ood-natured as he was, he would stand no
nonsense or any skylarking; and we all agreed that when he was in the
army he was certain to have kept all the men under him in capital order.

Our dancing-master was Mr Jay. He was a proficient in his art; and
though he might not have been able to jump as high or to spin round on
one leg as long as an opera-dancer, he was able to teach us to dance
like gentlemen. He was also a professor of fencing and gymnastics, and
a very good instructor he was. He understood thoroughly what the human
body could do, and what it might do advantageously. He also taught
boxing.

The Doctor was a great encourager of all athletic exercises, and allowed
all the boys who wished it to take lessons in boxing once a week for
half-an-hour at a time. The greater number availed themselves of the
permission, and most of the school were very good boxers. The result
was that, as a rule, we were a most peaceable set of boys, and I believe
that fewer quarrels took place than among any equal number of boys in
England. We had a riding-master, who used to come every Saturday with
five or six ponies, and give us lessons in a paddock attached to the
school-grounds. The Doctor used to say that his wish was to educate our
hearts, our minds, and our bodies as far as he had the power, and that
he found from experience that the greater variety of instruction he
could give us, the more perfectly he could accomplish his object. He
himself gave us instruction in swimming. I have described the pond in
the grounds. He used a machine something like a large fishing-rod. A
belt was fastened round the waist of a young swimmer, and by the belt he
was secured to the end of a line hanging from the rod. The Doctor used
to stand, rod in hand, and encourage and advise the boy till he gained
confidence and knew how to strike out properly. He was anxious to
prevent any one from getting into a bad way of striking out, for, as he
used to say, it was as difficult to get rid of a bad habit as to acquire
a good one. He was, therefore, always waging a deadly warfare against
all bad habits from their very commencement, not only with regard to
swimming, but in every other action of life. As soon as a boy had
learned to strike out properly, he turned him over to the instruction of
one of the bigger boys, who had especial charge of him in the water. He
had always four or five boys whom he had taught to swim thoroughly well,
and h