-was sent to Eton, where he joined Canning, Frere, and John Smith,
in writing the Eton magazine, the Microcosm; and at Cambridge Bobus
afterwards was known as a fine Latin scholar. Sydney Smith went
first to a school at Southampton, and then to Winchester, where he
became captain of the school. Then he was sent for six months to
Normandy for a last polish to his French before he went on to New
College, Oxford. When he had obtained his fellowship there, his
father left him to his own resources. His eldest brother had been
trained for the bar, his two younger brothers were sent out to
India, and Sydney, against his own wish, yielded to the strong
desire of his father that he should take orders as a clergyman.
Accordingly, in 1794, he became curate of the small parish of
Netherhaven, in Wiltshire. Meat came to Netherhaven only once a
week in a butcher's cart from Salisbury, and the curate often dined
upon potatoes flavoured with ketchup.

The only educated neighbour was Mr. Hicks Beach, the squire, who at
first formally invited the curate to dinner on Sundays, and soon
found his wit, sense, and high culture so delightful, that the
acquaintance ripened into friendship. After two years in the
curacy, Sydney Smith gave it up and went abroad with the squire's
son. "When first I went into the Church," he wrote afterwards, "I
had a curacy in the middle of Salisbury Plain; the parish was
Netherhaven, near Amesbury. The squire of the parish, Mr. Beach,
took a fancy to me, and after I had served it two years, he engaged
me as tutor to his eldest son, and it was arranged that I and his
son should proceed to the University of Weimar in Saxony. We set
out, but before reaching our destination Germany was disturbed by
war, and, in stress of politics, we put into Edinburgh, where I
remained five years."