University of Virginia Library

THE SCHOOL.

Roger Ascham.

Having given the reader a slight sketch of
the village schoolmaster, he may be curious to
learn something concerning his school. As the
Squire takes much interest in the education of the
neighbouring children, he put into the hands of
the teacher, on first installing him in office, a
copy of Roger Ascham's Schoolmaster; and
advised him, moreover, to con over that portion
of old Peacham which treats of the duty of
masters, and which condemns the favourite
method of making boys wise by flagellation.

He exhorted Slingsby not to break down or

depress the free spirit of the boys by harshness
and slavish fear, but to lead them freely and
joyously on in the path of knowledge, making
it pleasant and desirable in their eyes. He
wished to see the youth trained up in the manners
and habitudes of the peasantry of the good
old times; and thus to lay a foundation for the
accomplishment of his favourite object, the revival
of old English customs and character.
He recommended that all the ancient holydays
should be observed; and that the sports of the
boys in their hours of play should be regulated
according to the standard authorities laid down
in Strutt, a copy of whose invaluable work,
decorated with plates, was deposited in the
school house. Above all, he exhorted the pedagogue
to abstain from the use of birch, an instrument
of instruction which the good Squire
regards with abhorrence, as fit only for the
coercion of brute natures, that cannot be reasoned
with.

Mr. Slingsby has followed the Squire's instructions
to the best of his disposition and abilities.

He never flogs the boys, because he is too
easy, good-humoured a creature to inflict pain
on a worm. He is bountiful in holydays, because
he loves holydays himself, and has a sympathy
with the urchins' impatience of confinement,
from having divers times experienced its
irksomeness during the time that he was seeing
the world.

As to sports and pastimes, the boys are faithfully
exercised in all that are on record: quoits,
races, prison bars, tip-cat, trap-ball, bandy-ball,
wrestling, leaping, and what not. The only
misfortune is, that having banished the birch,
honest Slingsby has not studied Roger Ascham
sufficiently to find out a substitute; or rather he
has not the management in his nature to apply
one. His school, therefore, though one of the
happiest, is one of the most unruly in the country;
and never was a pedagogue more liked, or
less heeded by his disciples, than Slingsby.

He has lately taken a coadjutor worthy of
himself, being another stray sheep that has returned
to the village fold. This is no other than

the son of the musical tailor, who had bestowed
some cost upon his education, hoping to see him
one day arrive at the dignity of an exciseman, or
at least of a parish clerk. The lad grew up,
however, as idle and musical as his father; and
being captivated by the drum and fife of a recruiting
party, he followed them off to the army.
He returned not long since, out of money and
out at the elbows, the prodigal son of the village.
He remained for some time lounging
about the place in a half tattered soldier's dress,
with a foraging cap on one side of his head,
jerking stones across the brook, or loitering about
the tavern door, a burthen to his father, and regarded
with great coldness by all the warm
householders.

Something, however, drew honest Slingsby
towards the youth. It might be the kindness
he bore to his father, who is one of the school-master's
great cronies; it might be that secret
sympathy which draws men of vagrant propensities
towards each other, for there is something
truly magnetic in the vagabond feeling; or it

might be that he remembered the time when he
himself had come back like this youngster, a
wreck to his native place. At any rate, whatever
the motive, Slingsby drew towards the
youth. They had many conversations in the
village tap-room about foreign parts, and the
various scenes and places they had witnessed
during their way-faring about the world. The
more Slingsby talked with him the more he
found him to his taste, and finding him almost
as learned as himself, he forthwith engaged
him as an assistant or usher in the school.

Under such admirable tuition the school, as
may be supposed, flourishes apace; and, if the
scholars do not become versed in all the holyday
accomplishments of the good old times to the
Squire's heart's content, it will not be the fault
of their teachers. The prodigal son has become
almost as popular among the boys as the pedagogue
himself. His instructions are not limited
to the school hours; and, having inherited the
musical taste and talents of his father, he has
bitten the whole school with the mania. He

is a great hand at beating a drum, which is often
heard rumbling from the rear of the school house.
He is teaching half the boys of the village, also,
to play the fife and the pandean pipes, and they
weary the whole neighbourhood with their
vague pipings, as they sit perched on stiles, or
loitering about the barn doors in the evenings.
Among the other exercises of the school, also,
he has introduced the ancient art of archery,
(one of the Squire's favourite themes,) with
such success, that the whipsters roam in truant
bands about the neighbourhood, practising with
their bows and arrows upon the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field. In a word, so completely
are the ancient English customs and habits
cultivated at this school, that I should not be
surprised if the Squire should live to see one of
his poetic visions realized, and a brood reared up,
worthy successors to Robin Hood and his merry
gang of outlaws.