His own son and Lord
Buckram having been discovered robbing an orchard together, the Doctor
flogged his own flesh and blood most unmercifully for leading the young
Lord astray. He parted from him with tears. There was always a letter
directed to the Most Noble the Marquis ef Bagwig, on the Doctor's study
table, when any visitors were received by him.
At Eton, a great deal of Snobbishness was thrashed out of Lord Buckram,
and he was birched with perfect impartiality. Even there, however, a
select band of sucking tuft-hunters followed him. Young Croesus lent
him three-and-twenty bran-new sovereigns out of his father's bank. Young
Snaily did his exercises for him, and tried 'to know him at home;' but
Young Bull licked him in a fight of fifty-five minutes, and he was caned
several times with great advantage for not sufficiently polishing his
master Smith's shoes. Boys are not ALL toadies in the morning of life.
But when he went to the University, crowds of toadies sprawled over
him. The tutors toadied him. The fellows in hall paid him great clumsy
compliments. The Dean never remarked his absence from Chapel, or heard
any noise issuing from his rooms. A number of respectable young fellows,
(it is among the respectable, the Baker Street class, that Snobbishness
flourishes, more than among any set of people in England)--a number of
these clung to him like leeches.
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