REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD

CHAPTER II.

CAMPO LANE, THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL, THE TOWNHEAD.

Scene-The same. Period-Two days later.

Present-EVERARD, WRAGG, LEIGHTON, Twiss, and LEONARD.

LEIGHTON. When last we met we mentally repeopled Campo lane with its old
inhabitants, from the top of Paradise square to the bottom of the
Hartshead and Watson's walk. Suppose we now go in the opposite
direction, taking the Lane from Virgin's row to the Townhead.

WRAGG : Yes, that part is full of interest, though you moderns, Mr.
Leonard, will scarcely credit it.

LEONARD : Well, it is difficult to find much romance there now, amid its
dingy second-hand clothes shops and its squalid tenements. The only
thing of interest about it I remember is a ghost story connected with
the dreadful row of shops we come to first, going from St. James's row,
on the left, that look as if they had started life with great
pretensions , but the force of adverse circumstances has brought them to
a worse plight than that of their older neighbours. The latter, if poor,
have an air of decent poverty about them ; but these have nothing but a
seedy look of decayed snobbishness.

Twiss : What you refer to was not really a ghost story, 'but only a
great hoax, perpetrated by the aid of a magic lantern.

LEONARD : At any rate, a lot of people were well frightened, and one
woman lost her life.

EVERARD: At the corner of St. James's row and Campo lane was a
public-house. That part of the building which came to the front, forming
a line with the Girls' Charity School, was, I believe, a comparatively
modern projection,built of brick, and joined to the gable end of the old
original house, which fronted Campo lane. The lower room of this new
part was used as a " dram- shop, " or kind of 'I bar, " and the room
over it was occupied as a store-room. The publichouse proper was, I
think, built of stone, or, if not, at all events with very old-looking
bricks, and had small windows. The chief entrance then was in the very
narrow part of Campo lane. I recollect that, when a youth, I went once
or twice into this publichouse, and noticed that the room in which we
sat was very clean, the floor well rubbed and sanded, the ceiling low,
and the window small. I do not remember what the sign was, or whether
the old part of the house was 11 thatched." But it might have been so,
and certainly was old enough to have been so at some previous period of
its existence.

LEIGHTON: Let us get on. Among the low and dilapidated premises opposite
is the cooper's shop where Mr. John Hall carried on the business of
cooper, which Mr. Edward Hall has continued for so many years. At the
corner of Lee croft, on the east side, now a broker's shop, is a fine
old building with its grand staircase. It was, sixty years since,
occupied by a retired merchant, a most respectable manMr. Parkin. On the
opposite side of the lane, at the corner of St. James's hill, was his
garden. I remember seeing gooseberry bushes in it. Now it is occupied as
a sort of shed, used for storing horns, or something of the kind. I
should like to know who changed St. James's hill into Vicar lane, and
Virgin's walk into St. James's row. Whoever he was, he ought to have
been whipped out of the town.

WRAGG: The house you speak of was afterwards the factory of Mr. Thomas
Harrison, who had previously been burnt out of promises on the site of a
portion of the Gas Works. At that time he was, I believe, a dealer in
horns and hard woods; but in Campo lane, where he was, I dare say,
twenty years, lie got up table knives. He removed into Holly street. He
was a worthy and honourable man in all his dealings, but, I am sorry to
add, he never recovered from the sad disaster connected with his fire.

Twiss : The house at the corner of Campo lane and Lee croft, now the Cup
Inn, is an interesting old place.

WRAGG : Over the door it bears the date, 1726, and the initials, JTB:,
or perhaps I T :a

LEIGHTON: That was the residence of Mr. Isaac Barnes, one of the old
school of manufacturers. His workshops were just above. He was
universally respected as at! upright tradesman and an honest man.

LEONARD: The house was subsequently the residence of his son, Mr. George
Barnes, who carried on this, one of the oldest cutlery trades in the
town. Ultimately, however, the business was allowed to expire. Mr.
George Barnes built himself a residence at Ranmoor, and the Campo lane
house then reverted to what it is suspected to have been at firsta
beershop.

LEIGHTION:- Methinks I see old Isaac Barnes now, walking up to his old
friend "Whit.," to smoke his pipe and enjoy his pint of strong ale at
the " Warm Hearthstone," still, as of old, looking down the lane. Its
then occupier and owner, Whittington Souter, bore a name renowned in the
local annals. He was a good and charitable man, and highly respected by
all.

EVERARD : When his customers called upon him for his song, lie used to
give these two lines :

There was a bee, and it lived in a wall, It just said 11 hum," and
that's all.

LEIGHTON: Every Sunday forenoon lie had a large piece of beef or mutton
roasting, and his near customers were encouraged to bring their quarters
of oatcake or slice of bread to dip in the capacious dripping-pan. He
brewed the best ale in the county, a relative of mine being his
maltster. They both got rich, and well they deserved it.

