Peripatetic Schoolmasters 333 



be adopted is, that the master, instead of the children, 

 should travel from place to place. He could not, of 

 course, do this each day, and teach the families one by- 

 one. "What has to be done is, that the families of each 

 district, under the charge of one master, are grouped 

 into much smaller districts ; that the master travels 

 round to each in succession, and that, instead of there 

 being one school and one residence for the master, the 

 farmers of the lesser districts have to take it in turns to 

 give him board and lodging for the time that he is witli 

 them, and to put at his disposal a room for a school- 

 room. This curious peripatetic life of several of the 

 board schoolmasters limits very much the possibilities 

 of receiving instruction on the part of their pupils. In 

 fact, the limit of compulsory attendance in many country 

 districts is only nine weeks in the year — nine weeks of 

 six days and thirty-six hours in the week. In the ma- 

 jority of country districts the compulsory attendance is 

 limited to twelve weeks. How the children tau"ht on 

 this plan can retain any of their instruction, how, 

 during the remaining forty weeks of the year, they can 

 possibly remember what they learned during the golden 

 twelve, must be a matter of wonder and speculation 

 to any one who knows what the English child is 

 like. 



As a rule, one master is appointed for every fifty or 

 sixty i^upils. Manufacturers, etc., who employ as 

 many as thirty families, or heads of families, are com- 

 pelled to build a school for the instruction of the 

 children of their employes ; and groups of neighbour- 

 ing small manufacturers are formed for the same 

 purpose up to the same number of hands. 



