78 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



the stuff with apparent interest, while you were standing 

 by in nervous trepidation, and then send you away with 

 a pleasant word or two about it that would make the 

 world seem to go very well with you. 



I had a few experiences such as this even in my first 

 term, for I had been placed too low in the school, and 

 naturally did work which compared favourably with that 

 of Upper Middle I., but I will not presume to give any 

 record of Dr Temple here, at this stage, for I was to see 

 so much more of him later on. 



Doubtless schools have been improved greatly since 

 my time, but there was even then abundance of opportunity 

 to tackle outside subjects if you wished only you did 

 not wish, and you regarded anyone who did almost as 

 if he were a Nonconformist. 



Natural science, botany, chemistry, mechanics, geology 

 all these things you could learn if you liked, but such 

 studies were held in contempt, and the good Mr James 

 Wilson, who gave instruction in natural science, was called 

 Jim " Stinks," not in an opprobrious sense, but as signify- 

 ing the line of his teaching. Another Natural Science 

 master, Rev. T. N. Hutchinson, went by the name of 

 " Beaklet," to distinguish him from his elder brother, 

 Rev. C. B. Hutchinson, who was a house-master, known 

 as " Beak," presumably because he had a longish nose. 

 Natural science used to include botany, and of this 

 Mr Frank Kitchener, whose acquaintance I had made 

 earlier, was the master, but somehow we were never 

 encouraged to take up these outside subjects, Classics 

 being considered more important by far. Mr Kitchener, 

 it is clear, took some interest in me, for there is a letter, 

 dated I4th October 1866, in which I wrote : 



I went to breakfast with Mr Kitchener the other day. He had 

 been botanising all the time he was at the Lakes ; so I am not 

 sorry I did not join him there. 



Nevertheless, most of us had some taste in plants and 

 flowers, as the box gardens outside our study windows 



