The Convent School

by Anonymous

THE

Convent School,

OR

EARLY EXPERIENCES

OF

A YOUNG FLAGELLANT.

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BY ROSA BELINDA COOTE.

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LONDON:
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1898.

Salomon said, in accents mild,
Spare the rod and spoil the child ;
Be they man or be they maid,
Whip and wallop'em, Salomon said

The dicta of the Wise Man concerning discipline have been the source of inexpressible dolour to children for very many centuries; and it has only been within the last sixty years that ferocity in the treatment of infants (I am speaking of English children, Jean Jacques Rousseau shamed the French out of the practice of bearing their offspring, nearly a hundred years ago) has been gradually diminishing. In the eighteenth century the lot of the British juvenile was certainly a cruel one. That admirable woman, the mother of the Wesleys, held that a child should be made to desist from crying and to "fear the rod" at the mature age of twelve months; and Miss Maria Semple, writing on education in 1812, tells a story of a lady who was educated in early years by a relative. "On a certain day in every week she received corporal chastisement. If she had committed faults, 'the punishment was due;' if she had not, she probably would in the week ensuing. At the distance of more than half-a-century, the memory of this person, who bore a public character of piety and virtue, was spoken of, and justly, with aversion by the person she had thus treated." Thus Miss Maria Semple.—"G. A. S.," in the Illustrated London News.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

OF

THE AUTHORESS.

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My Dear Nellie,—

Since writing you my confessions, in that series of letters which you flattered me by calling "most interesting facts, and deliriously voluptuous reading for lovers of the rod," the following curious narrative has been entrusted to my confidential keeping by a young Countess of my acquaintance; but as there are no secrets between us, and I think it may afford some little pleasure in the perusal, I hasten to copy it out for you, from notes which I made day by day at the bedside of the dear young creature, as she told the particulars to me, at my visits during her long and painful illness, now, I am afraid, close upon a fatal termination; and you may guess how grieved I am to think that, although I now reserve her name as a secret, to solemn to be entrusted, even to you, the stillness of the grave will soon do away with all necessity for such reticence. Should my confessions ever be printed after our time, this tale certainly ought to bear them company, either as prefix or addenda.

Believe me, dear Nellie,

Your ever affectionate friend,

Rosa Belinda Coote.

London, 10th January, 1825.

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1. Chapter I. The Early Life of Lucille
2. Chapter II. The Convent School
3. Chapter III. Lucille's Marriage and Adventures
4. Chapter IV. The Penance
5. Chapter V. The Last Scene and Denouement