A startling description!  But this was nothing to the wild pranks that lived in the traditions of the elder generation; and in a few years more the boys were debarred from the mischievous licence of the fair.

Coley had now been nearly a year at Eton, and had proceeded through the lower and middle removes of the fourth form, when, on November 23, he achieved the success of which he thus writes:—­

’Rejoice!  I was sent up for good yesterday at eleven o’clock school.  I do not know what copy of verses for yet, but directly I do, I will send you a copy....  Goodford, when I took my ticket to be signed (for I was obliged to get Goodford, Abraham, and my tutor to sign it), said, “I will sign it most willingly,” and then kept on stroking my hand, and said, “I congratulate you most heartily, and am very glad of it.”  I am the only one who is sent up; which is a good thing for me, as it will give me forty or fifty good marks in trials.  I am so splitting with joy you cannot think, because now I have given you some proof that I have been lately sapping and doing pretty well.  Do not, think that I am praising myself, for I am pretty nearly beside myself, you may suppose.’

One of his cousins adds, on the same sheet:  ’I must tell you it is very difficult to be sent up in the upper fourth form, and still more so in the middle remove.’

The subject of the Latin verses which obtained this distinction was a wreath or garland, and there must have been something remarkable in them, for Mr. Abraham preserved a copy of them for many years.  There was something in the sweetness and docility of the boy, and in the expression of his calm, gentle face, that always greatly interested the masters and made them rejoice in his success; and among his comrades he was a universal favourite.  His brother joined him at Eton during the ensuing year, when the Queen’s wedding afforded the boys another glimpse of Royal festivity.  Their tumultuous loyalty and audacity appear in Coley’s letter:—­

’In college, stretching from Hexter’s to Mother Spier’s was a magnificent representation of the Parthenon:  there were three pillars, and a great thing like this (a not over-successful sketch of a pediment), with the Eton and Royal arms in the middle, and “Gratulatur Etona Victoria et Alberto” It cost £150, and there were 5,000 lamps hung on it.  Throughout the whole day we all of us wore large white bridal favours and white gloves.  Towards evening the clods got on Long Walk Wall; and as gentle means would not do, we were under the necessity of knocking some over, when the rest soon jumped off.  However, F—–­ and myself declared we would go right into the quadrangle of the Castle, so we went into the middle of the road and formed a line.  Soon a rocket (the signal that the Queen was at Slough) was let off, and then some Life Guards came galloping along, and one of them ran almost over me, and actually trod on F—–­’s