lashes on their bare seats and
for the larger an equal number on their bare backs. For graver offences
up to twenty lashes might be administered. On entering the Latin school
every boy had to adopt a new language. Only Latin could be spoken within
its classical confines; and woe be to the tike who so far forgot himself
as to speak a word in the native tongue anywhere upon the school
premises. The only way anyone, discovered to have perpetrated such a
crime, could escape the severest punishment was to report another culprit
guilty of the same offense. Under such conditions one cannot wonder that
Kingo complains:

The daily round from home to school
Was often hard and weary.
It did my youthful ardour cool
And made my childhood dreary.

At the age of fifteen Kingo, for reasons now unknown, was transferred
from the school of his home town to that at the neighboring city of
Hilleroed. Here, on account of his outstanding ability, he was accepted
into the home of his new rector, Albert Bartholin, a young man of
distinguished family and conspicuous personal endowments.

Although the school at Hilleroed was larger, it probably was not much
better than that at Slangerup; but the close association of the humble
weaver's son with his distinguished rector and his refined family, no
doubt, was a distinct advantage to him. The location of Hilleroed on the
shores of the idyllic Frederiksborg Lake and close to the magnificent
castle of the same name is one of the loveliest in Denmark. The castle
had recently been rebuilt, and presented, together with its lovely
surroundings, a most entrancing spectacle. Its famous builder, Christian
IV, had just gone the way of all flesh; but the new king, Frederik, known
for his fondness for royal pomp, frequently resided at the castle
together with his court, and thus Kingo must often have enjoyed the
opportunity to see both the king and the outstanding men of his
government.

It is not unlikely that this near view of the beauty and splendor of his
country, the finest that Denmark had to offer, served to awaken in Kingo
that ardent love for all things Danish for which he is noticed. While
still at Hilleroed he, at any rate, commenced a comprehensive study of
Danish literature, a most unusual thing for a young student to do at a
time when German was the common language of all the upper classes and
Danish was despised as the speech of traders and peasants. As neither his
school