56 MY LIFE 



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 prepared 

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

 sisting 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 

 bricks or stones placed the width of the foot apart, and the 

 hoop-driver had to pass through without touching. If the 



