universal ones of all public schools -cricket, fives, and football. The latter has of late years been played vigorously enough; but it is singular that Butler, himself brought up at Rugby, the natural home of the game, should have forbidden it in the earlier days of his reign at Shrewsbury, denouncing it as "only fit for butcher-boys." The matches of the school cricket eleven have hitherto been played only against the neighbouring clubs in the county, but the increasing facilities of railway communication will open the way to a meeting with other schools. Boating, at one time forbidden, has gradually crept up through several stages of toleration to be a recognised institution, sanctioned by the masters, and under the regular superintendence of a "captain ;" and no boy is now allowed to go into the boats until he can swim. The old tub-like affairs in which Salopians of past days were content to take the water have long given way to modern out-riggers, and the school crew have pulled two well-contested matches with Cheltenham College, losing a time race in 1864 only by a few seconds, and winning last year (at Tewkesbury), after a most exciting struggle, by some two or three feet. The boating season concludes with a "regatta," which affords a good deal of amusement to the townspeople as well as the school.

In each of the halls, at the beginning of the school half-year, there takes place a ceremony known as the "Election." Certain officers of the hall are elected by universal suffrage; amongst others a "Lord High Constable," charged with the general maintenance of order, and whose powers and duties assume all the more importance from being very undefined; and two "Hall-criers" (or latterly one), whose chief duties were to read out at breakfast-time lists of the fags on duty for cricket or football, descriptions of lost articles, &c. &c. This office, in former days, had commonly to be performed

under a fire of such missiles as came handiest-often the regulation iron spoons which were supplied for the bread-and-milk breakfast which was the fare in the rougher days of Shrewsbury. Each proclamation began, in due form, with, "Oh yes! oh yes!" and ended with "God save the King (or Queen)! and d- the Radicals!"

an addition highly suggestive of the Conservative sentiments of Shrewsbury. The excitement at these elections in past days was very great; a polling-booth was erected with the tables and benches at one end of the hall, where the votes were taken by the returning officer. Canvassers and voters stripped to their shirt-sleeves, and a general scrimmage began to bring supporters up to the poll, and to keep opponents in durance till the election was over-the object of each party being to secure the least burdensome offices for their own friends. The successful candidates stood on a table to return thanks, receiving the popular compliments in the shape of pinches from behind, and a shower of books, bread-crusts, &c., in front. They were finally inaugurated by being tossed in a blanket-not an agreeable operation in itself, and the less so because Shrewsbury ceilings are low, and the blankets were sometimes thin. In these days of good behaviour, election reform has extended itself to the halls at Shrewsbury; and a half-holiday is now given on the express understanding that at least the pelting and blanket-tossing shall be omitted.

The authority of the upper boys at Shrewsbury, although fully recognised as a principle of school government (Dr Kennedy, indeed, considers it "the very bone and sinew of English public education"), has always been strictly limited. The first twelve boys in the sixth form (which is unusually large) rank as "præpostors," and have certain distinctive privileges, such as wearing a hat instead of the regulation.

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cap, going out of bounds, and carrying a stick, which, however, they are not allowed to use in the way of personal correction, though they have the power of setting "punishments" in the form of lines to be written out. Fagging, as an individual service, is forbidden, and has never been regularly established in the school. But four boys are 'put on by rotation every week as general fags for the head common-room, whose duties in modern days consist chiefly in fetching and carrying. These fags are called "douls" (dovλos) in the classical Shrewsbury vernacular. But very much has always depended, as to the nature of these services, on the tyranny or the moderation of the upper boys. It used to be common for a younger boy on coming to the school to be attached to one of the seniors in the relation of client to patron-receiving help in his lessons and protection out of school, and in return performing for him little personal services, even to the cleaning his boots. A good deal of unlicensed service used also to be exacted from the day-boys, or Skytes (Exvbai), as they were termed; who, sooth to say, had formerly rather a hard time of it, being usually stoned out of school-lane at twelve o'clock, unless they were put upon some duty. In one form, at every repetition lesson, it was the recognised duty of the skyte in office to tear out of his own book the leaf containing the lesson and stick it on the front of the master's desk, where it was safe from his and eyes, very useful to the form in general. On one occasion, the boy had left his book at home, and had to copy the passage out on paper. Either carelessly, or of malice prepense, he left out two lines; and the master was considerably puzzled and irritated by the strange coincidence of every boy in succession, as he stood up to recite, omitting the very same two lines, though in every other re

spect the lesson was said perfectly. It may be imagined that he was not a very lynx-eyed disciplinarian. It was remembered of him that during the Shrewsbury races he was left to superintend an extra composition lesson to be done in school by one of the upper forms—the chief object of which was to secure their presence there, and so keep them out of harm's way. Very soon after they had sat down, one boy after another brought up to his desk a few lines hastily scribbled, and, saying that he "could not do any more," left the room; and it was long before the master, whose dreamy studies took no account of races, discovered that he was left alone with one solitary and conscientious pupil.

But such stories are mere spots in the sun of Shrewsbury teaching. In that respect, at least, it has borne, and may bear comparison with any school in England. Its catalogue of University honours, both under Dr Butler and Dr Kennedy, may fairly be said to be unrivalled in proportion to the numbers of its scholars. In the somewhat dingy room on the groundfloor, known as the "Fourth-form School," there runs round the walls an inscription, put up by Dr Butler in 1806, surmounting a series of wooden tablets, which record the triumphs of half a century :— "Tu facito, mox cum matura adoleverit ætas,

Sis memor, atque animo repetas exempla tuorum,

Et tua te virtus magna inter præmia tollat."

