IRatuie IRotes : 
TTbe Selborne Society’s flbagasine 
No. 50. 
FEBRUARY, 1894. 
VoL. V. 
A BAND OF MERCY. 
HAVE been asked by the Editor to give an account of 
the manner in which I started and formed the Tenny- 
son Band of Mercy : and I have undertaken the task, 
in the hope that my few hints may enable others to 
form Bands in their own parishes. The necessity of beginning 
early to train children in the ways of kindness, so that pity and 
mercy may become a prominent feature in their characters in 
after life, is so widely acknowledged that it will not be needful for 
me to enlarge upon it in this paper. Let me, however, say this 
word of introduction, that unless people are willing to face dis- 
couragement and disappointment, and are determined to give 
up time and thought to their Band, it would be, in my opinion, 
far better never to approach the subject, as I firmly believe that, 
with children especially, example is better than precept. 
I had not much encouragement shown me in starting 
my Band, except by a very limited number of friends in the 
neighbourhood. People did not know what a Band of Mercy 
meant, nor did they want to know. Was it not something to do 
with temperance ? some asked, not perhaps even waiting to 
receive my answer ; and when my husband inquired of the 
Bench whether I must take out a licence for holding a “ meeting” 
in a public hall, not one of the magistrates present had ever 
heard of the Band of Mercy. I merely mention this by the 
way, as I am anxious to put forward any difficulties with which 
I may have had to contend, as well as any of the encouraging 
facts. 
My first step was to elicit the sympathy of a lady friend in 
each of the three parishes — Freshwater, Totland, and Yarmouth 
— the children of which I wished to join the Band — and with 
their help I gained the interest of the school-mistresses in the 
national schools. 
