The first edition of this book is dated 1883. The edition used is dated 1908. The publisher was Blackie & Son, 49 & 50 Old Bailey, London, E.C. The number of pages is 280.

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General information

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.

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Contents

Chapter I.
A Tale of Weston School.

Chapter II.
Slam’s.

Chapter III.
Tom Buller.

Chapter IV.
An Outside Professor.

Chapter V.
Hostilities Commenced.

Chapter VI.
The Fight.

Chapter VII.
Treating of an Air-Gun and a Door-Key.

Chapter VIII.
Another Project of Evasion.

Chapter IX.
The Poachers.

Chapter X.
The Fates are down upon Buller.

Chapter XI.
Circumstantial Evidence.

Chapter XII.
A Holiday Invitation.

Chapter XIII.
Crawley is taken down Three Pegs.

Chapter XIV.
The Descent of Avernus.

Chapter XV.
A Crime.

Chapter XVI.
An Accident.

Chapter XVII.
Compounding a Felony.

Chapter XVIII.
Epilogue.

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