sense for original versification in the classical languages, or for
turning English into Greek or Latin, yet he seemed to seize the precise
meaning of the authors and to give the sense. "His composition was
stiff," but yet, says a classmate, "when there were thrilling passages
of Virgil or Homer, or difficult passages in 'Scriptores Graeci' to
translate, he or Lord Arthur Hervey was generally called up to edify
the class with quotations or translations."

He had no prizes at Eton except what is called being sent up for good,
on account of verses, and he was honored on several occasions. Besides
he took deep interest in starting a college periodical, and with some of
the most intellectual of the students sustained it with his pen. The
more studious of Eton boys have on several occasions in the present
century been in the habit of establishing periodicals for the purpose of
ventilating their opinions. In 1786 Mr. Canning and Mr. Hookham Frere
established the _Microcosm_, whose essays and _jeux d'esprit_, while
having reference primarily to Eton, demonstrated that the writers were
not insensible to what was going on in the great world without. It was
for this college paper that Canning wrote his "Essay on the Epic of the
Queen of Hearts," which, as a burlesque criticism, has been awarded a
high place in English literature. Lord Henry Spencer, Hookham Frere,
Capel Lofft, and Mr. Millish, were also contributors to the columns of
the _Microcosm_. In the year 1820 W. Mackworth Praed set on foot a
manuscript journal, entitled _Apis Matina_. This was in turn succeeded
by the _Etonian_, to which Praed contributed some of his most brilliant
productions. John Moultrie, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Walter Blunt, and
Chauncy Hare Townshend were also among the writers for its papers, who
helped to make it of exceptional excellence. Its articles are of no
ordinary interest even now.