WORK AT I SLIP. 
263 
school, then a novel institution, was held three times 
a week, when some of the family were bound to be 
present to provide some recreation, which often con¬ 
sisted of a talk about a coal, salt, or other mine—always 
accompanied, if possible, by pictures or specimens, both for 
illustration and “ making them remember.” If only a few 
lads were there, the microscope was fetched. Interest was 
at once keenly aroused ; and though Mr. Webb, the super¬ 
intendent and village saddler, did his utmost to impress 
upon the youths his favourite adage, “ Civility costs nothing, 
and gains everything,” the struggles of the boys to get 
“ a good look through un ” became somewhat difficult 
to manage. Especially vigorous were the pushing and 
pummelling of the spectators, when the object on view was 
the last snail’s tongue mounted by the Dean’s youngest 
daughter, or a freshly collected specimen of blight, etc. 
The elder lads and men Mrs. Buckland would have up to 
the Rectory, and teach them how to write letters and direct 
the envelopes. 
Dean Buckland always took his share of Sunday duty 
with the resident curate. He left a large collection of 
manuscript sermons, which for the most part are earnest, 
eloquent exhortations on thoroughly practical matters. 
He had, moreover, in a marked degree the faculty of 
adapting his discourse to the members of his congrega¬ 
tion, whether the learned magnates of Oxford, the simple 
labourers of Islip, or the mixed audience of Westminster 
Abbey. 
The poor who were receiving parish relief were regu¬ 
larly visited ; and when bread supplied by the rates was 
