would be incomplete if a word were not added of the part he took in those recreations which form no unimportant feature of a schoolboy's career.

His amusements were indeed for the most part of an intellectual character. As a chess-player he found no equal among boys of his own age, and it is remembered that he was selected, when comparatively young, by a schoolfellow in the upper part of the schoolthe celebrated Dr. Pusey—as an antagonist who could meet him on equal terms.

In school theatricals, then in high vogue at Eton, he was a distinguished performer. He was not, however, altogether a stranger to more active sports. Though from the delicacy of his constitution he took no part in the leading athletic exercises by which Eton has always been distinguished, yet in the variety of the game of fives, then peculiar to that school, an exercise in which the dexterity and grace of the player are exhibited to much advantage, he was unrivalled. He afterwards became an excellent tennisplayer. He was also fond of whist, and played very well. It was not till the last year of his Eton life that he entered the Debating Society, of which he at once became a distinguished member.

One other circumstance remains to be recorded of which he was justly proud, and for which, to employ the language of the valued friend by whom the information has been communicated, "the thanks of

Etonians are no less due than for the brilliant legacy of 'The Etonian' itself." By his efforts, with some assistance from the masters and other friends, the "Boys' Library" was founded at Eton. This, the first institution of the kind, was established in an upper room at the college bookseller's, as a society to which a few of the senior boys might belong, and to which they might present an occasional volume on leaving or on revisiting Eton, to testify their sympathy with the studies of their successors. Under Dr. Hawtrey's superintendence, and aided by his magnificent liberality, it became what it is, the sanctuary of learning, and the refuge of quiet to many a boy for whom a public school would else afford small opportunity of satisfying a desire for knowledge, beyond the mere routine of school work. If Eton has no longer to lament the injury done within her walls to the organisation of a Shelley, or a Sydney Walker, she owes it in great measure to the public library which was founded by Praed.*

The summer of 1821 terminated Praed's brilliant

* At the back of one of the stalls in Eton College Chapel, erected by Mr. W. Mackworth Praed, as a fitting tribute to the memory of his brother in that place, is the following inscription, from the pen of Dr. Hawtrey :

"Winthropo Mackworth Praed olim Coll. SS. Trin. apud Cantabrigiam socio literis humanioribus senatoriis numeribus et Bibliothecæ in puerorum Etonensium frugem inchoatæ laude felicissimè ornato posuit frater maximus natu."

There can be no doubt, indeed, that he might have attained still higher distinction as a scholar by a course of systematic study, for he showed in after life both the power of thorough investigation and a sense of its value; but the bent of his genius, and perhaps the state of his bodily health, inclined him to more discursive occupation. As it was, though hẻ failed as a competitor for the University Scholarship, the long and shining list of his academic honours bore full testimony not merely to his extraordinary talent, but to the high character of his scholastic attainments.

*

In 1822 he gained Sir William Browne's medal for the Greek Ode, and for the Epigrams; in 1823 the same medal a second time for the Greek Ode, with the first prizes for English and Latin declamation in his College. In 1824 Sir William Browne's medal a second time for Epigrams. In 1823 and 1824 he also gained the Chancellor's medal for English verse, "Australasia being the subject in the former year, and "Athens" in the latter. In the classical tripos his name appeared third in the list, a high position, yet scarcely adding to the reputation which he already enjoyed. In 1827 he was successful in the examination for a Trinity

* He had been second in the examination for the Pitt Scholarship, beating all competitors of his own standing, and sat again the following year for the Battie Scholarship, when it appears that three votes out of seven were recorded in his favour.

Fellowship, and in 1830 he completed his University triumphs by gaining the Seatonian prizes.

Prize poems, even when written by true poets, are for the most part of ephemeral interest, and do scant justice to the genius of their authors. It is one thing to perform a set task with skill, another to obey, a spontaneous impulse, and give expression to "thoughts that voluntary move harmonious numbers." These exercises are properly intended as tests and encouragements of academic scholarship and literary culture -taste, judgment, and the art of composition, with an especial reference to established models-rather than as opportunities for the display of original power. In Praed's case, however, these poems rise so far above the ordinary level, and display such clear evidence of poetic faculty, in him always equal to the occasion, even when exercised at a disadvantage, that they have been deemed worthy of preservation, and will be found in the second volume of this collection.

Such a career might well be supposed to have demanded all the time and strength that could be given to serious effort, and doubtless it bore evidence to very unusual energy, and very strenuous exertion. It was not, however, in the senate-house, or the schools, nor in the rigid course of intellectual discipline prescribed to the candidate for academic distinction, that Praed was mainly occupied, or that his powers were chiefly, or perhaps most advantageously, exercised.

and parliamentary lawyer. After these, amid a large number of promising speakers destined to attain celebrity either at the bar or in the senate, there was no third name that could be put in competition with that of Praed. His style of speaking was indeed wholly different from that of the distinguished orators above mentioned. He rather shunned than sought to carry away his hearers by rhetorical display. It was his ambition to make himself an accomplished debater, to excel in reply, for which his rapid apprehension, ready wit, and racy diction, gave him singular advantages. It has been said that he was not an “impassioned orator." Perhaps not. He did not care to affect an earnestness which he did not feel. He carried with him into the heat of debate the sparkling gaiety, and light careless manner, by which he was generally distinguished. In after life, when he had made up his mind to the part which he was to take, and was contending for what he believed to be the truth, his oratory was not merely serious, but on all suitable occasions fervid. His temperament was indeed warm and excitable, and when his passions were really roused, as at a contested election, he spoke with remarkable force and vehemence.

It may be worthy of a passing notice, that in the debates of the Union Society both Macaulay and Praed commonly appeared as the advocates of opinions more or less opposed to those of the political party with