who will pay; for
skilled mechanics, who will pay 2_d_. or 3_d_. per week; and for the
poor and illiterate who will pay nothing.]

Every year increases my conviction of the great importance of the
play-ground, and of the folly of some of my early views respecting it.
Finding a great variety of lessons and objects necessary to arrest
the attention of children, diversified as they are in disposition and
taste, it was supposed that an equal variety of toys was required for
the play-ground. A good supply of balls, battledores, shuttlecocks,
tops, whips, skipping-ropes, hoops, sticks, and wheelbarrows, was,
therefore, obtained, and we flattered ourselves that this must produce
universal happiness. In thus, however, we were most grievously
disappointed; for the balls frequently bounced over the wall,--the
players, not being able to throw them with the precision of Spartan
children, sometimes struck their comrades, perhaps, in the eye: if we
could succeed in quieting the sufferer, by a kiss and a sugar-plum,
the ear was as immediately afterwards saluted with the cry of, "O, my
chin, my chin," from some hapless wight having been star-gazing, and
another, anxious for as many strokes as possible, mistaking that part
for the bottom of his shuttlecock; while this would be followed by,
"O, my leg," from the untoward movement of a stick or a barrow. In
short, such scenes were insupportable; and what with the accidents
that arose, and the tops without strings, and the strings without
tops, the hoops without sticks, and the sticks without hoops, the
seizure of the favourite toy by one, and the inability of another to
get any thing, it was evident that we were wrong, but not so clear how
we could do otherwise.

It then occurred that we might provide some wood-bricks, about four
inches long, an inch and a half thick, and two inches and a half
wide, and of these a thousand were obtained. With these children are
exceedingly amused from the variety of forms in which they may be
placed, and of buildings which may be erected with them.

The play-ground should always be at the rear of the premises, and as
private as possible, that both teachers and pupils be secure from
annoyance of any kind. The entrance should be only through the school,
and no other way; this secures the flowers, the fruits, and the moral
training of the children.

[Illustration]

In addition to these, all that is required is a rotatory swing, of
which the above is