great Earl Camden, Outred the mathematician, Boyle the
philosopher, Waller the poet, the illustrious Earl of
Chatham, Lord Lyttelton, Gray the poet, and an endless list
of shining characters have owned Eton for their scholastic
nursery: not to mention the various existing literati who
have received their education at this celebrated college.
The local situation of Eton is romantic and pleasing; there
is a monastic gloom about the building, finely contrasting
with the beauty of the surrounding scenery, which
irresistibly enchains the eye and heart.

[Illustration: page105]

~105~~

FAREWELL TO ETON.

Horatio had just concluded the last sentence of the description of the
Eton Montem, when my aunt, who had now exceeded her usual retiring time
by at least half an hour, made a sudden start, upon hearing the chimes
of the old castle clock proclaim a notice of the midnight hour.
"Heavens! boy," said Lady Mary Oldstyle, "what rakes we are! I believe
we must abandon all intention of inviting your friend Bernard here;
for should his conversation prove half as entertaining as these
miscellaneous whims and scraps of his early years, we should, I fear,
often encroach upon the midnight lamp." "You forget, aunt," replied
Horatio, "that the swallow has already commenced his spring habitation
beneath the housings of our bed-room window, that the long summer
evenings will soon be here, and then how delightful would be the society
of an intelligent friend to accompany us in our evening perambulations
through the park, to chat away half an hour with in the hermitage, or to
hold converse on your favourite subject botany, and run through all the
varieties of the _camelia japonica_, or the _magnolia fuscata_; then
too, I will confess, my own selfishness in the proposition, the pleasure
of my friend's company in my fishing excursions, would divest my
favourite amusement of its solitary character." ~106~~ My aunt nodded
assent, drew the cowl of her ancient silk cloak over the back part
of her head, and, with a half-closed eye, muttered out, in tones of
sympathy, her fullest accordance in the proposed arrangement. "I have
only one more trifle to read," said Horatio, "before I conclude the
history of our school-boy days." "We had better have the bed-candles,"
said my aunt. "You had better hear the conclusion, aunt," said
Horatio, "and then we can commence the English Spy with the evenin