volumes as to the character of the man and the parent. This school, which
was situated in a healthy village upon Salisbury Plain, consisted of a
master and an usher, who had the care and instruction of sixty-three boys.
The scholars were better fed than taught; but as a healthy situation was
more looked to than their education, by the parents of those children who
were sent there, the discipline was calculated to give general
satisfaction. We learned to read (the Bible), to write, and cast accounts,
and at the end of one year I was taken from this school.

Beyond the common-place events incident to an early initiation into the
tricks and frolics of a school-boy, there occurred, during my stay at this
place, nothing worthy of being introduced here; with the exception,
however, of one very important circumstance, relative to the strict
discipline maintained by my father, in all cases where there was the
slightest deviation from truth. A violation of truth was always sure to be
punished by him with the greatest severity. As the circumstance to which I
allude made a strong and lasting impression upon my mind, and in a great
measure laid the foundation for my general rule of action ever since, I
shall faithfully record it.

During the year that I was at Tilshead I came home for the Midsummer
holidays. On the last Thursday, before I returned, I accompanied my father
to Devizes market, and while he was taking his dinner and selling his corn
I was directed to go to Week, about half a mile distant, to dine with and
see my grandfather. I set off to walk thither, but on my road there was a
number of persons collected on the green, seeing some soldiers fire at a
target--The firing was kept up in rapid succession. I felt alarmed and was
fearful of passing them; I therefore, returned into the town, and having
passed the time away in play with some boys that I met, I returned to my
father at the inn and answered the questions that he put to me, relative