“I will now tell you what I was examined in for the scholarship; 1st, in composition, Latin theme; subject, ‘Est natura hominum novitatis avida,’ which, as you may imagine, was very easy; Latin verse, ‘The Battle of Thermopylæ;’ English theme, ‘Painting,’ also very easy. In the Latin verse I did seventeen verses in two hours, which was more than any other of the candidates, and I quite satisfied myself in the other two subjects. In Latin construing we had a passage from Virgil and Cæsar, and in Greek, Homer’s Odyssey. We were also examined in St. Paul, and, thanks to your abbreviation, I answered all the questions. We have yet to be examined in Mackintosh, French, and mathematics. “I think now I have satisfied you with respect to the work of the scholarship.” In his next of April 2nd, he communicates the result as follows, but not mentioning that six of his competitors were older than he, and in higher forms:— “We are all quite well. I did not get the scholarship, but I was third. I have been promoted out of the lower into the middle fifth, and I am doing very well in it. We read Demosthenes, Thucydides, Cicero in Verrem, and the Antigone of Sophocles. The great examination at the end of the half is soon going to be set. The middle fifth and upper fifth are examined together, and if I do well in it I may be high up in the fifth at the end of the half.” He did well, as usual, and got into the fifth at the summer examination. Your grandmother had a small bookcase made on purpose for our prizes, which was being rapidly filled by George. He writes thus to her just before our holidays:— “_June 6th, 1836._—I have got some good news for you. I have got an addition to your rosewood bookcase, _alias_ a prize! It’s called ‘Rickman’s Architecture.’ It is very nicely bound, and has some nice pictures of abbeys and churches, with a description of all the fine cathedrals and large churches, amongst which I saw our old Uffington church. Donnington Castle was also mentioned.” On returning as a fifth form boy he describes the fifth form room, of which he is now free, with great delight, and reverence for its “two sofas, three tables, curtains, and large bookcase,” and adds— “I have got a nice double study to myself, but I wish I had some more books, since I think that nothing makes a study look so nice as books. I must bring some to Rugby next half; I can take care of them now. I have lately been engaged in making an English verse translation of a chorus in the Eumenides, and I will give it you, if you think it worth while reading. I wish you would criticize it as much as you can. I know it is very imperfect, but as it is the first regular copy of English verse I ever did, I think it is pretty good for me. Here it is,” &c.