56 MY LIFE [Chap. 



not much appetite could have a thin slice instead of a thick 

 one by asking for it. 



For dinner at one o'clock we had hot joints of meat and 

 vegetables for five days, hot meat-pies on Saturdays made of 

 remnants, with some fresh mutton or beef to make gravy, 

 well seasoned, but always with a peculiar flavour, which I 

 think must have been caused by the meat having been 

 slightly salted or pickled to keep it good. Of course the 

 boys used to turn up their noses at this dinner, but the pie 

 was really very good, with a good substantial crust and 

 abundance of gravy. On Sundays we had a cold joint of 

 meat, with hot fruit-pies in the summer and plum-pudding 

 in the winter, with usually some extra delicacy as custard or 

 a salad. Every boy had half a pint of fairly good beer to 

 drink, and any one who wished could have a second helping 

 of meat, and there were always some who did so, though the 

 first helping was very liberal. 



At half-past five, I think, we had milk-and-water and 

 bread-and-butter as at breakfast, from seven to eight we pre- 

 pared lessons for the next day, and at eight we had supper, 

 consisting of bread-and-cheese and, I think, another mug of 

 beer. The house where the masters lived and where we had 

 our meals and slept was in Fore Street, and was about two 

 hundred feet away from the school ; and the large school- 

 room was the only place we had to go to in wet weather, 

 when not at meals, but as we were comparatively few in 

 number, it answered our purpose very well. 



Occasionally Mr. Crutwell gave us a special treat on some 

 public occasion or holiday. Once I remember he gave us all 

 syllabub in his private garden, two cows being brought up 

 for the occasion, and milked into a pail containing two or three 

 bottles of wine and some sugar. Having been all regaled 

 with this delicacy and plum cake, and having taken a walk 

 round the garden, we retired to our playground rejoicing. 



Our regular games were cricket, baseball, leapfrog, high 

 and long jumps, and, in the winter, turnpikes with hoops. 

 This latter was a means of enabling those who had no hoops 

 to get the use of them. They kept turnpikes, formed by two 