WRAGG: You only do justice to Mr. Souter's character. He was not only an
upright, honourable man, but a sincere Christian. He attended Garden
street Chapel, under the ministry of the Rev. Mark Docker, and when he
died was its mortgagee. I believe lie had purchased it from the
Methodists when they removed to Carver street. He and his family are
buried in the graveyard of Howard street Chapel.

LEIGHTON: He had a room in which tradesmen met for friendly chat, and
they were served in silver pints.

WRAGG : Behind the public-house is a large door, and the yard is higher
than the street. Mr. Souter had a carter, who had backed his cart
towards this door, and was standing between the cart and the wall below
the door, lifting something either into or out of the cart; the horse
moved backwards, and so the carter was killed, from the cart pressing
against him. Some time after, the horse, being taken to Mr. Souter's
field, near Mushroom Hall, fell into an old quarry and was killed. Mr.
Souter was a kind and considerate man ; he did not close his connection
with his carter's widow and family, but he continued their steadfast
friend until his death. There was a son whom he educated, and who
obtained a situation in the office of Mr. Albert Smith, the magistrates'
clerk. After some years of faithful service he was articled to Mr. A.
Smith, and became a solicitor. He was the late George Wells, who was
nicely established in Church street, next to the Sheffield and Rotherham
Bank, when he died of an inflammation caught, if I remember rightly,
from a cold taken in London while promoting, as solicitor to the
Company, the passing of the Manchester and Sheffield Railway Bill. He
resided at the top of Cornhill, where the late Thomas Dunn previously
resided. Mr. Wells had made many friends, and died deeply regretted.

LEIGHTON: Well, here on our right, at the top of School croft, stood the
old Grammar or Latin School. In those days the presiding genius was the
Rev. C. Chadwick, who, in 1800, " concerned to observe that persons are
persuaded to consider the language and learning of the great models of
antiquity of little use to boys not intended for a learned profession,"
advertised the commencement of classes for instruction in the English
language. The school had been built two hundred years, and well do I
remember the rev. gentleman emerging from the steps (for the school was
below the level of the lane), with his gold-headed cane and
three-cornered hat, to the awe and admiration of the boys. Part of the
house he lived in is now the Burns Tavern, which stands at the western
corner of School croft. It was generally believed by us that the young
gents had raised the devil in the old porch of the school, but had been
so alarmed they never I tried it again. They were a bold and warlike
race, and looked down with scorn on the schools below them, with which
they were ever at war. Their most determined enemies were from Figtree
lane, where a school was conducted by Mr. Cowley. The contending hosts
generally met about the top of Lee I have seen the " advance," the "
charge," the " retreat and the "rally," when, happily, the bell of the
classicals was sounded, and a truce was made.

Twiss: Mr. Chadwick's son, the Rev. C. Chadwick, Jun., M.A.. was for a
short time-from November, 1801, to January, 1803, when he died-under
master. Mr. Chadwick was for many years the president of the Town
Library. In 1807, his. old scholars presented him with a silver cup,
bearing a Latin inscription. He had been head master for more than
thirty years when he died, in 1809. Mr. Chadwick was also vicar of
Tinsley; and it is he who is said to have given the magistrates so
deserved a rebuke when, coming out from their duties in the old Cutlers'
Hall one day, they were struck with the horse on which he was just
passing. " Here's Mr. Chadwick," said one, " riding a fine blood horse,
while his Master was contented with an ass." " Your worship," said the
rider to the speaker, " forgets that asses are scarcer now." ---How so ?
" asked the magistrate. " Government gets all it can to make justices
of," retorted Mr. Chadwick; and no doubt he rode on his way with the
complacency of a man who has had his revenge. The story is told in
Wilson's edition of Mather.

LEONARD: The Grammar School was a low building, with high pitched roof,
lead-framed windows, and a porch. Its shape was a capital L, the main
part running from east to west, facing nearly southward, but being much
below the street. This part was occupied by the classes under the first
and second masters. The minor part of the building ran from the west end
northward, and was large enough for one long table, at which perhaps
twenty boys could sit on each side, under the care of the writing
master. The floor was of stone. The furniture of the school consisted of
low oak. benches, three to each class, forming three sides of a square,
with a stool for the praepositus.

Twiss : Before that, the boys' seats were more like stalls, or the seats
in cathedral choirs; and against the walls was a high wainscoting of
dark oak, panelled. There was a second row of stalls, with narrow desks
before them, and in front a broad way up the centre of the school from
end to end. The head master's seat placed in the centre of the cast end,
was composed of two massive oak sides, upwards of seven feet high, and
at least six inches thick, and terminating in " Fleurs-de-lys?' cut out
of the solid. The boys' stalls ran up to this seat on either hand. At
the other end, the second master's desk, among the junior boys, was the
exact counterpart of this; and on the left of the junior school was the
projecting space towards the croft, where were the writingdesks over
which---Old Jacky "-as the venerable mathematician, John Eadon, was
disrespectfully called-presided every morning from eight o'clock to
nine. before the classical work of the day began. The front door,
leading out into the yard, was in the centre of one of the sides of the
building.

