Henry Cooke, D. D., and Arianism in the Irish Chruch [pp. 205-230]

1872.] AND ARIANISM IN THE IRISH CHURCH. 2k)7
Roman literature, and was able to inspire his pupils with some
of his own enthusiasm. Dr Cooke always retained a vivid
and kindly recollection of his old teacher, under whose care
he became an ardent and appreciative student of the ancient
classics. The hardships which country boys endured in going
to school in these days and the discomforts of their schoolrooms, we can now scarcely understand. Winter and summer,
and in all weathers, Henry Cooke, a lad not twelve years old,
was obliged to walk about ten miles daily over a rough and
broken country, and twic$ each day lie had to ford or flounder
through a stream which intervened between the farm-house
of Grillagh and the district school. We must give his own
account of the building and its belongings in which his early
classical education was reecived. "We were compelled to
remove five times in search of accommodation. We had flitted
like field-fares at the approach of bad weather. The house
we got at last had two window frames, but no glass. One was
well secured against light by earthen sods; the other was open,
for some light we must have, and it served to admit in company with the light a refreshing portion of rain and snow. We
were furnished with one table, whereat our master sat for
audience and judgment. Stones were the seats. I had myself
the only stool in the house, but the master being too tender
to sit on a cold stone, I was robbed of the stool`to save him,'
as he said,`from the colic.' By a penny subscription and
the aid of a glazier we shut out the snow, and in process of
time we substituted for the stone seats slabs of oak from the
neighboring bog. We then became wonderfully content, for
we had the best master and the most comfortable schoolhouse in the county."
Such were Henry Cooke's schools and schoolmasters, and we
~ho4d not forget that his boyhood was passed amid the stormy
scenes which preceded and accompanied the Irish rebellion of
1798. Bloodshed and outrage, riot and murder were rampant
in the land. Previous to the outbreak the United Irishmen
were accustomed to go about in bands intimidating those who
refused to taked the United oath, and night after night John
Cooke, who was a loyalist sympathiser, and his family, were