An Octogenarian's Reminiscences

Abstract

PrefaceIt was at the request of relatives that, when entering my eighty-fourth year, after long devotion to teaching by tongue and pen, I should leave behind me some record of my early school life at the Boro' Road School, London. I was desired to tell the simple story of that wonderful Evolution in Elementary Education, that first aroused public attention in my boyhood. The intelligence and zeal of my dear Schoolmaster, John Thomas Crossley, made the Boro' Road School one of the great starting points of scholastic progress.As these are personal Reminiscences, extending over a period from 1817, when George the Third was King, to 1902, candour requires that I chronicle the fact of my not being born with the proverbial silver spoon, and that I have had, under many difficulties, to blunder my way through the dangers, sorrows and seductions of a considerable length of days.At the close of my career, I can claim little pretension to distinguished public service, with no boastful reputation of excellence in the virtues, but humbly acknowledge my repeated shortcomings and errors in duty. To the Wise and Good Father of the Universe, I trust I am grateful for much deliverance from Evil, and for the enjoyment of no ordinary amount of Good.My family belong to the Bonwicks of Surrey, the three branches of which have not been undistinguished among the County Families, whatever that may be worth. My father's ancestors had for centuries been yeoman farmers. But racial pride isgratified in the fact of some Bonwicks of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, at least, belonging to the scholastic profession. Two were well-honoured Head Masters of the celebrated Merchant Taylors' School. A goodly number entered the Church ;though, as several of them were Non-Jurors, they had no chance of being Bishops. One ancestor was the Publisher and Bookseller of St. Paul's Churchyard. My grandfather was farmer and maltster in Lingfield, and died rather early in life. His monument, with that of other Bonwicks, is seen on the church walls. My father's patrimony suffered in the bad times following the great Napoleonic Wars, and he was reduced from a mercantile position to that profession, or trade, once honoured by Jesus of Nazareth. The bad times, following the ruin of scores and scores of Banks, and my poor father's frequent and severe illnesses, subjected me often to the pains and sorrows of poverty, though my brave mother worthily struggled to keep her children from the worst. My younger brothers and sisters knew less of the hardships, I, as the eldest son, had to witness and experience.LONDON. JAMES BONWICK.October, 1902.