Note 6 — INTRODUCTORY

It was a visit paid to Bruce Castle School which caused De Quincey, in that chapter of his “Autobiographic Sketches” entitled “My Brother,” to write: “Different, O Rowland Hill, are the laws of thy establishment, for other are the echoes heard amid the ancient halls of Bruce. There it is possible for the timid child to be happy, for the child destined to an early grave to reap his brief harvest in peace. Wherefore were there no such asylums in those days? Man flourished then as now. Wherefore did he not put forth his power upon establishments that might cultivate happiness as well as knowledge.” The stories of brutalities inflicted upon weakly boys in some of our large schools of to-day might tempt not a few parents to echo De Quincey's pathetic lament, though perhaps in less archaic language.