This a very enjoyable book about life in a boy’s boarding school in the late nineteenth century. Despite school-rules, the boys get out of bounds for a number of reasons, for instance visiting a forbidden tuck shop; engaging in various cruel country sports, like rat baiting; going skating on a frozen lake, especially near the thin ice; poaching on a large nearby estate; and suchlike attractions.

Every scene is beautifully drawn, and I have wondered many times why the author did not write more, and indeed why this book is not more well known than it is. Until I found a copy in an old book shop I had never heard of either the author or of the book.

The characters of the various principal actors in the story are very well drawn, and one feels one knows them all quite well by the end of the book.

There was in fact another contemporary author of the same name, who was an expert in economic and currency affairs, and who also wrote using, and about, a novel way of getting books printed. N.H.

The first edition of this book is dated 1883. The edition used is dated 1883. The publisher was Blackie & Son, 49 & 50 Old Bailey, London, E.C. The number of pages is 280.