case, the division of the school for teaching purposes has no reference
to the division into boarding-houses. It was proposed to pluck up the
school by the roots and transplant it bodily to strange soil; to take
with us the entire body of masters, with, probably, their families, and
every boy who was ready to follow; to provide teaching for the latter,
not only without loss in the amount, but without interruption of the
existing system in any branch; and to guarantee the supply of everything
necessary for the corporate life of three hundred boys, who had to be
housed, fed, taught, disciplined, and (not the easiest of tasks) amused,
on a single spot, and one as bare of all the wonted appliances of public
school life as that yet uncertain place was like to prove, of which the
recommendation for our residence would be that no one else cared to
reside there.




CHAPTER II.--A CHARTER OF SETTLEMENT.


_Habet populus Romanus ad quos gubernacula rei publicae deferat_: _qui
ubicunque terrarum sunt_, _ibi omne est rei publicae praesidium_, _vel
potius ipsa res publica_.

CICERO.

HAMLET. _Is not parchment made of sheep-skins_?

HORATIO. _Ay_, _my lord, and of calf-skins too_.