son of the Judge, had a younger brother, Watty, lately come to the school. Watty was in the Fourth Form, under Lloyd; Lewis imagined, or believed, that Lloyd had a spite against Watty, and did not give him a fair chance. He therefore got up a conspiracy to cut Lloyd at the chairing-i.e., to pass by his house without calling. About six of us were engaged in it; I was one. The plan was to let the ladder be carried round the cloisters, and along the bottom of Great Dean's Yard, till we came to Scott's boarding-house, where Lloyd lived; then we were to trip up the boys who were under the ladder, take their places, and run the ladder, with the future captain in the chair, past the house. The house had a double flight of steps up and down, with landing at the top, like the steps at the under-master's. Lewis and I were to trip up the leaders he was on the house side-the other conspirators were to trip up the carriers in the centre and in the rear. We all ousted our men except Lewis; but we could not keep the head of the ladder away : other boys, either friends of Lloyd's or not knowing what was afoot, shoved that way, and the head of the ladder was worked halfway up the steps.

Lewis, being free, ran up the steps, and, standing close to Lloyd, who had by this time come out, shoved downwards against the ladder. We at last got its head back, and with a wild cheer away we went with it, leaving poor Lloyd standing on his own doorstep unvisited and 'cut.' We ran round Great Dean's Yard, called on Mr. Hose on the terrace, and so completed our round by calls in Little Dean's Yard. Unluckily,

Liddell was looking out of his window, saw the disturbance, and sent across to ascertain the cause. Lewis Williams was reported as the leader of the riot; no other name came out.

As a punishment, Lewis was kept off the water for the rest of the half, had to report himself to the captain in College, and produce various imposes of 100 lines at stated times. Lewis was a Queen's Scholar, and then in the 'third election.'

On the following Saturday I was out at my aunt's, Mrs. Wickham's, in Chesterfield Street, when Lewis was announced. He told me that he could not stand his punishment, and had departed. I advised him to go straight down to Tanherst, near Dorking, where his father, the Judge, lived, and tell him all that had occurred; he did so. Those were Crimean days, commissions were easy to get, and in a month's time he was an Ensign in the Rifle Brigade. He became Adjutant of the 1st Battalion in Canada, left the army on account of ill-health, and died in

1867.

I said it was a blessing to Williams in disguise : by leaving then he joined the Rifle Brigade at

once.

I, on the contrary, hung on at Westminster till the following Christmas, passed my examinations for the army, and also joined the Rifle Brigade, on March 6, 1856, when I found Williams Senior Ensign, a position which it took me two or three years to attain, owing to the slow rate of promotion when the war was over. If I had been expelled, or taken French leave

and departed, as Williams did, I should have had a far quicker run of promotion in the army.

Watty Williams, a barrister and an author, died in

1890.

C. L. Shadwell, the unfortunate occupier of the chair, must have had an uneasy ride. He also became a barrister, and I hope he may be amused at this story of his youth.

CHAPTER XVI

PUNISHMENTS, ETC.

Code of honour-Owning up-Between masters and boys-Amongst the boys themselves-Tannings-Tannings up school—' Handings-The library-Impositions-Smoking-Cheek-Tanning up College.

AND now as to sundry laws and customs which formed a very important part of the life of a Westminster boy. Our code of honour was perhaps peculiar. If put upon your honour, that was sufficient-you were bound by it; or when there was a question of Who did it?' and there was a danger of another boy suffering for your offence, then of course you had to come forward, and, as the Yankees say, 'own up,' and woe betide you if you did not speak out! But in connection with work in school, at all events in the lower forms, it was always war between the masters and the boys; any amount of humbugging of a master was considered fair. If he caught you, then he punished you with an impos., or sent you up for a 'handing,' a five-cutter or a six-cutter, from the Headmaster, on the back of the hand, with a birch-rod.

But between ourselves the code of honour was much stricter, and the punishment infinitely more

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serious than any inflicted by the authorities: this was

A tanning' meant a licking of any

kind-between boy and boy, or boy and 'ski,' or between fag-master and fag. All these were tannings, but a tanning up school was a thing by itself.

It was never inflicted without very careful inquiry into the offence, and generally for one of two kinds of offences:

First, for offences against the discipline of the school, especially any trespass against the rights and privileges of the Sixth Form (not slight offences, such as smoking, wearing a tall hat, shirking fagging, etc.; for these you would be tanned, without more ado, by the Sixth Form boy whom you aggrieved). But for striking a senior or Sixth Form town boy, for refusing to fag, or anything affecting the rights of your elders, the tanning up school, or sometimes up College, was reserved.

Secondly, for any offence of a blackguard naturebreaking your word, allowing another to suffer for your offence, cheating at cards, etc.

The tanning took place up school, and it was administered with the butt-end of a rod upon the backs of the boy's legs. The rod handle was hard and stiff, and bound with laps of string, at about an inch apart. Few boys risked a second tanning up school.

A tanning for the first description of offence was amongst your schoolmates looked upon as rather a feather in your cap; you were considered as a martyr, as a bold breaker of the laws. But a tanning for the