Some such boys, alas!
there will be in every school; upon them Dr. Skinner's hand was very
properly a heavy one. His hand was against them, and theirs against
him during the whole time of the connection between them. They not
only disliked him, but they hated all that he more especially
embodied, and throughout their lives disliked all that reminded them
of him. Such boys, however, were in a minority, the spirit of the
place being decidedly Skinnerian.
I once had the honour of playing a game of chess with this great
man. It was during the Christmas holidays, and I had come down to
Roughborough for a few days to see Alethea Pontifex (who was then
living there) on business. It was very gracious of him to take
notice of me, for if I was a light of literature at all it was of
the very lightest kind.
It is true that in the intervals of business I had written a good
deal, but my works had been almost exclusively for the stage, and
for those theatres that devoted themselves to extravaganza and
burlesque. I had written many pieces of this description, full of puns
and comic songs, and they had had a fair success, but my best piece
had been a treatment of English history during the Reformation period,
in the course of which I had introduced Cranmer, Sir Thomas More,
Henry the Eighth, Catherine of Arragon, and Thomas Cromwell (in his
youth better known as the Malleus Monachorum), and had made them dance
a breakdown.
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