Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler, page 379
“Ever yours, “H. DRURY.’’
FROM THE SAME.
“HARROW, October 24th, 1829.
“MY DEAR BUTLER, — If I have seemed to you very remiss in not answering your letters, it has not been from want of considering their contents and administering to them. Longley begged to write about French and dancing terms himself, as he said he bad other things to write about. There was some delicacy in getting the latter, as the dancing-master has not had a pupil here these twelve years. I think the French terms are too high; but from the facilities of the Continent few boys learn now at school — at least here — as the trajet is so frequently made in the summer vacation.
“I read your charge with great delight; ’twas exactly what I should have liked to have heard, and to have seen in its effects on the sour visages of the ‘serious.’ I do not wonder they endeavoured to resent such home truths. The same spirit rages sadly among us. I had introduced Milman’s History of the Jews to read with Paley’s Evidences every Sunday morning. I found it gave sacred history and geography in such an entertaining manner that it riveted the attention of my boys surprisingly. This is daily denounced to Longley by Mr. Batten, as Cunningham’s mouthpiece, as ‘an impious book,” a gross misrepresentation of the Word of God,’
‘an attempt to introduce German scepticism,’ and what not — of all which Milman is as innocent as I am, and he has had the highest testimonials of praise and thanks from the first members of the High Church.
“I am happy that we shall have Hughes as our poser again, and in future. Our system works very well, and I thank you for the valuable hints we got from you during our delightful residence at Shrewsbury.
“Your quibbling verses are admirable; and Longley, though not given to the laughing mood, has laughed heartily over them with me. The last line delicious — linendum cedro.
* * * * *
“Malkin, who was with me yesterday, seems pretty certain of his election to the Historical chair at the London University. He tells me that the numbers in all the classes, save Lardner’s, are likely to double, and that, with the exception of the medical squad, by far the greater proportion of the students are the sons of Regent’s Park and Westminster gentry — which I am sorry to hear.
“I fully agree with you in the addition of the 4 [word torn off by seal] and one Philippic in our next edition. The Britannica of Cæsar those need not read who do not like it; but it is part of our plan as text-book, and reference to our lectures. ‘Twill take up but a small portion of space, and we have still room for another oration of Cicero, or other book of history — do you decide what it shall be.
“With most sincere and most complimentary regards to Mrs. Butler, believe me, my dear Butler, “Ever most sincerely yours, “H. DRURY.
“I think I see you opening this at your sulky table. Best regards to the Dugards. The new Master of Westminster is not likely to live.”
The “quibbling verses” referred to in the foregoing letter are as follows, and are of course inspired by Dr. Burney’s Tentamen. The following prose passage is to be tortured into verse: “We must aver that Dr. Burney was a scholar of superior skill in scanning verses, and in all respects a clever man.” The scansion is effected thus: —
“We must aver that Doctor Bur ney was a scholar of super-
-rïûr skill in scan-
-ning verses, an-
-d In all respects a clever man.”
I sent these lines to the Athenæum in 1891, but said there was nothing to show whether or not they were Dr. Butler’s own. I had not then come upon Mr. Drury’s letter, nor upon one from Dr. Hawtrey, August 6th, 1833, both of which prove the lines to have been by Dr. Butler — who nevertheless had a very profound respect for Dr. Burney’s scholarship, and a great personal liking for him.
FROM DR. LONGLEY, AFTERWARDS BISHOP OF RIPON AND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
“HARROW, December 2nd, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — I send you the enclosed papers, to show you how much I profited by my visit to Shrewsbury — not to provoke your criticism, for I am well aware how deficient I am in some branches of critical knowledge.
“I have been much gratified by the result of my first essay, and am convinced that it may be made an instrument of great benefit to our school.”
* * * * *
The “papers” above referred to no doubt were examination papers, which appear to have been then introduced at Harrow for the first time.
TO THE REV. JAMES TATE.
