When I was at the College school, Gloucester, in 1794, there was a
considerable library in a room adjoining the upper school. I never knew the
books used by the boys, though the room was unlocked: in fact, it was used
by the upper master as a place of chastisement; for there was kept the
block (as it was called) on which the unfortunate culprits were horsed and
whipped. The library, no doubt, contained many valuable and excellent
works; but the only book of which I know the name as having been in it (and
that {641} only by a report in the newspapers of the day) was Oldham's
_Poems_, which, after a fire which occurred in the school-room, was said to
have been the only book returned of the many which had been taken away.