for her and artless caresses, and the scrapes he got into, and the howls
he uttered over the hymns and catechisms which he was bidden to learn (by
Rev. T. Clack,, of Highbury College, his daily tutor, who was
commissioned to spare not the rod, neither to spoil the child), all these
causes induced Sarah to remain with her young master until such time as
he was sent to school.

Meanwhile an event of prodigious importance, a wonderment, a blessing and
a delight, had happened at the Hermitage. About two years after Mrs.
Newcome's marriage, the lady being then forty-three years of age, no less
than two little cherubs appeared in the Clapham Paradise--the twins,
Hobson Newcome and Brian Newcome, called after their uncle and late
grandfather, whose name and rank they were destined to perpetuate. And
now there was no reason why young Newcome should not go to school. Old
Mr. Hobson and his brother had been educated at that school of Grey
Friars, of which mention has been made in former works and to Grey Friars
Thomas Newcome was accordingly sent, exchanging--O ye Gods! with what
delight!--the splendour of Clapham for the rough, plentiful fare of the
place, blacking his master's shoes with perfect readiness, till he rose
in the school, and the time came when he should have a fag of his own:
tibbing out and receiving the penalty therefore: bartering a black eye,
per bearer, against a bloody nose drawn at sight, with a schoolfellow,
and shaking hands the next day; playing at cricket, hockey, prisoners'
base, and football, according to the season; and gorging himself and
friends with tarts when he had money (and of this he had plenty) to
spend. I have seen his name carved upon the Gown Boys' arch: but he was
at school long before my time; his son showed me the name when we were
boys together, in some year when George the Fourth was king.

The pleasures of this school-life were such to Tommy Newcome, that he did