had long since given up playing:
indeed, I doubt if there was any game which he had not played well, and
could not still play better than most people, had he chosen. Such was
Doctor Carr--the Doctor, as we called him--of Grafton Hall.

Grafton Hall was a fine old place, situated on a healthy spot, and
surrounded by good-sized grounds: indeed, no place could be more
admirably fitted for a first-rate gentleman's school.

The house was a large Elizabethan building, with a number of good-sized
airy rooms, and passages, and staircases. The hall served, for what it
was originally intended, as a dining-hall.

The Doctor had built a wing, in which was situated our school-room, and
a lofty, well-ventilated room it was. We had several lecture-rooms
besides; and then the large old courtyard served as a capital playground
in wet weather, as well as a racket-court; and in one corner of it we
had our gymnasium, which was one of the many capital things belonging to
the school.

A fine wide glade in the park, which had been thoroughly drained, served
us as a magnificent cricket-ground; and there was, not far from it, a
good-sized pond, through which ran a stream of clear water, where we
bathed in the summer. It was kept clean and free from weeds, and even
in the deepest parts we could, on a sunny day, see the bright pebbles
shining at the bottom.

I need not now give a further description of the dear old place. We
were most of us as fond of it as if it had been our father's property.
I do not mean to say that it was a perfect paradise. I do not fancy
such a place exists in the world; and if it did, I must own that
schoolboys are not, as a rule, much like angels. Still the Doctor did
_his_ best to make it a happy place, and an abode fit for boys of
refined minds and gentlemanly habits and ideas. It was generally our
own faults if anything went wrong.

When a new boy arrived, the Doctor took him into the school-room, and
lecture-rooms, and dining-hall, and through the sleeping-rooms, and
playground, and gardens; indeed, all round the place.

"Now, my lad," he used to say, "you will remark that everything is well
arranged, and clean, and neat. I trust to your honour to refrain from
injuring anything in any way, and to do your best to keep the place in
the good order in which you see it."

On no occasion had he ever to speak again on the subject; for we all
took a pride in the handsome, gentlemanly appearance of the hous