Fewson’s modes of punishing refractory scholars were somewhat peculiar.  Either a culprit was hoisted on the back of another scholar, or made to stoop till his nose entered a hole in the desk, and when in one or other of these positions was made to feel the singular sensation caused by a sound caning on that particular part of his anatomy which it is said “nature intends for correction.”  Sometimes, too, an offender was made to sit in a small basket, to the cross handle of which a rope had been tied, and by this means he was hoisted to a beam near the roof of the school.  Here he was compelled to stay for a longer or shorter period, according to the offence, knowing that, if he moved to ease his crippled position, the basket would tilt and he would fall to the floor.

On one occasion, with an exceptionally refractory pupil, his mode of punishment was even more peculiar still.  Having told all the girls to turn their faces to the wall—­and not one of them, so my informant, one of the boys, said, would dare to disobey the order—­he chalked the shape of a grave on the floor of the schoolroom.  He then made the boy, an incorrigible truant, strip off all his clothes, and when he stood covered only in nature’s dress, told him in solemn tones that he was going to bury him alive and under the floor.  One scholar was then sent for a pick, and when this was fetched, another was sent for a shovel.  By the time they were both brought, the truant was in a panic of fear, the end hoped for.  The master then sternly asked the boy if he would play truant again, to which the boy quickly answered no.  On this, he was allowed to dress, being assured as he did so that if ever again he stopped from school without leave he should certainly be buried alive, and so great was the dread produced, the boy from that time was regularly found at school.

If parents objected to these punishments, they were simply told to take their children from school, which, as Fewson was the only master for miles around, he knew they would be loath to do.  Fewson taught nearly all the children of the district whose parents felt it necessary that they should have any education.  He is said to have turned out good scholars in the three R’s, his curriculum being limited to these subjects, with, for an extra fee, mensuration added.

But Fewson, if he did not teach it, felt himself to be well up in astronomy.  One summer, an old boy of his told me, he got the children—­my informant amongst the number—­to collect from their parents and others for a trip to Hornsea.  When the money was all in he complained that the amount was insufficient for a trip, and suggested that a telescope he had seen advertised should be bought with the money.  If this were done, he promised that those who had subscribed should have the telescope in turn to look through from Saturday to Monday.  The telescope was purchased, and each subscriber had it once, and then it was no more seen.  From that time it became the entire property of the master.  The children never again collected for a trip, and small wonder.