His Love of Children. 277 



assist in their studies, on which occasions he 

 seemed to fail to understand why the unravel- 

 ling of passages of Virgil or Xenophon should 

 not be as easy to them as it appeared to him, 

 and their apparent stupidity vexed him sorely. 

 He had a great idea that his sons should 

 never miss an opportunity of witnessing 

 events which might " make history," and so 

 keen was his anxiety on this head during the 

 time of the Fenian riots, that, on arriving 

 home on the night of the great open-air 

 demonstration in Hyde Park and finding his 

 elder sons had gone out to witness the scene 

 and, if necessary, to participate in the skirmish 

 as special constables, he insisted that the ten- 

 year-old boy should be roused from his bed 

 and dressed to accompany him to the scene 

 of action. Together they solemnly climbed 

 a tree, and from this excellent coign of vant- 

 age watched the arrival of the Life Guards 

 and Grenadier Guards, who subsequently 

 charged and dispersed the rioters, the latter 

 in their fear and haste leaving the Park, not 

 through the gates, but straight over the iron 

 palings, which, not having time to climb, they 

 uprooted and threw down. It was midnight 



