A greater disappointment than this was, however, in store for Coley.
He failed in attaining a place among the 'select,' at his last
examination for the Newcastle, in the spring of 1845. Before the
list was given out he had written to his father that the Divinity
papers were far too easy, with no opportunity for a pretty good
scholar to show his knowledge, 'the ridicule of every one of the
masters,' but the other papers very difficult.

'Altogether,' he adds, 'the scholarship has been to me unsatis-
factory. I had worked hard at Greek prose, had translated and re-
translated a good deal of Xenophon, Plato, and some Demosthenes, yet
to my disappointment we had no paper of Greek prose, a thing that I
believe never occurred before, and which is generally believed to
test a boy's knowledge well. My Iambics were good, I expect, though
not without two bad faults. In fact, I cannot look back upon a
single paper, except my Latin prose, without a multitude of
oversights and faults presenting themselves to me... I almost dread
the giving out of the select. Think if my name was not there. It is
some consolation that Hawtrey, yesterday, in giving me an exercise
for good, asked how I liked the examination. Upon my saying, "It was
not such a one as I expected, and that I had done badly," he said
"That is not at all what I hear," but this cannot go for much... I
want exercise very badly, and my head is very thick and stupid, as I
fear this last paper must show the examiners.'

The omission of Patteson's name from among the select was a great
mortification, not only to himself but his father, though the Judge
kindly wrote:--

'Do not distress yourself about this unfortunate failure as to the