“At Christmas I had an attack of my old complaint—the ear-ache—which confined me to the house for a fortnight. However, I turned the time to advantage by reading French with such industry that, although I knew but little of the language when I began, yet at the end of the fortnight I could read it with sufficient ease as to be amused by it. I recollect that in one day I read a hundred pages of ‘Gil Blas,’ closely printed in small type.”His efforts at self-improvement were—as he recorded in his old age—to some extent at least, misdirected. When he was a boy of thirteen he won the first of three prizes for original landscape-drawings, which had been offered by the proprietor of “The School Magazine”[34]to all candidates under sixteen. In the number of the Magazine for September, 1807, appeared the following announcement:—“We have received several beautiful drawings in different styles, which do great credit to the talents of the young persons by whom they are sent, and to the exertions of the gentlemen under whom they have studied the pleasing art.“The principal prize is awarded to Master Rowland Hill, who has given us a view of St. Philip’s Church, Birmingham, and the surrounding objects, as taken from the playground of Hill Top School.“Master Hill is thirteen years and eight months only, and his performance is attested by his father, Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, and his drawing-master, Mr. Samuel Lines. To him is awarded—“‘A Drawing-Box, value Three Guineas.’”“What,” he wrote in his Journal a few years later, “was my surprise and delight to find that I had obtained the first prize! The whole family participated in my joy, and I believe this was the happiest day ofmy life.” But his success, as he himself has pointed out, had its drawback:—“This, and theéclatI obtained a year or two later by painting the scenes for our little theatre, caused my parents and myself to assume that nature intended me for an artist. I accordingly employed the greater part of my spare time in practising drawing from patterns, from nature, from plaster-casts of the human frame, and, eventually, from life. Sketching from nature I found a most agreeable occupation, especially as it fell in with my love of visiting ancient ruins and fine scenery. I continued to pursue drawing with great earnestness for several years, and some of my drawings obtained the honour (undeserved, I fear) of appearing in the Birmingham Exhibitions. At length, however, I discovered that I possessed no natural aptitude for the artistic profession, and, consequently, directed my efforts to other matters.”CHAPTER III.In the account that I have given of Rowland Hill’s mental training, I have, in more than one place, been carried somewhat out of the regular course of my narrative. I must now return to the time when he was still a mere boy, and was as yet but little aware how boundless is the ocean of knowledge, on whose shores he had picked up but the tiniest of shells. He would not by any means have been accounted a forward child. In any school famous for learning he would have taken a low place. Nevertheless, his comrades had not failed to discover his peculiar power. One of his brothers thus writes about him:—“My brother Rowland’s character is, to a considerable extent, portrayed in the History of Penny Postage; and, amongst the rest, his power of commanding success. But it may be well for me to testify, relative to this quality, that he showed it from a very early age. For myself, I can say that whenever I knew that he had set an object before him, I felt sure that it would be attained; and yet this was not from any high estimate of his talents; for, being less than three years his junior, and perhaps of a more sprightly and imaginative disposition, I fear I was wont to assume in comparing his mental powers with mine, and certainly did not soon recognise their high order. Probably, if I analyzed my feeling at all, I based it chiefly on belief in his perseverance. Again and again I had seen work prosper in his hands, and had had few or no failures to point to; whereas I knew that I was ever devising mighty plans which came to nothing. His early performances were chiefly of a mechanical nature,and diligent practice rendered him very fertile in resources—a fact of which I was well aware years before I could have designated the power by its proper term.”It was in the management of the school theatre that this fertility in resources first became conspicuous. His younger brother, Arthur, had a strong dramatic turn, and was eager, like many another lad of thirteen, to strut and fret his hour upon the stage. Others he found ready to join him, and then for aid and advice he turned to Rowland, who was by two years his senior.“The more I told them about the cost and other difficulties, the more anxious they grew as to the success of their enterprise, until at length, by their joint entreaty, I was prevailed on to assume the management; undertaking myself to paint the scenes, construct the machinery, and direct the whole course of action. I declined to become a performer, having no turn that way.”[35]The young company put their money into a common stock. The Manager recorded in his Journal:—“A code of laws was drawn up for the management of the theatre, and we were very exact in the observance of them. I was constituted manager, with power to appoint the different actors, and, under certain restrictions, to appropriate the funds in what way I pleased.”It was in the summer of 1811 that they formed their plans; but it was not till the Easter of the following year that they were ready to give their first performance. Their difficulties were great. The school-room was to be their theatre; and in the school-room they could only work before the boys had risen, and after they had gone to bed. In the code of lawswhich governed the company, it was laid down that they should rise an hour before the usual time. Whatever scenery they set up had always to be taken down before lessons began. The room was long, but narrow, and not lofty enough to allow the scenes, at the time of shifting, to be drawn up. Not one of the company had ever been behind the curtain of a real theatre. Rowland, however, undertook to be architect, carpenter, scene-painter, and manager. He had, by this time, become most expert in the use of his tools. He was never so happy as when he was working in his carpenter’s shop. His knowledge of drawing and painting was also turned to good account. He began by carefully planning his work, and taking the most exact measurements. So accurately had everything been contrived beforehand, that when the scenes and their supports came to be put up they all fell at once into their proper places. The young company was greatly hampered by want of funds, and had from time to time to turn from the theatre to more than one plan of raising money. Among other “ways and means,” they set up a manufactory of fire-balloons, and gained some money by the tickets of admission that they sold to those who witnessed the ascent. At first they could only afford the simplest of materials for their scenes. These were painted on brown paper, the sheets being glued together. The side-scenes were painted on both sides, and revolved, in changing, on a pivot in the middle. Each season saw, however, an increase of magnificence, and some of the young artist’s scenery was so strongly made and so carefully painted that it has been in use even in the last few years.Meanwhile, his younger brother was engaged in writing a tragedy, and in drilling his company.“Finding all dramas to which he had access far too long and difficult for his purpose, he boldly turned author; and parts were learned and scenes practised, though with considerable increase to inevitable difficulties, from the circumstance that the drama grew as the work proceeded, new thoughts striking the young dramatist, and new scenes being added for their development.” ThusThe Hostile Chieftains, a tragedy founded on one of Mrs. Radcliffe’s tales, was written six times over.The Tragedy of Nero, as well befitted so great a subject, was the composition of three of the brothers working together. Even the manager, architect, carpenter, and scene-painter had found time to lend a hand. The first season opened with the performance ofThe Rivals, a tragedy, and not by Sheridan. It was witnessed with great applause by crowded audiences during its run of two nights. It was in the third season thatThe Hostile Chieftainswas performed. Meanwhile, no doubt as a necessary preparation for Mrs. Radcliffe, a trap-door had been made in the ceiling. A band of musicians also was formed. This was the last season of the little company, but it ended gloriously; for the play had a run of five nights.In many other ways did the young lad show his ingenuity. He was the family carpenter, locksmith, and clock-cleaner. He even took to pieces and set to rights a watch which had been returned to the maker for repairs, but was sent back as faulty as ever. When he was sixteen Mr. Beasley projected a new piece of “utility”—a school-atlas—and called upon “his young friend, Rowland Hill,” to undertake the task of constructing the maps. “This was,” Rowland wrote in his Journal, a few years later, “a much greater undertaking than I at first imagined,owing to the great difference that exists in the works which it was necessary to consult. In a chart of the Mediterranean belonging to my father, Algiers is as much as three inches from its proper place.... I have given it up entirely. I could not be satisfied with copying from another map, and from the great number of books and maps which it was necessary to consult, I found that, with the little time I could devote to it, it must be the work of not less than ten or fifteen years.” He finished, however, the map of Spain and Portugal, which was published.Three years later, when he was now nineteen, he gave still further proofs of his ingenuity:—“In January, 1815, my father gave a lecture on electricity to the Birmingham Philosophical Society, of which he was a Fellow, I performing the experiments. At that period the means of securing electrical action were either imperfect, or, at best, not very generally known. A previous attempt (by another Fellow of the Society) to give an illustrated lecture on the subject had utterly failed; and it was confidently believed by various members that, in the theatre of the institution at least—whether because of the crowded audiences usually attending the lectures, whether from insufficient ventilation, or from some unknown cause—all further attempt was useless. This stimulated my father to the effort, the more so as his successful lectures, previously mentioned, had been given under circumstances far more unfavourable. His credit was thus staked upon the issue, and he resolved, and I with him, that no effort should be spared to secure success. We carefully examined the whole of the Society’s apparatus, and brought it into complete order. Remembering an exhibition of constellations at one of my father’s former lectures, I went to work to prepare more, which I desired to make on a much larger scale; but glass, the material on which the tinfoil was laid, being not only inconveniently fragile, but at that time, on account of the high duty, an expensive article, I tried the substitution of cardboard, which fortunately I found to be, when quite dry, a satisfactory non-conductor. Using this, I produced several constellations of such size as to be well seen by a large body of spectators; and, which delighted me even more, I so arranged one, viz, that of theGreat Bear, that while receiving the spark it was kept in constant revolution. At length we got everything to do well; but our elation at this preliminary success was considerably checked by hearing that our predecessor had thus far done as well as ourselves. This made us very anxious, and our care was redoubled. Observing that the lecture-table was covered with lead, surmounted with green baize, and fearing that this combination would in some measure rob our conductor (the nap acting as so many points), we covered the whole with glazed brown paper; and again, anxious lest any accumulation of electric influence, either in the subjacent lead or elsewhere, might be troublesome, we crossed the table with a number of wires, which, being first brought into connection below, were passed through the floor, and lastly, being thrust into the spout of a pump in the basement, were brought into contact with the column of water within, so as to make our conduction, or rather abduction, complete. We also took advantage of a furnace, which had been set up behind the lecture-table for chemical purposes, to diffuse as much warmth as possible over our whole apparatus, that all dampness might be kept away.“At length the important night arrived, and, notwithstanding all our precautions, we went to the lecture-room in great trepidation. The clock struck seven, and the electrical machine, which had been kept near a large fire in the apparatus-room till the last moment, was carried in and attached to the table. The lecture began, and the machine was set in motion, while we stood in breathless anxiety to watch the result. To our inexpressible relief we soon saw that it was in full power; and experiment succeeded experiment without the slightest failure. All had proceeded well till about the middle of the lecture, when suddenly the rod of the winch, which, with superfluous caution, had been made of glass, snapped in two, and the machine was brought to a stand. Though enough had been done to establish the success of our attempt, my father, naturally anxious to complete his lecture, and remembering that he was in the midst of a manufacturing town, inquired earnestly whether any one present could furnish a substitute of any description, however rude. One or two gentlemen immediately disappeared, and, meantime, my own machine, which had been brought as a provision against mishap, was used for some minor experiments, for which its power well sufficed. While this was going on my brother Edwin had carried the broken winch into a small workshop on the premises, and, sawing off the leg of a stool, had shaped this at the ends, fitted it to the winch handle, and, returning to the room, attached it to thesocket on the axle of the machine, which again began to revolve, so that when our kind friends returned with their substitutes the necessity for them had passed away, and the lecture went on swimmingly to the end; my Great Bear, which was, so far as I know, a novelty, attracting particular attention, and eliciting, contrary to the rule and usage of the society, a round of applause.“One of the loudest foreboders of evil consoled himself for his error by remarking on the number of assistants ‘Hill’ had had, adding that he had better have brought his wife and all his family to help him. So trifling a circumstance would not have been noticed here had it not touched the key-note of our success. In our course through life, from the beginning to the present hour, each one of us has been always ready to help the others to the best of his power; and no one has failed to call for such assistance again and again. Each one, I am sure, recognises in this fact a main cause of such success as he has attained; and I cannot too emphatically declare that to mine it has been essential.“In the following January my father gave a second and last lecture on the same subject. Emboldened by our past success, we proceeded to experiments involving greater risk of failure; among others a thunder-cloud, which, to effect its discharge (whereby a model building was to be blown up with gunpowder), had to be moved by electric influence through a distance of not less, I think, than eight or ten feet. But the crowning illustration, with which the lecture concluded, was a revolving planisphere of my construction, four feet in diameter, and representing all stars, of not less than the fourth magnitude, within forty degrees of the South Pole. Wishing that the various magnitudes should appear in the illustration, I devised an arrangement for that purpose. For producing the sparks to represent stars of the first magnitude, I cut the approaching edges of the tinfoil into a round shape, and placed them about one-twelfth of an inch asunder; for those of the second magnitude I gave the edges a pointed shape, also reducing the space between them to a minimum; for stars of the third and fourth magnitudes, while retaining the same arrangement, I produced further obscuration by covering the one with a single thickness, and the other with two thicknesses, of thin paper. To represent the Magellanic clouds was a more difficult matter; but here also I hit upon an expedient. Piercing the disc, in the proper places, with holes proportionate to the size and in the form of the respective nebulae, I placed behind each hole in a plane parallel to that of the disc, and distant abouthalf an inch from it, a piece of paper somewhat more than sufficiently large to correspond with the perforation; and I so arranged that this paper was illuminated by sparks at the back of the disc. When I add that the planisphere thus illuminated was at the same time kept in constant and equable revolution, I shall perhaps be regarded as justified in the belief entertained at the time that the whole result was a more exact representation of the starry heavens than had ever before been produced. The applause previously given to my Great Bear was more than redoubled on sight of my Southern Sky, and the lecture terminated amidst the congratulations of friends, my father being, of course, greatly pleased, myself sufficiently elated, and the whole family triumphant. I may add that a full description of my planisphere will be found in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ for October, 1818.”