120 MORE POT-POURRI 



Augustus to a large day-school called the Circus Place 

 School. It was attended by boys and girls of every 

 class that could afford to pay the fees, and the little 

 Scotch roughs used rather to bully us two English lads. 

 My dear mother, in her anxiety that we should not catch 

 cold by walking to school in the snow and sitting with 

 wet feet, used to send us there on bad days — of which 

 there were a good many in that abominable climate — in 

 a Sedan chair, the customary conveyance at that time in 

 Edinburgh. I shall never forget the jeers with which we 

 were greeted when, on arriving at the school, the chair 

 was opened by lifting up the top to release the door, and 

 we were shot out, spick and span, among the crowd of 

 little hardy brats who had trudged with their satchels on 

 their backs through the snow-slush which our mother so 

 dreaded for us ! 



'At this time I remember " Pickwick" coming out in 

 monthly numbers, and my father's anxiety for their 

 appearance as the month's end approached. 



'Another subject of recollection is the efforts that 

 were made to get franks for letters from Members of 

 Parliament. The penny postage had not then been in- 

 vented, and my impression is that a letter to London 

 from Scotland was charged a shilling. I do not know 

 how many franks a day a Member had, but I think there 

 was a limit. If he did not require his full allowance for 

 his own correspondence, he used to oblige his friends by 

 signing his name on an envelope, as a Secretary of State 

 does now, and handing it to his applicant. It did not 

 seem to occur to anyone that the privilege was given to 

 facilitate a Member's ofilcial correspondence, and that 

 handing it on to others was an abuse of it. 



'Whilst in Paris, Augustus and I attended a little 

 day-school of French boys. It was in a small street 

 somewhere near the Eue St, Honor6. The great pump- 



