bread and butter, dog's-eared lesson-books, cracked slates, tear-blotted
copy-books, canings, rulerings, hair-cuttings, rainy Sundays, suet
puddings, and a dirty atmosphere of ink surrounding all.' By the Middle
Class I understand those who are brought up at establishments more or
less like Salem House, and by educators more or less like Mr. Creakle.
And the great mass of the Middle part of our community, the part which
comes between those who labour with their hands, on the one side, and
people of fortune on the other, is brought up at establishments of this
kind, although there is a certain portion broken off at the top which is
educated at better. But the great mass are both badly taught, and are
also brought up on a lower plane than is right, brought up ignobly. And
this deteriorates their standard of life, their civilization."

It surely must have been Salem House, or an institution very like it,
that produced the delicious letter quoted by Arnold in his General
Report for 1867. Even Mr. Anstey Guthrie never excelled it in the letter
dictated by Dr. Grimstone to his pupils at Crichton House.

"MY DEAR PARENTS.--The anticipation of our Christmas
vacation abounds in peculiar delights. Not only that its
'festivities,' its social gatherings and its lively amusements
crown the old year with happiness and mirth, but that I come a
guest commended to your hospitable love by the performance of all
you bade me remember when I left you in the glad season of sun and
flowers. And time has sped fleetly since reluctant my departing
step crossed the threshold of that home whose indulgences and
endearments their temporary loss has taught me to value more and
more. Yet that restraint is salutary, and that self-reliance is as
easily learnt as it is laudable, the propriety of my conduct and
the readiness of my services shall ere long aptly illustrate. It is