and good order, and consequently, to the improvement of the children m.

m Besides the weekly school, in the parish of Enmore, there is also a Sunday school, consisting of about sixty children. It is kept in the same room, and by the same schoolmistress as the former; and is supported at the sole expence of the Right Hon. the Earl of Egmont. More than twenty children belonging to the weekly school are regular attendants at the Sunday school; and among these are several from the head class of the former, who, much to their own credit, and greatly to the advantage of the Sunday school, attend voluntarily during the whole day as teachers. The plan of instruction is the same in both schools. [The teaching of arithmetic has been discontinued in the Sunday school for more than two years, without any diminution in our numbers. Nearly all the children, who now attend the Sunday school, are at present, or have already been, at our weekly school; where they have acquired, or are in the way to acquire, a competent knowledge of arithmetic, 3d edit. 1815.]

CHAPTER III.

FIRST CLASS.

THE children of the first class, having to learn the alphabet, are seated at their desk ", which is nearly horizontal, and contains a sort of shallow trough, (formed by thin slips of wood nailed to the top of the desk,) covered with dry sand. Before each child, or pair of children, is placed a pasteboard or card, containing, in a large character, the printed letter which the children are learning, and which, to ensure their attention to its form, and to impress it on their minds, they are directed by their teacher to imitate with their forefingers in the sand. When each child has thus filled the space allotted to himo, he names the letters which he has made, and counts their number to the teacher forwards and backwards, as he moves on in the front of the desk. This being done, the sand is immediately smoothed, the lines drawn, and the spaces marked out, by the teacher; and the class proceeds as before.

The capitals are taught in the following order; I, H, T, L, E, F, A, V, W, M, N, Z, K, Y, X, 0, U, C, G, J, D, P, B, R, Q, S.

The small letters, according to the order of the alphabet.

n When the children are printing, or writing, in the sand, they sit almost erect; and with their right arms and forefingers nearly straight, but not stiff. They are not allowed to lean forward, with their heads hanging over the desk. 3d edit. 1815.

• This space is marked out by lines drawn by the teacher in the sand from the front to the back of the sand-trough. As long as the children are employed in forming the printed letters, which are upright, the division lines are drawn upright; and are so disposed, that the centre of each child's square is directly opposite to him. 3d edit.

During this practice in the sand, the children of the first class are called out by the teacher, three times at least, in the course of every hour, to some convenient part of the room, where a pasteboard card containing the whole alphabet is hung against the wall 9; and standing before it, in a semicircle, are required, each in his turn, to name the letter to which the teacher points, or to find out the letter which the teacher names. For this latter purpose, the child is allowed to go close to the card. Should any mistake be made by a child, the one next below him is applied to; and so on, to the bottom, and if necessary through the whole, of the class; and the child by whom the mistake is rectified takes place of all those who have failed. The teacher himself in no case corrects an error, until the whole class has been applied to.

These regulations, with respect to correcting mistakes, taking places, &c. are strictly observed through

all the classes.

P In directing this movement, and it is the same with all the other movements of classes, the teacher is not left to his own discretion; but makes use of certain prescribed words of command, which, because familiar to the class, and thoroughly understood by them, are obeyed with readiness and precision. For the principal words of command see the Appendix.

9 In teaching the alphabet, a contrivance for changing the relative position of the letters has been found very useful. Two boards, each 2 feet 4 inches long, and 1 foot 2 inches wide, are hung against the wall; the one, for the capitals, having three rows of small brass pins; the other having four rows, for the small letters, stops, and figures. To keep the letters firmly in their places, the pins are made to point a little upwards. The letters are pasted on square pieces of pasteboard, with holes drilled through their centres, for the convenience of fixing them on the brass pins. In using this moveable alphabet, care is taken that the attention of the children is not distracted by a crowd of unknown objects. Until they have acquired the whole alphabet, the only letters seen by them are those which they have already learned, and the new letter which they are then learning. The rest are hung on the pins with their blank sides outermost. The relative position of the letters is changed every day; which, by depriving the children of the aid afforded by the alphabetical order, makes it necessary for them to give a very close attention to the forms of the several letters. 3d edit. 1815.

By the strict and continued attention, both to the forms, and the names of the letters, which the exercises before mentioned require and ensure in the children, the knowledge of the alphabet is soon obtained: and when this is ascertained, by the schoolmistress herself, to be the case, they are promoted to the second class.

CHAPTER IV.

SECOND CLASS.

WRITING is an essential part of the system of in

atruction followed in the Enmore school. Immediately therefore, on a child being advanced to the second class, whatever his age may be, he is taught to write. In teaching to write the sand is again employed, and nearly in the same manner as in the preceding class. Much greater attention, however, is now given by the teacher to the correct formation of the letters, which is, in this second class, the principal object: whereas, in the first class, the making of the printed characters was only subsidiary to the acquisition of the alphabet. The capitals are first taught in alphabetical orders. The children trace them in the sand, with their forefingers, after a written or copper-plate copy; or after a copy or pattern made by the teacher in the sand. This latter method is frequently adopted; in which case, the children are required, first, to trace over the pattern itself repeatedly; and, afterwards, to imitate it.

The division lines are now drawn leaning to the right, in the same manner as the written letters ought to do; and the lower part of each child's left hand division line is directly opposite to the middle of his breast; so that his square of sand is not opposite to him, but to his right hand. 3d edit. 1815.

This method is now reversed. The children of the second class make use of the small letters only; and are thus brought to write from dictation in a much shorter time than would otherwise be requisite. On their removal to the third class, they learn to make the capitals, by copying them, on the engraved slates, during the portion of the day which is allotted to writing.

The small letters are taught in the following order: l, t, b, i, n, m, h, p, u, v, w, j, y, c, e, o, a, d, q, g, x, r, s, k, z, f. ad edit, 1815.

C