CHAPTER IV 



HERTFORD : MY SCHOOL LIFE 



My recollections of life at our first house in St. Andrew's 

 Street are very scanty. My father had about half a dozen 

 small boys to teach, and we used to play together ; but I 

 think that when we had been there about a year or two, I 

 went to the Grammar School with my brother John, and was 

 at once set upon that most wearisome of tasks, the Latin 

 grammar. It was soon after this that I had the first of the 

 three serious illnesses which at different periods brought me 

 within a few hours of death in the opinion of those around 

 me. I know that it must have been after I went to the 

 school by the way the illness began. We had school before 

 breakfast, from half-past six to eight in summer, and as we 

 had nearly half a mile to walk, it was necessary to be out of 

 bed at six. One morning I got up and dressed as usual, went 

 down the two flights of stairs, but when I got to the bottom, 

 I suddenly felt so weak and faint and curiously ill all over 

 that I could go no further, so I had to lie down on the bottom 

 step, and was found there shortly afterwards by the servant 

 coming down to light the fire. That was the beginning of a 

 severe attack of scarlet fever, and I remember little more but 

 heat and horrid dreams till one evening when all the family 

 came to look at me, and I had something given me to drink 

 all night. I was told afterwards that the doctor said this was 

 the crisis, that I was to have port wine in tea-spoonfuls at 

 short intervals, and that if I was not dead before morning 

 I might recover. 



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