LEONARD: The school was indifferently lighted, and owed its	to one
large fire-place in the main building, and another in the writing
master's domain. The head master's house was at the west end of the
building, facing the street. It was roomy, but dilapidated; and in the
later years of the old school was unoccupied. The school building stood
as much below the level of the street on one side as the Baptist Chapel
stands above it on the other, the builders of the school having
apparently dug its site out of the naturally steep hill-side at the head
of the School croft, which sloped down the  hill behind it to Tenter
street.

Twiss: Among the boys who attended the school from 1808 to 1812 were the
following, who have passed away:John Staniforth, solicitor, and clerk to
the Town Trustees ; Frank Fenton, solicitor, London, (he obtained a
celebrity in defending John Thurtell, who was executed for the murder of
Weare, near St. Albans) ; Luke Palfreyman, solicitor, of considerable
practice, and for many years of great influence ; Francis Hoole,
solicitor, Mayor 1853, Town Trustee; E. B. Tattershall, solicitor,
London ; John Dixon, solicitor, Sheffield ; Broomhead Ward, M.A.,
beneficed clergyman in Wiltshire; Charles Brownill, J.P. West Riding,
merchant, Liverpool; Samuel Mitchell, merchant, Sheffield, a
distinguished antiquarian ; Robert Naylor, accidentally killed at Roche
Abbey, merchant; John Fenton, captain East India Service, brother to F.
Fenton, and son of Colonel Fenton ; Richard Ogle, nephew to R.
Blakelock, Esq., died at Demerara; John Harwood, M.D., died in
Sheffield; John Sterndale, M.D., died in East India Service; Samuel
Staniforth, brother of John Staniforth, died in Paris ; John Ward,
merchant. Sheffield; Joseph Oakes, builder, of Washington Works,
Sheffield. There are Iiving at the present time:- Albert Smith,
solicitor, and magistrates' clerk ; Samuel Roberts, J.P. West Riding,
Town Trustee; Charles Atkinson, J.P. West Riding, Mayor 1858, Master
Cutler 1864; James Tillotson, J.P. West Riding; Thomas James Parker,
solicitor, Sheffield; Lewis 0. Sayles, late Assize Master, Leamington;
Robert Younge, Church Burgess, wine merchant; Benjamin Vickers,
merchant, Sheffield; Charles Radford, M.A., late Fellow of Brazennose
College, now living at Bath; William Vickers, merchant, first chairman
and principal promoter of Sheffield and Rotherham Railway. One of these
survivors has said how well he remembers the tall figure of the Rev.
Charles Chadwick, who held sway up to his death in the year 1809,
entering the school from the centre door, with his clerical
three-cornered cocked hat, and walking with stately step to the
cushioned throne whence, in all the majesty of might and right, he
looked around with scrutinising eye for some delinquent,

At Chadwick's frown all tremblingly alive,

on whom he contemplated bestowing his favourite "custard," that lay on
the broad table before him, with these memorable words deeply cut in the
wood, " I forgot it," so frequently impressed with biting effect on the
open hand of many an unlucky offender. Over his chair were the emblems
of scholastic punishment-the rod, the cane, the ferrule with " custard "
at the end-most artistically painted, with some memorable Latin lines.

" The second master," the same " Old Boy " goes oil to say, " was named
Wheateroft; we generally called him " Little Widdy," a man of very small
stature but of great conceit. During the time that intervened between
the death of Mr. Chadwick and the appointment of the Rev. Joseph Wilson,
he transferred the school to the house occupied by the late master. The
school had got very small, and under his management it grew beautifully
less. We had scarcely twenty boys when the Rev. J.  Wilson came into
residence. Mr. Wilson was it mail of strong, mind and determined
character, being an excellent classical scholar, who had taken a high
degree at his college. Under his system and method of teaching the
school recovered the ground it had lost, and, ere twelve months had
passed, had	to more than eighty boys-a sufficient number to claim and
maintain tile supremacy over every other school in the town, both
mentally and physically, to which the numerous battles we fought during
the snowballing season can testify. It was the practice in those days to
settle the disputes is to supremacy in that practical manner.

