The scenery was tame as a rule. On the east side about Yarmouth, and on the west edge towards the Fens it was hideous. But in May and June the rest of the district was pleasant enough, and the typical English village, with its broad main street edged with white-walled, thatch-roofed cottages; its old grey church and snug Rectory and neat school, all in a ring fence, made such a charming picture that I recommended an American tourist visiting England in search of antiquity to drive 20 miles in East Anglia in June. I suppose he would think little of a hundred-acre field of wheat; but to us men of small standards--I am told you may put all England into New York State--this great expanse of rolling gold, when “A light wind blew from the gates of the sun, And _waves of shadow_ went over the wheat,” atoned for a long drive on a burning August day. September in Norfolk is said to be delightful. I distrust people who boast of only one month in the year, and that a month which falls in the holidays. (We began our year’s work on October 1.) But I love them much, and I am ready to concede September. The records of those old note-books are often astonishing. These are village schools noted in one volume: A. Certificated Teacher’s salary, £36 without house; 72 children present: 34 examined: passed 22¹⁄₂ per cent. B. Out of 121 children on the books only 36 have made 250 attendances: deep snow kept away 11 of these on the day of inspection. C. 76 children on the books: 38 examined: passed 18 per cent. D. 17 examined: passed 37¹⁄₂ per cent. Let me explain the technical terms. If a child did not come to school 250 times in the year he could not be examined. As the schools were usually open 440 times (that is 220 days) in the year, it was not a hard bargain. This was before the Act of 1876, which made attendance compulsory everywhere. Now in the case of School C, which “passed 18 per cent.,” each of the 38 children might have passed in three subjects, called the Three R’s, making 114 passes in all: instead of which, 12 passed in Reading, 5 in Writing, and 4 in Arithmetic. A little further on I have a note of a poem in use at a school, marking an early attempt at the co-ordination of elementary education with undenominational morality: 20 pence are ¹⁄₈, Wash your face and comb your hair. 30 pence are ²⁄₆, Every day to school repair. (_Here is a lamentable gap_.) 80 pence are ⁶⁄₈, Mind what you are taught in school: 90 pence are ⁷⁄₆, Never call your brother a fool. Write it myself? Certainly not. I could have managed the mathematical part, but the ethical deductions would never have occurred to me.