of the excitement. Another boy, who had been asked to
join, told me of it directly after the party had set out. I immediately
dressed and followed in their track, determined to bring them back
before they had committed the robbery. I, however, only fell in with
Blount, who had been separated from the rest; and, with some difficulty,
I induced him to return. We had got back to our rooms, when one of the
ushers discovered the whole party. The master was called up, and, with
birch in hand, went round the room, and inflicted summary punishment on
all offenders. The next morning they were called up by name, their
crime announced, and severe tasks being inflicted, they were all sent to
Coventry for a fortnight. As the whole punishment was very disagreeable
and irksome, Blount was very much obliged to me for having saved him
from it.

The winter holidays I spent with Mr Plowden in London, and in the
summer he took me on a tour through a considerable portion of England,
Scotland, and Ireland. I thus became acquainted with what I was taught
to consider my native land, and was able to compare other countries with
it. I own that, although I have always felt proud of the name of an
Englishman, and of what Englishmen have done, yet there are many things
in which the people of other nations are their superiors. Some of the
faults of the English, as they appeared to me, were a want of
unostentatious hospitality, a due respect to parents and superiors in
age, and a churlishness of behaviour to those of the same rank, with an
unwarrantable suspicion of their motives, and an inclination to
criticise and find fault with their behaviour and appearance.

My summer holidays I enjoyed very much; but I was not fond of London;
though, I believe, had I made a point of visiting all the spots of
interest contained within it, and of gaining information about their
history, I might have passed my time more profitably than I did. In
those days there were fewer sights, so called, than at present; and the
great lion was Exeter Change, truly a den of wild beasts. It was,
indeed, painful to see animals deprived, not only of liberty, but of
fresh air. I, who had faced the royal Bengal tiger and the fierce lion
in their native wilds, could not help feeling some amount of contempt
for the exhibition.

When I got back to school, I was welcomed by all the boys, especially by
Blount and by John Prior, one of the oldest and most steady of them.