[36]In 1816 he devised and constructed an alarum water-clock:—“As a complete description of this might weary the reader, I will give only a general conception of its structure. As already implied, the lapse of time was to be marked by the flow of water, and the most obvious difficulty being to render this equable, I employed for the purpose a floating syphon. The tube, which was so fine as to pass only about three drops per minute, was stuck through a flat piece of cork, which floated on the surface of water in a tin can; and as the water issued from the syphon it dropped into another can, though of much smaller size, hung at one end of a balance; so that, as this latter can filled, it became heavy enough to bear its own end of the beam down, while the opposite end, being of course tilted up, struck the trigger, which, as in ordinary alarums, released the weight, thus setting the clapper in motion. Now the length of time required to give the counterbalancing weight of water depended, of course, on the amount of weight put on the trigger-beam; and this was varied according to requirement, principally by means of a sliding weight, hanging from the beam as from a common steelyard. This sufficed so far as quarter hours were concerned, additional means of some complexity being used for securing the observance of smaller portions of time. The end was that I could count on being called within three or four minutes of the time fixed upon. In its early days, however, I was sometimes annoyed by irregularity,and, upon careful inspection, I perceived that this was caused by dust, which, falling into the water, found its way into the syphon, and impeded the flow. To remove this inconvenience, I enclosed my alarum in a box, taking care also to change the water with sufficient frequency. I remember that on the evening when I first got the machine to work, not willing to leave my new light under a bushel, I fetched up half-a-dozen boys into the room where it stood, that they might see and admire. When I had explained the mechanism, and arranged for aréveilleat the end of a quarter of an hour, the boys sat down in expectation; and probably being over-worked, according to our practice at the time, one of them fell fast asleep. Great was my delight, and great the amusement of his companions, when, at the end of the time, this, the first person ever awakened by alarum of mine, started up with a sudden exclamation of surprise and alarm, showing that my little machine had effectually performed its duty.“I may here remark that for one machine that I executed there were many that I devised. Thus I find the following entry in my Journal about a year later:—“‘December 21st, 1817.—I also wish to make a model of a boat to be driven by pumping [in] water at the prow and forcing it out at the stern. This is an idea of my father’s; and I think it will obviate the objection against driving canal boats by machinery, which is that the paddles agitate the water to such a degree as to injure the sides of the canal’“A few years later I set down another first conception, this time of my own, which, however, I never carried further. The record is as follows:—“‘Steam vessels might be propelled by means of an endless screw, something like a corkscrew with the wire flattened in a direction perpendicular to the axis. There might be several fixed at the sides, at the stern, &c. This apparatus would work equally well whether altogether or partly immersed in water. If one could be placed so as to move like a rudder, it would be exceedingly efficient in changing the direction of the boat.’”[37]I find also in his Journal for the year 1817, the following record: “If I can find time, I intend to constructa model of an engine which I have long thought of. It is something similar to a steam-engine, only that it is to work by exploding a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases. Such an engine I think might be employed to advantage in driving carriages, as the gases might be condensed.” A few months later he writes: “During the Christmas vacation I tried a few experiments to ascertain the force of exploded oxygen and hydrogen when in combination, and found it to be so small that it cannot be applied to the purpose I intended; at least, that such an engine would be far more expensive than one to work by steam.”Soon after he had finished his clock he undertook a very different piece of work. He had already taught himself the art of land-surveying. “I learned the art,” he wrote, “as best I could; I might almost say I found it out, for I had then no book on the subject, and my father had no special knowledge of the matter.” As was usual with him, he at once began to teach what he himself had learnt. With a class he measured and mapped the playground and some little of the neighbourhood. About this time a murder—famous in legal history—was committed within four miles of Hill Top, and at once roused a strong public interest.“The name of the victim was Mary Ashford. Thornton, the man charged with the crime, and whom the whole neighbourhood believed to be guilty, got off at the trial by setting up analibi. So strong was the feeling excited by this escape, that it was resolved to resort to the long-disused right of appeal; and a subscription being speedily raised to defray the expenses, the necessary proceedings were commenced. This startling course brought the matter into the London papers, and interest became general. Illustrated journals there were none, but my drawing-master published a portrait of the poor girl—taken, I suppose, after death—with a view of the pond in which the body was found; and one of theBirmingham newspapers (theMidland Chronicle) gave a rude plan of the ground on which the chief incidents occurred. This, however, being apparently done without measurement, and not engraved either on wood or copper, but made up as best could be done with ordinary types, was of course but a very imperfect representation. I resolved to improve upon this, and, in conjunction with a former schoolfellow, to whom, though he was much older than myself, I was then giving private lessons in surveying, I led my class to the spot, took the measurements, and constructed a complete map, not merely of the spot where the murder was committed, but of the neighbourhood, so far as to include the place of the allegedalibi. This was published not only in Birmingham but also in London, and we cleared about fifteen pounds by the enterprise. It may be convenient to the reader to add, though this has nothing to do with my story, that when the case of appeal came before the Court of King’s Bench, Thornton, throwing down his glove in due form, demanded wager of battle; and as this barred all other measures, while of course the age of ordeals was passed, the proceedings came to an end, and the prisoner was released. However, he never again ventured to show himself near the scene of his alleged crime. In the next Session of Parliament an Act was passed abolishing wager of battle, and with it the right of appeal. I remember that our family verdict on the subject condemned the latter half of this measure.”[38]Rowland Hill’s map was copied by a dishonest tradesman:—“Incensed at such rascally treatment,” he records in his Journal, “I told my publisher I was determined to maintain an action for damages against the man. On examining the Act respecting the copyright of engravings, my brother Matthew was fearful that we might not succeed in the event of a trial, because we had not specified on the plate the exact day on which it was published. It said ‘published,’ etc., ‘Nov., 1817,’ I immediately had the plate altered before any more impressions were taken; but as several had been sold of the first kind, my brother thought that there would be some danger in risking a trial.”The inventions and schemes that I have describedwere rather the occupations of Rowland Hill’s few hours of leisure than the real work of his life. It was in school-work that he was closely engaged for long hours every day during many a year. His position was not a little trying. Had it not been for one side of his father’s character, it might have become unbearable. He and his brother Matthew, as they grew older and saw more of the outside world, had become more and more dissatisfied with the state of the school. They were both ambitious youths; and up to a certain age their chief ambition—at all events, their nearest ambition—was to make Hill Top a thoroughly good school. Before many years had passed, the elder brother was bent on making his way at the bar, while Rowland was thinking how he should reform the education of England—I might almost say, of the world. As his views widened with increasing years, he recorded in his Journal:—“The beneficial effects which I every day see arise from the improvements which have been introduced into the school, and the acknowledged superiority of our system of education, lead me to think that the combination of talent, energy, and industry which exists in our family, directed as it is, with few exceptions, to the science of education, may some time or other produce effects which will render our name illustrious in after ages. The more I mix with the world, the more insight I have into the proceedings and opinions of other men, the conviction is forced upon me that our family possesses talents, and energy, and devotedness to one object, seldom to be met with.... Our plans are calculated for large numbers, and to obtain them is the present object of all our attention. Some of us think that the best mode will be to attempt to induce the public to establish a large school or college for the education of the children of the upper and middle classes. Other members of the family are afraid that in so doing we may risk our present establishment; but I think that the attempt may be so managed as not in the slightest degree to injure our present school, but rather to forward its success. To establish this college is the height of my ambition. I feel confident that, with great numbers andgreat capital, the science and practice of education might be improved to such a degree as to show that it is now in its infancy.”It was at the age of twenty-five, when he had for some years been the real head of the school, that he made this record. When, however, his brother and he first began their reforms, their efforts were turned to much smaller matters. Matthew set about improving the teaching, while Rowland chiefly took in hand the organization of the school and the management of the accounts. As regards most of their changes, their father at first showed, if not great unwillingness, at all events considerable indifference. Often they had to set themselves against some of his most cherished theories; often they had to stir him up to action when he would have liked much rather to remain in complete repose. “It is an old sore,” writes one of the brothers, later on, “to witness my father’s apathy in the midst of all our exertions.” It was at first no easy matter to win his consent to their plans of reform, but he soon recognised his sons’ ability, and gave their powers full play. Many a man who is too easy-going to carry out to the full the work that lies before him, is yet “rough, unswayable, and rude,” when his own children come forward and do his work with their own hands. This was not Thomas Hill’s character. “My father,” his son said, “showed no signs of vexation, nor was he ever jealous of any of us. He used only to express a fear that I had got too much on my hands. So far from being jealous, he was proud of my doing the work, and used to boast of it to others.” How highly, indeed, he had always thought of his son is shown by the following anecdote, which I find recorded in Rowland’s Journal for 1817:—“My father, a little time since, was speaking of me to my friend William Matthews, when he said, ‘Once in my life I struck him, but I afterwards found that it was unjustly; and I’d give this right hand to recall that blow. I hope Rowland has forgotten it; I wish that I could.’ It is unnecessary to say that, when my friend told me this, I felt both great pleasure and pain. It is now about eleven years since the affair happened to which he referred. Many a tear has that blow cost me, though my father acknowledged himself sorry for having struck me very soon after.”So much did the young man take upon his own shoulders, that before he was of age he was, in almost everything but name, the real Head-master.“My first reform,” he one day told me, “was about the school-bell. I was then not more than twelve. It rang very irregularly. I looked into the matter and discovered the cause. It was owing to the following rule of my father’s. There was a monitor whose duty it was to ring the bell, and a penalty was fixed for any delay. But any one who happened to be in the school-room at the time was bound to ring the bell, and was fined for omission. This was one of my first attempts at legislation. I with difficulty persuaded my father to reverse his rule—to fine any one who did ring the bell, except the monitor. That change was eminently successful.” In the hours of meals there had also been great irregularity. The bell was never rung till everything was ready. He proposed that henceforth the bell should be rung at fixed times, it being taken for granted that everything was ready. “My mother said it was impossible to have the dinner at the exact time, as a large leg of mutton required more time to roast than a smaller one. I said no doubt it must have more time, but the cook must begin earlier. She gave in on my earnestly desiring it.”In his Journal for the year 1817 he records: “If the monitor neglect to ring the bell at the proper time,he incurs heavy penalties, which I take care to collect rigorously, convinced that in the end it is the most merciful mode of proceeding.” As he grew older he was more inclined in every case to fix lighter penalties; but whether he was dealing with his pupils, with the servants of the London and Brighton Railway, or the servants of the Post Office, he always rigorously enforced whatever penalty had been justly incurred.Many duties he undertook, he said, as it was less trouble for him to do them himself than to be called in to help another. His father did not keep his accounts on any good system—he had not even an index to his ledger—nor did he make them out at any fixed time. To him they were a necessary evil, and were treated accordingly. The bills were never sent out till the very end of the holidays. “I had a great liking for working in the carpenter’s shop. All through my holidays I was in constant dread lest my father should come up to ask me to help him in making out the accounts, and so call me off from some piece of construction. At last I said that I would rather make up the accounts myself, as I got so tired of these constant interruptions. One of my cousins helped me. He and I used to rise very early one morning just before the holidays, and at last we always completed the posting from the ledger, which before had been spread over the whole holidays, by breakfast-time, while the accounts were sent off with the boys.” Rowland was about fourteen when he thus began to make up the school-bills. At the age of sixteen or seventeen he took into his own hands the entire management of his father’s money affairs, and “a heavy responsibility it was.” There were not a few debts owing, but in no long time, by dint of great efforts, he paid off all thatwas due. “I went round and discharged all the debts, and was very much complimented by my father’s creditors.”About the same time the two brothers were planning to have a kind of “Speech Day”—an Exhibition, as they called it. “We are busily employed,” wrote Rowland in his Journal, in the year 1813, “in preparing for an Exhibition at Christmas of oratory, penmanship, arithmetic, parsing, &c.” In the dramatic part of the entertainment the boys were chiefly drilled by Matthew. The rest of the work mainly fell on Rowland. Three years later his brother was away in London, “eating his terms,” and his father had fallen sick. “I had to drill,” he said, “the boys in recitation. I disliked the work very much, and was very unfit for it; but I had to do it. We always printed the pieces the boys were to repeat. In the scene from ‘Hamlet,’ where Horatio says, ‘My lord, I think I saw him yesternight!’ and Hamlet answers, ‘Saw?—who?’ I thought ‘who’ ought to be ‘whom.’ I consulted my father, who agreed with me; and so we printed it. Matthew—[the old man, as he came to this part of the story, laughed heartily]—Matthew was very angry with me for thus correcting Shakespeare.” He has made in his Journal the following record of the Exhibition of this year:—“At the last Christmas exhibition, the first act of Plautus’s ‘Captives’ was performed in Latin. For this I painted a street scene, which took me several days. I believe I never worked harder than when preparing for this exhibition. The boys were brought to such a pitch of excellence in mental arithmetic, and their other exercises, that we were obliged to give them a great deal of practice that they might not recede. Besides this I gave a great many lessons from home, attended to a class who were drawing maps and plans; and at the same time painted the scenes.“During more than three weeks, including even Sundays, I was hard at work on an average at least eighteen hours to each day; sometimes much more. This I could have borne without injury, but I had almost all the care and responsibility of the school on my hands at the same time; for my brother Matthew was in London several weeks just before the holidays, and my father was unwell. I am not yet recovered from the ill effects upon my health of the exertions I then made; but, however, that exhibition raised our school very high in the public estimation. The mental arithmetic astonished very much, and as we invited questions from the audience, they could not suppose that the boys had been practised in the questions which I asked them.”To what a pitch of excellence he raised his classes is shown by the following record:—“About the same time there arrived in England an American lad named Zerah Colbourn, whose power in mental arithmetic was made the subject of public exhibition. As this was a department in which I had diligently exercised both myself and my pupils, I accompanied my father to the performance with great interest. We found that the boy’s power consisted chiefly in finding with great rapidity the factors of numbers, and square and cube roots. I naturally tried my ability against his, and I found that so long as low numbers were dealt with, I equalled and even surpassed him in rapidity, but that he could deal effectually with numbers so high as to be far beyond my management. Thus he would rapidly extract the cube root of a number expressed in nine figures, provided always it were an exact cube, for with other numbers he declined to deal. His mode of proceeding was a secret, which, with some other devices, his father declared himself willing to reveal so soon as a subscription of, I think, one thousand pounds or guineas should have been raised. As this did not seem to me a very hopeful project, I came to the conclusion that my only way of becoming acquainted with the secret was to find it out for myself. I accordingly went to work, and soon discovered a mode of performing myself that which I had witnessed with so much wonder; and not content with this, proceeded to consider whether means might not be found for mentally extracting roots without limitation to exact cubes. This was an incomparably harder problem, nor did I arrive at its solution till a year or two later. Each process, as soon as discovered, I taught to my pupils, who inthe easier task—all that Colbourn ever attempted—became more rapid and far more correct than Colbourn himself; for with him, in extracting a cube root expressed in three figures, it was a common incident to fail in the second, an error which my pupils learned for the most part to avoid. I may add that some of them became so quick and accurate in both processes, that when on a public occasion, viz., at Midsummer, 1822, printed tables of cubes and their roots had been placed in the hands of examiners, and questions asked therefrom ranging up to two thousand millions, and of course without any limitation to exact cubes, the answers—fractions, however being disregarded—were given so quickly as to lead some sceptics, little aware of the monstrous absurdity of the hypothesis, to declare that the whole must have been previously learned by rote. I reduced my discovery to writing, intending to publish it in a contemplated manual of mental arithmetic; but unfortunately this, with other papers, was lost in a manner never fully known, and to repeat the discovery I fear I should now find quite impracticable.