“There are Greek and English Lexicons now; but if your nephew is intended for a public school, the better way, as he would be a day-boy (which I look upon to be the greatest of all advantages), would be to send him to Westminster as soon as he was fit for the second form: I do not say for the petty, because the work of the first two years may probably be as well got at home in six months. Had I lived in London, Cuthbert should certainly have gone to Westminster as a day-boy. There is in schemes of education, as in every thing else, a choice of evils: no safe process—that is impossible. My settled opinion is, that the best plan is a public school, where the boy can board at home: upon this I have no doubt. When he cannot, the question between public and private education is so questionable, that in most cases a feather might turn the scale. With me it was turned by the heavy weights of distance and expense, and the consideration that life is uncertain; and by educating my son at home, I was at least sure of this, that his years of boyhood would be happy.
“Your godson, whom you are not likely to see unless you
come to Keswick, is nearly, if not quite, as tall as his godfather, though he
completed his thirteenth year only in February last. His knowledge of Greek is
about as much as I carried with
| Ætat. 58. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 189 |
“I am reviewing Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, with the intention of winding up with some remarks on the present state of affairs. One of the amiable correspondents of the Times asks, in to-day’s paper, whether I am one of the Duke of Wellington’s advisers!—a question which shows how much this fellow knows either about the Duke or me.
“God bless you!
“The Cattery of Cats’ Eden congratulate the Cat-without-a-name upon his succession in Stafford Row.”