“SHREWSBURY, December 8th 1829.
“My DEAR FRIEND, — When I saw you at Cambridge, I was not aware of the import of your question, whether I had got the new edition of your Greek metres. I thought you meant whether I had got your Greek Theatre. From Cambridge I went to Italy before I returned home, and on my return home I found your new edition on my table, which is tota merum sal. It is so clear, so intelligible, so complete, and yet so free from being overburthened, that I cannot sufficiently commend it.
“In your next edition will you think it worth while to put the whole doctrine of ictus into a very short compass in a note, by way of elucidating your remarks upon it, not one of which I wish to see omitted? — I have long since found it useful to observe to my boys that the infallible rule about ictus is, that it cannot fall on a short syllable, except when the short syllable is one of the two into which a long syllable is resolved — and then it must always fall on the first of the two.
“I have found this rule very useful to them in their Greek composition. It makes them understand why in an iambic verse, though they may use those short words ra, TC, era, they must not bring a tribrach of this nature, iriiv Sc, having two short syllables in the first word and one in the next. Nor in a trochaic verse can they bring Sc TTOXU, because in the former case the ictus falling on the “of miXv, and there being necessarily a slight though almost imperceptible elevation of the voice to pronounce the separate word Sc, the ictus would be overcharged, so that the thesis could not be made with sufficient delicacy on the Sc. In the latter case there would be an undercharge on the de and an overcharge on the πο. See how much light they will throw on the antispastic forms — verbum sat to a real sapiens.
“Let me hope you will be encouraged to attack the choral metres.
Stanley, —
Butler, Burney, Herman, — all give different ar-
Wellauer, — rangements — of — the Bothe, — same chorus — of all Scholefield, — these, only — one — can Blomfield — rarely dif-be right. fering from Burney, and a hundred commentators, —
“My belief is that Herman has written on the subject till he has puzzled himself; that those double-distilled asses Langé and Pinzger, who are so very sapient over their Persæ, know about as much of the matter as a cow does of playing on the pianoforte.
“We want something clear, sensible, and simple on the subject, to supersede the gothicisms of Seale, and to drive the ponderous German tomes (look for Heaven’s sake at Boeckh’s enormous Pindar!) out of the country. Something like an abridged Gaisford in English, as a sequel to your present book. Do it, I pray.
“Kidd wrote me yesterday to announce his election to Norwich School.— “Believe me truly yours, “S. BUTLER.”
FROM THE REV. ALEXANDER SCOTT.
“RECTORY, ERLMONT, December 14th, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — Robert arrived here on Saturday, seemingly quite well, although he said that he had felt a little indisposed after the exertion of the play. At any rate there is no appearance of anything but good health now.
“Mrs. Scott and I were both much gratified by the favourable account you were so good as to give us of our boy’s proficiency; and as he has now taken his final leave of Shrewsbury School, it becomes me to offer my sincerest thanks to you for the unvaried kindness and attention which upon all occasions you have shown him. Should Robert fulfil any of those flattering prognostications which you have expressed concerning him, we shall all know to whom he is indebted for those acquirements which have helped him forward, and I hope none of us will ever forget our obligations to you.”
* * * * *
It is hardly necessary to say that the boy above referred to was Robert Scott, who must rank as the most illustrious and most engaging figure among all Dr. Butler’s pupils, and there was none, unless perhaps R. W. Evans, whom Dr. Butler himself regarded with greater pride or warmer affection. The Rev. Walter F. Scott tells me his father used to say that the relations between himself and Dr. Butler were more like those between son and father than between pupil and master, and the letters that I can give from him to Dr. Butler will show how cordial was the good feeling that existed between the two. The Rev. W. F. Scott has kindly allowed me to copy thirteen letters from Dr. Butler to his pupil, which will be sufficiently sampled by the few which I can alone print. Copies of all the letters are in the British Museum. Dean Scott died so comparatively recently that the merest outline of his career will be alone necessary.