" Mr. W. Wright was' about that time appointed our writing master, after
the decease of Mr. Eadon, whose pupil and assistant he had been. Between
him and Mr. Wilson it very friendly feeling arose, which matured to the
very serviceable but unusual extent of the head master giving Mr. Wright
instruction in classical knowledge, which enabled him to fill, to the
satisfaction of all parties, the appointment of second classical master,
which he afterwards obtained on the next vacancy in 1821 or 1822. _Mr.
Wilson, although a man above the ordinary stature, and firm in manner,
was not really	so powerful as he looked since he was incapacitated
from taking active exercise by having, either from accident or some
other cause, had his left leg taken off below the knee, and a cork limb
substituted. I believe he was the last person in Sheffield who used a
sedan chair in visiting his friends. This was obtained from the Old
Assembly Rooms, and had formerly been used by ladies only. At that
period no hackney coach or cab was in existence. Among the few carriages
kept in the town and immediate neighbourhood was one at Goddard Hall, by
Philip Smilter, Esq., an old Catholic gentleman, who visited the town
occasionally in a quaint old chaise, drawn by two light-brown, heavy,
Flemish-bred horses with long manes and tails. Their speed was between a
jog-trot and a walk. His postilion, in red, with bell-button, buckskins,
and top boots, black velvet cap, and long straight whip ; the harness
with breast collar and large square plated buckles, completed this
unique set-out. The venerable man was a picture of the old squire in the
costume of the early period of. George III., so graphically delineated
by Hogarth and other painters of his day. Poor Mr. Wilson had a sad end.
One morning in 1818 Mr. Wright was hastily summoned from the school to
the head master's house, and, on entering the library, found the
unfortunate gentleman lying face downward on his secretaire, grasping a
pistol just discharged. That terminated his life and position as head
master of the Sheffield Grammar School. The Rev. W. White succeeded
him."

LEONARD : At this point it is better that another former Grammar School
boy, of somewhat later date than he whom you have been quoting, should
take up the narrative:

