Acton to the South Western is to commence. Willesden has been rendered
classic ground, for the Hero-worshippers who take highwaymen within the
circle of their miscellaneous sympathies, by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth's "Jack
Sheppard,"--the "cage" where this ruffian was more than once confined still
remains in its original insecurity.

Sudbury affords nothing to detain us. The next station is within a mile of
Harrow-on-the-Hill, with its beacon-like church spire. Rich pasture lies
around, famous for finishing off bullocks fed in the north. Harrow school is
almost as much one of the institutions of England as Oxford and Cambridge
Universities. It is one of the great public schools, which, if they do not
make the ripest scholars, make "men" of our aristocracy. This school was
founded by one John Lyon, a farmer of the parish, who died in 1592.

[HARROW-ON-THE-HILL: ill2.jpg]

Attached to it there are four exhibitions of 20 pounds each, and two
scholarships of 50 pounds each.

The grand celebrity of the school rests upon the education of those who are
not on the foundation. The sons of noblemen and wealthy gentlemen, who in
this as in many other instances, have treated those for whose benefit the
school was founded, as the young cuckoo treats the hedge sparrow. Among its
illustrious scholars Harrow numbers Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel.

An old saw runs: "Eton fops, Harrow gentlemen, Winchester scholars, and
Westminster blackguards."

Since the palmy days when Dr. Drury was master and Byron and Peel were
pupils, Harrow has declined to insignificance, and been by the abilities of