He was born January 26th, 1811, and educated first at St. Bee’s and then at Shrewsbury, whence he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained the Ireland Scholarship in 1833 and was placed in the first class in literis humanioribus the same year. Shortly afterwards he was elected to a fellowship at Balliol. The first edition of Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon appeared in 1843 — to be followed by six other editions, each more complete and valuable than the last. What more need be said about a work that is familiar to all who take the smallest interest in Greek literature? He was elected to the Mastership of Balliol in 1854, and in 1870 was further rewarded by Mr. Gladstone, who appointed him to the Deanery of Rochester as a place of honourable repose. There he remained till his death, which occurred, after a lingering illness, December 2nd, 1887.
FROM THE REV. W. TOURNAY.
“WADHAM COLLEGE, December 16tk, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — I have very great pleasure in announcing Herbert Johnson’s success in the examination school. He is placed with the highest commendation in the first class.
“Massie was not examined. Having been diligent and idle by fits and starts, he overworked himself at the last, and was physically disqualified from appearing. We have advised him to abstain from books and thought for a month, and then employ in moderate continuous exertion the remaining interval between that time and the Easter examination. This he promises to do; but a paternal hint from you may be useful, especially if it arrive about the 15th of January.
“Thomas manifests much talent, and a most ingenious character, but he cannot be either scolded or coaxed into a steady attention to anything. Among other topics which I have employed in talking with him is his large debt of justice and gratitude to you. He remains here during the vacation, vowing great vows of hard study. Can you help to make him keep them?
“From Longueville I expect a regular unbroken progress towards success, and I am glad to see that his health does not fail him.”
CHAPTER XXII. CORRESPONDENCE, JANUARY 25TH, 1830 — MARCH 1ST, 1831.
FROM DR. KEATE, HEAD-MASTER OF ETON.
“ETON, January 251/1, 1830.
DEAR DR. BUTLER, — We were very much gratified by the receipt of your letter on Friday, for we were really uneasy about you when we heard the account of snowdrifts that were brought tous on Thursday. If your friends permitted you to leave Oxford Thursday evening, I trust that the remainder of your journey, though it must have been beset with difficulties, was equally successful. I certainly was not aware, when I saw you leave my door, of the dangers which you and many others would have to encounter on that and the following days. But in some parts of the kingdom the fall, or rather the drifting, of snow seems to have been tremendous, and I must allow that both your boys and mine may make out a good case if they are a little behind their time; not but what they could and would force a passage if the thing was reversed, and their course was directed homewards — in that case there would be many Hannibals.
“You are very kind to speak with satisfaction of your very short visit to Eton, and under such circumstances with regard to weather. I sincerely hope that you will soon pay us a longer visit and in more genial weather, and you may be assured that Mrs. Keate and myself shall be most happy when we find it in our power to avail ourselves of your very kind invitation to Shrewsbury.
“I should have written to you, if I had not received your kind letter, to say that a cane was left at my house by one of your party, and we rather fancy it is yours. It may be an old friend and a companion of your travels, and you may have the kind of regard for it that I had for one that I used twenty years, ana at last left in a hackney coach in London. If it has touched the foot of Mont Blanc while you were gazing at the summit, I am sure you will be glad to recover it, and I beg leave to assure you that I will either keep it till you come to claim it, or will send jt to any place which you may wish it to be sent to. Mrs. Keate and all my family beg to join in best compliments to you and Mrs. Butler.
“I am, my dear Sir, yours most faithfully, “J. KEATE.”
TO MR. TOMPKINS, THE LION INN, SHREWSBURY.
“SHREWSBURY, January 2$th, 1830.