" In 1821, the Rev. William White, who had been elected in 1818, was
head master, the Rev. G. Harrison second master, and Mr. William Wright
writing master; but he succeeded Mr. Harrison in 1822, and was himself
succeeded in the writing department by Mr. William Kirk. This school, as
it was at that day, is especially interesting now, from the well-known
men of later days who were then among the scholars. Indisputably, the
first boy in the first or highest class was Thomas Goodison, who be'came
an attorney, and practised in a very quiet way in George street. His
signal abilities as a boy never developed themselves in his after
career. Among his class-fellows was the late Wilson Overend, a fine
youth, of great abilities and high spirit, but somewhat volatile, who
became eminent as a surgeon, and was ,an important public man in the
town. Wm. Pashley Milner, now of Meersbrook, was another of this class;
as was also Robert C. Mather, who has passed many years of his life as a
missionary in India. In the second class, at the same time, was William
Overend, now Q.C., who at over sixty years of age retains much of the
countenance of his boyhood. In the same class was Kay Fenton, youngest
son of Colonel Fenton, of Woodhill, on the Grimesthorpe road, our first
superintendent of police under the Act of 1818. The Colonel held office
till his death, when he was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Raynor, who was our
first chief constable, and the immediate predecessor of Mr. John
Jackson. Urban Smith, the youngest brother of Mr. Albert Smith, and now
the vicar of Stoney Middleton, where he has passed a quiet life in the
discharge of the unostentatious duties of a country clergyman, was in
the second class. So also were Astley Foulds, son of Mr. Samuel Foulds,
surgeon, Change alley, and himself the father of another generation of
surgeons; Nathaniel R. Philipps, of Broomhall, now recorder of
Pontefract; and Edward Hoyland, the elder son of a notable Quaker
chemist, whose shop was next the Cutlers' Hall. William Bell Mackenzie,
lately deceased, for many years a highly-popular clergyman at Holloway,
London, was a Grammar School boy with some of the above, but had left
the school shortly before the period we speak of. The first and second
classes were under the especial charge of the head master; but in his
division of the school was also a junior class, over which the boys of
the first and second classes were set as praepositi (Anglice, monitors).
Here were Samuel Eadon, now Dr. Eadon, the great-nephew of the fine old
mathematician who, two generations before, was master of the Free
Writing School, and teacher of writing, arithmetic, &c., in the Grammar
School. Among his class-mates were John Crosland Milner, now of
Thurlstone, J.P., brother of Mr. W. P. Milner before mentioned; Robert
Leader, who has been connected with Sheffield journalism for nearly
fifty years; Thomas Hewitt, who achieved an unhappy notoriety and died
in his prime ; Robert Stopford Taylor, surgeon, recently deceased. These
names will show that the Grammar School of those days contained a group
of boys destined to be well known in their manhood. Mr. White, the head
master, is worth preserving in one's memory. He was a little,
lightlymade, brisk man, quick and energetic in all his movements, with a
stern face, pitted by the small-pox, and with a sonorous and awful
voice, never so terrible as in his sarcastic moods. The exactest
punctuality was his rule. In the first portion of his mastership, Mr.
White had acquired a. name for great severity in his punishments; but on
one occasion he so much overstepped the mark that there was a row, and
the result was that, at the time we speak of, his cane was almost
disused, though he was none the less formidable on that account. Four or
five boys who came from Attereliffe, and generally arrived in a group
had fallen into the habit at one time of being rather late. ' Here come
the Atterelifflans,' was their sarcastic greeting from the head master
one morning, and the delinquents were cured. We never knew him to give
to any one the slightest mark of familiarity ; but, severe and unbending
as he was, the boys had a sort of love for him, as was shown by the
familiar name they had given to him, Daddy White.' Now and then he would
summon a junior class before him for a sharp viva voce examination, and
these occasions were very pleasant to boys who had done their work well.
The riddling of the brains of a class by the 'Daddy' was a capital test
of quality ; and it was fun to see how a big bulking fellow, who
ordinarily kept an unfairly high place, would go tumbling down in stupid
amazement, while others went above him. And here it may be worth while
to place on record the sort of education given in the school. It was
narrow, but thorough. Excepting an hour a day under the writing master,
the classes going to him by turns, Latin and Greek absorbed all the time
of the higher classes, and Latin only that of the lower. Each lesson was
repeated and written on slates in class. Incessant repetition was the
order of the day, till a boy knew all the declensions and conjugations,
regular and irregular, and all the rules of syntax with their examples,
as perfectly as his A B C. It was terrible drudgery for a time; but many
a young mind which had revolted at it, asking why he was to spend all
his days over a dead language, at last learned to like the sense of
power and mastery it gave him when he looked on a page and there was not
a word he did not know in all its parts, all its relations, and its
shades of meaning. This system did not give boys much knowledge, but it
gave mental tools, and taught a style of using them for which many an
one has honoured the memory of his old master and his old school. In
these days, when so much is said of the imperative necessity of
leavening all teaching with religion, we may recall what was then the
practice in a school of which the vicar and the church burgesses are the
governors, and a clergyman was the head master. The onlyreligious book
in the school was a Prayer-book, which lay on the head master's desk.
From it he read three or four brief prayers at the opening of school in
the morning, and then the religious teaching of the day was done. Mr.
Wright, whom we knew both as writing and second master, was a remarkable
self-made man. He had been brought up in humble circumstances to one of
the Sheffield trades ; but, by indomitable study he attained to
proficiency in mathematics, and very respectable classical learning.
About 1823 he gave up his office in the Grammar School, and opened a
school on his own account in a yard in Bank street, where the office of
Mr. Smilter, high bailiff of the County Court, now is. A few years later
he built Howard Hill (afterwards purchased for the Roman Catholic
Reformatory for Girls), and there he conducted a successful school to
the end of his life. He was a rather heavy, ungainly man, with a hot
temper and weighty arm, but of genial disposition and kindly heart. Many
Sheffield men have an honourable niche for the memory of William Wright.
'I like that; it shows your head is at work;' this is a sample of the
encouraging remarks lie would address to a boy who showed an inclination
to understand the reason of things.',

EVERARD: The Free Writing School down School croft only takes us a
little out of our way, and should be mentioned here, not only as a
kindred subject, but because he who was its head master for so many
years-Mr. John Eadon-also taught writing daily in the Grammar School.
The art 'of writing was in those days an accomplishment, and not the
every-day commodity of the present time.

Twiss : I possess, and prize very highly, an old exercise-book written
by Grammar School boys of the earlier half of the last century. We
sometimes hear writing described as being like copper-plate, but it is
literally true of this beautiful caligraphy. The exercises consist of
Latin verses, and are headed, " Musae Sheffieldienses, 1737." The names
of the writers may be interesting to you. First comes " Geo. Steer,"
afterwards a mercer in the town, who is buried in St. Paul's Church,
near the communion rails. " Thomas Younge," or as he variously spells
his name, " Young," was in the school 1737-39. He was born in 1721, and,
after leavng the Grammar School, took his M.A. at Cambridge, and then
went to study medicine at Edinburgh, where he took his medical degree in
1752. He returned to Sheffield, where lie practised as a physician until
his sudden death, in 1784.

He was the father of Dr. William Younge, who also was a physician of
repute among us. A curious contemporary eulogy on Dr. Thomas Younge that
I possess speaks of him as having a figure higher than middle stature,
corpulent, sanguineous, and says " his countenance bespoke thought,
sagacity, and penetration ; his health appeared to be uninterrupted,
either from a fortunate constitution or his great skill." The most
beautiful writer in the book I am speaking of is " Daniel Boote," but of
him I know nothing; nor can I trace " Geo. lbotson." " Walter Oborne "
was afterwards a magistrate. " Thomas Cawthorn, 1739," was probably the
brother of James Cawthorn, the poet (also a Grammar School boy), whose
memoir was written by the Rev. E. Goodwin.

