The standard example, however, constantly quoted as evidence of the value of school meals, was the experiment started by Sir Henry Peek at Rousdon in 1876. The children in that district had to walk long distances to school, "bringing with them wretched morsels of food for dinner," with, naturally, most unsatisfactory results. Sir Henry Peek provided one good meal a day for five days, charging one penny a day. The system was practically self-supporting. The experiment was declared by the Inspector to have "turned out a very great success. What strikes one at once on coming into the school is the healthy vigorous look of the children, and that their vigour is not merely bodily, but comes out in the course of examination. There is a marked contrast between their appearance and their work on the day of inspection, and those of the children in many of the neighbouring schools. The midday meal is good and without stint. It acts as an attraction, and induces regularity of attendance.... Before the school was started the education of the children of the neighbourhood was as low as in any part of the district."[19] Footnote 19: Mr. Mundella in the House of Commons, _Hansard_, July 26, 1883, 3rd Series, Vol. 282, pp. 577-9. "The effect on the health of the children," writes the Rector of Rousdon in January, 1885, "may be well exemplified by the most recent illustration--viz., that in the third week of December, though whooping-cough had been, and still was, prevalent among them, and the weather was damp and raw, the entry on the master's weekly report was, absentees, 0--that is, _every_ child on the register had appeared on the Monday morning and paid for its week's dinners. Probably such a circumstance in a rural school district (with radius of a mile and a half at least) in the height of winter is unprecedented." (_Sanitary Record_, January 15, 1885.)