were such people
as atheists, but that such views should be treated as we should treat
one who insulted the character of our dearest friend. This remark,
attributed to a man who was incapable of insulting anyone, and was a
friend of such freethinkers as Austin and J. S. Mill, must be regarded
as representing the impression made upon an inquisitive child by an
answer adapted to his capacity. The impression was, however, very
strong, and my brother notes that he heard it on a wettish evening on
the cliff near the south end of the old Steine.

Fitzjames had discussed the merits of Mr. Guest's school with great
intelligence and had expressed a wish to be sent to Rugby. He had heard
bad accounts of the state of Eton, and some rumours of Arnold's
influence had reached him. Arnold, someone had told him, could read a
boy's character at a glance. At Easter 1841, my father visited the
Diceys at Claybrook, and thence took his boy to see the great
schoolmaster at Rugby. Fitzjames draws a little diagram to show how
distinctly he remembers the scene. He looked at the dark, grave man and
wondered, 'Is he now reading my character at a glance?' It does not
appear that he was actually entered at Rugby, however, and my father had
presently devised another scheme. The inconveniences of the Brighton
plan had made themselves felt, and it now occurred to my father that he
might take a house in Windsor and send both Fitzjames and me to Eton. We
should thus, he hoped, get the advantages of a public school without
being exposed to some of its hardships and temptations. He would himself
be able to live with his family, although, as things then were, he had
to drive daily to and from the Slough station, besides having the double
journey from Paddington to Downing Street. We accordingly moved to
Windsor in Easter 1842. Fitzjames's last months at school had not been
quite so triumphant as the first, partly, it seems, from a slight
illness, and chiefly for the characteristic reason, according to his
master, that he would occupy himself with 'things too high for him.' He
read solid works (I find mention of Carlyle's 'French Revolution') out
of school hours and walked with an usher to whom he took a fancy,
discoursing upon absorbing topics when he should have been playing
cricket. Fitzjames left Brighton on the day, as he notes, upon which one
Mister was hanged for attempting murder--being almost the last man in
England hanged for anything short of ac