But to come down from great men and higher matters to my little children and poor school-house again; I will, God willing, go forward orderly, as I proposed, to instruct children and young men both for learning and manners.  
ROGER ASCHAM.
 
 
 
Having given the reader a slight sketch¹ of the village schoolmaster, he may be curious to learn something concerning his school. As the squire³ takes much interest in the education of the neighbouring children, he put into the hands of the teacher, on first installing him in office, a copy of Roger Ascham's Schoolmaster, and advised him, moreover, to con² over that portion of old Peachum which treats of the duty of masters, and which condemns⁴ the favourite method of making boys wise by flagellation.
 
He exhorted⁵ Slingsby not to break down or depress the free spirit of the boys, by harshness and slavish fear, but to lead them freely and joyously⁶ on in the path of knowledge, making it pleasant and desirable in their eyes. He wished to see the youth trained up in the manners and habitudes of the peasantry of the good old times, and thus to lay the foundation for the accomplishment⁷ of his favourite object, the revival⁸ of old English customs and character. He recommended that all the ancient holidays should be observed, and that the sports of the boys, in their hours of play, should be regulated according to the standard authorities laid down by Strutt; a copy of whose invaluable⁹ work, decorated with plates, was deposited in the school-house. Above all, he exhorted the pedagogue¹⁰ to abstain¹¹ from the use of birch, an instrument of instruction which the good squire regards with abhorrence¹², as fit only for the coercion¹³ of brute¹⁴ natures, that cannot be reasoned with.
 
Mr. Slingsby has followed the squire's instructions to the best of his disposition¹⁵ and abilities. He never flogs the boys, because he is too easy, good-humoured a creature to inflict¹⁶ pain on a worm. He is bountiful in holidays, because he loves holidays himself, and has a sympathy with the urchins¹⁷' impatience¹⁸ of confinement¹⁹, from having divers²⁰ times experienced its irksomeness during the time that he was seeing the world. As to sports and pastimes, the boys are faithfully exercised in all that are on record,—quoits, races, prison-bars, tipcat, trap-ball, bandy-ball, wrestling, leaping, and what not. The only misfortune is, that having banished²¹ the birch, honest Slingsby has not studied Roger Ascham sufficiently²² to find out a substitute, or rather he has not the management in his nature to apply one; his school, therefore, though one of the happiest, is one of the most unruly in the country; and never was a pedagogue more liked, or less heeded²³, by his disciples²⁴ than Slingsby.
 
He has lately taken a coadjutor worthy^{25............}