[39]“While on the subject of mental arithmetic, I may mention that I brought the pupils in my class to perform mentally other difficult calculations with a facility that excited no small surprise. Thus they would readily find the moon’s age (approximately, by epacts) for any day of any year; also, the day of the week corresponding with any day of the month; and, by a combination of the two processes, ascertain the day of the month corresponding with Easter Sunday in any year.”It was with some reason that Mr. Sargant, in describing his old school, writes: “Our arithmetic was amazing, even excelling, by our laborious acquisition of mental arithmetic, the success of the present Privy Council Schools.”[40]In surveying, also, the young teacher’s pupils made almost as much progressas in mental arithmetic. He had undertaken to make a complete survey of Birmingham:—“I now made my first trigonometrical survey; taking my first stations on our own playground (which fortunately commanded a view of many of the principal objects in the town), and, as before, engaging my surveying class in the work, both for their instruction and my own assistance.“This occupation led me to inquire into the great trigonometrical survey then carried on by Colonel Mudge, especially that part of it which related to the neighbourhood of Birmingham, my chief object being to ascertain what records would avail for our map, and what further steps it would be needful for me to take to complete the work. With this view I procured his report, and studied it with care, finding it more interesting than any novel. I read with particular interest the part describing the measurement of the great base line on Hounslow Heath by his predecessor, General Roy; and I gathered from it that my own base lines, taken one on our playground and the other on the opposite side of Birmingham, were far too short, the longer extending to only one hundred-and-thirty feet. I therefore resolved to recommence my work, and not only to take a much longer base line, but also to measure it as accurately as I could. I now give a passage taken from my Journal.“‘I accordingly procured some long deal rods and three stools for the purpose of measuring a line with great accuracy. The stools are made to rise and fall, and somewhat resemble music-stools; this construction was necessary, in order to place the rods always upon the same level.[41]“‘I chose Bromsgrove Street as the situation of the base, on account of its remarkable levelness, and the number of objects which are visible from different parts of it. The base extends from the corner of the Bell Inn, on the right-hand side of theBristol Road, and opposite to the end of Bromsgrove Street, to the wall at the north-eastern end of Smithfield; being nearly half a mile in length, and so admirably situated with respect to the objects, that there is not a single obtuse angle upon it.“‘Besides measuring with the rods, I surveyed the line twice with a land chain, properly adjusted, and after making every allowance for the elongation of the chain during the admeasurement, I found the difference in the total length of the base, which is nearly half a mile, to be only three-quarters of an inch. When the survey is completed, I intend to write an account of it, which will be found among my manuscripts.[42]“‘I have thought of publishing parts of it in some of the magazines, particularly a relation of a new mode of using the theodolite, which I have invented. This mode increases its power exceedingly.’“In performing this work it was of course necessary to avoid the daily traffic, which would have disturbed our operations; and, as my Journal shows, my class and I, during the three days occupied in the process, viz., May the 25th, 27th, and 30th, rose the first day at three, the second at five minutes before three, and the third at five minutes past two.“The improved mode of using the theodolite referred to above consisted in making it do the work of a repeating circle; and thus I was enabled, with respect to each of the principal angles, to obtain the mean of perhaps twenty measurements. I may here mention that the fact of this contrivance happened, on a subsequent occasion, to do me good service. Some years afterwards, being in London, I wished to visit the Royal Observatory, and procuring a letter of introduction to Captain Kater, then a member of the Board of Longitude, I applied to him for an order. With all the politeness that can attend a negative, he told me that the Astronomer Royal (Mr. Pond) had been so much interrupted of late as to deprecate any further issue of orders save in cases of absolute necessity. As some consolation, however, he offered to show me his own apparatus; which, I need not say, I examined with great interest. In the course of conversation I mentioned my new device, when, turning to me with a look of great pleasure,he told me that he had hit upon the same improvement himself. Before I left he sat down and wrote the order; of which I did not fail to make use. I may add that at a later period he visited the school, subsequently placed a son under our care, and continued till death to honour me with his friendship.“To return to the survey, I give a second extract from my Journal:—“‘June 23rd, 1819.—This day I completed the calculations for the trigonometrical survey of Birmingham, and some parts of the adjoining country.“‘After completing the survey of the town, I thought it desirable to extend it for the purpose of verifying the admeasurement of the base, by computing the length of two lines which were measured by Colonel Mudge. These are the distance [the respective distances] of Wolverhampton and Wednesbury spires from a station at Bar beacon. Colonel Mudge has left no mark to show the situation of his station; he describes it indeed, but not with very great precision. He says in his report, ‘The station is thirty yards north of the plantation.’ I have supposed his description to be exactly correct, that is, that the station was placed directly north of the centre of the plantation, and thirty yards from the nearest part of the clump of trees. If this be correct the station would stand fifty-six yards directly north of the flagstaff, and this I have supposed to be its situation.“‘The distance of Wolverhampton spire from the station at Bar beacon, Colonel Mudge gives at 48,345 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, gives 48,355 feet.“‘By my operations I make the distance to be 48,362 feet, differing by only seven feet in upwards of nine miles. The distance of Wednesbury spire from the station at Bar beacon is, according to Colonel Mudge, 25,140 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, is 25,098 feet. I have found the same line to measure 25,102 feet, differing by only four feet in nearly five miles.[43]* * * * *“‘Besides measuring these distances, I reduced the latitude and longitude of St. Philip’s church, and of the station on this house[my father’s], from the latitude and longitude of Bar beacon as given by Colonel Mudge.’[44]“One other line measured in the course of my operations (I think it was the one from the station on Bar beacon to that on Clent Hill near Hagley) was of yet greater length than those mentioned above, being no less than fourteen miles. Indeed, the triangles became so large that I had to make allowance for spherical excess, the rotundity of the earth becoming otherwise a source of error.“Whenever it was practicable I measured all three angles of each triangle; and, after allowance for the spherical excess, there was no instance, I believe, in which the sum of the three angles differed from 180° by so much as half a minute.“Those possessed of such instruments as are used at the present day will perhaps smile at the self-satisfaction with which I regarded this approximate accuracy; but they must remember that I had only a common theodolite, such as was in use fifty years ago.“It may be mentioned here that, on account of the length of the lines, communication between our stations was a matter of some difficulty and much interest. When two divisions of the surveying class had to set out in different directions for places many miles apart, for the purpose of acting in concert with each other, of course a certain amount of forethought and injunction before starting, and sharp watchfulness on the spot, were indispensable: spare flags were carried for telegraphic purposes, and telescopes for observation of the signals previously agreed upon. I need not say that each signal at one station was eagerly welcomed at the other, and that its repetition, given by way of acknowledgment at the latter, was no less warmly hailed at the former.“There was a little incident on this occasion which, though somewhat foreign to my subject, I mention as ludicrously characteristic of schoolboyesprit de corpsaccording to its manifestation fifty years ago. I understand the feeling is now much mitigated, without, however, being injuriously impaired. In the midst of our proceedings at Bar beacon the pupils of another school came upon the ground, being apparently out for a holiday. A feeling of hostility soon manifested itself in our party, and that without any other provocation from the other side than arose from mere presence; and though the rival party mustered at least three-fold our number, it was soon suggested, no doubt half in joke, that weshould challenge them to fight; if I would only deal with the master a good account should soon be given of all the rest. This absurd petition being of course rejected, a more peaceful means was hit upon for the vindication of our honour. The hill on which we stood was, and perhaps still is, surmounted by a flagstaff sixty or seventy feet high, by means of which it was announced to the world round about whether the family at the neighbouring hall were at home or otherwise. About half-way up this standard was a small platform, accessible by a perpendicular ladder; and to this one of our number, I believe the youngest, proceeded to mount, descending after a short stay. Though not a word was said, the hint was immediately taken by the other party, one of whom repeated the feat. A second of our number was likewise followed by a second of theirs; but a third finding no imitator, the victory remained with us. Further, however, to enhance the triumph, the little fellow who had made the first ascent, having remounted to the platform, ‘swarmed’ up thence to the top of the pole, returning to the ground with no small self-satisfaction. As no similar attempt was made by the rival party, enough was thought to have been done for the honour of the school; and when we left the ground, it was with the dignified air of demonstrated superiority.“Before leaving the subject of surveys, I may mention that I afterwards led my class to measure and plot, with sections longitudinal and transverse, so much of the Ickenield Street as then remained on Sutton Coldfield, the length being about three miles; and lastly, that at the request of Dr. Blair, now well known to every reader of the life of Professor Wilson, we made a survey underground, viz., of a coal-pit, his property, near Dudley. This, though a dark and dirty piece of work, was much enjoyed by the lads, the more so as at the close of their task they were plentifully regaled at Dr. Blair’s hospitable table.“These operations extended over a portion of 1818 and 1819.“A little incident which occurred during the survey on Sutton Coldfield may be worth mentioning. A farmer coming up towards the close of our operations asked what we were doing, and upon being told that we were surveying the Roman road, inquired, ‘What’s that?’ At this time, the sun, being low in the sky, threw the depressed parts of the road into sufficient shadow to bring out alike the convexity of the carriage-way and the comparative elevation of the causeways on either side, so that the road, not easily discernible in the full light of day, had now its outlines distinctly marked. The answer, therefore, was easy, and pointing to the longline of road stretched before us, I replied, ‘There it is.’ The rustic looked in the direction indicated, and after gazing for awhile in bewildered surprise exclaimed, ‘Good God, I have crossed this way every day for twenty years, and never saw that before!’”[45]CHAPTER IV.Able and successful though Rowland Hill was as a teacher, nevertheless he often regretted that he was withdrawn from duties which he alone could perform, to undertake that which another might have done with at least a fair amount of success. “I ought,” he records in his Journal, “to have nothing to do but to superintend others; my time is unfortunately too much occupied as a teacher.” Certainly the singular system of education which he had devised required for its proper working the almost undivided attention of its author. Before I describe it, I would ask the reader to bring before his mind the state of our schools in the days of our fathers. Let him read “Tom Brown.” Let him see what Rugby was even after Dr. Arnold had for some years been its master. Let him see the shocking brutality to which an inoffensive child could be exposed. I can never think on some of the scenes of that story without feeling that Arnold’s great name is stained by the cruel deeds that were done under his own roof. Had he thought a little more of suffering and a little less of sin, he would have been a better master and a greater man. At the time that Rowland Hill began hisreforms Arnold was still at Oxford. He was not appointed to Rugby till six years after Matthew and Rowland Hill had brought out their work on Public Education. There had been little sign as yet of any improvement in our schools. There was still many a place where a gentle and timid child was exposed to savage and ignorant cruelty. These ancient foundations boast, and with justice, of the famous men whom they have reared. They are proud of their traditions; and yet I can never visit one of these old schools without seeing rise before my mind a long line of unhappy children who were too gentle, too delicately wrought for the rough and brutal world into which they were suddenly thrown, and whose little hearts were well-nigh broken by the cruelty of an unfeeling herd of masters and boys.
“At Christmas I had an attack of my old complaint—the ear-ache—which confined me to the house for a fortnight. However, I turned the time to advantage by reading French with such industry that, although I knew but little of the language when I began, yet at the end of the fortnight I could read it with sufficient ease as to be amused by it. I recollect that in one day I read a hundred pages of ‘Gil Blas,’ closely printed in small type.”
“At Christmas I had an attack of my old complaint—the ear-ache—which confined me to the house for a fortnight. However, I turned the time to advantage by reading French with such industry that, although I knew but little of the language when I began, yet at the end of the fortnight I could read it with sufficient ease as to be amused by it. I recollect that in one day I read a hundred pages of ‘Gil Blas,’ closely printed in small type.”
His efforts at self-improvement were—as he recorded in his old age—to some extent at least, misdirected. When he was a boy of thirteen he won the first of three prizes for original landscape-drawings, which had been offered by the proprietor of “The School Magazine”[34]to all candidates under sixteen. In the number of the Magazine for September, 1807, appeared the following announcement:—
“We have received several beautiful drawings in different styles, which do great credit to the talents of the young persons by whom they are sent, and to the exertions of the gentlemen under whom they have studied the pleasing art.“The principal prize is awarded to Master Rowland Hill, who has given us a view of St. Philip’s Church, Birmingham, and the surrounding objects, as taken from the playground of Hill Top School.“Master Hill is thirteen years and eight months only, and his performance is attested by his father, Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, and his drawing-master, Mr. Samuel Lines. To him is awarded—“‘A Drawing-Box, value Three Guineas.’”
“We have received several beautiful drawings in different styles, which do great credit to the talents of the young persons by whom they are sent, and to the exertions of the gentlemen under whom they have studied the pleasing art.
“The principal prize is awarded to Master Rowland Hill, who has given us a view of St. Philip’s Church, Birmingham, and the surrounding objects, as taken from the playground of Hill Top School.
“Master Hill is thirteen years and eight months only, and his performance is attested by his father, Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, and his drawing-master, Mr. Samuel Lines. To him is awarded—
“‘A Drawing-Box, value Three Guineas.’”
