From their earliest years the brothers seem to have loved each other devotedly, a love that only increased with time, and the ten years' difference of age made the elder a sort of mentor and superior, to whom the little junior looked for instruction and advice. He used to tell us that some cherries and a slipper were always kept in a cupboard of the room where his brother taught him to read and write, and were used for correction or encouragement as needed.
At the age of five years WilUam was sent to a large school at Brentford, kept by Dr. Morris. His father took him there, and sat a while with the head master in a room overlooking the playground, where the new boy was sent to make acquaintance with his schoolfellows. Very soon William was seen offering to fight a boy bigger than himself, whereupon his father remarked, " He will do," and went home.
At first there were times when the little boy was very unhappy, though his peculiarly brave spirit even at that early age made him take a bright view of life whenever possible. He does not seem to have been bullied in the serious sense of the word, but was of course teased by those older and more knowing than was possible for his poor little five years to have made him.
At this school at Brentford the big schoolroom was roughly whitewashed, and with the whitewash a quantity of coarse hairs were mixed, these hairs in some places sticking out from the wall. This puzzled the little boy, and on his asking for an explanation, some youthful wag told him they were rats* tails, and if he looked long enough he would see the rats come out who lived in the walls. The idea of these rats was a great horror to him for a long time. Later on he found a solace at school in the possession of a garden, which he cultivated entirely himself, getting up at a very early hour in the morning to work in it, and letting himself down out of the dormitory window, under the impression that he was doing something very adventurous which the authorities would not allow had they known of it. But he used to say that he had no doubt that as a matter of fact they knew all about it, and thought it a perfectly harmless proceeding, though better winked at than recognised.
His ready wit and power of repartee must have developed early, for at this same school where an unappetising rice pudding was often served before the meat (no doubt on Mrs. Squeers' principle of " taking the edge off the boys* appetites "), on being asked one day, " Stephenson, why don't you eat your pudding? " the reply was immediate, " Too rich, sir I "
This type of boy should have been popular with his fellows if not with his masters, but though he sometimes mentioned the names of those who were at school with him, they do not seem to have been amongst his acquaintances in later life.
No doubt he played all the school games then in vogue, but he never spoke of football or cricket matches with other schools, and did not himself take up any form of sport or amusement except rowing and driving, both of which he was always fond of, and the former he kept up to quite a late period of his life.
At the coronation of George iv., William, then only ten years of age, was one of the extra pages of honour, and wore a scarlet satin jacket and trunk hose slashed with white satin, a flat black velvet hat with a white ostrich feather, and a little sword. This dress was kept for many years, and was worn by his youngest daughter, to her great joy, when she was occasionally permitted to do so.
In those days his father lived in Hertford Street, Mayfair, and it is easy to imagine the excited pride with which the household must have regarded the royal carriage that fetched the little boy to take him to the Palace, where he joined the other pages and went in the procession to the Abbey.