other in the same social position, and I pass it by, merely stating
that, after proper preparation, I was packed off to Bedford School for
a few years.

My life there would have been an uninteresting blank but for a little
circumstance which will presently be related. It was the custom
then at this very excellent foundation to give mainly a classical
education, and doubtless I attained a very fair proficiency in my
studies. Had I cultivated them, however, with the same assiduity as
I did many of my pursuits in after-life, I might have attained some
eminence as a professor of the dead languages, and arrived at the
dignity of one of the masters of Bedford.

However, if I had any ambition at that time, it was not to become a
professor of dead languages, but to see what I could make of my own.
It is of no interest to any one that I had great numbers of peg-tops
and marbles, or learnt to be a pretty good swimmer in the Ouse. There
was a greater swim prepared for me in after-life, and that is the only
reason for my referring to it.

In the year 1830 Bedford Schoolhouse occupied the whole of one side of
St. Paul's Square, which faced the High Street. From that part of the
building you commanded a view of the square and the beautiful country
around. The sleepy old bridge spanned the still more sleepy river,
over which lay the quiet road leading to the little village of
Willshampstead, and it came along through the old square where the
schoolhouse was.

It was market day in Bedford, and there was the usual concourse of
buyers and sellers, tramps and country people in their Sunday gear;