“What,” he wrote in his Journal a few years later, “was my surprise and delight to find that I had obtained the first prize! The whole family participated in my joy, and I believe this was the happiest day ofmy life.” But his success, as he himself has pointed out, had its drawback:—
“This, and theéclatI obtained a year or two later by painting the scenes for our little theatre, caused my parents and myself to assume that nature intended me for an artist. I accordingly employed the greater part of my spare time in practising drawing from patterns, from nature, from plaster-casts of the human frame, and, eventually, from life. Sketching from nature I found a most agreeable occupation, especially as it fell in with my love of visiting ancient ruins and fine scenery. I continued to pursue drawing with great earnestness for several years, and some of my drawings obtained the honour (undeserved, I fear) of appearing in the Birmingham Exhibitions. At length, however, I discovered that I possessed no natural aptitude for the artistic profession, and, consequently, directed my efforts to other matters.”
“This, and theéclatI obtained a year or two later by painting the scenes for our little theatre, caused my parents and myself to assume that nature intended me for an artist. I accordingly employed the greater part of my spare time in practising drawing from patterns, from nature, from plaster-casts of the human frame, and, eventually, from life. Sketching from nature I found a most agreeable occupation, especially as it fell in with my love of visiting ancient ruins and fine scenery. I continued to pursue drawing with great earnestness for several years, and some of my drawings obtained the honour (undeserved, I fear) of appearing in the Birmingham Exhibitions. At length, however, I discovered that I possessed no natural aptitude for the artistic profession, and, consequently, directed my efforts to other matters.”
In the account that I have given of Rowland Hill’s mental training, I have, in more than one place, been carried somewhat out of the regular course of my narrative. I must now return to the time when he was still a mere boy, and was as yet but little aware how boundless is the ocean of knowledge, on whose shores he had picked up but the tiniest of shells. He would not by any means have been accounted a forward child. In any school famous for learning he would have taken a low place. Nevertheless, his comrades had not failed to discover his peculiar power. One of his brothers thus writes about him:—
“My brother Rowland’s character is, to a considerable extent, portrayed in the History of Penny Postage; and, amongst the rest, his power of commanding success. But it may be well for me to testify, relative to this quality, that he showed it from a very early age. For myself, I can say that whenever I knew that he had set an object before him, I felt sure that it would be attained; and yet this was not from any high estimate of his talents; for, being less than three years his junior, and perhaps of a more sprightly and imaginative disposition, I fear I was wont to assume in comparing his mental powers with mine, and certainly did not soon recognise their high order. Probably, if I analyzed my feeling at all, I based it chiefly on belief in his perseverance. Again and again I had seen work prosper in his hands, and had had few or no failures to point to; whereas I knew that I was ever devising mighty plans which came to nothing. His early performances were chiefly of a mechanical nature,and diligent practice rendered him very fertile in resources—a fact of which I was well aware years before I could have designated the power by its proper term.”
“My brother Rowland’s character is, to a considerable extent, portrayed in the History of Penny Postage; and, amongst the rest, his power of commanding success. But it may be well for me to testify, relative to this quality, that he showed it from a very early age. For myself, I can say that whenever I knew that he had set an object before him, I felt sure that it would be attained; and yet this was not from any high estimate of his talents; for, being less than three years his junior, and perhaps of a more sprightly and imaginative disposition, I fear I was wont to assume in comparing his mental powers with mine, and certainly did not soon recognise their high order. Probably, if I analyzed my feeling at all, I based it chiefly on belief in his perseverance. Again and again I had seen work prosper in his hands, and had had few or no failures to point to; whereas I knew that I was ever devising mighty plans which came to nothing. His early performances were chiefly of a mechanical nature,and diligent practice rendered him very fertile in resources—a fact of which I was well aware years before I could have designated the power by its proper term.”
It was in the management of the school theatre that this fertility in resources first became conspicuous. His younger brother, Arthur, had a strong dramatic turn, and was eager, like many another lad of thirteen, to strut and fret his hour upon the stage. Others he found ready to join him, and then for aid and advice he turned to Rowland, who was by two years his senior.
“The more I told them about the cost and other difficulties, the more anxious they grew as to the success of their enterprise, until at length, by their joint entreaty, I was prevailed on to assume the management; undertaking myself to paint the scenes, construct the machinery, and direct the whole course of action. I declined to become a performer, having no turn that way.”[35]The young company put their money into a common stock. The Manager recorded in his Journal:—“A code of laws was drawn up for the management of the theatre, and we were very exact in the observance of them. I was constituted manager, with power to appoint the different actors, and, under certain restrictions, to appropriate the funds in what way I pleased.”
It was in the summer of 1811 that they formed their plans; but it was not till the Easter of the following year that they were ready to give their first performance. Their difficulties were great. The school-room was to be their theatre; and in the school-room they could only work before the boys had risen, and after they had gone to bed. In the code of lawswhich governed the company, it was laid down that they should rise an hour before the usual time. Whatever scenery they set up had always to be taken down before lessons began. The room was long, but narrow, and not lofty enough to allow the scenes, at the time of shifting, to be drawn up. Not one of the company had ever been behind the curtain of a real theatre. Rowland, however, undertook to be architect, carpenter, scene-painter, and manager. He had, by this time, become most expert in the use of his tools. He was never so happy as when he was working in his carpenter’s shop. His knowledge of drawing and painting was also turned to good account. He began by carefully planning his work, and taking the most exact measurements. So accurately had everything been contrived beforehand, that when the scenes and their supports came to be put up they all fell at once into their proper places. The young company was greatly hampered by want of funds, and had from time to time to turn from the theatre to more than one plan of raising money. Among other “ways and means,” they set up a manufactory of fire-balloons, and gained some money by the tickets of admission that they sold to those who witnessed the ascent. At first they could only afford the simplest of materials for their scenes. These were painted on brown paper, the sheets being glued together. The side-scenes were painted on both sides, and revolved, in changing, on a pivot in the middle. Each season saw, however, an increase of magnificence, and some of the young artist’s scenery was so strongly made and so carefully painted that it has been in use even in the last few years.
Meanwhile, his younger brother was engaged in writing a tragedy, and in drilling his company.“Finding all dramas to which he had access far too long and difficult for his purpose, he boldly turned author; and parts were learned and scenes practised, though with considerable increase to inevitable difficulties, from the circumstance that the drama grew as the work proceeded, new thoughts striking the young dramatist, and new scenes being added for their development.” ThusThe Hostile Chieftains, a tragedy founded on one of Mrs. Radcliffe’s tales, was written six times over.The Tragedy of Nero, as well befitted so great a subject, was the composition of three of the brothers working together. Even the manager, architect, carpenter, and scene-painter had found time to lend a hand. The first season opened with the performance ofThe Rivals, a tragedy, and not by Sheridan. It was witnessed with great applause by crowded audiences during its run of two nights. It was in the third season thatThe Hostile Chieftainswas performed. Meanwhile, no doubt as a necessary preparation for Mrs. Radcliffe, a trap-door had been made in the ceiling. A band of musicians also was formed. This was the last season of the little company, but it ended gloriously; for the play had a run of five nights.
In many other ways did the young lad show his ingenuity. He was the family carpenter, locksmith, and clock-cleaner. He even took to pieces and set to rights a watch which had been returned to the maker for repairs, but was sent back as faulty as ever. When he was sixteen Mr. Beasley projected a new piece of “utility”—a school-atlas—and called upon “his young friend, Rowland Hill,” to undertake the task of constructing the maps. “This was,” Rowland wrote in his Journal, a few years later, “a much greater undertaking than I at first imagined,owing to the great difference that exists in the works which it was necessary to consult. In a chart of the Mediterranean belonging to my father, Algiers is as much as three inches from its proper place.... I have given it up entirely. I could not be satisfied with copying from another map, and from the great number of books and maps which it was necessary to consult, I found that, with the little time I could devote to it, it must be the work of not less than ten or fifteen years.” He finished, however, the map of Spain and Portugal, which was published.
Three years later, when he was now nineteen, he gave still further proofs of his ingenuity:—
“In January, 1815, my father gave a lecture on electricity to the Birmingham Philosophical Society, of which he was a Fellow, I performing the experiments. At that period the means of securing electrical action were either imperfect, or, at best, not very generally known. A previous attempt (by another Fellow of the Society) to give an illustrated lecture on the subject had utterly failed; and it was confidently believed by various members that, in the theatre of the institution at least—whether because of the crowded audiences usually attending the lectures, whether from insufficient ventilation, or from some unknown cause—all further attempt was useless. This stimulated my father to the effort, the more so as his successful lectures, previously mentioned, had been given under circumstances far more unfavourable. His credit was thus staked upon the issue, and he resolved, and I with him, that no effort should be spared to secure success. We carefully examined the whole of the Society’s apparatus, and brought it into complete order. Remembering an exhibition of constellations at one of my father’s former lectures, I went to work to prepare more, which I desired to make on a much larger scale; but glass, the material on which the tinfoil was laid, being not only inconveniently fragile, but at that time, on account of the high duty, an expensive article, I tried the substitution of cardboard, which fortunately I found to be, when quite dry, a satisfactory non-conductor. Using this, I produced several constellations of such size as to be well seen by a large body of spectators; and, which delighted me even more, I so arranged one, viz, that of theGreat Bear, that while receiving the spark it was kept in constant revolution. At length we got everything to do well; but our elation at this preliminary success was considerably checked by hearing that our predecessor had thus far done as well as ourselves. This made us very anxious, and our care was redoubled. Observing that the lecture-table was covered with lead, surmounted with green baize, and fearing that this combination would in some measure rob our conductor (the nap acting as so many points), we covered the whole with glazed brown paper; and again, anxious lest any accumulation of electric influence, either in the subjacent lead or elsewhere, might be troublesome, we crossed the table with a number of wires, which, being first brought into connection below, were passed through the floor, and lastly, being thrust into the spout of a pump in the basement, were brought into contact with the column of water within, so as to make our conduction, or rather abduction, complete. We also took advantage of a furnace, which had been set up behind the lecture-table for chemical purposes, to diffuse as much warmth as possible over our whole apparatus, that all dampness might be kept away.“At length the important night arrived, and, notwithstanding all our precautions, we went to the lecture-room in great trepidation. The clock struck seven, and the electrical machine, which had been kept near a large fire in the apparatus-room till the last moment, was carried in and attached to the table. The lecture began, and the machine was set in motion, while we stood in breathless anxiety to watch the result. To our inexpressible relief we soon saw that it was in full power; and experiment succeeded experiment without the slightest failure. All had proceeded well till about the middle of the lecture, when suddenly the rod of the winch, which, with superfluous caution, had been made of glass, snapped in two, and the machine was brought to a stand. Though enough had been done to establish the success of our attempt, my father, naturally anxious to complete his lecture, and remembering that he was in the midst of a manufacturing town, inquired earnestly whether any one present could furnish a substitute of any description, however rude. One or two gentlemen immediately disappeared, and, meantime, my own machine, which had been brought as a provision against mishap, was used for some minor experiments, for which its power well sufficed. While this was going on my brother Edwin had carried the broken winch into a small workshop on the premises, and, sawing off the leg of a stool, had shaped this at the ends, fitted it to the winch handle, and, returning to the room, attached it to thesocket on the axle of the machine, which again began to revolve, so that when our kind friends returned with their substitutes the necessity for them had passed away, and the lecture went on swimmingly to the end; my Great Bear, which was, so far as I know, a novelty, attracting particular attention, and eliciting, contrary to the rule and usage of the society, a round of applause.“One of the loudest foreboders of evil consoled himself for his error by remarking on the number of assistants ‘Hill’ had had, adding that he had better have brought his wife and all his family to help him. So trifling a circumstance would not have been noticed here had it not touched the key-note of our success. In our course through life, from the beginning to the present hour, each one of us has been always ready to help the others to the best of his power; and no one has failed to call for such assistance again and again. Each one, I am sure, recognises in this fact a main cause of such success as he has attained; and I cannot too emphatically declare that to mine it has been essential.“In the following January my father gave a second and last lecture on the same subject. Emboldened by our past success, we proceeded to experiments involving greater risk of failure; among others a thunder-cloud, which, to effect its discharge (whereby a model building was to be blown up with gunpowder), had to be moved by electric influence through a distance of not less, I think, than eight or ten feet. But the crowning illustration, with which the lecture concluded, was a revolving planisphere of my construction, four feet in diameter, and representing all stars, of not less than the fourth magnitude, within forty degrees of the South Pole. Wishing that the various magnitudes should appear in the illustration, I devised an arrangement for that purpose. For producing the sparks to represent stars of the first magnitude, I cut the approaching edges of the tinfoil into a round shape, and placed them about one-twelfth of an inch asunder; for those of the second magnitude I gave the edges a pointed shape, also reducing the space between them to a minimum; for stars of the third and fourth magnitudes, while retaining the same arrangement, I produced further obscuration by covering the one with a single thickness, and the other with two thicknesses, of thin paper. To represent the Magellanic clouds was a more difficult matter; but here also I hit upon an expedient. Piercing the disc, in the proper places, with holes proportionate to the size and in the form of the respective nebulae, I placed behind each hole in a plane parallel to that of the disc, and distant abouthalf an inch from it, a piece of paper somewhat more than sufficiently large to correspond with the perforation; and I so arranged that this paper was illuminated by sparks at the back of the disc. When I add that the planisphere thus illuminated was at the same time kept in constant and equable revolution, I shall perhaps be regarded as justified in the belief entertained at the time that the whole result was a more exact representation of the starry heavens than had ever before been produced. The applause previously given to my Great Bear was more than redoubled on sight of my Southern Sky, and the lecture terminated amidst the congratulations of friends, my father being, of course, greatly pleased, myself sufficiently elated, and the whole family triumphant. I may add that a full description of my planisphere will be found in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ for October, 1818.”[36]
“In January, 1815, my father gave a lecture on electricity to the Birmingham Philosophical Society, of which he was a Fellow, I performing the experiments. At that period the means of securing electrical action were either imperfect, or, at best, not very generally known. A previous attempt (by another Fellow of the Society) to give an illustrated lecture on the subject had utterly failed; and it was confidently believed by various members that, in the theatre of the institution at least—whether because of the crowded audiences usually attending the lectures, whether from insufficient ventilation, or from some unknown cause—all further attempt was useless. This stimulated my father to the effort, the more so as his successful lectures, previously mentioned, had been given under circumstances far more unfavourable. His credit was thus staked upon the issue, and he resolved, and I with him, that no effort should be spared to secure success. We carefully examined the whole of the Society’s apparatus, and brought it into complete order. Remembering an exhibition of constellations at one of my father’s former lectures, I went to work to prepare more, which I desired to make on a much larger scale; but glass, the material on which the tinfoil was laid, being not only inconveniently fragile, but at that time, on account of the high duty, an expensive article, I tried the substitution of cardboard, which fortunately I found to be, when quite dry, a satisfactory non-conductor. Using this, I produced several constellations of such size as to be well seen by a large body of spectators; and, which delighted me even more, I so arranged one, viz, that of theGreat Bear, that while receiving the spark it was kept in constant revolution. At length we got everything to do well; but our elation at this preliminary success was considerably checked by hearing that our predecessor had thus far done as well as ourselves. This made us very anxious, and our care was redoubled. Observing that the lecture-table was covered with lead, surmounted with green baize, and fearing that this combination would in some measure rob our conductor (the nap acting as so many points), we covered the whole with glazed brown paper; and again, anxious lest any accumulation of electric influence, either in the subjacent lead or elsewhere, might be troublesome, we crossed the table with a number of wires, which, being first brought into connection below, were passed through the floor, and lastly, being thrust into the spout of a pump in the basement, were brought into contact with the column of water within, so as to make our conduction, or rather abduction, complete. We also took advantage of a furnace, which had been set up behind the lecture-table for chemical purposes, to diffuse as much warmth as possible over our whole apparatus, that all dampness might be kept away.
