Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Schoolboy
The school-boy still doth haunt the sacred ground,
And musing oft its pleasing influence shewn,
As starting at his footsteps echo’d round,
He feels himself alone.
Baillie.—Legend of Wallace, Verse 104.
Oft in the lone churchyard at night I’ve seen,
By glimpse of moonshine, chequering through the trees,
The school-boy with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up;
And lightly tripping o’er the long flat stones,
(With nettles skirted, and with moss o’ergrown,
That tell in homely phrase who lie below;)
Sudden he starts! and hears, or thinks he hears,
The sound of something purring at his heels.
Blair.—The Grave, Line 56.
How often has the school-boy fetched a long circuit, and trudged many a needless step, in order to avoid the haunted churchyard! or, if necessity, sad necessity, has obliged him to cross the spot where human skulls are lodged below, and the baneful yews shed supernumerary horrors above, a thousand hideous stories rush into his memory. Fear adds wings to his feet; he scarce touches the ground; dares not once look behind him, and blesses his good fortune if no frightful sound purred at his heels; if no ghastly shape bolted upon his sight.
Hervey.—Meditations. On the Night.
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head,
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
Coleridge.—The Ancient Mariner, Part 5.
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act II. Scene 7. (Jaques on the Seven Ages of Man.)