H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of SchoolsSneyd-Kynnersley, E. M. (Edmund McKenzie)
History
H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of Schools
Sneyd-Kynnersley, E. M. (Edmund McKenzie)
Education -- Great Britain; School management and organization -- Great Britain
Of Norfolk I knew nothing, and it seemed intolerably remote. In those
days it had no golf links, and its Broads were as little frequented as
Lake Balaton. Its railway system was arranged on the plan of the Roman
camp: there was a Via Principalis running north and south; King’s Lynn
to Wells, Norwich, and London: and a cross line (I forget the Latin
term) running east and west--Yarmouth to Norwich and Ely. The traveller
who wished to wander in the back streets of the county, drove, rode, or
walked. Safety bicycles were not yet: the Boneshaker was not tempting,
and the Spider was perilous. Add to this a curious collection of
third-class inns, and the climate of Siberia. There were days in spring
when one left home in the morning with a bright blue sky overhead and
a N.W. wind far more attractive than Kingsley’s north-easter: but with
little warning the sky would be overcast, and whirlwinds of rain,
snow, or sleet would drive one to depths of misery, and back to the
third-class inn, where the chimney smoked, and there were woolly mutton
chops for dinner.
There were days in April at Yarmouth, for by some perversity of
judgment Yarmouth school inspections had been fixed in April, when the
black east wind, fresh from the Ural Mountains, paid no more heed to
the impediment offered by a brick wall than would the Röntgen rays to
a deal door. There were days in June when a pitiless sun scorched the
traveller till about five in the afternoon, at which time a sea-breeze
from the east rose up and afflicted his throat and lungs with all the
diseases that begin with a cold and end in ’itis. At such times the
parched light soil rose up in clouds, and much real property changed
hands.
Let me offer you the local anecdote of the parts about Brandon and
Thetford, where Suffolk and Norfolk meet:
First farmer: “Neow which county dew your land lay in, Mr. A.?”
Second farmer: “Well, Mr. B., thet dew depend mostly on the wind: last
week, when the wind was so wonnerful strong, thet fare to lay mostly in
Norfolk.”
But, if there were thorns to the roses of Oxford, there were roses
to the thorns of Norfolk. I was singularly fortunate in my chief,
both socially and professionally: singularly fortunate, also, in the
assistant whom we shared: both, alas! gone before. And the North-folk
are among the most lovable of the peoples of the earth. It was told of
Bishop Wilberforce that, after meeting with a brother Bishop, he said
he had often heard of the milk of human kindness, but never hitherto
had he met the cow. That cow family still browses on the Norfolk
pastures, and the east wind does not ruffle its sweet temper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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