But to go back to the time when I went to the National School at Fleet (footnote 1). The National School, all over England in every ecclesiastical parish, was furnished by what was called the National Church, otherwise State Church, which was then patronised, supported and controlled by the state, really that part of the Roman Catholic church which was lopped off and anglicised during the reign of Henry VIII; so to keep control they founded elementary schools in the several parishes, and of course under the control of the Church. So, while I went to the N.S. I was taken to Church during Lent and on other special occasions, and then I learned the collects, the creed and [34] catechism. I said most of them to the Clergymen in the Church.
About this time Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) was married, in the early 1860's. I remember we had a celebration in the parsonage meadow; tea, cake, bread and butter and jam, some sports, and each boy and girl had a New Testament given them. I kept mine for many years, and gave it as a souvenir to one of my sons. Then at night or as soon as it got dark, in further celebration, fires were lighted on all the beacon hills throughout the land, and we could see a lot of the illuminations; stacks of tar barrels were lighted at Aldershot, and we could see the big guns being fired at Portsmouth, over 30 miles away.
One evening a drove of sheep came along, and the drover gave them a rest near our house, and got himself a drink of beer; I found out where they were being taken, and [35] although it was towards evening, went with them to their destination; this was the first time I saw a sheep-dog work, it really was wonderful to observe how the dog knew and responded to every word or sign made by the drover, it is a sight worth watching. As it was near the close of the day, and the flock had travelled far, progress was slow, but we got there and night came down, and I had not told anyone where I was going, so I was missed and scolded on my return, but I had had my pleasure.
There was an open space near our house and in front of the Public House called the "Oatsheaf" (footnote 2), at the junction of the crossroads, was a number of large trees - birch, beech, oak, ash, elm etc., then a roadway cut across from one road to another (footnote 3), and there on what would correspond to the town square, or plage, the foxhounds would sometimes rest after the days run and before going home, [36] and the huntsmen would give their horses water, with fine oatmeal mixed into it - it's better than raw cold water when the horses sweat.
The school was conducted by an old man and his wife, he the boys and she the girls, as both had to go to the same school. One day there came a tall lady-like girl named Mary Reid, so when I went home I told my mother, and she said "Why, that was the maiden name of your father's mother" (also, we had some small silver spoons engraved with the letters WRM - these are the proofs of the commencement of my chronological table). A great source of amusement was the facilities for swimming in the pond and the canal. We boys used both, and in them learned to swim. I had snap shots of our favourite bathing places later.
I went to this school for years; I don't know how many, as dates did not [37] concern me then, and no records were kept, but I suppose my father thought a change would be beneficial, so to the National School at Galley (or perhaps it should be Gallows … footnote 4) Hill I went, where was a larger school and a better teacher, so from within ½ mile from home 3 bigger boys went to this school, and so I used to go home with them. They were Alfred, Edward and Charlie Aldous, their father a retired publican I believe, however the father was an invalid and used to be taken around in a pony cart for his health. I think there were 8 sons and daughters, and well brought up; in that I was fortunate, as the boys (although boys) were always well behaved, and I liked them. I remember on one occasion I had ridden into Farnham and found these 3 boys there, and our cart was going home another way, so I let the cart go and walked home with my friends, and got caught in a tremendous downpour of rain and got [38] soaking wet, whereas the man driving the cart went a bit further round and escaped the storm altogether. Of course, I should have stayed with the conveyance and missed the storm; just like life - in fact a bit of it - only we don't know these things beforehand.
At this school I learned to play football, and it was football - we never touched it with our hands unless it was kicked out-of-bounds. We used to play with the young Le Froys, whose father was the squire and landowner of the village, while his brother was the parson; they had some grounds, in fact, a small park, where we used to play. The Le Froys sported a crest, which was a "Wyvern", and that was the sign of the village pub; the Wyvern is a species of eagle. The clergyman used to come to [39] the school and occasionally conduct a scripture class etc., and as he had been a traveller told us on one occasion of his bathing in the Dead Sea, and how easy it was to either swim or float, on account of its excessive salinity.
On one occasion, I did not feel well, so went to Mr Davis the master; he told me to take a walk to the corner and back, and then report to him. I came back all right. Two boys were disputing, and one got so angry with the other that he made a jab at him with a digging fork, and stuck it into his foot; that was too bad, he had a very bad foot.
I used to start school at 8am and take my dinner, and was away all day until about 5pm, or later; it all depended upon any diversion that might happen to take our attention. We crossed a common where there were 2 streams, one was a shallow babbling brook, and bickered (footnote 5) [40] down the valley and ran through a culvert under the canal. The other stream was on higher ground, was deeper and moved slowly, but was a feeder to or of the canal. There were no fish in either stream, and but few in the canal.
Transcriber’s footnotes:
1. There is still an “All Saints” Junior school in the town.
2. This is still there, on the road junction, with lots of trees behind it.
3. There is a small sketch in the original
4. Galey on the map (diary page [24])
5. trickled?
Click here for the title page, previous section or next section