IV] HERTFORD: MY SCHOOL LIFE 49 



porches — desks and seats against the wall with very solid, 

 roughly carved ends of black oak, much cut with the initials 

 or names of many generations of schoolboys. In the central 

 space were two rows of desks with forms on each side. 

 There was a master's desk at each end, and two others on the 

 sides, and two open fireplaces equidistant from the ends. 

 Every boy had a desk the sloping lid of which opened, to 

 keep his school-books and anything else he liked, and between 

 each pair of desks at the top was a leaden ink-pot, sunk in a 

 hole in the middle rail of the desks. As we went to school 

 even in winter at seven in the morning, and three days a 

 week remained till five in the afternoon, some artificial light- 

 ing was necessary, and this was effected by the primitive 

 method of every boy bringing his own candles or candle-ends 

 with any kind of candlestick he liked. An empty ink-bottle 

 was often used, or the candle was even stuck on to the desk 

 with a little of its own grease. So that it enabled us to learn 

 our lessons or do our sums, no one seemed to trouble about 

 how we provided the light. 



The school was reached by a path along the bottom of 

 All Saints' Churchyard, and entered by a door in the wall 

 which entirely surrounded the school playground and master's 

 garden. Over this door was a Latin motto — 



" Inter umbras Academi studere delectat." 



This was appropriate, as the grounds were surrounded by 

 trees, and at the north end of the main playground there were 

 two very fine old elms, shown in the old engraving of the 

 school here reproduced. 



The headmaster in my time was a rather irascible little 

 man named Clement Henry Crutwell. He limped very much 

 owing to one leg being shorter than the other, and the foot I 

 think permanently drawn up at the instep, but he was very 

 active, used no stick, and could walk along as quickly and 

 apparently as easily as most people. He was usually called 

 by the boys Old Cruttle or Old Clemmy, and when he over- 

 heard these names used, which was not often, he would give 

 us a short lecture on the impropriety and impoliteness of 



VOL. I. E 



