entries. This is due to the fact that the ten years 1860-1870 were among the most laborious of my Eton life. From 1871 onwards, the diary is fairly complete, but much of its contents is of ephemeral interest. The record of the daily routine of class and pupil-room, the inevitable worries, and imperious demands on one's time in a boarding-house, the little leisure left for social intercourse-all this affords scanty material for pleasant reading afterwards. I will say here that without the constant help of my dear wife, I never could have gone through it. She alleviated all my troubles, cheered me in all my difficulties, and in any case of more than ordinary stress, she took much more than half the weight from my shoulders.

In what follows, I will endeavour to select only what may be of some little interest from my rather voluminous notebooks.

1860

January 1st. I went with Louisa and Isabella Irvine to Evening Service at St. Paul's. Dean Milman read the lessons and the Bishop of London (Tait) preached. There was a fine passage on Macaulay, who died on December 28th.

January 5th. I saw William Makepeace Thackeray once or twice at this time.'

February 7th. Heard to my delight that Edward was to receive the Victoria Cross for his gallant feat

1 See Appendix.

during the siege of Delhi. He had passed out of Addiscombe among the Engineers, and sailed for India in Dec. 1856, when I went to Southampton to see him start.

March 30th-April 25th. Easter Holidays. I made a very interesting tour with William Bayne to Cornwall, seeing Bude, Tintagel, Newquay, Perranzabuloe, Penzance, and the Land's End, Cape Cornwall, descending the Botallack Copper Mine; then to the Lizard and Kynance Cove, rowing out to Dolor Hugo, a very grand cavern of purple serpentine. We returned via Falmouth and Truro to Oxford, where we found Mrs. Irvine and Louisa, and Bayne's mother.

One day we went over to Blenheim, where General Webb figures on the tapestry. Our guide caused amusement by pointing out to us "a vase which came from Pompey, Cleopatra's hasp, and a bust of the Bacchus' tribe."

It was now necessary, if we were to marry, to obtain an Eton boarding house. An opportunity was afforded of taking a small one from a master who succeeded Balston on his retirement. It was in process of building, and the whole business involving its completion and the purchase of the freehold was a protracted and expensive affair.

We were married on 9th August, at Holy Trinity, Brompton, my friend Mr. Hood performing the ser

vice. It was a bright and happy wedding. How few, alas! remain of those who were present! My dear mother-in-law, Mrs. Irvine, who looked very handsome, Isabella and John Irvine, Sir Christopher Rawlinson, and his brother Tom (who married Charlotte Chapman, one of Louisa's bridesmaids), Mary Irvine, another of the bridesmaids, and Mr. Hood-all these are gone.

Our honeymoon was spent very pleasantly in a tour in Normandy. We returned by Paris, where we saw Charlotte and Jane Ritchie. Under their charge were their brother William's children; two of them, William and Richmond, were afterwards my pupils. Of the girls, Blanche became the wife of Francis Cornish who came in 1861 to Eton as Assistant Master, and in November, 1869, I married Augusta, the eldest of them, to Douglas Freshfield.

We started in our little home with eight boarders (later on we had twelve, which was as much as it would hold). Mrs. Irvine had been most kind and assiduous in getting everything ready for us. It was an unusually wet season, and unusual precautions had been taken to dry the walls. Here we lived for exactly four years, and a very happy time it was. Though small, the house had one or two very nice rooms, and there was a pretty little garden. I have kept in touch with some of those earliest pupils, and this year (1907) had the pleasure of entertaining three of them at a pupil-party at Mapledurham-Charles Phipps, who was M.P. for

Westbury for five years, the Hon. Sir Eric Barrington, and the Rev. Edward Sanderson.

For our Easter holidays we generally went to the Isle of Wight, or the Dorset coast, and often stayed with Mrs. Bannerman, Louisa's aunt, either at Bramshaw or at Packham House, Fordingbridge, to which she moved. No change seemed to do me so much good as these visits. She was kindness itself, and I found relaxation in the excellent pike fishing that the Avon afforded.

In the summer of 1861 we visited the Llewelyns at Penllergare, and afterwards went on to Tenby. The next year we made a Swiss tour. Dear Louisa was an excellent traveller, and I fear I may sometimes have overtaxed her strength. An old college friend, H. E. Ormerod, was our companion for part of the time. He was very amusing and clever, but eccentric, and his habit of rising late was aggravating at times. Once when we had to start without him from Chamonix for the Planpratz, he caught us up by taking a steep and dangerous short cut. Another expedition which I took to the Jardin with Henry Gaselee was much longer than it should have been, owing to an incapable guide. He left us alone in the middle of the Mer de Glace, for a long time, to go and find the way, and when at last he returned, he took us by a wrong and most awkward route. We did not reach Chamonix till a late hour after the table d'hôte was over. At Grindelwald we met Hornby, under whom as Head Master I

was to serve for sixteen years. He was in splendid condition, and was going up the Wetterhorn. At Geneva, I purchased a good watch for Louisa, which she would not be persuaded to accept, and I had to return it. I mention this as a proof of her extreme unselfishness. She always disliked my spending anything on her.

December 2nd. Edward was married to Amy, second daughter of Eyre Evans Crowe.

The winter of 1861 and the opening of 1862 were sad times. On 14th December, 1861, the Prince Consort died, and the country was cast into the deepest gloom. On 27th January, 1862, Provost Hawtrey died, and my tutor, Dr. Goodford, succeeded him unwillingly, but he could not oppose the Queen's wish, though it was a great reduction of income to him, and at a time of life when he would have been able to remain Head Master for many years.

1863

March 10th. We saw the procession to the wedding of the Prince of Wales well from the place assigned us on Castle Hill. On the densely-crowded platform at Windsor Station afterwards, I met (I think for the last time) William Makepeace Thackeray, who pointed out to me "Charley Wood," the father of the present Lord Halifax, and other important personages.

For our summer holiday we went to Whitby, to the Lakes with the Baynes, and to my friend Wilberforce