people, is almost a record for the number of wrongly spelt words in so small a space :

DEAR *****,—I am sending you my essay on a holaday. It has 189 words I think or 198. I am not sure which till I look at the papers on which it is writen. I was so glad to see my name among the hiley commended. It is the first time my name has been menchoned in your page, thoug I won two prises in another paper. I remain, yours sincirley,

Some portions of the above-mentioned essay on a holaday' are, I think, worthy of reproduction:

If I was offered a return ticket to any place for a fortnight's holaday, I think I would go to London to stay with some friends. We always live in the Cuntry, so it would be a great change. One day in the morning I would go to baths and then to Gunter's to have a strawbery ice. Another day I would go in the morning to Westminster Abbey, and in the afternoon to Madam Truesoes. Besides these I would go to see The Tower' 'St Paul's' The Zoe' and all the pacture gallries and musiems. I am not fond of music so Music Halls and that kind of thing would not apeal to me.

The writer obviously has an impression that 'Music Halls and that kind of thing' are frequented only by those fond of music,' while her ideas as to the use of capital letters, inverted commas, and marks of punctuation seem to be as hazy as her knowledge of spelling. Punctuation was a stumbling-block to many, but for absolute breathlessness of style the following essay on a 'Favourite Hobby' would be hard to beat:

My favourite hobby is boating. I think it is so beautiful gliding along the river listening to the splashing of the water as the oars dip, and to pass under the shady trees where the sunbeams glitter through making pretty shadows on the water as the boat floats along and letting your fingers ripple through the water as the dragon-flies with their gorgeous green wings flit by, and hear the humming of the bees on the bank where the wild-flowers lurk and the slight breeze bringing with it the delicious scent of wild-flowers.

The end gives the impression that the writer was growing alarmed at the wordy maze in which she found herself, and came to a full-stop with a sudden jerk. Punctuation is almost equally lacking in this paper by a child of ten :

A thing that is my own and what I love is My dog Jack I love him because he loves me and because he is so gentle he does all tricks and even lets me drive him with a stick in his mouth. he would play hide and seek with me whenever I want. he says please for a biscuit. He always sleeps on my bed till 10 o'clock then he is taken by my brother, and sleeps on his bed all night. He is a very good house-dog and flys at any stranger that comes in the house he would never let any stranger toutch me he often goes rabbiting by himself he likes it very much indeed He's rather old now worst luck he is four and a half years of age I hope he will live a long long time. he was very pretty when he was young.

The above was one of the entries for a competition for the best paper entitled 'My Most Cherished Possession,' and the various

'possessions' described would have made a heterogeneous collection. They included cats, dogs, ponies, books, china, a bicycle, a 'lucky' silver pig, a silver-paper ball, a gold heart and chain, and a watch. The predominance of animals in the list was not unexpected, for a love of dumb creatures seemed to be common to nearly all the competitors. This account of a favourite kitten came from one of the bad spellers. The fourth sentence is, it will be observed, mysterious in the extreme :

I think I will chuse as my favourite possation' my kitten. I am very fond of anamals and the more I have the better for me. Kitty is a dear. She is dark brown with white underneath and legs. She is very dareing and will climb anywhere. She puts such perfect confidence in you, and does not mind a bit where or in what position she is, and rides on everyone's sholda.'

Many of the essays sent in for the 'Favourite Hobby' competition had animals for their subject. A child of thirteen wrote as follows:

Natural History is my favourite hobby. I think there is nothing more interesting than to study the animal Kingdom. I have visited the Nottingham Museum twice. It contains nearly all the animals of the earth, from the biggest animal to the smallest insect. From my babyhood I have been taught to love animals and I think the love has grown with me. It grieves me greatly to see even the meanest animal ill-treated, because the smallest thing alive has feelings, as well as human beings. Sometimes when I go out for a walk I see men whipping the horses dreadfully, and often as a little child I have shouted out to them and told them that if they did not stop it quick I would give them a taste, and see how they would like it. It is wonderful how affectionate dumb creatures can be if they know you love them.

One wonders how it is that if the Nottingham Museum contains 'nearly all the animals of the earth,' there still seem to be so many left at large! This same little girl was the writer of the following rather naïve letter:

DEAR *****,-You must not be disapointed if I do not write every time, as I have to keep another leather shop for my father. .. I will try to write every time, but a leather shop takes a lot of minding.

No doubt it does!

A competition which brought forth some rather remarkable efforts was for the best letter to a favourite author or authoress. The following from a child of eleven shows a wonderful amount of critical faculty, though the spelling is almost incredibly bad:

To Mrs. L. T. Meade.

DEAR MRS. MEADE,-I have lately been reading some of your nice books. I think (though they are so nice) that after a time one would get rather tired of them because they are all so much alike. There is in most a beautiful girl who is sent to school or to live with some friends. She is terrably naughty, forms a rebelion, is found out, and begs pardon which is of course granted. If not this it is a girl who gets into the power of another, threw some great disobedince, she goes_threw great tryles but at last plucks up courage, confesses and is at once VOL. LXI-No. 862 Q Q

forgiven while the other girl runs away and when caught is searverly punished. One of my favourites is 'A Modern Tomboy.' It is very exciting, but I think you have made Irene a little too terreble, and I am sure that a girl with Rosamond Gunclif's force of carracter is a very rare thing. Another of my favourits is Girls of the Forest.' I would have liked to kill Penelope, and I quite loved poor rebelus Pollene. I like your others very much too. . . . The Aucatract of the Nursrey' is quite sweet.

