‘The Society decreed a gold medal to that schoolmaster who should teach his boys to speak the best Latin. This was claimed last week by the schoolmaster of Greenwich.[108] Sir William Fordyce and my friend Professor Martin were appointed Examiners. More, the Secretary, requested Bishop Watson to attend, who excused himself, as he was obliged shortly to leave London. Five boys attended with their master. The Examiners had prepared a great number of questions such as boys maybe supposed to understand. These were put in Latin and answered in Latin without hesitation. The boys were then ordered to withdraw into a private room together, and to make an original composition in Latin without the help of a dictionary. This they all performed in half an hour. Then the Examiners asked numberless questions in English, which were answered immediately in Latin. The gold medal was given to the schoolmaster, and five silver ones of equal value to the five boys, who were pretty much upon an equality, and what is surprising is that not one of the five had learned Latin longer than two years and a half, and the eldest of them was not above thirteen years. You may be certain that this is true, as I saw it in a letter from Martin to his brother-in-law, the Vice-Chancellor, and he concludes it by saying “that they all spoke Latin with fluency, propriety, and elegance.” Were I possessed but of a small portion of the fire with which you are animated, I should cry out with a generous indignation, “Blush, ye proud seminaries of Eton and Westminster,” &c. &c. &c. ‘My compliments _aux Polonais_. ‘I am now set down in earnest to renew acquaintance with my Italian _agricoltori_. ‘Ever affectionately, ‘JOHN SYMONDS.’ In a Westerly Tour I made this year, amongst numerous other places I visited Blenheim, and made the following memorandum:—