t yet;
Walk through some passionless years by my side,
Chasing the silly sheep, snapping the lily-stalk,
Drawing my secrets forth, witching my soul with talk.
When the sap stays, and the blossom is set,
Others will take the fruit; I shall have died."

Surely no teacher ever uttered a more beautiful eulogy on a favourite
pupil; and happily the poet lived long enough to see his prophecy
fulfilled.

The principal charm of a Public School lies in its friendships;
so here let me record the names of those who are recalled by
contemporaries as having been Charles Wood's closest friends, at
Eton--Edward Denison, Sackville Stopford, George Palmer, George
Lane-Fox, Walter Campion, Lyulph Stanley,[1] and Augustus Legge.[2]
With Palmer, now Sir George, he "messed," and with Stopford, now
Stopford-Sackville, he shared a private boat. As regards his pursuits
I may quote his own words:

[Footnote 1: Now (1918) Lord Sheffield.]

[Footnote 2: Afterwards Bishop of Lichfield.]

"I steered the _Britannia_ and the _Victory_. I used to take long
walks with friends in Windsor Park, and used sometimes to go up to
the Castle, to ride with the present King.[3] I remember, in two
little plays which William Johnson wrote for his pupils, taking the
part of an Abbess in a Spanish Convent at the time of the Peninsular
War; and the part of the Confidante of the Queen of Cyprus, in
an historical in which Sir Archdale Palmer was the hero, and a
boy named Chafyn Grove, who went into the Guards, the heroine. In
Upper School, at Speeches on the 4th of June, I acted with Lyulph
Stanley in a French piece called _Femme a Vendre_. In 1857, I and
George Cadogan,[4] and Willy Gladstone, and Freddy Stanley[5] went
with the present King for a tour in the English Lakes; and in the
following August we went with the King to Koenigs-winter. I was in
'Pop' (the Eton Debating Society) at the end of my time at Eton,
and I won the 'Albert,' the Prince Consort's Prize for French."

[Footnote 3: Edward VII.] [Footnote 4: Afterwards Lord Cadogan.]
[Footnote 5: The late Lord Derby.]

A younger contemporary adds this pretty testimony:

"As you can imagine, he was very popular both among the boys and
the masters. One little instance remains with me. There was a custom
of a boy, when leaving, receiving what one called 'Leaving Books,'
from boys remaining in the school; these books were provided by
the parents, and were bound in calf, etc. The present Lo