INDEFATIGABLE INDUSTRY.

131

the profession of arms ought not to be compulsory, nevertheless every man was a better citizen, and proved his love of country and liberty to be practical and sincere, if he could "shoot straight, and knew something of military drill." His own usual recreation was to go long walks, generally with some congenial companion; but he never entered into those common games and amusements in which men who otherwise might not have been drawn together often forge the first links of social ties which afterwards strengthen and expand. And so, while his character had a singular charm for the friends who really knew him, his worth and abilities were perhaps less generally recognised than those of many inferior men whose more popular habits brought them into greater prominence.

'His industry was indefatigable. I remember once noticing a page of his hanging diary and asking him what some marks in it meant. He explained how it showed the time he read and the time he wrote and the time he took exercise. And for the three weeks that had gone that term he had worked more than eleven hours every day-work all of it energetic, and exhausting in a way that no routine work can be. One can only wonder whether had he worked less hard, and less incessantly, he might not have been spared to work longer.

'As to his religion, which none who knew him could help reverencing, I shrink from saying more than one word. It was never hidden and never obtruded. He "did not think the first duty of life in Oxford was to attend prayer-meetings and to distribute tracts"-I quote words I have heard him use"but to prepare for the work in life to which he had devoted himself." And when his friends look back on him as they knew him, they feel that the sympathy and help for all that was good and generous in themselves and in others, which he never failed to show and to encourage in them, has left a lasting influence behind. I do not think its power will ever quite die out so long as their memory of Alfred Gregory lives.' Mr. Arnold Goodwin, M.A., of Balliol, writes:

'MY DEAR SIR,—I must write a few words to tell you how deeply I have been affected by hearing of the loss of my dear friend. How great that loss is perhaps no one can understand so well as those who were with him at Oxford, as I was for nearly four years. In all the more serious matters of religion

or duty he was the one counsellor whose advice I first sought, with most affectionate confidence, and I gratefully remember the help he afforded, and the quieting, assuring influence that he exerted in a place where the influence of a rational and earnest faith is so needed.

'As we watched his life of self-sacrificing duty, we hoped for him in the future, and I know how deep will be the grief of many on hearing that we have lost him before his work was done.

'Yours sincerely,

'J. ARNOLD GOODWIN.'

Mr. J. Russell, M.A., of Balliol, writes:

'I recall with gratitude his conscientious but unobtrusive endeavours to encourage myself and others to live an unselfish life. To set an example in this seemed to me his only ambition.'

The Rev. Dr. Greeves, who was Superintendent of the Oxford Circuit during Alfred's last year at the University, thus wrote:

'December 22nd, 1876.

'DEAR MR. GREGORY,-I have seen with the deepest sorrow to-day the news of your sad bereavement. I know that words cannot express a sympathy commensurate with your great loss, but I should like you to know that here, as in hundreds of homes, you are had in prayerful remembrance.

'The strength of your son's religious character was in nothing more apparent than in his steady adherence to Methodism when at Oxford. I had always looked forward to his renewing his work there in future years, but God has called him to a yet nobler service.'

His elder brother says:

'The little I saw of him during his undergraduate career has left an impression of surprise that one so occupied with studies could not only take so great an interest in, but gather so much information and spend so much thought upon, the ecclesiastical, social and political questions of the day as he

did.

'He visited us twice while we were at Howden, spending about three weeks with us in December, 1871, and January,

THE ARCHWALKER.

133

1872, and about a fortnight in the summer of 1873. During the first visit he and I went to York for two or three days. At one of these visits an instance occurred of his dogged perseverance. He never took kindly to mathematics. I had a pupil to whom I was giving mathematical instruction. Alfred picked up a problem almost insolvable without the use of a certain conventionalism with which he was unacquainted. His failure to bring out the correct answer piqued him. Resolutely refusing all help, he set himself to master the difficulty, and at length worked the sum by an ingenious, though round-about method of his own.'

