142 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



sponge also for Stevenson ; and so on, night by night, 

 in that arduous crisis. 



Poor old Stevenson ! He never did anything to deserve 

 such treatment. I once saw him endeavour to cane a boy 

 called Peters in the passage in daylight, but the space 

 was far too narrow for such an operation, and Peters stuck 

 close to him and kicked him on the shins. Once, too, 

 Stevenson endeavoured to "impeach" Warner before 

 the VI th form for some purely imaginary insult, but in the 

 main, he was a singularly inoffensive being, whose chief 

 trouble was that he had no sense of humour. I have often 

 thought, in later years, how unfairly he was treated. 

 Once on a breaking-up morning, when the powers of the 

 Vlth had until next term expired, I saw two fags 

 set about and belabour Stevenson. They had no real 

 grievance again him, only he was Stevenson ! 



It is not easy to work hard and long when you have 

 accustomed yourself to idleness, but I thought of what 

 those masters would say if I failed and how incensed they 

 would be if I succeeded. The sudden and continuous 

 strain told on me, and I began to go amiss. A letter written 

 in July, 1870, says : 



The terrible exam, for the Exhibitions impends, and I am not in 

 good form for it. It is now necessary to give up swimming, etc., 

 and it does not appear conducive to health. However, there are 

 little more than three weeks now and then it will be over. 



This period of almost ceaseless effort passed, and a 

 later letter says ; 



The Examination is now at hand, inasmuch as it begins to- 

 morrow. A more horrid thing I never knew. I leave here on 

 Thursday week. On Wednesday week Stuart Wortley, Warner, 

 Lawrence and I give a farewell banquet to some eighty persons, 

 which will, I anticipate, be amusing. We have succeeded in 

 inducing the famous Babington the best speaker of the kind that 

 can be imagined to come all the way from Marlborough, where 

 he is a master, to propose our healths, so that will be well done. 



So we were near the finish, and the examination lasted 

 some ten days, commencing at 7.30 each morning a 



