Excerpt from The Eton Miscellany: Vol; I.-II The first thing that I can remember in my childhood is, that I early acquired a taste for poetry; and I have still in mind some of my juvenile effusions, which my mother often rewarded with sugar-plums, but my father with birch. My chief delight was in the "Poet's corner" of a newspaper; but I considered a Review by no means contemptible reading. At length, in order to check this propensity to poetry, which my father considered at best a very useless accomplishment, he determined on sending me to school. Long and eloquently did my mother plead for at least a respite for her dear Bartle (for so was I called for shortness); powerfully did she urge that proper care was not taken of the little darlings; and movingly did she expatiate on the change they must undergo when separated from mamma: to all which my father briefly answered, "that he hoped I was no chicken," and ended this part of the dispute by quoting "Home-keeping youths have ever homely wit: " upon which, my mother, having an infinite respect for the authority of Shakspeare, immediately withdrew her opposition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.