neglected a most essential duty in not using sufficient and proper corporal punishment. But from all I hear a great reaction is taking place in this respect. And though there may be many loving mothers, like Tiny, who shrink from it, yet I rejoice that true love is being more shown in duty triumphing over sentiment, and that the birchrod is regaining its old place both among boys and girls; so much so that I believe it is a very rare thing to find a preparatory school for boys—especially those conducted by ladies—where the rod is not more or less used. I know one most excellent school of this kind in Kentish Town, where there are boys from six to fourteen, and where the very kind and good ladies who manage it, and who always have more applications for admission than they can receive, administer the rod in a way which, if A Scotch Mother could witness, would effectively negative her idea of ladies not being able to birch a boy worth mentioning after he ceased to be a little boy.'
Florence thus narrates her experience: 'Both my brother and myself were spoiled in the fullest sense of the word. My father