“SIR, — I beg to inform you, and to request you to inform the other proprietors of the Wonder Coach, whose names are unknown to me, that I have made very careful inquiry into the cause of the overturn of the Wonder Coach in Coventry near seven weeks ago, from the effects of which accident I regret to say that two of my boys are still suffering. The result of that inquiry, confirmed by the unanimous opinion of every intelligent person I have seen or heard from who has any means of information on the subject, is, that the son of Mr. Peters is, from his unfortunate lameness, unfit to drive the coach, having no firm seat, and standing up to drive, or at least sitting so lightly as to have no command over his horses in case of a sudden jerk or strain. I feel it therefore a duty to my boys and their parents to represent this to the proprietors, and to say that I cannot think either of travelling myself by the Wonder or suffering my boys to do so, unless the coachman is removed from it. I am aware that Mr. Peters has already been spoken to on the subject without effect, and I hear that the coach has once since been in considerable danger from the same cause. I shall therefore expect an assurance from the proprietors that a more competent coachman is appointed before I again use the coach, as I always have done hitherto; and I think it right to add that I have correspondents in Coventry who will inform me from time to time as to his absolute or only temporary removal. It may also he proper for me to observe that I have no sort of dislike to the individual in question, of whom I know nothing, but that, believing him unfit to drive a fast coach like the Wonder, I feel it my duty in the public station I fill to require his removal.”
IN REPLY TO A PARENT WHO HAD WRITTEN DISRESPECTFULLY OF LATIN AND GREEK COMPOSITION AND OF ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS.
“SHREWSBURY, January 30th, 1830.
“SIR, — [I am somewhat at a loss to understand, from your letter with which I am just favoured, whether... ]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
“[I make it a constant rule in all my communications with parents to hold out no expectations to them which are not likely to be fulfilled, and I am therefore induced to trouble you with this letter in consequence of that I lately had the honour to receive from you.]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
“[The plain-dealing with which I am anxious to act towards all parents who confide their sons to my care induces me to trouble you with a few remarks on the letter I have just received from you.]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
The following was allowed to stand: —
“You appear to entertain a degree of contempt for composition in Latin prose, and a much greater for Latin verse, together with a low opinion of academic honours. I am not about to enter into a discussion upon the subject further than to say that, if Latin composition either in prose or verse consisted merely in stringing a few words or phrases together, I should not be much disposed to differ from you on the subject. My view of it, however, is very different, and taken on very different grounds; but it is useless to trespass on your time by discussing a point upon which your mind seems thoroughly made up, and indeed I have not the leisure to do so, had you the patience to hear me. But I conceive it my duty distinctly to tell you that composition both in prose and verse is an essential part of education here, and that University prizes are always considered with us as the most honourable proof of talent combined with industry which a young man can exhibit.
“[If therefore you wish your son not to attend to composition, I should recommend you to place him at some school where it is not taught, and most earnestly and especially do I request that, whatever opinion you may yourself entertain of academic honours, you will not induce him to undervalue them if you wish him to continue under the tuition of one who thinks it a great happiness to have obtained, both in his own person and through his pupils, a competent share of them.]”
[This paragraph was cancelled.]
“While your son therefore remains here he will always be exercised in composition both in prose and verse, and the higher he gets in the school the more he will have of it. Permit me also most earnestly to request that, whatever opinion you may yourself entertain of academic honours, you will not induce him to undervalue them so long as he continues under the tuition of one who thinks it a great happiness to have obtained, both in his own person and through his pupils, a competent share of them.”
TO THE REV. T. S. HUGHES.
(Original in possession of Mr. Hughes’s representatives.)
“ST. TAFFY’S DAY, 1830.
“DEAR HUGHES, — I firmly believe the original Greek genitive to have been in ΘΕΝ signifying the locus a quo, and the dative in ΘΙ signifying the locus in quo — all which I have before stated and given reasons for. I also believe the genitive plural not to have been distinguishable in its primary form from the genitive singular. Any man who is deeply read in the archaisms both of Greek and Latin will concede this — just as you cannot tell whether ΑΘΛΟΝ is αθλον or άθλων in the inscription before us.
