through the south porch, which opened close upon the High Street.

In this old street lay the two buildings that chiefly concerned the
young Underwoods, i.e. the two schools. That for boys was an old
foundation, which had fallen into decay, and had been reformed and
revivified in nineteenth-century fashion, to suit the requirements of
the town. The place, though in the south of England, had become noted
as a pottery, owing partly to the possession of large fields of a
peculiar clay, which was so bad for vegetable growth as to proclaim
its destiny to become pots and pans, partly to its convenient
neighbourhood to the rising seaport of Dearport, which was only an
hour from it by railway. The old St. Oswald's school had been moulded
under the influence of newcomers, who had upset the rules of the
founder, and arranged the terms on the broadest principles of
liberality, bringing, instead of the drowsy old clerical master, a
very brisk and lively young layman, who had a knack of conveying
instruction of multifarious kinds such as had never occurred to his
predecessor.

Mr. Underwood had a certain liking for the man, and when tolerably
well, enjoyed the breaking a lance with him over his many crude
heterodoxies; but he did not love the school, and as long as he was
able had taught his boys himself, and likewise taken a few day-pupils
of the upper ranks, who were preparing for public schools. But when
his failure of health rendered this impracticable, the positive evil
of idleness was, he felt greater than any possible ones that might
arise from either the teaching or the associations of the town
school, and he trusted to home influence to counteract any such
dangers. Or perhaps more truly he dreaded lest his own reluctance
might partly come from prejudice in favour of gentlemen and public