. Over the chimney-piece were ranged fencing-foils,
boxing-gloves, and staffs for the athletic exercise of single-stick;
cricket-bats and fishing-rods filled up the angles. There were
sundry prints on the walls: one of Mr. Wordsworth, flanked by two of
distinguished race-horses; one of a Leicestershire short-horn, with
which the Parson, who farmed his own glebe and bred cattle in its rich
pastures, had won a prize at the county show; and on either side of that
animal were the portraits of Hooker and Jeremy Taylor. There were dwarf
book-cases containing miscellaneous works very handsomely bound; at
the open window, a stand of flower-pots, the flowers in full bloom. The
Parson's flowers were famous.

The appearance of the whole room was that of a man who is tidy and neat
in his habits.

"Cousin," said Sir Peter, "I have come to consult you." And therewith he
related the marvellous precocity of Kenelm Chillingly. "You see the name
begins to work on him rather too much. He must go to school; and now
what school shall it be? Private or public?"

THE REV. JOHN STALWORTH.--"There is a great deal to be said for or
against either. At a public school the chances are that Kenelm will
no longer be overpowered by a sense of his own identity; he will more
probably lose identity altogether. The worst of a public school is that
a sort of common character is substituted for individual character.
The master, of course, can't attend to the separate development of each
boy's idiosyncrasy. All minds are thrown into one great mould, and come
out of it more or less in the same form. An Etonian may be clever or
stupid, but, as either, he remains emphatically Etonian. A public school
ripens talent, but its tendency is to stifle genius. Then, too, a public
school for an only son, heir to a good estate, which will be entirely at
his own disposal, is apt to encourage reckless and extravagant habits;
and your estate requires careful management, and leaves no margin for an
heir's notes-of-hand and post-obits. On the whole, I am against a public
school for Kenelm."

"Well then, we will decide on a private one."

"Hold!" said the Parson: "a private school has its drawbacks. You can
seldom produce large fishes in small ponds. In private schools the
competition is narrowed, the energies stinted. The schoolmaster's wife
interferes, and generally coddles the boys. There is not manliness
enough in those academies; no fagging, and very little fighting.