Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN B. GOUGH.
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humble position of schoolmistress in the village, and fre¬
quently planted the first principles of knowledge in the
minds of children whose parents had, years before, been
benefited by her early instructions. And well qualified,
by nature and acquirements, was she for the interesting
office she filled,—if a kindly heart and a well-stored mind
be the requisites.
Of course I received my first lessons at home, but as I
advanced in years, it became advisable that I should be
sent to a school; and to one I was accordingly sent.
There was a free school in the village, but my father,
though he could ill afford it, paid a weekly sum for my
instruction at the seminary of Mr. Davis of Folkestone.
I progressed rapidly in my limited education, and became
a teacher in the school. Two classes, as was the custom,
were placed under my care; the children of one of them
I initiated into the art and mystery of spelling words of
two syllables, and taught the Rule of Three to a class
more advanced. I have now the last “ciphering book”
I used in that school. On the fly-leaf is a specimen of
my fancy writing,—John Gough, Nov. 13th, 1827. I was
then ten years of age. Soon after, I left the school, and
have never since entered a day-school, or Sunday-school,
to learn a lesson.
As I look back to that far past, and call to mind the
scenes of my early childhood, how they pass in review
before me! I have always had an intense love of the old,
and would travel farther to see a ruin, than the finest
modern structure. And no wonder; for the vicinity of
my home is full of the monuments of ancient time: Lympne
Castle, a fortification made by the Romans, to protect
the road from their port of Lympne (now Lymne) to
Canterbury;—Shepway Cross, remarkable for its anti¬
quity;—the Chapel of Our Lady, at Courtat Street, where,