“At length the important night arrived, and, notwithstanding all our precautions, we went to the lecture-room in great trepidation. The clock struck seven, and the electrical machine, which had been kept near a large fire in the apparatus-room till the last moment, was carried in and attached to the table. The lecture began, and the machine was set in motion, while we stood in breathless anxiety to watch the result. To our inexpressible relief we soon saw that it was in full power; and experiment succeeded experiment without the slightest failure. All had proceeded well till about the middle of the lecture, when suddenly the rod of the winch, which, with superfluous caution, had been made of glass, snapped in two, and the machine was brought to a stand. Though enough had been done to establish the success of our attempt, my father, naturally anxious to complete his lecture, and remembering that he was in the midst of a manufacturing town, inquired earnestly whether any one present could furnish a substitute of any description, however rude. One or two gentlemen immediately disappeared, and, meantime, my own machine, which had been brought as a provision against mishap, was used for some minor experiments, for which its power well sufficed. While this was going on my brother Edwin had carried the broken winch into a small workshop on the premises, and, sawing off the leg of a stool, had shaped this at the ends, fitted it to the winch handle, and, returning to the room, attached it to thesocket on the axle of the machine, which again began to revolve, so that when our kind friends returned with their substitutes the necessity for them had passed away, and the lecture went on swimmingly to the end; my Great Bear, which was, so far as I know, a novelty, attracting particular attention, and eliciting, contrary to the rule and usage of the society, a round of applause.
“One of the loudest foreboders of evil consoled himself for his error by remarking on the number of assistants ‘Hill’ had had, adding that he had better have brought his wife and all his family to help him. So trifling a circumstance would not have been noticed here had it not touched the key-note of our success. In our course through life, from the beginning to the present hour, each one of us has been always ready to help the others to the best of his power; and no one has failed to call for such assistance again and again. Each one, I am sure, recognises in this fact a main cause of such success as he has attained; and I cannot too emphatically declare that to mine it has been essential.
“In the following January my father gave a second and last lecture on the same subject. Emboldened by our past success, we proceeded to experiments involving greater risk of failure; among others a thunder-cloud, which, to effect its discharge (whereby a model building was to be blown up with gunpowder), had to be moved by electric influence through a distance of not less, I think, than eight or ten feet. But the crowning illustration, with which the lecture concluded, was a revolving planisphere of my construction, four feet in diameter, and representing all stars, of not less than the fourth magnitude, within forty degrees of the South Pole. Wishing that the various magnitudes should appear in the illustration, I devised an arrangement for that purpose. For producing the sparks to represent stars of the first magnitude, I cut the approaching edges of the tinfoil into a round shape, and placed them about one-twelfth of an inch asunder; for those of the second magnitude I gave the edges a pointed shape, also reducing the space between them to a minimum; for stars of the third and fourth magnitudes, while retaining the same arrangement, I produced further obscuration by covering the one with a single thickness, and the other with two thicknesses, of thin paper. To represent the Magellanic clouds was a more difficult matter; but here also I hit upon an expedient. Piercing the disc, in the proper places, with holes proportionate to the size and in the form of the respective nebulae, I placed behind each hole in a plane parallel to that of the disc, and distant abouthalf an inch from it, a piece of paper somewhat more than sufficiently large to correspond with the perforation; and I so arranged that this paper was illuminated by sparks at the back of the disc. When I add that the planisphere thus illuminated was at the same time kept in constant and equable revolution, I shall perhaps be regarded as justified in the belief entertained at the time that the whole result was a more exact representation of the starry heavens than had ever before been produced. The applause previously given to my Great Bear was more than redoubled on sight of my Southern Sky, and the lecture terminated amidst the congratulations of friends, my father being, of course, greatly pleased, myself sufficiently elated, and the whole family triumphant. I may add that a full description of my planisphere will be found in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ for October, 1818.”[36]
In 1816 he devised and constructed an alarum water-clock:—
“As a complete description of this might weary the reader, I will give only a general conception of its structure. As already implied, the lapse of time was to be marked by the flow of water, and the most obvious difficulty being to render this equable, I employed for the purpose a floating syphon. The tube, which was so fine as to pass only about three drops per minute, was stuck through a flat piece of cork, which floated on the surface of water in a tin can; and as the water issued from the syphon it dropped into another can, though of much smaller size, hung at one end of a balance; so that, as this latter can filled, it became heavy enough to bear its own end of the beam down, while the opposite end, being of course tilted up, struck the trigger, which, as in ordinary alarums, released the weight, thus setting the clapper in motion. Now the length of time required to give the counterbalancing weight of water depended, of course, on the amount of weight put on the trigger-beam; and this was varied according to requirement, principally by means of a sliding weight, hanging from the beam as from a common steelyard. This sufficed so far as quarter hours were concerned, additional means of some complexity being used for securing the observance of smaller portions of time. The end was that I could count on being called within three or four minutes of the time fixed upon. In its early days, however, I was sometimes annoyed by irregularity,and, upon careful inspection, I perceived that this was caused by dust, which, falling into the water, found its way into the syphon, and impeded the flow. To remove this inconvenience, I enclosed my alarum in a box, taking care also to change the water with sufficient frequency. I remember that on the evening when I first got the machine to work, not willing to leave my new light under a bushel, I fetched up half-a-dozen boys into the room where it stood, that they might see and admire. When I had explained the mechanism, and arranged for aréveilleat the end of a quarter of an hour, the boys sat down in expectation; and probably being over-worked, according to our practice at the time, one of them fell fast asleep. Great was my delight, and great the amusement of his companions, when, at the end of the time, this, the first person ever awakened by alarum of mine, started up with a sudden exclamation of surprise and alarm, showing that my little machine had effectually performed its duty.“I may here remark that for one machine that I executed there were many that I devised. Thus I find the following entry in my Journal about a year later:—“‘December 21st, 1817.—I also wish to make a model of a boat to be driven by pumping [in] water at the prow and forcing it out at the stern. This is an idea of my father’s; and I think it will obviate the objection against driving canal boats by machinery, which is that the paddles agitate the water to such a degree as to injure the sides of the canal’“A few years later I set down another first conception, this time of my own, which, however, I never carried further. The record is as follows:—“‘Steam vessels might be propelled by means of an endless screw, something like a corkscrew with the wire flattened in a direction perpendicular to the axis. There might be several fixed at the sides, at the stern, &c. This apparatus would work equally well whether altogether or partly immersed in water. If one could be placed so as to move like a rudder, it would be exceedingly efficient in changing the direction of the boat.’”[37]
“As a complete description of this might weary the reader, I will give only a general conception of its structure. As already implied, the lapse of time was to be marked by the flow of water, and the most obvious difficulty being to render this equable, I employed for the purpose a floating syphon. The tube, which was so fine as to pass only about three drops per minute, was stuck through a flat piece of cork, which floated on the surface of water in a tin can; and as the water issued from the syphon it dropped into another can, though of much smaller size, hung at one end of a balance; so that, as this latter can filled, it became heavy enough to bear its own end of the beam down, while the opposite end, being of course tilted up, struck the trigger, which, as in ordinary alarums, released the weight, thus setting the clapper in motion. Now the length of time required to give the counterbalancing weight of water depended, of course, on the amount of weight put on the trigger-beam; and this was varied according to requirement, principally by means of a sliding weight, hanging from the beam as from a common steelyard. This sufficed so far as quarter hours were concerned, additional means of some complexity being used for securing the observance of smaller portions of time. The end was that I could count on being called within three or four minutes of the time fixed upon. In its early days, however, I was sometimes annoyed by irregularity,and, upon careful inspection, I perceived that this was caused by dust, which, falling into the water, found its way into the syphon, and impeded the flow. To remove this inconvenience, I enclosed my alarum in a box, taking care also to change the water with sufficient frequency. I remember that on the evening when I first got the machine to work, not willing to leave my new light under a bushel, I fetched up half-a-dozen boys into the room where it stood, that they might see and admire. When I had explained the mechanism, and arranged for aréveilleat the end of a quarter of an hour, the boys sat down in expectation; and probably being over-worked, according to our practice at the time, one of them fell fast asleep. Great was my delight, and great the amusement of his companions, when, at the end of the time, this, the first person ever awakened by alarum of mine, started up with a sudden exclamation of surprise and alarm, showing that my little machine had effectually performed its duty.
“I may here remark that for one machine that I executed there were many that I devised. Thus I find the following entry in my Journal about a year later:—
“‘December 21st, 1817.—I also wish to make a model of a boat to be driven by pumping [in] water at the prow and forcing it out at the stern. This is an idea of my father’s; and I think it will obviate the objection against driving canal boats by machinery, which is that the paddles agitate the water to such a degree as to injure the sides of the canal’“A few years later I set down another first conception, this time of my own, which, however, I never carried further. The record is as follows:—“‘Steam vessels might be propelled by means of an endless screw, something like a corkscrew with the wire flattened in a direction perpendicular to the axis. There might be several fixed at the sides, at the stern, &c. This apparatus would work equally well whether altogether or partly immersed in water. If one could be placed so as to move like a rudder, it would be exceedingly efficient in changing the direction of the boat.’”[37]
“‘December 21st, 1817.—I also wish to make a model of a boat to be driven by pumping [in] water at the prow and forcing it out at the stern. This is an idea of my father’s; and I think it will obviate the objection against driving canal boats by machinery, which is that the paddles agitate the water to such a degree as to injure the sides of the canal’
“A few years later I set down another first conception, this time of my own, which, however, I never carried further. The record is as follows:—
“‘Steam vessels might be propelled by means of an endless screw, something like a corkscrew with the wire flattened in a direction perpendicular to the axis. There might be several fixed at the sides, at the stern, &c. This apparatus would work equally well whether altogether or partly immersed in water. If one could be placed so as to move like a rudder, it would be exceedingly efficient in changing the direction of the boat.’”[37]
I find also in his Journal for the year 1817, the following record: “If I can find time, I intend to constructa model of an engine which I have long thought of. It is something similar to a steam-engine, only that it is to work by exploding a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gases. Such an engine I think might be employed to advantage in driving carriages, as the gases might be condensed.” A few months later he writes: “During the Christmas vacation I tried a few experiments to ascertain the force of exploded oxygen and hydrogen when in combination, and found it to be so small that it cannot be applied to the purpose I intended; at least, that such an engine would be far more expensive than one to work by steam.”
Soon after he had finished his clock he undertook a very different piece of work. He had already taught himself the art of land-surveying. “I learned the art,” he wrote, “as best I could; I might almost say I found it out, for I had then no book on the subject, and my father had no special knowledge of the matter.” As was usual with him, he at once began to teach what he himself had learnt. With a class he measured and mapped the playground and some little of the neighbourhood. About this time a murder—famous in legal history—was committed within four miles of Hill Top, and at once roused a strong public interest.