WRAGG: Mr. John Eadon wrote the "Arithmetician's Guide," published in
1756, and he dedicated it to the trustees of the Writing School; and in
1793 and 1794 he published the first and second editions of the first
volume of his " Arithmetical and Mathematical Repository." Had lie
published the other three volumes, which, he said, were nearly ready for
the press, he would have taken his place in the front rank as a
mathematician. He died in 1810, at the age of eighty. I should like to
see some good account of him.

LEONARD : Should you ? I can read to you, if you like, an account of him
and his family, written by one of his descendants.

WRAGG: It will interest me exceedingly.

LEONARD (reads): "John Eadon, the mathematician, was the first of a
family some of the members of which, without any intermission, have been
instructing and educating the rising generation of Sheffield for nearly
120 years, and are doing so still. He lived, during his youth, at
Ecelesfield, and was one of four brothers. Their father was a ' famous
woodman of renown,' and his five sons, at all events for some time,
followed the same occupation. Being tall and naturally muscular,
strength and virtue-in its primitive meaning, viz., physical valour-were
their characteristics. On these qualities they prided themselves, and,
although kind in their natures, and tender in the extreme to protect the
weak, woe be to him who offered an insult, or attempted to trample on
the defenceless. In such circumstances they knew of no argument but the
argumentum ad pugnam, and right skilfully was it brought into operation.
One of them, in particular, was noted for his pugilistic tendencies.
This was Matthias, afterwards known as Captain Eadon, the father of the
late Mr..John Eadon,who lived and died  on his own freehold, at Boston,
in Lincolnshire.

" In those days the road from Sheffield to Ecclesfield was infested by
thieves. Every night robberies were committed, and on that part called '
Sheffield lane,' after a certain hour, no person escaped scot free.
Strange to say, none of these brothers were ever stopped. This Matthias
courted attacks, for he came home at all hours of the night for the very
purpose- but in vain. This was to him a mystery, as people were robbed
half-an-hour before and an hour after he had passed along. Having,
however, a law-suit at York, the riddle was solved. He there was told by
one of the robbers, who had been taken, that they dare not attack him,
and they used to say, ' Here comes Matt Ayton; we must let him pass, or
he will thrash us all together.' Being tall and powerful, and with the
spirit of a lion, these men acted wisely in making 'discretion the
better part of valour.'

" These five brothers, it seems, followed the occupation mentioned for
some years, till circumstances broke in upon the even tenor of their
way. Being an out-door employment, the weather would often interfere and
prevent them from going on with their work. On one occasion the rain was
so heavy that, there being no likelihood of its abating that day, the
father and sons took shelter in a neighbouring inn ; others had done the
same, and the room was full. Whilst drinking the ' nut-brown ale,' many
were the topics of conversation. Some talked about themselves, others
about their children-how clever Susan was, and what a sharp chap Tommy
was ; and as for Bill, the village schoolmaster had never had his like.
Every man appeared to have a clever lad in some way or other; but old
Ayton (Eden, now Eadon) heard all this with a sorrowful heart, and at
length, breaking silence, he said, ' See,' pointing his finger, 'there
is a thickhead ; that lad of mine is nineteen years of age, and he does
not know A from B.` This was enough. The shame of being exposed in a
public company, and by his father, too, raised the pride and kindled a
spark in that young man's breast which never went out till the spirit
left the body. Whilst he sat in that room abashed amid his compeers, lie
determined that he would know not only A from B, but something more. He
began next day, bought a penny primer, found out an old woman who knew
the letters-these lie soon mastered-made out little words, and soon he
laid the foundation of all knowledge-the acquirement of the art of
reading. He found some one to assist him in writing and arithmatic ; and
in this way his leisure time was spent, till he began to think he know
more than most people about him.

" At this juncture the mastership of the Free Writing School became
vacant. He offered himself and was elected, and held the post till his
death. From the time of his publishing the 'Arithmetician's Guide,' in
1756, to his death in 1810, would make his tutorship of that school
fifty years, at least.

" It is evident from that there must have been natural quickness of
intellect and great aptitude in John Eadon, in learning whatever came
before him. It is said that when he went to learn writing he imitated
the copies so well that the master said he must have come to make fun of
him, as he could copy them better than he could himself.

" Another story recorded of him is that, on one occasion, when he was
attending at the Grammar School in performance of his duties as writing
master, a boy was brought up for punishment before the rev. principal
(Mr. Chadwick) for having broken a pane. 'Well, sir,' said the master,
'I understand you have broken a pane.' ' No, I have not sir; I only
cracked it.' ' Well,' roared out the reverend divine, ' what's the
difference between cracking a commandment and breaking it ? Go to your
seat, sir, and neither crack a pane nor a commandment.' The time, the
place, the tone, the manner, and the silence of all present made such an
impression on the mind of old John Eadon that, for a quarter of a
century, he was in the habit of telling the story of the lad and the
pane with great glee and gusto.

