who, being really interested in 

 all the old Latin and Greek stories, never forgot what I 

 had learned all too easily. This process, however, 

 created an abiding disinclination to work hard at less 

 congenial subjects, one of which was arithmetic ; others 

 were modern languages, and throughout life I have been 

 too apt to go for form-at-a-glance. It is always to me a 

 tedious business to inspect bloodstock along with other 

 people, for I see all I want to see so much more quickly 

 than they do possibly because I am, by education, 

 superficial, while they are thorough. Be that as it may, 

 I was going up like a rocket on Mr Williams' get-learning- 

 quick system at the period under notice, though, of course, 

 at Oakfield House the bare idea of using " cabs " (cribs) 

 was out of the question. 



A kindly gentleman at Oakfield House remains in my 

 memory. This was Major Mat. Furness, brother of our 

 head, who lived there and was a good friend to all of us. 

 It was from him, a year or two later, when I was at the 

 Big School, and was attending a concert at which I met 

 him, that I heard the news of the terrible accident at 

 Newby Ferry in the York and Ainsty country when 

 Sir Charles Slingsby and others were drowned. 