6

The authoress in question would, I think, hardly recognise the last-mentioned title as that of one of her stories!

A little girl of ten wrote as follows to Mrs. Hodgson Burnett :

I like Little Lord Fauntleroy' better than any book I have ever read I am very pleased with it. I hope you will publish one as nice again. Lord Fauntleroy was a very nice little boy, he was so kind. I liked his grandfather also though he was a very cross old man it is such an exciting story.

The following remarks were addressed to Mrs. Harriet BeecherStowe by a child of thirteen:

I think Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most interesting books that has ever been written. It is so realastic and descriptive that the one who reads it can fancy they are living over again the scenes and characters therein described. . . . The escape of Eliza and her child thrills one through and through as they read it, and they feel quite relieved when she reaches in safety the shore. . . . The good the book did for the slaves cannot be written down. I think, dear Madam, your life has been a glorious one, for what is better and more noble than to have relieved the suffering and grief of humanity?

Other authors to whom letters were addressed were Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey (chosen by a large number of competitors), Rudyard Kipling, James Lane Allen, and Juliana Horatia Ewing.

Another competition which had some rather interesting results was for the best description of the competitor's ' Ideal House.' Some of the children set to work in a practical spirit and enumerated the exact number of bedrooms and sitting-rooms they would require, a few even giving particulars as to the special kind of kitchen range preferred. Others described old-fashioned rambling houses with romantic associations, and others again gave up most of their space to describing the garden attached to their 'Ideal House.' It was noteworthy that in almost every instance a decided preference was shown for a house in the country. The following paper, on account of the spelling as well as other things, was perhaps the most startling received:

6

If I had to chuse a house to live in this would be a discreption of it. It would be a low long two storyed house of red brick with a red tiled roof, overgrown with flowring creepers, Westerier,' 'Hunnysuccle' 'Clemetis 'Crimson Rambeler' and 'Climing Froot Trees.' Inside it would be all panted white and most of the papers would be white with a bright freiz. The droing-room would have a wite paper and blue ribbon freiz. Its carpet would be blue, and all the chairs would be blue. I should have as much satan-wood as possable, and severel small tables covered with silver and china ornements. A rovilving

...

...

book-case with a palm on the top would stand near the piano in a window and for a writing-table I should have a bureau. The door would be white with a curtane tied back and showing a lookinglass. . . . The bedrooms would be light and airy and mine in pertecular. I should have . . . a dressing-table involoped in white mouslin and tied with blue ribons, a large wardrobe with a lookinglass in the front and two others hanging on the walls would be so arranged that when one looks at one's self in one, you can see your back and both sides reflected in the others.

One feels that life in this house, with its 'satan-wood,' its 'rovilving book-case,' its dressing-tables, 'involoped in mouslin,' and its marvellously arranged 'lookinglasses,' would be something of a novelty!

6

About the time of Princess Ena's marriage to King Alfonso, a prize was offered for the best essay on Spain. Most of those sent in showed a fair knowledge of the subject, but the statement made by a girl of fourteen, that the favourite amusements of the Spaniards are dancing and playing the guiltar and bullfighting,' was a little surprising. She went on to say: 'The two most noted circuses are those of Mardrid and Seville the barbarous spectacle is witnessed by persons of all classes by wemen as well as men.'

The poetry competitions were the most disappointing of all. Not one child in ten seemed to have the slightest conception of either rhythm or rhyme, and it was the rarest of things to receive a poem ' with lines that scanned or rhymes that were even passably correct. There were, of course, occasional pleasant exceptions to this rule, but the following, by a child of eleven, is a fair average specimen of the majority of the entries:

Once I had a dolly, Oh she was so fair,

Beautiful and dazzling was her golden hair.
Eyes of purest beauty shining o so bright
And they never faded in the brightest light.

So far, so good. The rhymes, at any rate, have not failed us. But note the falling-off in the second verse :

Oh this little dolly I did love her so

and I was so sorry when she had to go

far away across the seas to some other Mother.

There she lies as you may see quite content.

Could anything be more amazing? On another occasion a prize was offered for the best four-lined verse with the line-endings sun, day, run, stay. This came from a girl of sixteen:

Oh please dear Mr. Sun,
Do shine out bright to-day
Then Nurse will let me run,
And in the garden stay-

while the authors of the two following efforts were aged ten and thirteen respectively:

Far, far away is the sun
No sign of sun to-day.
We must go out for a run.
As indoors we cannot stay.

Oh the beautiful shining sun

Shining for us every day,

Weather we walk, or weather we run

Weather we go, or weather we stay.

Some of the competitors, however, displayed a good deal of ingenuity, and one or two of the verses even contained what might be termed a poetical thought. But the average of merit in the poetry competitions was, as a rule, very low indeed, a fact which seems to go to strengthen the oft-made statement that this is essentially a practical age and that lovers of poetry are few and far between. Next in point of popularity to competitions of the word-making' kind seemed to come story-writing and drawing, and entries for either of these always attained a high average of merit, especially in the case of girls of fifteen and over. Sewing competitions were liked only by a very few, but anything in the way of descriptive writing was always eagerly attempted. The specimens given in this article are decidedly not taken from the best of those sent in; neither are they, except in the case of spelling, from the worst. The spelling and punctuation are given exactly as they stand in the originals, and an inspection of them will perhaps serve to show that in these two things, at any rate, there is room for improvement in the education of the children of the middle-classes.

EVA M. MARTIN.