From Reading
Dr. Arnold's Life You Will Have Learned That The Head Master Of One
Of These Very Great Schools Is No Unimportant Personage.
Dr.
Hawtrey has an income of six or seven thousand pounds.
He is
unmarried, but has two single sisters who live with him, and his
establishment in one of the old college houses is full of elegance
and comfort. We took an open travelling carriage with imperials,
and drove down to Eton with our own horses, arriving about one
o'clock. At two, precisely, the Provost of King's College,
Cambridge, was to arrive, and to be received under the old gateway
of the cloister by the Captain of the school with a Latin speech.
After dinner there is a regatta among the boys, which is one of the
characteristic and pleasing old customs. All the fashionables of
London who have sons at Eton come down to witness their happiness,
and the river bank is full of gayety. The evening finished with the
most beautiful fireworks I ever saw, which lighted up the Castle
behind and were reflected in the Thames below, while the glancing
oars of the young boatmen, and the music of their band with a merry
chime of bells from St. George's Chapel, above, all combined to give
gayety and interest to the scene. The next morning (Sunday), after
an agreeable breakfast in the long, low-walled breakfast-room, which
opens upon the flower garden, we went to Windsor to worship in St.
George's Chapel.
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