“The name of the victim was Mary Ashford. Thornton, the man charged with the crime, and whom the whole neighbourhood believed to be guilty, got off at the trial by setting up analibi. So strong was the feeling excited by this escape, that it was resolved to resort to the long-disused right of appeal; and a subscription being speedily raised to defray the expenses, the necessary proceedings were commenced. This startling course brought the matter into the London papers, and interest became general. Illustrated journals there were none, but my drawing-master published a portrait of the poor girl—taken, I suppose, after death—with a view of the pond in which the body was found; and one of theBirmingham newspapers (theMidland Chronicle) gave a rude plan of the ground on which the chief incidents occurred. This, however, being apparently done without measurement, and not engraved either on wood or copper, but made up as best could be done with ordinary types, was of course but a very imperfect representation. I resolved to improve upon this, and, in conjunction with a former schoolfellow, to whom, though he was much older than myself, I was then giving private lessons in surveying, I led my class to the spot, took the measurements, and constructed a complete map, not merely of the spot where the murder was committed, but of the neighbourhood, so far as to include the place of the allegedalibi. This was published not only in Birmingham but also in London, and we cleared about fifteen pounds by the enterprise. It may be convenient to the reader to add, though this has nothing to do with my story, that when the case of appeal came before the Court of King’s Bench, Thornton, throwing down his glove in due form, demanded wager of battle; and as this barred all other measures, while of course the age of ordeals was passed, the proceedings came to an end, and the prisoner was released. However, he never again ventured to show himself near the scene of his alleged crime. In the next Session of Parliament an Act was passed abolishing wager of battle, and with it the right of appeal. I remember that our family verdict on the subject condemned the latter half of this measure.”[38]
“The name of the victim was Mary Ashford. Thornton, the man charged with the crime, and whom the whole neighbourhood believed to be guilty, got off at the trial by setting up analibi. So strong was the feeling excited by this escape, that it was resolved to resort to the long-disused right of appeal; and a subscription being speedily raised to defray the expenses, the necessary proceedings were commenced. This startling course brought the matter into the London papers, and interest became general. Illustrated journals there were none, but my drawing-master published a portrait of the poor girl—taken, I suppose, after death—with a view of the pond in which the body was found; and one of theBirmingham newspapers (theMidland Chronicle) gave a rude plan of the ground on which the chief incidents occurred. This, however, being apparently done without measurement, and not engraved either on wood or copper, but made up as best could be done with ordinary types, was of course but a very imperfect representation. I resolved to improve upon this, and, in conjunction with a former schoolfellow, to whom, though he was much older than myself, I was then giving private lessons in surveying, I led my class to the spot, took the measurements, and constructed a complete map, not merely of the spot where the murder was committed, but of the neighbourhood, so far as to include the place of the allegedalibi. This was published not only in Birmingham but also in London, and we cleared about fifteen pounds by the enterprise. It may be convenient to the reader to add, though this has nothing to do with my story, that when the case of appeal came before the Court of King’s Bench, Thornton, throwing down his glove in due form, demanded wager of battle; and as this barred all other measures, while of course the age of ordeals was passed, the proceedings came to an end, and the prisoner was released. However, he never again ventured to show himself near the scene of his alleged crime. In the next Session of Parliament an Act was passed abolishing wager of battle, and with it the right of appeal. I remember that our family verdict on the subject condemned the latter half of this measure.”[38]
Rowland Hill’s map was copied by a dishonest tradesman:—
“Incensed at such rascally treatment,” he records in his Journal, “I told my publisher I was determined to maintain an action for damages against the man. On examining the Act respecting the copyright of engravings, my brother Matthew was fearful that we might not succeed in the event of a trial, because we had not specified on the plate the exact day on which it was published. It said ‘published,’ etc., ‘Nov., 1817,’ I immediately had the plate altered before any more impressions were taken; but as several had been sold of the first kind, my brother thought that there would be some danger in risking a trial.”
“Incensed at such rascally treatment,” he records in his Journal, “I told my publisher I was determined to maintain an action for damages against the man. On examining the Act respecting the copyright of engravings, my brother Matthew was fearful that we might not succeed in the event of a trial, because we had not specified on the plate the exact day on which it was published. It said ‘published,’ etc., ‘Nov., 1817,’ I immediately had the plate altered before any more impressions were taken; but as several had been sold of the first kind, my brother thought that there would be some danger in risking a trial.”
The inventions and schemes that I have describedwere rather the occupations of Rowland Hill’s few hours of leisure than the real work of his life. It was in school-work that he was closely engaged for long hours every day during many a year. His position was not a little trying. Had it not been for one side of his father’s character, it might have become unbearable. He and his brother Matthew, as they grew older and saw more of the outside world, had become more and more dissatisfied with the state of the school. They were both ambitious youths; and up to a certain age their chief ambition—at all events, their nearest ambition—was to make Hill Top a thoroughly good school. Before many years had passed, the elder brother was bent on making his way at the bar, while Rowland was thinking how he should reform the education of England—I might almost say, of the world. As his views widened with increasing years, he recorded in his Journal:—
“The beneficial effects which I every day see arise from the improvements which have been introduced into the school, and the acknowledged superiority of our system of education, lead me to think that the combination of talent, energy, and industry which exists in our family, directed as it is, with few exceptions, to the science of education, may some time or other produce effects which will render our name illustrious in after ages. The more I mix with the world, the more insight I have into the proceedings and opinions of other men, the conviction is forced upon me that our family possesses talents, and energy, and devotedness to one object, seldom to be met with.... Our plans are calculated for large numbers, and to obtain them is the present object of all our attention. Some of us think that the best mode will be to attempt to induce the public to establish a large school or college for the education of the children of the upper and middle classes. Other members of the family are afraid that in so doing we may risk our present establishment; but I think that the attempt may be so managed as not in the slightest degree to injure our present school, but rather to forward its success. To establish this college is the height of my ambition. I feel confident that, with great numbers andgreat capital, the science and practice of education might be improved to such a degree as to show that it is now in its infancy.”
“The beneficial effects which I every day see arise from the improvements which have been introduced into the school, and the acknowledged superiority of our system of education, lead me to think that the combination of talent, energy, and industry which exists in our family, directed as it is, with few exceptions, to the science of education, may some time or other produce effects which will render our name illustrious in after ages. The more I mix with the world, the more insight I have into the proceedings and opinions of other men, the conviction is forced upon me that our family possesses talents, and energy, and devotedness to one object, seldom to be met with.... Our plans are calculated for large numbers, and to obtain them is the present object of all our attention. Some of us think that the best mode will be to attempt to induce the public to establish a large school or college for the education of the children of the upper and middle classes. Other members of the family are afraid that in so doing we may risk our present establishment; but I think that the attempt may be so managed as not in the slightest degree to injure our present school, but rather to forward its success. To establish this college is the height of my ambition. I feel confident that, with great numbers andgreat capital, the science and practice of education might be improved to such a degree as to show that it is now in its infancy.”
It was at the age of twenty-five, when he had for some years been the real head of the school, that he made this record. When, however, his brother and he first began their reforms, their efforts were turned to much smaller matters. Matthew set about improving the teaching, while Rowland chiefly took in hand the organization of the school and the management of the accounts. As regards most of their changes, their father at first showed, if not great unwillingness, at all events considerable indifference. Often they had to set themselves against some of his most cherished theories; often they had to stir him up to action when he would have liked much rather to remain in complete repose. “It is an old sore,” writes one of the brothers, later on, “to witness my father’s apathy in the midst of all our exertions.” It was at first no easy matter to win his consent to their plans of reform, but he soon recognised his sons’ ability, and gave their powers full play. Many a man who is too easy-going to carry out to the full the work that lies before him, is yet “rough, unswayable, and rude,” when his own children come forward and do his work with their own hands. This was not Thomas Hill’s character. “My father,” his son said, “showed no signs of vexation, nor was he ever jealous of any of us. He used only to express a fear that I had got too much on my hands. So far from being jealous, he was proud of my doing the work, and used to boast of it to others.” How highly, indeed, he had always thought of his son is shown by the following anecdote, which I find recorded in Rowland’s Journal for 1817:—
“My father, a little time since, was speaking of me to my friend William Matthews, when he said, ‘Once in my life I struck him, but I afterwards found that it was unjustly; and I’d give this right hand to recall that blow. I hope Rowland has forgotten it; I wish that I could.’ It is unnecessary to say that, when my friend told me this, I felt both great pleasure and pain. It is now about eleven years since the affair happened to which he referred. Many a tear has that blow cost me, though my father acknowledged himself sorry for having struck me very soon after.”
“My father, a little time since, was speaking of me to my friend William Matthews, when he said, ‘Once in my life I struck him, but I afterwards found that it was unjustly; and I’d give this right hand to recall that blow. I hope Rowland has forgotten it; I wish that I could.’ It is unnecessary to say that, when my friend told me this, I felt both great pleasure and pain. It is now about eleven years since the affair happened to which he referred. Many a tear has that blow cost me, though my father acknowledged himself sorry for having struck me very soon after.”
So much did the young man take upon his own shoulders, that before he was of age he was, in almost everything but name, the real Head-master.
“My first reform,” he one day told me, “was about the school-bell. I was then not more than twelve. It rang very irregularly. I looked into the matter and discovered the cause. It was owing to the following rule of my father’s. There was a monitor whose duty it was to ring the bell, and a penalty was fixed for any delay. But any one who happened to be in the school-room at the time was bound to ring the bell, and was fined for omission. This was one of my first attempts at legislation. I with difficulty persuaded my father to reverse his rule—to fine any one who did ring the bell, except the monitor. That change was eminently successful.” In the hours of meals there had also been great irregularity. The bell was never rung till everything was ready. He proposed that henceforth the bell should be rung at fixed times, it being taken for granted that everything was ready. “My mother said it was impossible to have the dinner at the exact time, as a large leg of mutton required more time to roast than a smaller one. I said no doubt it must have more time, but the cook must begin earlier. She gave in on my earnestly desiring it.”
In his Journal for the year 1817 he records: “If the monitor neglect to ring the bell at the proper time,he incurs heavy penalties, which I take care to collect rigorously, convinced that in the end it is the most merciful mode of proceeding.” As he grew older he was more inclined in every case to fix lighter penalties; but whether he was dealing with his pupils, with the servants of the London and Brighton Railway, or the servants of the Post Office, he always rigorously enforced whatever penalty had been justly incurred.
Many duties he undertook, he said, as it was less trouble for him to do them himself than to be called in to help another. His father did not keep his accounts on any good system—he had not even an index to his ledger—nor did he make them out at any fixed time. To him they were a necessary evil, and were treated accordingly. The bills were never sent out till the very end of the holidays. “I had a great liking for working in the carpenter’s shop. All through my holidays I was in constant dread lest my father should come up to ask me to help him in making out the accounts, and so call me off from some piece of construction. At last I said that I would rather make up the accounts myself, as I got so tired of these constant interruptions. One of my cousins helped me. He and I used to rise very early one morning just before the holidays, and at last we always completed the posting from the ledger, which before had been spread over the whole holidays, by breakfast-time, while the accounts were sent off with the boys.” Rowland was about fourteen when he thus began to make up the school-bills. At the age of sixteen or seventeen he took into his own hands the entire management of his father’s money affairs, and “a heavy responsibility it was.” There were not a few debts owing, but in no long time, by dint of great efforts, he paid off all thatwas due. “I went round and discharged all the debts, and was very much complimented by my father’s creditors.”
About the same time the two brothers were planning to have a kind of “Speech Day”—an Exhibition, as they called it. “We are busily employed,” wrote Rowland in his Journal, in the year 1813, “in preparing for an Exhibition at Christmas of oratory, penmanship, arithmetic, parsing, &c.” In the dramatic part of the entertainment the boys were chiefly drilled by Matthew. The rest of the work mainly fell on Rowland. Three years later his brother was away in London, “eating his terms,” and his father had fallen sick. “I had to drill,” he said, “the boys in recitation. I disliked the work very much, and was very unfit for it; but I had to do it. We always printed the pieces the boys were to repeat. In the scene from ‘Hamlet,’ where Horatio says, ‘My lord, I think I saw him yesternight!’ and Hamlet answers, ‘Saw?—who?’ I thought ‘who’ ought to be ‘whom.’ I consulted my father, who agreed with me; and so we printed it. Matthew—[the old man, as he came to this part of the story, laughed heartily]—Matthew was very angry with me for thus correcting Shakespeare.” He has made in his Journal the following record of the Exhibition of this year:—
“At the last Christmas exhibition, the first act of Plautus’s ‘Captives’ was performed in Latin. For this I painted a street scene, which took me several days. I believe I never worked harder than when preparing for this exhibition. The boys were brought to such a pitch of excellence in mental arithmetic, and their other exercises, that we were obliged to give them a great deal of practice that they might not recede. Besides this I gave a great many lessons from home, attended to a class who were drawing maps and plans; and at the same time painted the scenes.“During more than three weeks, including even Sundays, I was hard at work on an average at least eighteen hours to each day; sometimes much more. This I could have borne without injury, but I had almost all the care and responsibility of the school on my hands at the same time; for my brother Matthew was in London several weeks just before the holidays, and my father was unwell. I am not yet recovered from the ill effects upon my health of the exertions I then made; but, however, that exhibition raised our school very high in the public estimation. The mental arithmetic astonished very much, and as we invited questions from the audience, they could not suppose that the boys had been practised in the questions which I asked them.”
“At the last Christmas exhibition, the first act of Plautus’s ‘Captives’ was performed in Latin. For this I painted a street scene, which took me several days. I believe I never worked harder than when preparing for this exhibition. The boys were brought to such a pitch of excellence in mental arithmetic, and their other exercises, that we were obliged to give them a great deal of practice that they might not recede. Besides this I gave a great many lessons from home, attended to a class who were drawing maps and plans; and at the same time painted the scenes.
“During more than three weeks, including even Sundays, I was hard at work on an average at least eighteen hours to each day; sometimes much more. This I could have borne without injury, but I had almost all the care and responsibility of the school on my hands at the same time; for my brother Matthew was in London several weeks just before the holidays, and my father was unwell. I am not yet recovered from the ill effects upon my health of the exertions I then made; but, however, that exhibition raised our school very high in the public estimation. The mental arithmetic astonished very much, and as we invited questions from the audience, they could not suppose that the boys had been practised in the questions which I asked them.”
To what a pitch of excellence he raised his classes is shown by the following record:—
“About the same time there arrived in England an American lad named Zerah Colbourn, whose power in mental arithmetic was made the subject of public exhibition. As this was a department in which I had diligently exercised both myself and my pupils, I accompanied my father to the performance with great interest. We found that the boy’s power consisted chiefly in finding with great rapidity the factors of numbers, and square and cube roots. I naturally tried my ability against his, and I found that so long as low numbers were dealt with, I equalled and even surpassed him in rapidity, but that he could deal effectually with numbers so high as to be far beyond my management. Thus he would rapidly extract the cube root of a number expressed in nine figures, provided always it were an exact cube, for with other numbers he declined to deal. His mode of proceeding was a secret, which, with some other devices, his father declared himself willing to reveal so soon as a subscription of, I think, one thousand pounds or guineas should have been raised. As this did not seem to me a very hopeful project, I came to the conclusion that my only way of becoming acquainted with the secret was to find it out for myself. I accordingly went to work, and soon discovered a mode of performing myself that which I had witnessed with so much wonder; and not content with this, proceeded to consider whether means might not be found for mentally extracting roots without limitation to exact cubes. This was an incomparably harder problem, nor did I arrive at its solution till a year or two later. Each process, as soon as discovered, I taught to my pupils, who inthe easier task—all that Colbourn ever attempted—became more rapid and far more correct than Colbourn himself; for with him, in extracting a cube root expressed in three figures, it was a common incident to fail in the second, an error which my pupils learned for the most part to avoid. I may add that some of them became so quick and accurate in both processes, that when on a public occasion, viz., at Midsummer, 1822, printed tables of cubes and their roots had been placed in the hands of examiners, and questions asked therefrom ranging up to two thousand millions, and of course without any limitation to exact cubes, the answers—fractions, however being disregarded—were given so quickly as to lead some sceptics, little aware of the monstrous absurdity of the hypothesis, to declare that the whole must have been previously learned by rote. I reduced my discovery to writing, intending to publish it in a contemplated manual of mental arithmetic; but unfortunately this, with other papers, was lost in a manner never fully known, and to repeat the discovery I fear I should now find quite impracticable.[39]“While on the subject of mental arithmetic, I may mention that I brought the pupils in my class to perform mentally other difficult calculations with a facility that excited no small surprise. Thus they would readily find the moon’s age (approximately, by epacts) for any day of any year; also, the day of the week corresponding with any day of the month; and, by a combination of the two processes, ascertain the day of the month corresponding with Easter Sunday in any year.”
