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A Battling Life, Chiefly in the Civil Service; An Autobiography With Fugitive Papers on Subjects of Public Importance
A Battling Life Chiefly in the Civil Service An Autobiography With Fugitive Papers on Subjects of Public Importance Author:Thomas Baker General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Original Publisher: Kegan Paul, Trench Subjects: History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free ... more »trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: A BATTLING LIFE. CHAPTER III. "CREEPING, LIKE SNAIL, UNWILLINGLY TO SCHOOL." The youngest is very commonly a spoiled child. I was sufficiently troublesome to make it desirable to get me out of my mother's way. Therefore, at five years old, I was sent 'to a ladies' school at Hinton, a few miles from home. In this lovely village my eldest sister then lived, having married a solicitor who had been articled to my father. Their eldest son was three years younger than his uncle. Of course I frequently visited at their house, and almost as frequent, no doubt, was the squabbling between uncle and nephew. At the school itself I certainly learned quite as much evil from the lady's son -- a great hulking fellow of twenty, perhaps -- as good from the tuition of the seminary. Such very early " education" must, besides, most commonly result in cramping the juvenile mind. I 8 A PATTERN OF GOOD BEHAVIOUR. was the pet of the eldest pupil, a young lady of sixteen, and was exceedingly fond of her ; and though we have never met since our mutual school days, at least fifty years after I was amused to hear that she had referred to the fact of having known me as a child. The chief reminiscences of the place are the May-day village procession, when the men's club walked, preceded by a huge Maypole, festooned from top to bottom with flowers; (this was as high and as heavy as a strong man, frequently relieved, could carry on his shoulder, by cross pieces fixed near the bottom of the pole -- a band in front, was followed by all the members i...« less