nces, a very promising girl, had
died of rheumatic fever July 27, 1880. Such troubles, however deeply
felt, cannot permanently lessen the happiness of a healthy and energetic
life. His three sons grew into manhood; they all became barristers, and
had all acted at different times as his marshals. I shall say nothing of
the survivors; but I must speak briefly of the one who died before his
father.

James Kenneth Stephen was born on February 25, 1859.[197] His second
name commemorates his father's friendship for his godfather, Kenneth
Macaulay. He was a healthy lad, big and strong, and soon showed much
intellectual promise. He was at the school of Mr. William Browning at
Thorpe Mandeville; and in 1871 won a foundation scholarship at Eton,
where he became the pupil of Mr. Oscar Browning, the brother of his
former master. He already gave promise of unusual physical strength, and
of the good looks which in later years resulted from the singular
combination of power and sweetness in his features. The head of his
division was H. C. Goodhart, afterwards Professor of Latin at the
University of Edinburgh.[198] Other boys in the division were George
Curzon and Cecil Spring Rice. James was surpassed in scholarship by
several of his friends, but enjoyed a high reputation for talent among
his cleverest contemporaries. The school, it appears, was not quite so
much absorbed by the worship of athletics as was sometimes imagined.
James, however, rowed for two years in the boats, while his weight and
strength made him especially formidable at the peculiar Eton game of
football 'at the wall.' The collegers, when supported by his prowess,
had the rare glory of defeating the Oppidans twice in succession. He was
ever afterwards fond of dilating with humorous enthusiasm upon the
merits of that game, and delighted in getting up an eleven of old
Etonians to play his successors in the school. He was, however, more
remarkable for intellectual achievements. With Mr. Spring Rice and
another friend he wrote the 'Etonian,' which lasted from May 1875 to
August 1876; and several of the little poems which he then wrote were
collected afterwards in his 'Lapsus Calami.'[199] They are, of course,
chiefly in the humorous vein, but they show sufficiently that Eton was
to him very different from what it had been to his father. He was a
thoroughly loyal and even enthusiastic Etonian; he satirises a caviller
by putting into his mouth the abominable sentiment--