The International Weekly Miscellany - Volume I, No. 5 | Page 3

saw Mr. Fox, fat and jovial, though he was then declining.

He, who had been a "bean" in his youth, then looked something
quaker-like as to dress, with plain colored clothes, a broad round hat,
white waistcoat, and, if I am not mistaken, white stockings. He was
standing in Parliament street, just where the street commences as you
leave Whitehall; and was making two young gentlemen laugh heartily
at something which he seemed to be relating.
* * * * *
COOKE'S EDITION OF THE BRITISH POETS.--In those times,
Cooke's edition of the British Poets came up. I had got an odd volume
of Spenser; and I fell passionately in love with Collins and Gray. How I
loved those little sixpenny numbers, containing whole poets! I doated
on their size; I doated on their type, on their ornaments, on their
wrappers containing lists of other poets, and on the engraving from
Kirk. I bought them over and over again, and used to get up select sets,
which disappeared like buttered crumpets; for I could resist neither
giving them away nor possessing them. When the master tormented me,
when I used to hate and loathe the sight of Homer, and Demosthenes,
and Cicero, I would comfort myself with thinking of the sixpence in
my pocket, with which I should go out to Paternoster Row, when
school was over, and buy another number of an English poet.
* * * * *
CHILDREN'S BOOKS: "SANDFORD AND MERTON."--The
children's books in those days were Hogarth's pictures taken in their
most literal acceptation. Every good boy was to ride in his coach, and
be a lord mayor; and every bad boy was to be hung, or eaten by lions.
The gingerbread was gilt, and the books were gilt like the gingerbread:
a "take in" the more gross, inasmuch as nothing could be plainer or less
dazzling than the books of the same boys when they grew a little older.
There was a lingering old ballad or so in favor of the gallanter
apprentices who tore out lions' hearts and astonished gazing sultans;
and in antiquarian corners, Percy's "Reliques" were preparing a nobler
age, both in poetry and prose. But the first counteraction came, as it
ought, in the shape of a new book for children. The pool of mercenary
and time-serving ethics was first blown over by the fresh country

breeze of Mr. Day's "Sandford and Merton," a production that I well
remember, and shall ever be grateful for. It came in aid of my mother's
perplexities, between delicacy and hardihood, between courage and
conscientiousness. It assisted the cheerfulness I inherited from my
father; showed me that circumstances were not to check a healthy
gaiety, or the most masculine self-respect; and helped to supply me
with the resolution of standing by a principle, not merely as a point of
lowly or lofty sacrifice, but as a matter of common sense and duty, and
a simple coöperation with the elements natural warfare.
* * * * *
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.--Perhaps there is not foundation in the country
so truly English, taking that word to mean what Englishmen wish it to
mean:--something solid, unpretending, of good character, and free to all.
More boys are to be found in it, who issue from a greater variety of
ranks, than in any other school in the kingdom and as it is the most
various, so it is the largest, of all the free schools. Nobility do not go
there except as boarders. Now and then a boy of a noble family may be
met with, and he is reckoned an interloper, and against the charter; but
the sons of poor gentry and London citizens abound; and with them, an
equal share is given to the sons of tradesmen of the very humblest
description, not omitting servants. I would not take my oath, but I have
a strong recollection that in my time there were two boys, one of whom
went up into the drawing-room to his father, the master of the house;
and the other, down into the kitchen to his father, the coachman. One
thing, however, I know to be certain, and it is the noblest of all; namely,
that the boys themselves (at least it was so in my time) had no sort of
feeling of the difference of one another's ranks out of doors. The
cleverest boy was the noblest, let his father be who he might.
* * * * *
AN INTENSE YOUTHFUL FRIENDSHIP.--If I had reaped no other
benefit from Christ Hospital, the school would be ever dear to me from
the recollection of the friendships I formed in it, and of the first
heavenly taste it gave me of that most spiritual of the affections. I use
the word "heavenly" advisedly; and I call