It was probably the result of his own Quaker education that my father had a strong objection to public schools; so that his plan was to engage a private tutor, some young man from Cambridge or Oxford, to educate us at home till we attained the age of fifteen, and then send us to a private tutor, preparatory to our going up to Cambridge. This arrangement answered well so long as there were four of us boys at home, and some of our cousins were united with us both in the schoolroom and playground; but as the elder boys went off, there was a sad want both of healthy amusements and intellectual stimulus for those that were left behind. I was the third, and I remember how difficult it was for my dear brother Joseph and myself to keep ourselves well employed when our elder brothers Samuel and Gurney had been placed under the care of the Rev. H. V. Elliott, the most able and gifted tutor to whom we three eldest brothers were sent, and to whom we were all indebted far more than I can describe. He had a wonderful power of bringing the interest of the University to bear on the education of his pupils, and I never can forget the effect on my own mind, for I never really worked till the day I entered his house; but I began then, and I have never been habitually idle since. He was a grand illustration of the principle, that the great office of an educator is not merely to cram a boy’s head with knowledge, but to kindle a fire in his soul, which will go on burning brightly when the tutor himself has long since passed away. But though there were great disadvantages in our home education, there were also immense advantages. It was not so effective as my dear parents hoped it would be in preserving us from impure and defiling information, and to this day I rarely pass the back door of what used to be my grandmother’s house without a sense of loathing at the wickedness of her corrupt old butler, who on that spot did his utmost to pollute my boyish mind with filthy communication.