His younger brother writes:

'During his residence at Oxford I had no special intercourse with him. He spoke of himself as much slower in his work than most reading men, and declared that his success both at Manchester and Oxford was due not to his having greater facility of acquisition than others, but to his steady, plodding work and to the much longer time he gave to his studies. At Oxford his health was, no doubt, undermined by excessive hours of work, as well as by a general inability to look after his own comfort, and carelessness with regard to it.'

The following extract from a letter received by Alfred a few days after he left Oxford illustrates his pedestrian reputation :

'THE UNION, OXFORD, February 5th, 1873. 'DEAR GREGORY,-Who is to be our archwalker, if I may coin you a title ? I shall forget all I ever knew of this place's geography. You will be able to pursue your expeditions yonder. I know some lovely places about Manchester. have already made up my mind to visit you as soon as possible. I should like to go with you some day to some of those pretty places.

I

'Now I have to thank you for your kind and thoughtful advice. You will never approach to offending me by venturing on such grounds. I believe I am much more settled than last term, and I don't want to fall back again now.

'Yours,

'H. C. SIDDON.'

CHAPTER VII.

MASTERSHIP AT MANCHESTER GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

N the announcement in the newspapers of Alfred's having

Nagai awoo un fem class in honours, he received a telegram

from the High Master of Manchester Grammar School, offering him at once a mastership in his old school. The salary was good, the work was perfectly congenial, and the position high, bringing him into immediate colleagueship with the High Master himself. He had resolved to secure, before he committed himself to the toils of the Wesleyan-Methodist ministry, a year and a half of comparatively lighter toil, which might enable him to refund the small subsidy with which his parents had supplemented his scholarships, and to secure a little stock wherewith to mitigate the strict parsimony of a Methodist probationer's 'allowances' in most circuits.

In January, 1873, Alfred left the tranquil shades of Oxford to reside once more in the busy metropolis of manufacture as a Master, with academic honours thick upon him, in the school which he had left five years and seven months before as a juvenile competitor for those honours. Though highly sensitive to his surroundings, he manfully and cheerfully adjusted himself to them. In a few weeks' time he would be twentythree years of age. As he tells us in a letter dated January 23rd, 1873, his principal work was to teach the necessary classics to the Mathematical and Physical Sixth, 'lads of wits with very little interest in that part of their work,' with the special duty of making them like their classics more.' Besides this he had to teach English to another class, and Latin to a third. His bright way of looking at events is shown in the following letter:

ALFRED'S MODE OF TEACHING.

135

'The least intelligent of the lot are for that reason sometimes rather amusing. The best part of the arrangement is that excepting five hours for five days in the week, my time is entirely my own. I have my own room, from which during school-hours I have no need to stir. Most of the mastersseventeen or eighteen-dine on the premises. The dinner tires me more than the teaching, though this last is incessant. I am actually talking for three-fourths of the time. The subjects, however, are such as to require no preparation on my part and very little thought. Mr. Walker has abandoned the system of placetaking. The lads keep their place at their desks all the while, and I generally walk about before them, asking questions in a loud voice. There being no marks or competition, it is rather hard to remember how each lad has done. There is not so much difficulty as I anticipated in preserving order. The size of the school makes the lads feel parts of a big machine, and lose their individuality to a great extent. They pass, too, frequently from master to master, and work by regular routine.

'Mr. Walker is very civil and considerate, and leaves me only too much to my own devices. I have no means at all of knowing the style of teaching the boys are used to, but proceed entirely by the light of nature, which means reminiscences as to how I was taught, and guesses as to the method of Westminster-trained teachers.

'Altogether I am very well satisfied with the state of things. I mean to go to Didsbury on Saturday and claim my acquaintance with Mr. Pope and Mr. French.

'Write soon, please, and let me know how Arthur's scheme gets on.'

Arthur, his younger brother, was helping in the work of a mission-room in White Cross Street, an enterprise in which Alfred took deep interest.

The special work which the High Master's penetration assigned to Alfred was well suited at once to his classic tastes and acquirements and his scientific modes of thought. He devoted himself to his new duties with unstinted energy, instituting an optional class for those of his pupils who were willing to prosecute their studies beyond the required point. He also, with the high approval of his principal, started a