Kilgorman | Page 3

more serious studies of school were never neglected
for his devotion to sport. He seldom missed the old boys' annual dinner
of the City of London School. In proposing a toast at a recent dinner, he
reminded Mr Asquith, M.P. (a school-fellow of Reed's) that at the
school debating society they had "led off" on separate sides in a wordy
battle on the red-hot controversy of "Queen Elizabeth versus Queen
Mary." Every boy who has read "Sir Ludar" will remember that the
hero of that charming story and Humphrey Dexter fall to blows on the
same dangerous subject.
I cannot find that in his masterly pictures of public school life he drew
much from his experiences at the City of London School, except,
perhaps, in a few details, such as the rivalry which he describes so
vividly as existing between the fifth and sixth forms in his delightful
book, "The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's." In Reed's day there was no
such "set" among the juniors at the City of London School as the
"guinea-pigs" and "tadpoles," who play so important a part in the story;
but in a room devoted to the juniors, known as the "horse-shoe," in the
old school buildings in Milk Street, many of the pranks and battles of
the "guinea-pigs" and "tadpoles" were played and fought.
In 1869, at the age of seventeen, Reed left school, and joined his father
and elder brother Andrew in the great firm of type-founders in Fann
Street. He threw himself with strenuous application into the new work,
maintaining at the same time with equal keenness his interest in
football, wishing nothing better than a fierce game--"three hacks on one
leg, and four on the other," as he said, and glorying in his wounds. The
same strenuous energy applied to his reading at this period. A friend
tells me that in a letter about this time he speaks of devouring "five of
Scott's novels in a month, resulting in parental remonstrance; history;
and a Greek play, in which he is not so 'rusty' as he feared." In Fann

Street his practical business energies found free play, although the bias
of his mind undoubtedly lay towards literature rather than commerce;
but for nearly a quarter of a century he devoted himself to this work
with a degree of success that was to be expected of his talents, the
conscientious uprightness of his character, and his unceasing industry.
At the death of Sir Charles Reed, and of his brother Andrew, Talbot
became the managing director of the Type-foundry, and held that
position to the time of his death.
Reed had not long left school when his creative literary instincts began
to assert themselves. His apprenticeship in literature may be said to
have been served in the editing of an exceedingly clever family
magazine, called The Earlsmead Chronicle, which circulated in the
family and among friends.
His earliest printed effort appeared in 1875, in a little magazine for
young people, called The Morning of Life (published in America by
Messrs. Thomas Nelson and Sons. It is, by the way, a noteworthy
coincidence that his first and last printed work should have been issued
by this house). His contribution to The Morning of Life was an account
in two parts of a boating expedition on the Thames, entitled "Camping
Out." It has in it the promise of the freshness and vigour that were in
such abundant degree characteristic of all his later descriptions of boy
life.
It was in the pages of the Boy's Own Paper that Reed found his metier.
Its editor writes: "From the very first number of the paper Mr Reed has
been so closely and continuously identified with it, that his removal
creates a void it will be impossible to fill." Any one looking through the
volumes of this most admirably-conducted boys' paper will see that
Talbot Reed's work is indeed the backbone of it. In Number One,
Volume One, the first article, "My First Football Match," is by him;
and during that year (1879) and the following years he wrote vivid
descriptions of cricket-matches, boat-races; "A Boating Adventure at
Parkhurst;" "The Troubles of a Dawdler;" and a series of papers on
"Boys in English History." There was also a series of clever sketches of
boy life, called "Boys we have Known," "The Sneak," "The Sulky

Boy," "The Boy who is never Wrong," etcetera.
These short flights led the way, and prepared him for the longer and
stronger flights that were to follow. In 1880 his first boys' book began
to appear in the Boy's Own Paper, entitled "The Adventures of a
Three-Guinea Watch." Charlie Newcome, the youthful hero, is a
charming creation, tenderly and pathetically painted, and the story
abounds in thrilling incident, and in that freshness of humour which
appears