IT was settled that after a course of three years at aprivate tutor's I was to go to Cambridge. The life I had ledfor the past three years was not the best training for thefellow-pupil of lads of fifteen or sixteen who had just leftschool. They were much more ready to follow my lead than Itheirs, especially as mine was always in the pursuit ofpleasure.
I was first sent to Mr. B.'s, about a couple of miles fromAlnwick. Before my time, Alnwick itself was considered outof bounds. But as nearly half the sin in this world consistsin being found out, my companions and I managed never tocommit any in this direction.
We generally returned from the town with a bottle of somenoxious compound called 'port' in our pockets, which wasserved out in our 'study' at night, while I read aloud theinstructive adventures of Mr. Thomas Jones. We were, ofcourse, supposed to employ these late hours in preparing ourwork for the morrow. One boy only protested that, under thecombined seductions of the port and Miss Molly Seagrim, hecould never make his verses scan.
Another of our recreations was poaching. From my earliestdays I was taught to shoot, myself and my brothers being eachprovided with his little single-barrelled flint and steel'Joe Manton.' At - we were surrounded by grouse moors on oneside, and by well-preserved coverts on the other. The grouseI used to shoot in the evening while they fed amongst thecorn stooks; for pheasants and hares, I used to get the otherpupils to walk through the woods, while I with a gun walkedoutside. Scouts were posted to look out for keepers.
Did our tutor know? Of course he knew. But think of thesaving in the butcher's bill! Besides which, Mr. B. wasotherwise preoccupied; he was in love with Mrs. B. I say 'inlove,' for although I could not be sure of it then, (havingno direct experience of the AMANTIUM IRAE,) subsequentobservation has persuaded me that their perpetual quarrelscould mean nothing else. This was exceedingly favourable tothe independence of Mr. B.'s pupils. But when asked by Mr.
Ellice how I was getting on, I was forced in candour to admitthat I was in a fair way to forget all I ever knew.
By the advice of Lord Spencer I was next placed under thetuition of one of the minor canons of Ely. The Bishop of Ely- Dr. Allen - had been Lord Spencer's tutor, hence hiselevation to the see. The Dean - Dr. Peacock, of algebraicand Trinity College fame - was good enough to promise 'tokeep an eye' on me. Lord Spencer himself took me to Ely; andthere I remained for two years. They were two very importantyears of my life. Having no fellow pupil to beguile me, Iwas the more industrious. But it was not from the betteracquaintance with ancient literature that I mainly benefited,- it was from my initiation to modern thought. I was aconstant guest at the Deanery; where I frequently met suchmen as Sedgwick, Airey the Astronomer-Royal, Selwyn, Phelpsthe Master of Sydney, Canon Heaviside the master ofHaileybury, and many other friends of the Dean's,distinguished in science, literature, and art. Here I hearddiscussed opinions on these subjects by some of their leadingrepresentatives. Naturally, as many of them were Churchmen,conversation often turned on the bearing of modern science,of geology especially if Sedgwick were of the party, uponMosaic cosmogony, or Biblical exegesis generally.
The knowledge of these learned men, the lucidity with whichthey expressed their views, and the earnestness with whichthey defended them, captivated my attention, and opened to mea new world of surpassing interest and gravity.
What startled me most was the spirit in which a man ofSedgwick's intellectual power protested against the possibleencroachments of his own branch of science upon the orthodoxtenets of the Church. Just about this time an anonymous bookappea............