FROM THE SAME.
“HARROW, October 24th, 1829.
“MY DEAR BUTLER, — If I have seemed to you very remiss in not answering your letters, it has not been from want of considering their contents and administering to them. Longley begged to write about French and dancing terms himself, as he said he bad other things to write about. There was some delicacy in getting the latter, as the dancing-master has not had a pupil here these twelve years. I think the French terms are too high; but from the facilities of the Continent few boys learn now at school — at least here — as the trajet is so frequently made in the summer vacation.
“I read your charge with great delight; ’twas exactly what I should have liked to have heard, and to have seen in its effects on the sour visages of the ‘serious.’ I do not wonder they endeavoured to resent such home truths. The same spirit rages sadly among us. I had introduced Milman’s History of the Jews to read with Paley’s Evidences every Sunday morning. I found it gave sacred history and geography in such an entertaining manner that it riveted the attention of my boys surprisingly. This is daily denounced to Longley by Mr. Batten, as Cunningham’s mouthpiece, as ‘an impious book,” a gross misrepresentation of the Word of God,’
‘an attempt to introduce German scepticism,’ and what not — of all which Milman is as innocent as I am, and he has had the highest testimonials of praise and thanks from the first members of the High Church.
“I am happy that we shall have Hughes as our poser again, and in future. Our system works very well, and I thank you for the valuable hints we got from you during our delightful residence at Shrewsbury.
“Your quibbling verses are admirable; and Longley, though not given to the laughing mood, has laughed heartily over them with me. The last line delicious — linendum cedro.
* * * * *
“Malkin, who was with me yesterday, seems pretty certain of his election to the Historical chair at the London University. He tells me that the numbers in all the classes, save Lardner’s, are likely to double, and that, with the exception of the medical squad, by far the greater proportion of the students are the sons of Regent’s Park and Westminster gentry — which I am sorry to hear.
“I fully agree with you in the addition of the 4 [word torn off by seal] and one Philippic in our next edition. The Britannica of Cæsar those need not read who do not like it; but it is part of our plan as text-book, and reference to our lectures. ‘Twill take up but a small portion of space, and we have still room for another oration of Cicero, or other book of history — do you decide what it shall be.
“With most sincere and most complimentary regards to Mrs. Butler, believe me, my dear Butler, “Ever most sincerely yours, “H. DRURY.
“I think I see you opening this at your sulky table. Best regards to the Dugards. The new Master of Westminster is not likely to live.”
The “quibbling verses” referred to in the foregoing letter are as follows, and are of course inspired by Dr. Burney’s Tentamen. The following prose passage is to be tortured into verse: “We must aver that Dr. Burney was a scholar of superior skill in scanning verses, and in all respects a clever man.” The scansion is effected thus: —
“We must aver that Doctor Bur ney was a scholar of super-
-rïûr skill in scan-
-ning verses, an-
-d In all respects a clever man.”
I sent these lines to the Athenæum in 1891, but said there was nothing to show whether or not they were Dr. Butler’s own. I had not then come upon Mr. Drury’s letter, nor upon one from Dr. Hawtrey, August 6th, 1833, both of which prove the lines to have been by Dr. Butler — who nevertheless had a very profound respect for Dr. Burney’s scholarship, and a great personal liking for him.
FROM DR. LONGLEY, AFTERWARDS BISHOP OF RIPON AND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
“HARROW, December 2nd, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — I send you the enclosed papers, to show you how much I profited by my visit to Shrewsbury — not to provoke your criticism, for I am well aware how deficient I am in some branches of critical knowledge.
“I have been much gratified by the result of my first essay, and am convinced that it may be made an instrument of great benefit to our school.”
* * * * *
The “papers” above referred to no doubt were examination papers, which appear to have been then introduced at Harrow for the first time.
TO THE REV. JAMES TATE.
“SHREWSBURY, December 8th 1829.
