At a later stage,John had some instruction from a Dr.Waite at Blackheath;and lastly,the family having now removed into Town,to Seymour Street in the fashionable region there,he "read for a while with Dr.Trollope,Master of Christ's Hospital;"which ended his school history.
In this his ever-changing course,from Reece at Cowbridge to Trollope in Christ's,which was passed so nomadically,under ferulas of various color,the boy had,on the whole,snatched successfully a fair share of what was going.Competent skill in construing Latin,I think also an elementary knowledge of Greek;add ciphering to a small extent,Euclid perhaps in a rather imaginary condition;a swift but not very legible or handsome penmanship,and the copious prompt habit of employing it in all manner of unconscious English prose composition,or even occasionally in verse itself:this,or something like this,he had gained from his grammar-schools:this is the most of what they offer to the poor young soul in general,in these indigent times.The express schoolmaster is not equal to much at present,--while the _un_express,for good or for evil,is so busy with a poor little fellow!Other departments of schooling had been infinitely more productive,for our young friend,than the gerund-grinding one.Avoracious reader I believe he all along was,--had "read the whole Edinburgh Review"in these boyish years,and out of the circulating libraries one knows not what cartloads;wading like Ulysses towards his palace "through infinite dung."A voracious observer and participator in all things he likewise all along was;and had had his sights,and reflections,and sorrows and adventures,from Kaimes Castle onward,--and had gone at least to Dover on his own score.
_Puer bonae spei_,as the school-albums say;a boy of whom much may be hoped?Surely,in many senses,yes.A frank veracity is in him,truth and courage,as the basis of all;and of wild gifts and graces there is abundance.I figure him a brilliant,swift,voluble,affectionate and pleasant creature;out of whom,if it were not that symptoms of delicate health already show themselves,great things might be made.Promotions at least,especially in this country and epoch of parliaments and eloquent palavers,are surely very possible for such a one!
Being now turned of sixteen,and the family economics getting yearly more propitious and flourishing,he,as his brother had already been,was sent to Glasgow University,in which city their Mother had connections.His brother and he were now all that remained of the young family;much attached to one another in their College years as afterwards.Glasgow,however,was not properly their College scene:
here,except that they had some tuition from Mr.Jacobson,then a senior fellow-student,now (1851)the learned editor of St.Basil,and Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford,who continued ever afterwards a valued intimate of John's,I find nothing special recorded of them.
The Glasgow curriculum,for John especially,lasted but one year;who,after some farther tutorage from Mr.Jacobson or Dr.Trollope,was appointed for a more ambitious sphere of education.
In the beginning of his nineteenth year,"in the autumn of 1824,"he went to Trinity College,Cambridge.His brother Anthony,who had already been there a year,had just quitted this Establishment,and entered on a military life under good omens;I think,at Dublin under the Lord Lieutenant's patronage,to whose service he was,in some capacity,attached.The two brothers,ever in company hitherto,parted roads at this point;and,except on holiday visits and by frequent correspondence,did not again live together;but they continued in a true fraternal attachment while life lasted,and Ibelieve never had any even temporary estrangement,or on either side a cause for such.The family,as I said,was now,for the last three years,reduced to these two;the rest of the young ones,with their laughter and their sorrows,all gone.The parents otherwise were prosperous in outward circumstances;the Father's position more and more developing itself into affluent security,an agreeable circle of acquaintance,and a certain real influence,though of a peculiar sort,according to his gifts for work in this world.
Sterling's Tutor at Trinity College was Julius Hare,now the distinguished Archdeacon of Lewes:--who soon conceived a great esteem for him,and continued ever afterwards,in looser or closer connection,his loved and loving friend.As the Biographical and Editorial work above alluded to abundantly evinces.Mr.Hare celebrates the wonderful and beautiful gifts,the sparkling ingenuity,ready logic,eloquent utterance,and noble generosities and pieties of his pupil;--records in particular how once,on a sudden alarm of fire in some neighboring College edifice while his lecture was proceeding,all hands rushed out to help;how the undergraduates instantly formed themselves in lines from the fire to the river,and in swift continuance kept passing buckets as was needful,till the enemy was visibly fast yielding,--when Mr.Hare,going along the line,was astonished to find Sterling,at the river-end of it,standing up to his waist in water,deftly dealing with the buckets as they came and went.You in the river,Sterling;you with your coughs,and dangerous tendencies of health!--"Somebody must be in it,"answered Sterling;"why not I,as well as another?"Sterling's friends may remember many traits of that kind.The swiftest in all things,he was apt to be found at the head of the column,whithersoever the march might be;if towards any brunt of danger,there was he surest to be at the head;and of himself and his peculiar risks or impediments he was negligent at all times,even to an excessive and plainly unreasonable degree.