" He married Hannah Smith, of Tankersley, and had by her three children
two sons and a daughter. His daughter Mary married Mr. Joseph Bailey,
one of the first merchants in Sheffield who traded with America, and the
late Samuel Bailey was their youngest child: His sons were John and
George. John was a partner in the firm of Bailey and Eadon, and became
the father of Mr. Thomas Brownell Eadon, of Western Bank. George died
unmarried in the house at the corner of Norfolk street and Charles
street, now used as a Turkish bath.

" Besides the two brothers, John and Matthias, of whom we have spoken,
there were Moses and William. From William spring the Eadons of
Attercliffe, and the late Mr. George Eadon, the carver and gilder, and
his sons, the auctioneers. The spelling, of the name was altered from
Eden into Eadon about one hundred years ago, by John Eadon, the
mathematician."

WRAGG: A most interesting account of a remarkable man. Ecclesfield was
also the birthplace of Joseph Hunter, the historian of Hallamshire; and
Grenoside, in the same parish, was the birth-place of the Walkers, of
Rotherham. In fact, many distinguished men have come from out-of-the-way
places-as Chantrey from Norton, and George Wilson, of the Anti-Corn-Law
League, from Hathersage. Some people would not think such villages
likely to foster genius.

Twiss: John Eadon's brother William lived at Aftercliffe, and was a
joiner and lath-river. A very old gentleman is still living who
remembers him, and who has said, " He and my father were very friendly,
and had many an argument, for they were both fond of it, and were what
was then considered scholars. William Eadon worked for my father, and
often came to our house in Derbyshire lane. Smithy Wood was near, and
while the work of enlarging Mr. William Shore's house at Tapton Grove
was going on-it had been erected by a person named Badger as a
speculation, and when Mr. Shore bought it lie made considerable
additions; Mr. Edward Vickers afterwards rebuilt the housesome trees
were felled in that wood. My father was anxious to buy one particularly
fine oak, for the laundry over the stable at Tapton had to be laid with
a plaster floor, and lie wanted some good oak laths to lay it on. There
were several people after this tree, and to decide the rivalry it was
arranged that the one who could get first to the tree from a particular
part of the wood should be the purchaser. My father knew the ground
well, and laid his plans. When the signal to be off was given, his
competitors plunged into the brushwood, while lie slipped over a wall
into a field, ran quickly down opposite to where the tree stood, and was
back in the wood, standing by the trunk, while his rivals were
struggling and scratching themselves among the brambles. He got the
tree, and William Eadon rove it into laths, and those laths were laid
down under the laundry floor at Tapton."

LEIGHTON: The site of the old Free Writing School is now occupied by a
modern and substantially-built successor, erected in 1827, the old
building, which had stood for 106 years, having fallen into decay. Mr.
Worth was the architect. The yard or play-ground is, however, the same,
though of less size than formerly. There used to be-for we are speaking
of the time when the street called School croft was really a green
field-a communication between the yards of the two schools. Job Cawood
was the master in the days when I attended the Free Writing School. I
think he must have been Mr. John Eadon's successor.

LEONARD: The late Mr. Samuel Bailey was a pupil at this school. It is
said that, even in those days, there were observable in him all the
elements of the after-man-reserve, reticence, and pride. He was not like
any other boy. The pranks of lads had no charm for him. What would
excite the merry giggle in others was looked down upon with silent
indifference by him. He used to amuse himself in the play hours in
riding on the back of a schoolfellow called Wilgous, who was always
ready to play the horse for the boy philosopher.

WRAGG: Several very old houses formerly stood about here, some on the
site of the Baptist Chapel, and others were pulled down a year or two
before the Temperance Hall was built. One of them bore a date early in
the last century, and had a projecting window, with a second window at
the side somewhat less than the former. A person looking through the
latter could see the steps below, in Townhead street. I should not be
surprised to learn that this was the first shop in the town having two
windows. At the corner of Blind lane and Trippet lane was the shop of
Mr. Brady, a respectable draper, whose daughters, members of the Society
of Friends, will be remembered by you all. Trippet lane, as its width
indicates, is greatly altered from the old days. Facing you, above the
end of Blind lane, used to be Red croft, a cul de sac, with dwellings
all round it. The " Brown Cow," and all the other houses on the left, up
to Mr. Reynolds' mortar mill, were in Red croft.

LEONARD : In Gosling's plan, Red croft stands between a lane running on
either side-the one following the course of the present street (then
called Red lane), the other apparently being that narrow but ancient "
twitchell," West Bank lane, by which you can get up into West street.

