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Seeks fresh fields and pastures new.

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Deborah, the parents, having taken counsel of "Friends," approved of the son's proposal; and in the summer or autumn of 1761, when he was about to complete his sixteenth year, John Dalton bade farewell as a resident to Eaglesfield.

CHAPTER III.

"For Nature's crescent does not grow alone,
In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal."

-SHAKESPEARE.

KENDAL SCHOOL AND SOCIAL LIFE-LECTURES ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY-MR GOUGH'S FRIENDSHIP-CONTRIBUTION

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ΤΟ THE DIARIES —INVESTIGATIONS OF ENGLISH SUR-
NAMES.

N anticipation of getting on in the world, and disposed to covet the latest novelty of a gentleman's outfit, John Dalton bought an umbrella-a curiosity of its kind a hundred years ago-at Cockermouth, and with this equipment in one hand, and a bundle of body-clothes in the other, started on his journey for Kendal, a distance of forty-four miles, which he accomplished in a day. This was his first break off from the home. circle, and if his emotions at all responded to the natural scenery through which he passed, he may have framed for himself a sort of earthly paradise en route. Journeying through Cockermouth, and by the banks of the placid lake of Bassenthwaite, he soon came in view of Derwentwater in all its glorious beauty and surroundings, with the unrivalled peaks of Borrowdale beyond, each step revealing new features of picturesque hill and dale, grey homestead

His first sight of the Lakes.

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and green meadow. Crossing Dunmail Raise showed him another sight, the attractions of which could not fail to lighten his descent to Grassmere, Rydal, and Windermere "the queen," and fair daughters of the lakes-and to fill his mind with poetical fancy and unspeakable admiration. The mental enjoyment of such a day would bar all feeling of physical fatigue, and enable him to reach Kendal with a mind as buoyant and bright as the ethereal atmosphere floating o'er the mountain-tops of Skiddaw and Langdale Pikes.

As a boy in his early teens, travelling alone amid the indescribable loveliness of the lake country, and gazing at the flickering lights and shadows on the everlasting hills, he little conjectured the strange evolutions of the coming time-that a day of historical distinction was about to dawn over the scene of his journey, mainly owing to the genius of Wordsworth, the Coleridges, Southey, and De Quincey; and still less did he suppose that the meteorological characteristics of the district would some day become a theme of fertile interest to himself, the successful investigation of which would give him rank among the scientific discoverers of the age, and a niche in the pantheon of English celebrities.

Kendal, at the time of John Dalton's entry, had a population of 5000, and a flourishing wool and cotton trade, demanding hundreds of packhorses* to carry

* Before Dalton's time stage-waggons had partly displaced "packhorses," and a stage-coach-the "Flying Machine "-drawn by six horses, arrived twice a week from London; but it was 1786 before a mail-coach ran from London to Kendal. Though churches and schools were getting built, and a newsroom established, and much educational

its merchandise to the seaports-Liverpool chiefly. If its stalwart sons in native green had bravely fought and won on Flodden field, they were no less anxious in the Georgian era for the arts of peace and commercial life; they were men of enterprise, and the leading families of the town were Quakers, not wanting in culture and education.

John Dalton, looking at the motto on the arms of the Kendal Corporation-" Pannus mihi panis"— might be disposed to think if the staple produce of the town yielded bread to its working folk, the education of the lieges should go a step higher, and provide him with butter to that bread. Teaching the young ideas offered, however, no easy path to the comforts, much less the indulgences of life; indeed, no class of persons fared worse, considering their great merits, than the schoolmasters of England in the 18th century.

It was in the year 1781 that John Dalton joined his cousin George Bewley, who, with Jonathan Dalton as assistant, conducted a school for both sexes-mainly Quakers' children. On the retirement of Mr Bewley in 1785, the brothers Dalton announced their intention of continuing the school, "where youths will be carefully instructed in English, Latin, Greek, and French; also writing, arithmetic, merchants' accounts, and the mathematics." They also offered to take boarders on reasonable terms. Their sister Mary came from Eaglesfield to act as their housekeeper. At this time their pecuniary means were very limited, having occasionally to borrow two progress was being made in the town, bull-baiting held its place till the year 1791, when it was suppressed by the Corporation.

Not passing rich on £40 a year.

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or three pounds from Mr Bewley and other friends, as well as their own parents,* to enable them to carry on their small establishment. The earnings of the two brothers in the first year were about 100 guineas, and this sum was thirty guineas more than the average proceeds of some succeeding years. They made a little money by " drawing conditions," collecting rents, making wills, and other small commissions befitting the pen and ready-reckoning attributes of country schoolmasters; but it is doubtful if the two brothers conjointly, and by arduous labour, realised £100 a year, on which sum they had to supply their own and their sister's wants, and to appear in respectable costume, suited to the middle-class social position of Kendal.

A second circular, issued on July 5, 1786, by the Daltons, showed that they were not disposed to hide their talents under a bushel, and that their educational programme embraced almost all that could be taught in the highest public schools in the realm, seeing that it embraced what they had previously advertised, and nearly the whole range of subjects included under the heading of Natural Philosophy. The public were also informed that the Daltons would give private instruction in the use of the globes after school-hours; that they "could conveniently teach a considerable number of scholars more than at present;" and that parents might rely on their children being carefully instructed.

* Joseph and Deborah Dalton used to visit their sons and daughter at Kendal, carrying them Eaglesfield cakes and home produce, deeming the long day's journey of forty-four miles on foot a matter of minor consideration when the welfare of their family and their own parental joy could be promoted by the undertaking.

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