There stand in goodly rows, extending still every year, the names and dates of those who have won for the school any University distinction. The outside world smiled indeed a little, when Dr Butler, in the pride of his heart, inserted one name in gilt letters as having won the "Ireland" at Oxford, while yet in residence as a schoolboy at

DARKNESS still prevailed when we mounted our horses and again hastened to Jackson's Hill, the summit of which we reached just in time to see the sun rising, and unveiling, as it dispersed the hazy fogs of the damp, frosty winter's night, the long lines of the Federal army, which once more stood in full line of battle about half-way between our own position and the river. I could not withhold my admiration as I looked down upon the well-disciplined lines of our antagonist, astonished that these troops now offering so bold a front to our victorious army should be the same whom not many hours since I had seen in complete flight and disorder. The skirmishers of the two armies were not much more than a hundred yards apart, concealed from each other's view by the high grass in which they were lying, and above which, from time to time, rose a small cloud of blue smoke, telling that a shot had been fired before the report came feebly wafted to us by the light morning breeze. As the boom of artillery now began to sound from different parts of the line, and the attack might be expected every minute, each hastened to his post. As on the previous day, our cavalry was briskly engaged with the hostile sharpshooters, and again the firing sounded loudest in the neighbourhood of the straw stacks already mentioned. That these should no longer offer a shelter, some of Pelham's well directed shells soon set the dry material in a blaze, and the squad of forty or fifty Yankees who had sought the protection of the stacks, finding the place too hot to hold, scampered off in a

body, accompanied by a loud cheer from our men and a well-aimed volley, which brought down several of the fugitives. Hour after hour passed away in anxious expectation of the combat; but though the skirmishing at times grew hotter, and the fire of the artillery more rapid, long intervals of silence again succeeded. As usual, the hostile batteries were not chary of their ammunition; and whenever a group of officers showed itself plainly within range, it was at once greeted with a couple of shells or solid shot. Having to ride over to Fitz Lee, who, with the greater part of his brigade, was in reserve, I met Dr J., whose acquaintance I had made during one of our raids. He was just driving up to the General in his buggy, which, besides its hospitable inmate, contained an excellent cold dinner and a bottle of whisky for our solace. We had scarcely, however, begun to unpack the chickens and biscuits, and the cork was still on its way through the neck of the whisky bottle, when, instead of the "cluck" announcing its complete extraction, our ears were greeted with a sound never pleasing at any time, but at this particular moment more than ever awakening disgust-the whizzing of a shell which plunged into the soft ground not more than twenty feet off, covering us instantaneously with an abundant coating of mud. This was too much for the nerves of our peaceful host, who drove off, carrying with him the much-coveted refreshments, which had delighted our eyes only to delude our remaining senses. We followed him, however, in eager pursuit, and succeeded seve

ral times in overtaking and arresting the flight of the precious fugitive, but each time our happiness was cut short by the enemy's artillery, whose aim pursued the buggy as tenaciously as ourselves, till at last we took refuge in a deep ravine, completely screened from the keen eyes of the Yankees, who, as we completed our meal, came in for a fire of maledictions for their want of common courtesy and consideration. Thus did the day wear on to its close without any event of importance; and it becoming evident as the evening advanced that the attack would not be renewed on the 14th, we returned after nightfall once more to our short night's rest at headquarters. Things looked very little changed when, on the cold, clear morning of the 15th, we rode up to Jackson's Hill; and General Stuart deciding to remain until serious fighting should commence, we had an opportunity of having a good look at the devastations caused by the tremendous artillery fire of the 13th. The forest was literally torn to pieces trees more than a foot in diameter were snapped in two, large branches were shattered to splinters, and scarcely a small twig but showed marks of some kind of missile. In many places the ground was ploughed up by the cannon-balls, which, together with pieces of shell, canister, and grape - shot, lay strewn in every direction. Most of our dead had already been buried, but the carcasses of the animals were still lying about in large numbers; the batteries of Walker's artillery on Jackson's Hill having lost not less than 90 horses during the first two hours of the terrific bombardment. The morning passed slowly away, the anxious silence maintained being broken only by the firing from time to time of the heavy batteries; and many of our leaders, Stuart and Jackson foremost, began to give up any hope of a renewal of the attack. The latter general was still in favour of a night

attack, and proposed that our men should be stripped naked to the waist, so that they might easily recognise each other in the darkness and confusion of the conflict. About 12 o'clock two mounted officers, followed by a small squad of cavalry, bearing a white flag, suddenly appeared riding towards us from the enemy's lines, and soon after General Jackson received a report that a flag of truce had arrived, with a request on the part of the Federal generals to be allowed to bury their dead and look after the wounded. To this Stonewall did not think proper to accede, as the application was not signed by the Federal Commander-in-Chief, an omission which, on several previous occasions, had opened the way to serious misunderstandings. Accordingly the Federal officers retired to obtain the signature of Burnside, and did not return until after a delay of nearly two hours, when the permission which humanity dictated being applied for in due form, was readily granted. Being one of the officers appointed on our side to superintend the proceedings, I rode forthwith down to the plain, and thus had the first opportunity of inspecting the battle-field in our immediate front. The burial parties of the Federals were ready and in excellent order, and as soon as the truce was accepted, different columns, from 200 to 300 strong, moved forward in double quick and went at once to work, taking up the wounded and burying the dead, assisted by a large number of our own men, who had long been anxious to bring help to the wounded sufferers outside our intrenchments, but were deterred from yielding to their humane impulses by the bullets of the enemy's sharpshooters. All had been going on thus smoothly for half an hour, when suddenly some of the batteries in the enemy's centre opened a heavy fire. The excitement and consternation caused by this was immense; the cry of treason ran along our lines; our men