s saying, "Give
him a charity 1!"

Boys are quick judges of sermons: if interested, they listen without
an effort; if not interested, they _cannot_ listen. Whenever Mr.
Farrar's turn came as preacher in the School Chapel there was a subtle
stir and whisper of appreciation, "It's Farrar to-day." He was a
natural orator. I can still hear his magnificent voice swelling in
tones of passionate denunciation decreasing to gentle appeal, and
dying away in tender pathos. This was education in the true sense of
the word, and though I have wandered a long way from my immediate
subject, I feel that the digression is not irrelevant in contrast with
the mechanical instruction that goes by the name of education in the
Board Schools. I cannot help recalling too that in the ancient IVth
Form Room at Harrow, the roughest of old benches were, and I believe
still are, considered good enough for future bishops, judges, and
statesmen; while in the Board Schools expensive polished desks and
seats have to be provided at the cost of the ratepayers to be shortly
kicked to pieces by hobnailed shoes.

I was present at some amusing incidents in examinations at our village
school. A small boy was commanded by an inspector to read aloud, and
began in the usual child's high-keyed, expressionless, and
unpunctuated monotone:
"I-have-six-little-pigs-two-of-them-are-white-two-of-them-are-black-an
d-two-of-them-are-spotted." "That's not the way to read," interposed
the inspector. "Give me the book." He stood up, striking an attitude,
head thrown well back, and reading with great deliberation and
emphasis: "I have _six_ LITTLE PIGS; two of them are _white_! Two of
them are _black_! and (confidentially) two of them are spot_tered_!"

I once picked up an elementary reading book in the school, and read as
follows: "Tom said to Jack, 'There is a hayrick down in the meadow;
shall we go and set it on fire?'" And so on, with an account of the
conflagration, highly coloured. So much for town ideas of the
education of country children; the suggestion was enough to bring
about the catastrophe, given the opportunity and a box of matches.

Some of the inspectors were very agreeable men; they occasionally came
to luncheon at my house, and I once asked where the best-managed
schools were to be found. The reply was, "In parishes where the
voluntary schools still exist, and the feudal system is mildly
administered."

Our villagers, reading of the large sums that we