The deserted Grammar School 71 



quarter of a century ; and melancholy indeed are the silent 

 hollow halls and dormitories. The whitewashed walls are 

 yellow and green from damp, and covered in patches with 

 saltpetre efflorescence; but they still bear the hasty in- 

 scriptions scrawled on them by boyish hands — some far 

 back in the eighteenth century. The history of this little 

 kingdom, with its dynasties of tutors and masters, its suc- 

 ceeding generations of joyous youth, might be gathered 

 from these writings on the walls : sketches in burned 

 stick or charcoal of extinct monarchs of the desk ; rude 

 doggerel verses ; curious jingles of Latin and English words 

 of which every great school has its specimens ; dates of 

 day and month when doubtless some daring expedition 

 was carried out ; and here and there (originally hidden 

 behind furniture, we may suppose) bitter words of hatred 

 against the injustice of ruling authorities — arbitrary ushers 

 and cruel masters. 



The casements, broken and blown in, have permitted 

 all the winds of heaven to wreak their will ; and the 

 storms sweeping over from the adjacent downs beat as 

 they choose upon the floor. Within an upper window — 

 now obviously enough a wind-door — two swallows' nests 

 have been built against the wall close to the ceiling, and 

 their pleasant twitter greets you as you enter ; and so 

 does the whistling of the starlings on the roof. But 

 without there, below, the ring of the bricklayer's trowel as 

 he chips a brick has already given them notice to quit. 