“About the same time there arrived in England an American lad named Zerah Colbourn, whose power in mental arithmetic was made the subject of public exhibition. As this was a department in which I had diligently exercised both myself and my pupils, I accompanied my father to the performance with great interest. We found that the boy’s power consisted chiefly in finding with great rapidity the factors of numbers, and square and cube roots. I naturally tried my ability against his, and I found that so long as low numbers were dealt with, I equalled and even surpassed him in rapidity, but that he could deal effectually with numbers so high as to be far beyond my management. Thus he would rapidly extract the cube root of a number expressed in nine figures, provided always it were an exact cube, for with other numbers he declined to deal. His mode of proceeding was a secret, which, with some other devices, his father declared himself willing to reveal so soon as a subscription of, I think, one thousand pounds or guineas should have been raised. As this did not seem to me a very hopeful project, I came to the conclusion that my only way of becoming acquainted with the secret was to find it out for myself. I accordingly went to work, and soon discovered a mode of performing myself that which I had witnessed with so much wonder; and not content with this, proceeded to consider whether means might not be found for mentally extracting roots without limitation to exact cubes. This was an incomparably harder problem, nor did I arrive at its solution till a year or two later. Each process, as soon as discovered, I taught to my pupils, who inthe easier task—all that Colbourn ever attempted—became more rapid and far more correct than Colbourn himself; for with him, in extracting a cube root expressed in three figures, it was a common incident to fail in the second, an error which my pupils learned for the most part to avoid. I may add that some of them became so quick and accurate in both processes, that when on a public occasion, viz., at Midsummer, 1822, printed tables of cubes and their roots had been placed in the hands of examiners, and questions asked therefrom ranging up to two thousand millions, and of course without any limitation to exact cubes, the answers—fractions, however being disregarded—were given so quickly as to lead some sceptics, little aware of the monstrous absurdity of the hypothesis, to declare that the whole must have been previously learned by rote. I reduced my discovery to writing, intending to publish it in a contemplated manual of mental arithmetic; but unfortunately this, with other papers, was lost in a manner never fully known, and to repeat the discovery I fear I should now find quite impracticable.[39]
“While on the subject of mental arithmetic, I may mention that I brought the pupils in my class to perform mentally other difficult calculations with a facility that excited no small surprise. Thus they would readily find the moon’s age (approximately, by epacts) for any day of any year; also, the day of the week corresponding with any day of the month; and, by a combination of the two processes, ascertain the day of the month corresponding with Easter Sunday in any year.”
It was with some reason that Mr. Sargant, in describing his old school, writes: “Our arithmetic was amazing, even excelling, by our laborious acquisition of mental arithmetic, the success of the present Privy Council Schools.”[40]In surveying, also, the young teacher’s pupils made almost as much progressas in mental arithmetic. He had undertaken to make a complete survey of Birmingham:—
“I now made my first trigonometrical survey; taking my first stations on our own playground (which fortunately commanded a view of many of the principal objects in the town), and, as before, engaging my surveying class in the work, both for their instruction and my own assistance.“This occupation led me to inquire into the great trigonometrical survey then carried on by Colonel Mudge, especially that part of it which related to the neighbourhood of Birmingham, my chief object being to ascertain what records would avail for our map, and what further steps it would be needful for me to take to complete the work. With this view I procured his report, and studied it with care, finding it more interesting than any novel. I read with particular interest the part describing the measurement of the great base line on Hounslow Heath by his predecessor, General Roy; and I gathered from it that my own base lines, taken one on our playground and the other on the opposite side of Birmingham, were far too short, the longer extending to only one hundred-and-thirty feet. I therefore resolved to recommence my work, and not only to take a much longer base line, but also to measure it as accurately as I could. I now give a passage taken from my Journal.“‘I accordingly procured some long deal rods and three stools for the purpose of measuring a line with great accuracy. The stools are made to rise and fall, and somewhat resemble music-stools; this construction was necessary, in order to place the rods always upon the same level.[41]“‘I chose Bromsgrove Street as the situation of the base, on account of its remarkable levelness, and the number of objects which are visible from different parts of it. The base extends from the corner of the Bell Inn, on the right-hand side of theBristol Road, and opposite to the end of Bromsgrove Street, to the wall at the north-eastern end of Smithfield; being nearly half a mile in length, and so admirably situated with respect to the objects, that there is not a single obtuse angle upon it.“‘Besides measuring with the rods, I surveyed the line twice with a land chain, properly adjusted, and after making every allowance for the elongation of the chain during the admeasurement, I found the difference in the total length of the base, which is nearly half a mile, to be only three-quarters of an inch. When the survey is completed, I intend to write an account of it, which will be found among my manuscripts.[42]“‘I have thought of publishing parts of it in some of the magazines, particularly a relation of a new mode of using the theodolite, which I have invented. This mode increases its power exceedingly.’“In performing this work it was of course necessary to avoid the daily traffic, which would have disturbed our operations; and, as my Journal shows, my class and I, during the three days occupied in the process, viz., May the 25th, 27th, and 30th, rose the first day at three, the second at five minutes before three, and the third at five minutes past two.“The improved mode of using the theodolite referred to above consisted in making it do the work of a repeating circle; and thus I was enabled, with respect to each of the principal angles, to obtain the mean of perhaps twenty measurements. I may here mention that the fact of this contrivance happened, on a subsequent occasion, to do me good service. Some years afterwards, being in London, I wished to visit the Royal Observatory, and procuring a letter of introduction to Captain Kater, then a member of the Board of Longitude, I applied to him for an order. With all the politeness that can attend a negative, he told me that the Astronomer Royal (Mr. Pond) had been so much interrupted of late as to deprecate any further issue of orders save in cases of absolute necessity. As some consolation, however, he offered to show me his own apparatus; which, I need not say, I examined with great interest. In the course of conversation I mentioned my new device, when, turning to me with a look of great pleasure,he told me that he had hit upon the same improvement himself. Before I left he sat down and wrote the order; of which I did not fail to make use. I may add that at a later period he visited the school, subsequently placed a son under our care, and continued till death to honour me with his friendship.“To return to the survey, I give a second extract from my Journal:—“‘June 23rd, 1819.—This day I completed the calculations for the trigonometrical survey of Birmingham, and some parts of the adjoining country.“‘After completing the survey of the town, I thought it desirable to extend it for the purpose of verifying the admeasurement of the base, by computing the length of two lines which were measured by Colonel Mudge. These are the distance [the respective distances] of Wolverhampton and Wednesbury spires from a station at Bar beacon. Colonel Mudge has left no mark to show the situation of his station; he describes it indeed, but not with very great precision. He says in his report, ‘The station is thirty yards north of the plantation.’ I have supposed his description to be exactly correct, that is, that the station was placed directly north of the centre of the plantation, and thirty yards from the nearest part of the clump of trees. If this be correct the station would stand fifty-six yards directly north of the flagstaff, and this I have supposed to be its situation.“‘The distance of Wolverhampton spire from the station at Bar beacon, Colonel Mudge gives at 48,345 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, gives 48,355 feet.“‘By my operations I make the distance to be 48,362 feet, differing by only seven feet in upwards of nine miles. The distance of Wednesbury spire from the station at Bar beacon is, according to Colonel Mudge, 25,140 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, is 25,098 feet. I have found the same line to measure 25,102 feet, differing by only four feet in nearly five miles.[43]* * * * *“‘Besides measuring these distances, I reduced the latitude and longitude of St. Philip’s church, and of the station on this house[my father’s], from the latitude and longitude of Bar beacon as given by Colonel Mudge.’[44]“One other line measured in the course of my operations (I think it was the one from the station on Bar beacon to that on Clent Hill near Hagley) was of yet greater length than those mentioned above, being no less than fourteen miles. Indeed, the triangles became so large that I had to make allowance for spherical excess, the rotundity of the earth becoming otherwise a source of error.“Whenever it was practicable I measured all three angles of each triangle; and, after allowance for the spherical excess, there was no instance, I believe, in which the sum of the three angles differed from 180° by so much as half a minute.“Those possessed of such instruments as are used at the present day will perhaps smile at the self-satisfaction with which I regarded this approximate accuracy; but they must remember that I had only a common theodolite, such as was in use fifty years ago.“It may be mentioned here that, on account of the length of the lines, communication between our stations was a matter of some difficulty and much interest. When two divisions of the surveying class had to set out in different directions for places many miles apart, for the purpose of acting in concert with each other, of course a certain amount of forethought and injunction before starting, and sharp watchfulness on the spot, were indispensable: spare flags were carried for telegraphic purposes, and telescopes for observation of the signals previously agreed upon. I need not say that each signal at one station was eagerly welcomed at the other, and that its repetition, given by way of acknowledgment at the latter, was no less warmly hailed at the former.“There was a little incident on this occasion which, though somewhat foreign to my subject, I mention as ludicrously characteristic of schoolboyesprit de corpsaccording to its manifestation fifty years ago. I understand the feeling is now much mitigated, without, however, being injuriously impaired. In the midst of our proceedings at Bar beacon the pupils of another school came upon the ground, being apparently out for a holiday. A feeling of hostility soon manifested itself in our party, and that without any other provocation from the other side than arose from mere presence; and though the rival party mustered at least three-fold our number, it was soon suggested, no doubt half in joke, that weshould challenge them to fight; if I would only deal with the master a good account should soon be given of all the rest. This absurd petition being of course rejected, a more peaceful means was hit upon for the vindication of our honour. The hill on which we stood was, and perhaps still is, surmounted by a flagstaff sixty or seventy feet high, by means of which it was announced to the world round about whether the family at the neighbouring hall were at home or otherwise. About half-way up this standard was a small platform, accessible by a perpendicular ladder; and to this one of our number, I believe the youngest, proceeded to mount, descending after a short stay. Though not a word was said, the hint was immediately taken by the other party, one of whom repeated the feat. A second of our number was likewise followed by a second of theirs; but a third finding no imitator, the victory remained with us. Further, however, to enhance the triumph, the little fellow who had made the first ascent, having remounted to the platform, ‘swarmed’ up thence to the top of the pole, returning to the ground with no small self-satisfaction. As no similar attempt was made by the rival party, enough was thought to have been done for the honour of the school; and when we left the ground, it was with the dignified air of demonstrated superiority.“Before leaving the subject of surveys, I may mention that I afterwards led my class to measure and plot, with sections longitudinal and transverse, so much of the Ickenield Street as then remained on Sutton Coldfield, the length being about three miles; and lastly, that at the request of Dr. Blair, now well known to every reader of the life of Professor Wilson, we made a survey underground, viz., of a coal-pit, his property, near Dudley. This, though a dark and dirty piece of work, was much enjoyed by the lads, the more so as at the close of their task they were plentifully regaled at Dr. Blair’s hospitable table.“These operations extended over a portion of 1818 and 1819.“A little incident which occurred during the survey on Sutton Coldfield may be worth mentioning. A farmer coming up towards the close of our operations asked what we were doing, and upon being told that we were surveying the Roman road, inquired, ‘What’s that?’ At this time, the sun, being low in the sky, threw the depressed parts of the road into sufficient shadow to bring out alike the convexity of the carriage-way and the comparative elevation of the causeways on either side, so that the road, not easily discernible in the full light of day, had now its outlines distinctly marked. The answer, therefore, was easy, and pointing to the longline of road stretched before us, I replied, ‘There it is.’ The rustic looked in the direction indicated, and after gazing for awhile in bewildered surprise exclaimed, ‘Good God, I have crossed this way every day for twenty years, and never saw that before!’”[45]
“I now made my first trigonometrical survey; taking my first stations on our own playground (which fortunately commanded a view of many of the principal objects in the town), and, as before, engaging my surveying class in the work, both for their instruction and my own assistance.
“This occupation led me to inquire into the great trigonometrical survey then carried on by Colonel Mudge, especially that part of it which related to the neighbourhood of Birmingham, my chief object being to ascertain what records would avail for our map, and what further steps it would be needful for me to take to complete the work. With this view I procured his report, and studied it with care, finding it more interesting than any novel. I read with particular interest the part describing the measurement of the great base line on Hounslow Heath by his predecessor, General Roy; and I gathered from it that my own base lines, taken one on our playground and the other on the opposite side of Birmingham, were far too short, the longer extending to only one hundred-and-thirty feet. I therefore resolved to recommence my work, and not only to take a much longer base line, but also to measure it as accurately as I could. I now give a passage taken from my Journal.
“‘I accordingly procured some long deal rods and three stools for the purpose of measuring a line with great accuracy. The stools are made to rise and fall, and somewhat resemble music-stools; this construction was necessary, in order to place the rods always upon the same level.[41]
“‘I chose Bromsgrove Street as the situation of the base, on account of its remarkable levelness, and the number of objects which are visible from different parts of it. The base extends from the corner of the Bell Inn, on the right-hand side of theBristol Road, and opposite to the end of Bromsgrove Street, to the wall at the north-eastern end of Smithfield; being nearly half a mile in length, and so admirably situated with respect to the objects, that there is not a single obtuse angle upon it.
