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THE KRAKATOA ERUPTION 188
always by a boy of six with the inertia, nay, the despair
of sixteen. I cannot believe that this change is an ordinance
of nature ; but very many teachers still treat it as
such, with lamentable results.
My quarters were in the Cloisters, in the house next to
the Playing Fields, occupied by the well-known Fellow of
the College, the Rev. Edward Coleridge, who, being at
that time Vicar of Mapledurham, kindly lent his house to
Stuart Donaldson and myselt. The fabric united to the
next (the Dr. Balston's) has become the Headmaster's
residence. In 1882, foreseeing an uncertain tenure of this
dwelling and accustomed to the military centralization
of Wellington, I at once went to lay my difficulties before
Dr. Hornby, feeling perfectly sure he would give the
necessary orders to have them removed. Briefly they
were that I had not a house to live in, nor a pupil-room,
nor a class-room In which to teach. Well do I remember
the bland courtesy of his rejoinder: "Dear I dear," after
which comment he conversed about Alpine climbing I
This particular medialvalism continued till Dr. Warre in
1885 knocked up the College Office, and how Eton existed
without it as a gomg concern, no human being can faintly
conceive. •
Coleridge died in 188,, and my old friend Donaldson
and I removed our quarters to the delightful little dwelling,
:Paldwin's Shore, which I have already mentioned. In
1888 occurred the terrific explosion in the East Indies
of the island of Krakatoa, the undoubted cause of the
supremely splendid sunsets through the whole of the
following winter. No one who saw them can forget
them : but it is not common knowledge that the sunrises
were no less gorgeous. Morning after morning for an
hour and a half the spangles of the sky enveloped
the whole length of the Castle fabric, and spread up
nearly to the zenith of the heaven. Neither before
nor since have I done anything to deserve so rich and
rare a treat.
As an illustration of the small boy'• mind the following