They occasionally returned home for
a time, and were pleased to take notice of the sons of their old
tutor, although Geoffrey was six years junior to Horace, the youngest
of the brothers.
The young Vickars had much time to themselves, much more, indeed,
than their mother considered to be good for them. After their
breakfast, which was finished by eight o'clock, their father took
them for an hour and heard the lessons they had prepared the day
before, and gave them instruction in the Latin tongue. Then they
were supposed to study till the bell rang for dinner at twelve; but
there was no one to see that they did so, for their father seldom
came outside his library door, and their mother was busy with her
domestic duties and in dispensing simples to the poor people, who,
now that the monasteries were closed, had no medical aid save that
which they got from the wives of the gentry or ministers, or from
the wise women, of whom there was generally one in every village.
Therefore, after half an hour, or at most an hour, spent in getting
up their tasks, the books would be thrown aside, and the boys
be off, either to the river or up to the castle to practice sword
play with the men-at-arms, or to the butts with their bows, or to
the rabbit warren, where they had leave from the earl to go with
their dogs whenever they pleased.
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