had a wandering life of it at first. There were but three lay-inspectors
for all England. My district went right across from Pembroke Dock to
Great Yarmouth. We had no home. One of our children was born in a
lodging at Derby, with a workhouse, if I recollect aright, behind and a
penitentiary in front. But the _irksomeness_ of my new duties was what I
felt most, and during the first year or so it was sometimes
insupportable."

[Illustration: Laleham Church

As it was in Matthew Arnold's boyhood

_Photo H.W. Taunt_]

The name of Arnold is so inseparably connected with Education[9] that
many of Matthew Arnold's friends were astonished by this frank
confession, which he made in his address to the Westminster Teachers'
Association on the occasion of his retirement from the office of
Inspector. There is reason to believe that the profession on which he
had set his early affections was Diplomacy. It is easy to see how
perfectly, in many respects, diplomatic life would have suited him. The
proceeds of his Fellowship, then considerable and unhampered by any
conditions of residence, would have supplied the lack of private
fortune. He had some of the diplomatist's most necessary gifts--love of
travel, familiarity with European literature, keen interest in foreign
politics and institutions, taste for cultivated society, rich enjoyment
of life, and fascinating manners conspicuously free from English
stiffness and shyness. As to his interest in foreign politics, it is
only necessary to cite _England and the Italian Question_, which he
wrote in 1859, and which deals with the unity and independence of Italy.