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Colonial Schools of the Eighteenth Century 41
It was the rule of the school to have no vacations, and because of this rule, or in spite of it, Trumbull, who became a pupil as a very small child, could read Greek at six years of age, and at twelve was sufficiently advanced to be admitted to college.
There is, perhaps, no better record of the appearance of a typical colonial schoolmaster than is to be found in Judd's Margaret: —
He wore a three-cornered hat. His coat descended in long, square skirts, quite to the' calves of his legs. He had on nankeen small-clothes, white silk stockings, paste knee and shoe buckles. His waistcoat was of yellow embossed silk with long lappels. The sleeves and skirts of his coat were garnished with rows of silver buttons. He wore ruffle cuffs; on his neck was a snow-white linen stock. Under his hat appeared a gray wig falling in rolls over his shoulders. He had on a pair of turquoise-shell spectacles. A golden-headed cane was thrust under his arm.
I also wish to quote from the reminiscences of Alexander Graydon a graphic description of the methods of discipline adopted in the school he attended in Philadelphia, about 1765. His master, an Englishman by the name of Dove, was a humorist, and it was his practice to substitute humiliation for corporal punishment. His birch was rarely applied in the usual way,
but was generally stuck into the back part of the collar of the unfortunate culprit, who, with this badge of disgrace towering from his nape, was compelled to take his stand upon the top of the form for such a period of time as his offence was thought to deserve. He had another contriv- |
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