ABSTRACT
From Beaulieu I proceeded to Winchester. This was a scene no less new to me; but how different from that which I had just quitted! Dr Pottinger, the headmaster, had been the acquaintance and fellow-collegiate of Mr Bradford. a He felt therefore some respect for me on that account; but still more perhaps because I was the sole presumptive heir to the property of Mandeville. He examined me in my progress; he assigned me a class, and provided me with the implements of study. The school-room was a spacious and lofty building, and I looked round me, astonished / at every thing I saw. The pupils were about one hundred and fifty; and never in my life had I seen so numerous an assembly. But this was not an assembly, thrown together promiscuously b and for a moment; but an assembly (subject to those changes incident to all human societies), with which I was to associate, with few interruptions, for several years to come. Some of the boys had already reached the full stature of manhood; and others were so young, that they seemed to hold their books with a faltering and uncertain hand, and rather to lisp, than articulately to 78pronounce, the inflections of their accidence. a I also admired the garb of the scholars on the foundation, who wore black gowns of crape, and, when they went into the air, placed upon their heads trencher-caps, b like those belonging to the students in the universities.
