CHAPTER I

ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION

If anybody cares to read a simple tale told simply, I, John Ridd, of the

parish of Oare, in the county of Somerset, yeoman and churchwarden, have

seen and had a share in some doings of this neighborhood, which I will

try to set down in order, God sparing my life and memory. And they who

light upon this book should bear in mind not only that I write for the

clearing of our parish from ill fame and calumny, but also a thing which

will, I trow, appear too often in it, to wit--that I am nothing more

than a plain unlettered man, not read in foreign languages, as a

gentleman might be, nor gifted with long words (even in mine own

tongue), save what I may have won from the Bible or Master William

Shakespeare, whom, in the face of common opinion, I do value highly. In

short, I am an ignoramus, but pretty well for a yeoman.

My father being of good substance, at least as we reckon in Exmoor, and

seized in his own right, from many generations, of one, and that the

best and largest, of the three farms into which our parish is divided

(or rather the cultured part thereof), he John Ridd, the elder,

churchwarden, and overseer, being a great admirer of learning, and well

able to write his name, sent me his only son to be schooled at Tiverton,

in the county of Devon. For the chief boast of that ancient town (next

to its woollen staple) is a worthy grammar-school, the largest in the

west of England, founded and handsomely endowed in the year 1604 by

Master Peter Blundell, of that same place, clothier.

Here, by the time I was twelve years old, I had risen into the upper

school, and could make bold with Eutropius and Cæsar--by aid of an

English version--and as much as six lines of Ovid. Some even said that

I might, before manhood, rise almost to the third form, being of a

persevering nature; albeit, by full consent of all (except my mother),

thick-headed. But that would have been, as I now perceive, an ambition

beyond a farmer's son; for there is but one form above it, and that made

of masterful scholars, entitled rightly “monitors”. So it came to

pass, by the grace of God, that I was called away from learning,

whilst sitting at the desk of the junior first in the upper school, and

beginning the Greek verb

[Illustration: greek1.jpg]

My eldest grandson makes bold to say that I never could have learned

[Illustration: greek2.jpg]

ten pages further on, being all he himself could manage, with plenty of

stripes to help him. I know that he hath more head than I--though never

will he have such body; and am thankful to have stopped betimes, with a

meek and wholesome head-piece.

[Illustration: 002.jpg John Ridd's School Desk]

But if you doubt of my having been there, because now I know so little,

go and see my name, “John Ridd,” graven on that very form. Forsooth,

from the time I was strong enough to open a knife and to spell my name,

I began to grave it in the oak, first of the block whereon I sate, and

then of the desk in front of it, according as I was promoted from one to

other of them: and there my grandson reads it now, at this present time

of writing, and hath fought a boy for scoffing at it--“John Ridd his

name”--and done again in “winkeys,” a mischievous but cheerful device,

in which we took great pleasure.

This is the manner of a “winkey,” which I here set down, lest child

of mine, or grandchild, dare to make one on my premises; if he does,

I shall know the mark at once, and score it well upon him. The scholar

obtains, by prayer or price, a handful of saltpetre, and then with the

knife wherewith he should rather be trying to mend his pens, what does

he do but scoop a hole where the desk is some three inches thick. This

hole should be left with the middle exalted, and the circumference dug

more deeply. Then let him fill it with saltpetre, all save a little

space in the midst, where the boss of the wood is. Upon that boss (and

it will be the better if a splinter of timber rise upward) he sticks the

end of his candle of tallow, or “rat's tail,” as we called it, kindled

and burning smoothly. Anon, as he reads by that light his lesson,

lifting his eyes now and then it may be, the fire of candle lays hold of

the petre with a spluttering noise and a leaping. Then should the pupil

seize his pen, and, regardless of the nib, stir bravely, and he will see

a glow as of burning mountains, and a rich smoke, and sparks going

merrily; nor will it cease, if he stir wisely, and there be a good store

of petre, until the wood is devoured through, like the sinking of a

well-shaft. Now well may it go with the head of a boy intent upon his

primer, who betides to sit thereunder! But, above all things, have good

care to exercise this art before the master strides up to his desk, in

the early gray of the morning.

Other customs, no less worthy, abide in the school of Blundell, such as

the singeing of nightcaps; but though they have a pleasant savour, and

refreshing to think of, I may not stop to note them, unless it be that

goodly one at the incoming of a flood. The school-house stands beside a

stream, not very large, called Lowman, which flows into the broad river

of Exe, about a mile below. This Lowman stream, although it be not fond

of brawl and violence (in the manner of our Lynn), yet is wont to flood

into a mighty head of waters when the storms of rain provoke it; and

most of all when its little co-mate, called the Taunton Brook--where

I have plucked the very best cresses that ever man put salt on--comes

foaming down like a great roan horse, and rears at the leap of the

hedgerows. Then are the gray stone walls of Blundell on every side

encompassed, the vale is spread over with looping waters, and it is a

hard thing for the day-boys to get home to their suppers.

And in that time, old Cop, the porter (so called because he hath copper

boots to keep the wet from his stomach, and a nose of copper also, in

right of other waters), his place is to stand at the gate, attending to

the flood-boards grooved into one another, and so to watch the torrents

rise, and not be washed away, if it please God he may help it. But long

ere the flood hath attained this height, and while it is only waxing,

certain boys of deputy will watch at the stoop of the drain-holes, and

be apt to look outside the walls when Cop is taking a cordial. And in

the very front of the gate, just without the archway, where the ground

is paved most handsomely, you may see in copy-letters done a great

P.B. of white pebbles. Now, it is the custom and the law that when

the invading waters, either fluxing along the wall from below the

road-bridge, or pouring sharply across the meadows from a cut called

Owen's Ditch--and I myself have seen it come both ways--upon the very

instant when the waxing element lips though it be but a single pebble of

the founder's letters, it is in the license of any boy, soever small

and undoctrined, to rush into the great school-rooms, where a score of

masters sit heavily, and scream at the top of his voice, “P.B.”

Then, with a yell, the boys leap up, or break away from their standing;

they toss their caps to the black-beamed roof, and haply the very books

after them; and the great boys vex no more the small ones, and the small

boys stick up to the great ones. One with another, hard they go, to see

the gain of the waters, and the tribulation of Cop, and are prone to

kick the day-boys out, with words of scanty compliment. Then the masters

look at one another, having no class to look to, and (boys being no more

left to watch) in a manner they put their mouths up. With a spirited

bang they close their books, and make invitation the one to the other

for pipes and foreign cordials, recommending the chance of the time, and

the comfort away from cold water.

But, lo! I am dwelling on little things and the pigeons' eggs of the

infancy, forgetting the bitter and heavy life gone over me since then.

If I am neither a hard man nor a very close one, God knows I have had no

lack of rubbing and pounding to make stone of me. Yet can I not somehow

believe that we ought to hate one another, to live far asunder, and

block the mouth each of his little den; as do the wild beasts of the

wood, and the hairy outrangs now brought over, each with a chain upon

him. Let that matter be as it will. It is beyond me to unfold, and

mayhap of my grandson's grandson. All I know is that wheat is better

than when I began to sow it.