ABSTRACT
Soon after his arrival in Lincolnshire Wilderspin received welcome news from his old supporter, William Martin, former editor of the Educational Magazine, now launched on a career as an author of school texts and children's stories. 7 Martin had been in touch with Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, with a view to obtaining an ad hoc grant to tide Wilderspin over his lean period. "Sir Robert Peel, to whom I mentioned your services and wants", wrote Martin, "has generously offered you aid by a donation of twenty pounds from the Royal Bounty which I can obtain for you at any time". He added that an appointment ~ "colonial or otherwise" ~ might also be in the offing and invited Wilderspin to London to discuss the situation. 8
M_artin had written to Peel on 10 June, commending Wilderspin as "one of those faithful public servants who deserve well of their country and to whom a small annuity might be judiciously granted". Infant schools, he pointed out, inculcated "those principles of order and obedience which induce by far the larger portions of the lower classes to look upon your administration with gratitude ... " The success of the schools had been entirely due to the thirty-year labour of Wilderspin, who had now completely exhausted his resources. "I need only say", Martin concluded, "that on a recent occasion I found him without the common necessaries of life and his family without bread".9