“‘Besides measuring with the rods, I surveyed the line twice with a land chain, properly adjusted, and after making every allowance for the elongation of the chain during the admeasurement, I found the difference in the total length of the base, which is nearly half a mile, to be only three-quarters of an inch. When the survey is completed, I intend to write an account of it, which will be found among my manuscripts.[42]
“‘I have thought of publishing parts of it in some of the magazines, particularly a relation of a new mode of using the theodolite, which I have invented. This mode increases its power exceedingly.’
“In performing this work it was of course necessary to avoid the daily traffic, which would have disturbed our operations; and, as my Journal shows, my class and I, during the three days occupied in the process, viz., May the 25th, 27th, and 30th, rose the first day at three, the second at five minutes before three, and the third at five minutes past two.
“The improved mode of using the theodolite referred to above consisted in making it do the work of a repeating circle; and thus I was enabled, with respect to each of the principal angles, to obtain the mean of perhaps twenty measurements. I may here mention that the fact of this contrivance happened, on a subsequent occasion, to do me good service. Some years afterwards, being in London, I wished to visit the Royal Observatory, and procuring a letter of introduction to Captain Kater, then a member of the Board of Longitude, I applied to him for an order. With all the politeness that can attend a negative, he told me that the Astronomer Royal (Mr. Pond) had been so much interrupted of late as to deprecate any further issue of orders save in cases of absolute necessity. As some consolation, however, he offered to show me his own apparatus; which, I need not say, I examined with great interest. In the course of conversation I mentioned my new device, when, turning to me with a look of great pleasure,he told me that he had hit upon the same improvement himself. Before I left he sat down and wrote the order; of which I did not fail to make use. I may add that at a later period he visited the school, subsequently placed a son under our care, and continued till death to honour me with his friendship.
“To return to the survey, I give a second extract from my Journal:—
“‘June 23rd, 1819.—This day I completed the calculations for the trigonometrical survey of Birmingham, and some parts of the adjoining country.“‘After completing the survey of the town, I thought it desirable to extend it for the purpose of verifying the admeasurement of the base, by computing the length of two lines which were measured by Colonel Mudge. These are the distance [the respective distances] of Wolverhampton and Wednesbury spires from a station at Bar beacon. Colonel Mudge has left no mark to show the situation of his station; he describes it indeed, but not with very great precision. He says in his report, ‘The station is thirty yards north of the plantation.’ I have supposed his description to be exactly correct, that is, that the station was placed directly north of the centre of the plantation, and thirty yards from the nearest part of the clump of trees. If this be correct the station would stand fifty-six yards directly north of the flagstaff, and this I have supposed to be its situation.“‘The distance of Wolverhampton spire from the station at Bar beacon, Colonel Mudge gives at 48,345 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, gives 48,355 feet.“‘By my operations I make the distance to be 48,362 feet, differing by only seven feet in upwards of nine miles. The distance of Wednesbury spire from the station at Bar beacon is, according to Colonel Mudge, 25,140 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, is 25,098 feet. I have found the same line to measure 25,102 feet, differing by only four feet in nearly five miles.[43]* * * * *“‘Besides measuring these distances, I reduced the latitude and longitude of St. Philip’s church, and of the station on this house[my father’s], from the latitude and longitude of Bar beacon as given by Colonel Mudge.’[44]“One other line measured in the course of my operations (I think it was the one from the station on Bar beacon to that on Clent Hill near Hagley) was of yet greater length than those mentioned above, being no less than fourteen miles. Indeed, the triangles became so large that I had to make allowance for spherical excess, the rotundity of the earth becoming otherwise a source of error.“Whenever it was practicable I measured all three angles of each triangle; and, after allowance for the spherical excess, there was no instance, I believe, in which the sum of the three angles differed from 180° by so much as half a minute.“Those possessed of such instruments as are used at the present day will perhaps smile at the self-satisfaction with which I regarded this approximate accuracy; but they must remember that I had only a common theodolite, such as was in use fifty years ago.“It may be mentioned here that, on account of the length of the lines, communication between our stations was a matter of some difficulty and much interest. When two divisions of the surveying class had to set out in different directions for places many miles apart, for the purpose of acting in concert with each other, of course a certain amount of forethought and injunction before starting, and sharp watchfulness on the spot, were indispensable: spare flags were carried for telegraphic purposes, and telescopes for observation of the signals previously agreed upon. I need not say that each signal at one station was eagerly welcomed at the other, and that its repetition, given by way of acknowledgment at the latter, was no less warmly hailed at the former.“There was a little incident on this occasion which, though somewhat foreign to my subject, I mention as ludicrously characteristic of schoolboyesprit de corpsaccording to its manifestation fifty years ago. I understand the feeling is now much mitigated, without, however, being injuriously impaired. In the midst of our proceedings at Bar beacon the pupils of another school came upon the ground, being apparently out for a holiday. A feeling of hostility soon manifested itself in our party, and that without any other provocation from the other side than arose from mere presence; and though the rival party mustered at least three-fold our number, it was soon suggested, no doubt half in joke, that weshould challenge them to fight; if I would only deal with the master a good account should soon be given of all the rest. This absurd petition being of course rejected, a more peaceful means was hit upon for the vindication of our honour. The hill on which we stood was, and perhaps still is, surmounted by a flagstaff sixty or seventy feet high, by means of which it was announced to the world round about whether the family at the neighbouring hall were at home or otherwise. About half-way up this standard was a small platform, accessible by a perpendicular ladder; and to this one of our number, I believe the youngest, proceeded to mount, descending after a short stay. Though not a word was said, the hint was immediately taken by the other party, one of whom repeated the feat. A second of our number was likewise followed by a second of theirs; but a third finding no imitator, the victory remained with us. Further, however, to enhance the triumph, the little fellow who had made the first ascent, having remounted to the platform, ‘swarmed’ up thence to the top of the pole, returning to the ground with no small self-satisfaction. As no similar attempt was made by the rival party, enough was thought to have been done for the honour of the school; and when we left the ground, it was with the dignified air of demonstrated superiority.“Before leaving the subject of surveys, I may mention that I afterwards led my class to measure and plot, with sections longitudinal and transverse, so much of the Ickenield Street as then remained on Sutton Coldfield, the length being about three miles; and lastly, that at the request of Dr. Blair, now well known to every reader of the life of Professor Wilson, we made a survey underground, viz., of a coal-pit, his property, near Dudley. This, though a dark and dirty piece of work, was much enjoyed by the lads, the more so as at the close of their task they were plentifully regaled at Dr. Blair’s hospitable table.“These operations extended over a portion of 1818 and 1819.“A little incident which occurred during the survey on Sutton Coldfield may be worth mentioning. A farmer coming up towards the close of our operations asked what we were doing, and upon being told that we were surveying the Roman road, inquired, ‘What’s that?’ At this time, the sun, being low in the sky, threw the depressed parts of the road into sufficient shadow to bring out alike the convexity of the carriage-way and the comparative elevation of the causeways on either side, so that the road, not easily discernible in the full light of day, had now its outlines distinctly marked. The answer, therefore, was easy, and pointing to the longline of road stretched before us, I replied, ‘There it is.’ The rustic looked in the direction indicated, and after gazing for awhile in bewildered surprise exclaimed, ‘Good God, I have crossed this way every day for twenty years, and never saw that before!’”[45]
“‘June 23rd, 1819.—This day I completed the calculations for the trigonometrical survey of Birmingham, and some parts of the adjoining country.
“‘After completing the survey of the town, I thought it desirable to extend it for the purpose of verifying the admeasurement of the base, by computing the length of two lines which were measured by Colonel Mudge. These are the distance [the respective distances] of Wolverhampton and Wednesbury spires from a station at Bar beacon. Colonel Mudge has left no mark to show the situation of his station; he describes it indeed, but not with very great precision. He says in his report, ‘The station is thirty yards north of the plantation.’ I have supposed his description to be exactly correct, that is, that the station was placed directly north of the centre of the plantation, and thirty yards from the nearest part of the clump of trees. If this be correct the station would stand fifty-six yards directly north of the flagstaff, and this I have supposed to be its situation.
“‘The distance of Wolverhampton spire from the station at Bar beacon, Colonel Mudge gives at 48,345 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, gives 48,355 feet.
“‘By my operations I make the distance to be 48,362 feet, differing by only seven feet in upwards of nine miles. The distance of Wednesbury spire from the station at Bar beacon is, according to Colonel Mudge, 25,140 feet. This, reduced to the distance from the flagstaff, is 25,098 feet. I have found the same line to measure 25,102 feet, differing by only four feet in nearly five miles.[43]
* * * * *
“‘Besides measuring these distances, I reduced the latitude and longitude of St. Philip’s church, and of the station on this house[my father’s], from the latitude and longitude of Bar beacon as given by Colonel Mudge.’[44]
“One other line measured in the course of my operations (I think it was the one from the station on Bar beacon to that on Clent Hill near Hagley) was of yet greater length than those mentioned above, being no less than fourteen miles. Indeed, the triangles became so large that I had to make allowance for spherical excess, the rotundity of the earth becoming otherwise a source of error.
“Whenever it was practicable I measured all three angles of each triangle; and, after allowance for the spherical excess, there was no instance, I believe, in which the sum of the three angles differed from 180° by so much as half a minute.
“Those possessed of such instruments as are used at the present day will perhaps smile at the self-satisfaction with which I regarded this approximate accuracy; but they must remember that I had only a common theodolite, such as was in use fifty years ago.
“It may be mentioned here that, on account of the length of the lines, communication between our stations was a matter of some difficulty and much interest. When two divisions of the surveying class had to set out in different directions for places many miles apart, for the purpose of acting in concert with each other, of course a certain amount of forethought and injunction before starting, and sharp watchfulness on the spot, were indispensable: spare flags were carried for telegraphic purposes, and telescopes for observation of the signals previously agreed upon. I need not say that each signal at one station was eagerly welcomed at the other, and that its repetition, given by way of acknowledgment at the latter, was no less warmly hailed at the former.
“There was a little incident on this occasion which, though somewhat foreign to my subject, I mention as ludicrously characteristic of schoolboyesprit de corpsaccording to its manifestation fifty years ago. I understand the feeling is now much mitigated, without, however, being injuriously impaired. In the midst of our proceedings at Bar beacon the pupils of another school came upon the ground, being apparently out for a holiday. A feeling of hostility soon manifested itself in our party, and that without any other provocation from the other side than arose from mere presence; and though the rival party mustered at least three-fold our number, it was soon suggested, no doubt half in joke, that weshould challenge them to fight; if I would only deal with the master a good account should soon be given of all the rest. This absurd petition being of course rejected, a more peaceful means was hit upon for the vindication of our honour. The hill on which we stood was, and perhaps still is, surmounted by a flagstaff sixty or seventy feet high, by means of which it was announced to the world round about whether the family at the neighbouring hall were at home or otherwise. About half-way up this standard was a small platform, accessible by a perpendicular ladder; and to this one of our number, I believe the youngest, proceeded to mount, descending after a short stay. Though not a word was said, the hint was immediately taken by the other party, one of whom repeated the feat. A second of our number was likewise followed by a second of theirs; but a third finding no imitator, the victory remained with us. Further, however, to enhance the triumph, the little fellow who had made the first ascent, having remounted to the platform, ‘swarmed’ up thence to the top of the pole, returning to the ground with no small self-satisfaction. As no similar attempt was made by the rival party, enough was thought to have been done for the honour of the school; and when we left the ground, it was with the dignified air of demonstrated superiority.
“Before leaving the subject of surveys, I may mention that I afterwards led my class to measure and plot, with sections longitudinal and transverse, so much of the Ickenield Street as then remained on Sutton Coldfield, the length being about three miles; and lastly, that at the request of Dr. Blair, now well known to every reader of the life of Professor Wilson, we made a survey underground, viz., of a coal-pit, his property, near Dudley. This, though a dark and dirty piece of work, was much enjoyed by the lads, the more so as at the close of their task they were plentifully regaled at Dr. Blair’s hospitable table.
“These operations extended over a portion of 1818 and 1819.
“A little incident which occurred during the survey on Sutton Coldfield may be worth mentioning. A farmer coming up towards the close of our operations asked what we were doing, and upon being told that we were surveying the Roman road, inquired, ‘What’s that?’ At this time, the sun, being low in the sky, threw the depressed parts of the road into sufficient shadow to bring out alike the convexity of the carriage-way and the comparative elevation of the causeways on either side, so that the road, not easily discernible in the full light of day, had now its outlines distinctly marked. The answer, therefore, was easy, and pointing to the longline of road stretched before us, I replied, ‘There it is.’ The rustic looked in the direction indicated, and after gazing for awhile in bewildered surprise exclaimed, ‘Good God, I have crossed this way every day for twenty years, and never saw that before!’”[45]
Able and successful though Rowland Hill was as a teacher, nevertheless he often regretted that he was withdrawn from duties which he alone could perform, to undertake that which another might have done with at least a fair amount of success. “I ought,” he records in his Journal, “to have nothing to do but to superintend others; my time is unfortunately too much occupied as a teacher.” Certainly the singular system of education which he had devised required for its proper working the almost undivided attention of its author. Before I describe it, I would ask the reader to bring before his mind the state of our schools in the days of our fathers. Let him read “Tom Brown.” Let him see what Rugby was even after Dr. Arnold had for some years been its master. Let him see the shocking brutality to which an inoffensive child could be exposed. I can never think on some of the scenes of that story without feeling that Arnold’s great name is stained by the cruel deeds that were done under his own roof. Had he thought a little more of suffering and a little less of sin, he would have been a better master and a greater man. At the time that Rowland Hill began hisreforms Arnold was still at Oxford. He was not appointed to Rugby till six years after Matthew and Rowland Hill had brought out their work on Public Education. There had been little sign as yet of any improvement in our schools. There was still many a place where a gentle and timid child was exposed to savage and ignorant cruelty. These ancient foundations boast, and with justice, of the famous men whom they have reared. They are proud of their traditions; and yet I can never visit one of these old schools without seeing rise before my mind a long line of unhappy children who were too gentle, too delicately wrought for the rough and brutal world into which they were suddenly thrown, and whose little hearts were well-nigh broken by the cruelty of an unfeeling herd of masters and boys.