'She was living at Ealing, in Middlesex, in 1834; and there she opened
one of the first industrial schools in England, if not the very first.
She sent out a master to Switzerland, to be instructed in De
Fellenburgh's method. She took, on lease, five acres of land, and
spent several hundred pounds in rendering the buildings upon it fit
for the purposes of the school. A liberal education was afforded to
the children of artisans and labourers during the half of the day when
they were not employed in the field or garden. The allotments were
rented by the boys, who raised and sold produce, which afforded them a
considerable yearly profit if they were good workmen. Those who
worked in the field earned wages; their labour being paid by the hour,
according to the capability of the young labourer. They kept their
accounts of expenditure and receipts, and acquired good habits of
business while learning the occupation of their lives. Some
mechanical trades were taught, as well as the arts of agriculture.

'Part of the wisdom of the management lay in making the pupils pay. Of
one hundred pupils, half were boarders. They paid little more than
half the expenses of their maintenance, and the day-scholars paid
threepence per week. Of course, a large part of the expense was borne
by Lady Byron, besides the payments she made for children who could
not otherwise have entered the school. The establishment flourished
steadily till 1852, when the owner of the land required it back for
building purposes. During the eighteen years that the Ealing schools
were in action, they did a world of good in the way of incitement and
example. The poor-law commissioners pointed out their merits. Land-
owners and other wealthy persons visited them, and went home and set
up similar establishments. During those years, too, Lady Byron had
herself been at work in various directions to the same purpose.