“My DEAR FRIEND, — When I saw you at Cambridge, I was not aware of the import of your question, whether I had got the new edition of your Greek metres. I thought you meant whether I had got your Greek Theatre. From Cambridge I went to Italy before I returned home, and on my return home I found your new edition on my table, which is tota merum sal. It is so clear, so intelligible, so complete, and yet so free from being overburthened, that I cannot sufficiently commend it.
“In your next edition will you think it worth while to put the whole doctrine of ictus into a very short compass in a note, by way of elucidating your remarks upon it, not one of which I wish to see omitted? — I have long since found it useful to observe to my boys that the infallible rule about ictus is, that it cannot fall on a short syllable, except when the short syllable is one of the two into which a long syllable is resolved — and then it must always fall on the first of the two.
“I have found this rule very useful to them in their Greek composition. It makes them understand why in an iambic verse, though they may use those short words ra, TC, era, they must not bring a tribrach of this nature, iriiv Sc, having two short syllables in the first word and one in the next. Nor in a trochaic verse can they bring Sc TTOXU, because in the former case the ictus falling on the “of miXv, and there being necessarily a slight though almost imperceptible elevation of the voice to pronounce the separate word Sc, the ictus would be overcharged, so that the thesis could not be made with sufficient delicacy on the Sc. In the latter case there would be an undercharge on the de and an overcharge on the πο. See how much light they will throw on the antispastic forms — verbum sat to a real sapiens.
“Let me hope you will be encouraged to attack the choral metres.
Stanley, —
Butler, Burney, Herman, — all give different ar-
Wellauer, — rangements — of — the Bothe, — same chorus — of all Scholefield, — these, only — one — can Blomfield — rarely dif-be right. fering from Burney, and a hundred commentators, —
“My belief is that Herman has written on the subject till he has puzzled himself; that those double-distilled asses Langé and Pinzger, who are so very sapient over their Persæ, know about as much of the matter as a cow does of playing on the pianoforte.
“We want something clear, sensible, and simple on the subject, to supersede the gothicisms of Seale, and to drive the ponderous German tomes (look for Heaven’s sake at Boeckh’s enormous Pindar!) out of the country. Something like an abridged Gaisford in English, as a sequel to your present book. Do it, I pray.
“Kidd wrote me yesterday to announce his election to Norwich School.— “Believe me truly yours, “S. BUTLER.”
FROM THE REV. ALEXANDER SCOTT.
“RECTORY, ERLMONT, December 14th, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — Robert arrived here on Saturday, seemingly quite well, although he said that he had felt a little indisposed after the exertion of the play. At any rate there is no appearance of anything but good health now.
“Mrs. Scott and I were both much gratified by the favourable account you were so good as to give us of our boy’s proficiency; and as he has now taken his final leave of Shrewsbury School, it becomes me to offer my sincerest thanks to you for the unvaried kindness and attention which upon all occasions you have shown him. Should Robert fulfil any of those flattering prognostications which you have expressed concerning him, we shall all know to whom he is indebted for those acquirements which have helped him forward, and I hope none of us will ever forget our obligations to you.”
* * * * *
It is hardly necessary to say that the boy above referred to was Robert Scott, who must rank as the most illustrious and most engaging figure among all Dr. Butler’s pupils, and there was none, unless perhaps R. W. Evans, whom Dr. Butler himself regarded with greater pride or warmer affection. The Rev. Walter F. Scott tells me his father used to say that the relations between himself and Dr. Butler were more like those between son and father than between pupil and master, and the letters that I can give from him to Dr. Butler will show how cordial was the good feeling that existed between the two. The Rev. W. F. Scott has kindly allowed me to copy thirteen letters from Dr. Butler to his pupil, which will be sufficiently sampled by the few which I can alone print. Copies of all the letters are in the British Museum. Dean Scott died so comparatively recently that the merest outline of his career will be alone necessary.
