Dr. Tait speaks no less warmly:—­

     My dear Sir,—­I must not allow your son to leave school
    without expressing to you the very high opinion I entertain
    of him.  I fully coincide in Mr. Cotton’s estimate both of
    his abilities and upright conduct.  His mathematical
    knowledge is great for his age, and I doubt not he will do
    himself credit in classics.  As I believe I mentioned to you
    before, his examination for the Divinity prize was one of
    the most creditable exhibitions I have ever seen.

    During the whole time of his being in my house, his conduct
    has been excellent.

    Believe me to be, My dear Sir,

    Yours very faithfully,

    A.C.  TAIT.

Public school life then was not what it is now; the atrocious system then in vogue of setting hundreds of lines for the most trifling offences made every day a weariness and a hopeless waste of time, while the bad discipline which was maintained in the dormitories made even the nights intolerable—­especially for the small boys, whose beds in winter were denuded of blankets that the bigger ones might not feel cold.

Charles kept no diary during his time at Rugby; but, looking back upon it, he writes in 1855:—­

During my stay I made I suppose some progress in learning of various kinds, but none of it was done con amore, and I spent an incalculable time in writing out impositions—­this last I consider one of the chief faults of Rugby School.  I made some friends there, the most intimate being Henry Leigh Bennett (as college acquaintances we find fewer common sympathies, and are consequently less intimate)—­but I cannot say that I look back upon my life at a Public School with any sensations of pleasure, or that any earthly considerations would induce me to go through my three years again.

When, some years afterwards, he visited Radley School, he was much struck by the cubicle system which prevails in the dormitories there, and wrote in his Diary, “I can say that if I had been thus secure from annoyance at night, the hardships of the daily life would have been comparative trifles to bear.”

The picture on page 32 was, I believe, drawn by Charles rile he was at Rugby in illustration of a letter received from one of his sisters.  Halnaby, as I have said before, was an outlying district of Croft parish.

During his holidays he used to amuse himself by editing local magazines.  Indeed, they might be called very local magazines, as their circulation was confined to the inmates of Croft Rectory.  The first of these, Useful and Instructive Poetry, was written about 1845.  It came to an untimely end after a six months’ run, and was followed at varying intervals by several other periodicals, equally short-lived.

In 1849 or 1850, The Rectory Umbrella began to appear.  As the editor was by this time seventeen or eighteen years old, it was naturally of a more ambitious character than any of its precursors.  It contained a serial story of the most thrilling interest, entitled, “The Walking-Stick of Destiny,” some meritorious poetry, a few humorous essays, and several caricatures of pictures in the Vernon Gallery.  Three reproductions of these pictures follow, with extracts from the Umbrella descriptive of them.