DO-THE-BOYS HALL.

North Otago Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 813, 4 March 1873, Page 4

DO-THE-BOYS HALL.

The following 1 will be interesting to the readers of Dickens : — " From Greta Bridge \q IJqwep, up the bed of the Greta, passing the Scotchman's Stone (an enorriious 'mtfss) and the ilobber's Cave, or by roud, . tlie traveller wil arrive at Bowee, '1 his (Dotheboys Hall) is the first building in the village on the right hand side. It is now occ\vpied by a farmer, all the upper floor is ! in ruins. After the sdhool was extinguished, like nearly ull the rest in the neighborhood.by Nicholas. ,N iokleby , it could not bo let profitably ; and so the rain was allowed to enter the roof, and has actually rotted the flooring^ nhd the two suited of upper, rooms make; one huge ruin. Here is the head of the hall stairs. wher,e Dummy, an old halfdaft boarder, met his death by falling on the etone floor beneath, and where a former mistress of the school (Mrs Clarkson) had inct with a similar' fate in rushing out along the corridqr after t an unruly boy. Of course now there are railings to prevent a repetition of such a catastrophe. The incidents of tho etory are oulled from the whole neighborhood. Further on in the village, at the first house on the left, will be found an old lady of the name of Baxter, who will furnish the traveller with many particulars respecting the Squeers family. Many a time and oft have I seen Mr and Mrs Squeers heading their scholars to the parish church — she very tall and he the reverse, and constantly used wo to hear talcs of her masculine tendencies. I have frequently seen it stated in the •' Times " and elsewhere since Dickens' death, that ho originated the exposure of tho Yorkshire schools. Now this is wrong, I wrts down there from 1824 to 1828. At this time the agitation was well nigh over. Dickens was not known as a writer then. Tie certainly delivered the final blow that orushed that monstrous system of education. I They had been sending the boys home blind, and afflicted with various cutaneous diseases, while as Mrs Baxter ■will -tell,, they had been writing to their friends that they were in excellent health. In the churchyard is a tombstone to the memory of one of their vietinin from Troubridge, in Wiltshire, It seems to me' that Dickens purposely mystified the locality of his tale, because in the opening ho speaks of leaving the stage coach, and proceeding to the school by another conveyance. This would point to Barninjrham, where them was a school, but where certainly was np Squeers. He, of course, had his reasons for this.*' — South. London Press.