He was born January 26th, 1811, and educated first at St. Bee’s and then at Shrewsbury, whence he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained the Ireland Scholarship in 1833 and was placed in the first class in literis humanioribus the same year. Shortly afterwards he was elected to a fellowship at Balliol. The first edition of Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon appeared in 1843 — to be followed by six other editions, each more complete and valuable than the last. What more need be said about a work that is familiar to all who take the smallest interest in Greek literature? He was elected to the Mastership of Balliol in 1854, and in 1870 was further rewarded by Mr. Gladstone, who appointed him to the Deanery of Rochester as a place of honourable repose. There he remained till his death, which occurred, after a lingering illness, December 2nd, 1887.
FROM THE REV. W. TOURNAY.
“WADHAM COLLEGE, December 16tk, 1829.
“MY DEAR SIR, — I have very great pleasure in announcing Herbert Johnson’s success in the examination school. He is placed with the highest commendation in the first class.
“Massie was not examined. Having been diligent and idle by fits and starts, he overworked himself at the last, and was physically disqualified from appearing. We have advised him to abstain from books and thought for a month, and then employ in moderate continuous exertion the remaining interval between that time and the Easter examination. This he promises to do; but a paternal hint from you may be useful, especially if it arrive about the 15th of January.
“Thomas manifests much talent, and a most ingenious character, but he cannot be either scolded or coaxed into a steady attention to anything. Among other topics which I have employed in talking with him is his large debt of justice and gratitude to you. He remains here during the vacation, vowing great vows of hard study. Can you help to make him keep them?
“From Longueville I expect a regular unbroken progress towards success, and I am glad to see that his health does not fail him.”
CHAPTER XXII. CORRESPONDENCE, JANUARY 25TH, 1830 — MARCH 1ST, 1831.
FROM DR. KEATE, HEAD-MASTER OF ETON.
“ETON, January 251/1, 1830.
DEAR DR. BUTLER, — We were very much gratified by the receipt of your letter on Friday, for we were really uneasy about you when we heard the account of snowdrifts that were brought tous on Thursday. If your friends permitted you to leave Oxford Thursday evening, I trust that the remainder of your journey, though it must have been beset with difficulties, was equally successful. I certainly was not aware, when I saw you leave my door, of the dangers which you and many others would have to encounter on that and the following days. But in some parts of the kingdom the fall, or rather the drifting, of snow seems to have been tremendous, and I must allow that both your boys and mine may make out a good case if they are a little behind their time; not but what they could and would force a passage if the thing was reversed, and their course was directed homewards — in that case there would be many Hannibals.
“You are very kind to speak with satisfaction of your very short visit to Eton, and under such circumstances with regard to weather. I sincerely hope that you will soon pay us a longer visit and in more genial weather, and you may be assured that Mrs. Keate and myself shall be most happy when we find it in our power to avail ourselves of your very kind invitation to Shrewsbury.
“I should have written to you, if I had not received your kind letter, to say that a cane was left at my house by one of your party, and we rather fancy it is yours. It may be an old friend and a companion of your travels, and you may have the kind of regard for it that I had for one that I used twenty years, ana at last left in a hackney coach in London. If it has touched the foot of Mont Blanc while you were gazing at the summit, I am sure you will be glad to recover it, and I beg leave to assure you that I will either keep it till you come to claim it, or will send jt to any place which you may wish it to be sent to. Mrs. Keate and all my family beg to join in best compliments to you and Mrs. Butler.
“I am, my dear Sir, yours most faithfully, “J. KEATE.”
TO MR. TOMPKINS, THE LION INN, SHREWSBURY.
“SHREWSBURY, January 2$th, 1830.
