Children were, in those days, “seen and not heard;” and were very different to the precocious little prigs of the present time. The nursery was their place, and not the unlimited society of, and association with, their elders, as now. When the time for school came, the boys were taught a principally classical education, which was considered, as now, an absolute necessity for a gentleman. Modern languages, with the exception of French and Italian, were not taught. German and the Northern languages were unknown, and Spanish only came to be known during, and after, the Peninsular War. There was no necessity for learning them. As a rule, people did not travel, and, if they did, their _courier_ did all the conversation for them; and there was no foreign literature to speak of which would induce a man to take the trouble to learn languages. The physical sciences were in their infancy, and chemistry, with its wonderful outcome of electricity, was in its veriest babyhood: so that boys were not cumbered with too much learning. As to young ladies’ education, they had, as they must devoutly have blessed, had they the gift of prescience, no Girton, nor Newnham, nor St. Margaret’s, nor Somerville Halls. Their brains were not addled by exams, or Oxford degrees. Here is their curriculum of study, with its value, in the year 1800. “Terms:—The Young Ladies are boarded, and taught the English and French languages, with grammatical purity and correctness, history and needle-works, for twenty-five guineas per annum, washing included; parlour boarders, forty guineas a year; day boarders, three guineas per quarter; day scholars, a guinea and a half. No entrance money expected, either from boarders or day scholars. Writing, arithmetic, music, dancing, Italian, geography, the use of the globes, and astronomy, taught by professors of eminence and established merit.—Wanted a young lady of a docile disposition, and genteel address, as an apprentice, or half-boarder; she will enjoy many advantages which are not to be met with in the generality of schools. Terms thirty guineas for two years.” [Illustration: FILIAL AFFECTION; OR, A TRIP TO GRETNA GREEN.]