thoughts were on the matter, he found himself obliged for a quiet life
to use him with a good deal of severity, which, either because he
believed it unjust, or that it was disagreeable to his own
disposition, he grew very weary of in a short time, and to put an end
to it, resolved to send the child to a boarding-school, tho' he had
always declared against that sort of education, and frequently said,
that though these great schools might improve the learning, they were
apt to corrupt the morals of youth.

Finding himself, however, under a kind of necessity for so doing,
nothing remained but the choice of a convenient place. The wife
proposed some part of Yorkshire, not only as the cheapest, but also
that by reason of the distance, she should not have the trouble of him
at home in the holidays; but to this it was not in her power to
prevail on his father to consent, and after many disputes between them
on it, Eton was at length pitched upon.

Natura heard of his intended removal with a perfect indifference:--if
the thoughts of parting from his father gave him any pain, it was
balanced by those of being eased of the persecuting of his stepmother;
but when all things were prepared for his journey, in which he was to
be accompanied by an old relation, who was to give the necessary
charge with him to those into whose care he should be committed, he
was taken suddenly ill on the very day he had been to take leave of
his kindred, and other friends in town.

His distemper proved to be the small-pox, but being of a very
favourable sort, he recovered in a short time, and lost nothing of his
handsomeness by that so-much-dreaded enemy to the face: there
remained, however, a little redness, which, till intirely worn off, it