“SIR, — I beg to inform you, and to request you to inform the other proprietors of the Wonder Coach, whose names are unknown to me, that I have made very careful inquiry into the cause of the overturn of the Wonder Coach in Coventry near seven weeks ago, from the effects of which accident I regret to say that two of my boys are still suffering. The result of that inquiry, confirmed by the unanimous opinion of every intelligent person I have seen or heard from who has any means of information on the subject, is, that the son of Mr. Peters is, from his unfortunate lameness, unfit to drive the coach, having no firm seat, and standing up to drive, or at least sitting so lightly as to have no command over his horses in case of a sudden jerk or strain. I feel it therefore a duty to my boys and their parents to represent this to the proprietors, and to say that I cannot think either of travelling myself by the Wonder or suffering my boys to do so, unless the coachman is removed from it. I am aware that Mr. Peters has already been spoken to on the subject without effect, and I hear that the coach has once since been in considerable danger from the same cause. I shall therefore expect an assurance from the proprietors that a more competent coachman is appointed before I again use the coach, as I always have done hitherto; and I think it right to add that I have correspondents in Coventry who will inform me from time to time as to his absolute or only temporary removal. It may also he proper for me to observe that I have no sort of dislike to the individual in question, of whom I know nothing, but that, believing him unfit to drive a fast coach like the Wonder, I feel it my duty in the public station I fill to require his removal.”
IN REPLY TO A PARENT WHO HAD WRITTEN DISRESPECTFULLY OF LATIN AND GREEK COMPOSITION AND OF ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS.
“SHREWSBURY, January 30th, 1830.
“SIR, — [I am somewhat at a loss to understand, from your letter with which I am just favoured, whether... ]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
“[I make it a constant rule in all my communications with parents to hold out no expectations to them which are not likely to be fulfilled, and I am therefore induced to trouble you with this letter in consequence of that I lately had the honour to receive from you.]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
“[The plain-dealing with which I am anxious to act towards all parents who confide their sons to my care induces me to trouble you with a few remarks on the letter I have just received from you.]”
[This beginning was cancelled.]
The following was allowed to stand: —
“You appear to entertain a degree of contempt for composition in Latin prose, and a much greater for Latin verse, together with a low opinion of academic honours. I am not about to enter into a discussion upon the subject further than to say that, if Latin composition either in prose or verse consisted merely in stringing a few words or phrases together, I should not be much disposed to differ from you on the subject. My view of it, however, is very different, and taken on very different grounds; but it is useless to trespass on your time by discussing a point upon which your mind seems thoroughly made up, and indeed I have not the leisure to do so, had you the patience to hear me. But I conceive it my duty distinctly to tell you that composition both in prose and verse is an essential part of education here, and that University prizes are always considered with us as the most honourable proof of talent combined with industry which a young man can exhibit.
“[If therefore you wish your son not to attend to composition, I should recommend you to place him at some school where it is not taught, and most earnestly and especially do I request that, whatever opinion you may yourself entertain of academic honours, you will not induce him to undervalue them if you wish him to continue under the tuition of one who thinks it a great happiness to have obtained, both in his own person and through his pupils, a competent share of them.]”
[This paragraph was cancelled.]
“While your son therefore remains here he will always be exercised in composition both in prose and verse, and the higher he gets in the school the more he will have of it. Permit me also most earnestly to request that, whatever opinion you may yourself entertain of academic honours, you will not induce him to undervalue them so long as he continues under the tuition of one who thinks it a great happiness to have obtained, both in his own person and through his pupils, a competent share of them.”
TO THE REV. T. S. HUGHES.
(Original in possession of Mr. Hughes’s representatives.)
“ST. TAFFY’S DAY, 1830.
“DEAR HUGHES, — I firmly believe the original Greek genitive to have been in ΘΕΝ signifying the locus a quo, and the dative in ΘΙ signifying the locus in quo — all which I have before stated and given reasons for. I also believe the genitive plural not to have been distinguishable in its primary form from the genitive singular. Any man who is deeply read in the archaisms both of Greek and Latin will concede this — just as you cannot tell whether ΑΘΛΟΝ is αθλον or άθλων in the inscription before us.