EVERARD: The street, from the top of Bailey field nearly to the end of
Blind lane, was so narrow that two carts could not pass ; but, like a
single-line railway, one of them had to wait until the other had come
through. Hence this part of the way commonly went by the name of the "
Narrow lane."

LEIGHTON : In Pinfold street there are yet remaining a few of the old
cottage houses. Of such, I suppose, the streets used mainly to consist.
LEONARD: Yes; when one looks at them it is impossible to help feeling
that, interesting as are the reminiscences in which we are indulging,
and tempted as we sometimes feel to long for power to sweep away
innovations, it is just as well that we can't. Such houses show us to be
far better off as we are.

TWISS: The original water-house of the Water Company is still standing,
at the sharp angle between Pinfold street and Campo lane. It has just
come into the possession of the Town Trustees, and will doubtless soon
be sacrificed on the altar of street improvements. A comparison of this
with the present handsome promises of the Company, in Barker Pool,
exhibits very strikingly the contrast between the old order of things
and the new.

LEIGHTON : In the angular space at the top of Townhead street, formed by
the meeting of Church street, Bow street, Pinfold street, and Townhead
street, stood formerly the Townhead cross. None of us can remember it-1
doubt whether any of us know when it disappeared, or whither it went;
but that is no reason for passing it by without notice.

TWISS: The premises at the top of Townhead street now occupied by Mr.
Jackson, pork-butcher, have a history. Here resided, more than a century
ago, Mr. Matthewman, who was one of the originators of the Water
Company. In 1744, he and Mr. Battie succeeded to the powers granted in
1713 to Messrs. Goodwin and Littlewood by the Lord of the Manor, and
constructed the first works at Crookes moor. He was the maternal
grandfather of Mr. Albert Smith.

EVERARD : This house was occupied for some years by Mr. Moorhouse,
surgeon, who got killed by a fall from his horse. On his decease, Mr.
James Ray, who had served his time with him, purchased the business of
the widow; and, after living and carrying on his profession on the
premises for a considerable period, he built and removed to the house in
Victoria street, Glossop road. At the time it was generally thought he
was going too far out into the country. Mr. Ray was a tall and
noble-looking man, more especially when on horseback.

WRAGG: Then Mr. John Turton practised here as a surgeon, and his son
George also. The latter died in this house. They had both been cutlers
in the employment of the Spurrs, in the neighbouring factory in Church
street, the house which looks up Pinfold street. In Surrey street Chapel
is a mural tablet to the memory of the late Mr. George Turton. In the
house looking up Bow street was Mr. James Wild. He was a presser. A more
feeling, honourable, and upright man there never was; but I.am sorry to
say he was not so successful in business as some of his neighbours.
Later in life he was a dealer in horns in White croft. Near here, too,
was Mr. Robert Brightmore, the maternal uncle of the late Mr. Samuel
Mitchell. He had a large cutlery business, and was a merchant in the
country trade. A portion of his business premises was cut through to
make Bow street, when Glossop road was constructed. He built the large
brick house on Brookbill, now surrounded by houses, part of which was
the residence of the late Alderman Saunders. The father of Mr. S.
Mitchell married the sister of Mr. Robert Brightmore ; and there `was to
have been a double marriage of Mr. Brightmore to Miss Mitchell, but it
never came off. Mr. Mitchell lived in the old house some of you may
remember, just above Mr. Brightmore's, on Broolihill, where Brightmore
street now is, then a garden walk. There was a large weeping willow in
front of the house, with a watch-box underneath, where watchmen retired
for shelter on stormy nights. 	I LEONARD: Most of the streets that
have been made around are called by the names of the Mitchell and
Brightmore families-Mitchell street, Brightmore street, Robert street,
Sarah street, Bolsover street, and so on.

EVERARD: The house, the garden, with the beautiful willow tree at the
corner, and the entrance gate, were objects with which I was familiar
from childhood, and will ever live as an interesting picture in my
memory. The personal appearance and deportment of Mrs. Mitchell always
struck me as affording the best idea of " a lady of quality " of the
last century of any person I remember to have seen. She usually wore a
black silk or satin gown, a white stomacher with an abundance of frills,
and a remarkable turban cap or head-dress, which seemed to indicate
somewhat of an Oriental taste. On a hot summer's day she might often be
seen sitting in a latticed alcove partly screened by climbing plants and
flowers, knitting or reading. This was the grandmother of the present
Mr. Mitchell-Withers. His grandfather was a stout, good-looking man; and
his father, Mr. Brightmore Mitchell, was a schoolfellow of mine.
Grosvenor terrace now fills the site then occupied by the old house and
garden.

LEIGHTON (rising) : And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it
fit that we shake hands and part."	[Exeunt.