TWO SCHOLARSHIPS PRESENTED BY GEORGE MORLEY, Esq.,

CHAPTER VII.

DOMESTIC LIFE.

UNDER

NDER this head it is proposed to include some account, not only of the boys' Meals and Clothes, but also of Letter Writing, Holidays, and Discipline.

MEALS. To feed eighty boys daily must have cost the governor no little care, in order to avoid Scylla and Charybdis; so as to give them plenty, and yet to keep the expenses of the establishment within reasonable limits. My impression since I have grown to manhood has been that the mean was hit with tolerable nicety, leaning, if anything, to under-feeding rather than the contrary. We (1822 to 1828) had three meals a day. Breakfast, for five mornings a week, consisted of a good piece of dry bread and a small tin of milk, holding not quite half a pint. The bread was baked on the premises, and was served out with the milk by the domestics before the boys entered the dining-hall. They were previously assembled in the front yard by the ringing of a large bell, which was hung high up, by the outside door of the hall. The boys then ranged themselves under their own several numbers that were painted on the wall, and were thus marched in order into the dining-hall. On the remaining two mornings, a plate of

oatmeal porridge, with treacle, constituted our breakfast. During the summer a tin of milk supplied the place of treacle. It being generally winter when treacle was supplied, it was reckoned a luxury to have the porridge and treacle cold, and it was the practice for the monitors who waited to place their own plates on the ground in the open air with those of their friends.

Dinner was served about half-past twelve o'clock, and generally consisted of meat and potatoes, with some exceptions. On Sunday, as a rule, a round of corned beef was provided, and on Tuesday three legs of roasted mutton were required. The meat was carved by the governor at the head of the central table, and the potatoes were served by the senior resident master. Sometimes a lump of salt which had not been crushed was found amongst the potatoes on a boy's plate, which procured for the cook the sobriquet of "Salt Anne."

On Mondays we had suet pudding, which was known as "Stanley pudding," from the name of Mr. Stanley, who introduced it when he was governor. It was served with melted butter, and was very palatable, and formed the only dish at dinner. Sometimes in the season apple pie was similarly supplied. Occasionally broth was supplied with boiled beef. Once a quarter the committee met at the Grove, consisting of ministers and laymen from Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and the neighbourhood. Committee day was a red-letter day with the boys, for in the first place we had for our dinner a lump of plum pudding; and, secondly, the members of the committee always dined in the same room with the boys. During dinner one of them

was sure to rise, and, addressing the governor, would beg for an afternoon's holiday, which the governor always granted very graciously. On such occasions, after dinner, the boys used to form a ring in the front playground, and sing "Rule, Britannia" and "God save the King." On these occasions, in singing grace before meat, the tune then known as "New Sabbath," but now called "Stockport," and numbered 14 in the new tune book, was always sung to the words "Be present at," &c., and to this day whenever I hear that tune sung I seem to realise the whole scene, and in imagination can hear the fine, deep bass voices of some of the committee joining in it. The third and last meal of the day was given in winter at about half-past five, which always consisted of dry bread and milk. After this meal in winter we attended school till a quarter to eight, when we proceeded to the dining-hall, and after prayers retired to bed. During the long days and light evenings of summer we attended school in a morning before breakfast, and spent the evening in the playground. In this case the evening meal was generally delayed till six or half-past, when lads became very hungry. On the two weekly baking days, some of us would walk past the bakehouse, casting a wistful look at the loaves, which had been baked, and enjoy the smell of the new bread.

During the whole of the time during which I was a scholar, our dinner consisted of one dish only, generally meat and potatoes without bread. As already intimated, occasionally we had apple pie, and, on committee days, plum pudding, and suet (or Stanley) pudding on Mondays,