“The next day the family again assembled at dinner at the house of my brother Edwin. We now made arrangements for restoring things as soon as possible. One undertook the repairs of the building; another those of the furniture; one to make out the account for the Fire Office; another to prepare the house in Tenant Street. Printed circular-letters were sent to our friends as soon as possible, expressive of our gratitude for the kindness we had met with, and stating our intention of resuming the business of the school on the Thursday following—that is, eight days after the fire. “Besides the injury done to the roof, the floors of the rooms in that part of the house, and the garret ceilings, were almost completely destroyed. The garret floors were much injured by the burning wood which fell upon them, and they doubtless would have been destroyed altogether, but that persons were engaged, at a considerable risk, in throwing water upon the blazing timbers as they fell, before the engines arrived. The walls and ceilings of the lower rooms were also much injured by the water. “The school assembled on the day appointed. Till the roof was completed the boys slept in Tenant Street; when that was done they occupied the chambers of the house, a part of our own family sleeping from home. It was not till Christmas that we were enabled to reinstate everything. “Among the things destroyed in the flames, almost every one of us has lost something which he valued highly. My brother Arthur has lost the accounts of some tours which he has taken at various times; Howard has lost a copy of Mavor’s ‘British Tourist,’ which he gained as a prize in the school. But in things of that description I have been the greatest sufferer. I have lost all my original drawings, six in number, which were framed and glazed. I made these drawings when I was quite a boy, and for that reason I valued them. At Hill Top they hung in the parlour, but when we removed they were put in one of the roof rooms till a convenient opportunity should occur to hang them up. The electrical planisphere, representing the southern sky, and the water-alarum, both of which I have described in these memoirs, were consumed in the flames. I valued these because they were the best specimens I possessed of my boyish handicraft.