Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/21



was born on the 24th of May, 1829, at Leeds, where his father was in business as a cloth merchant. His brother John describes the father as being one of the most handsome men he has ever seen, and both sons "worshipped him, for his beautiful life fell in no wise short of his beautiful face, and we never heard from him a shady or ungracious word." The mother also was handsome and a charming woman; but at the early age of thirty-nine she lost her sight, and remained blind all her life. Notwithstanding her terrible affliction, she was one of the brightest and happiest of women, and lived to the age of seventy-three. Joseph Knight inherited from her his high social qualities, and his early life is described by his brother as being "very interesting and distinctly high-souled"; he was a student and an inveterate reader, his special favourite being poetry.

He received his education at a very popular North-Country school, Bramham College, near Tadcaster. With Knight were some 150 boarders. The school buildings and master's residence a fine old Hall were of considerable importance, and the surrounding scenery was singularly beautiful. The head of the school, Dr. Haigh, was a great linguist, being master of twenty-two languages, and a born schoolmaster, both honoured and feared by the boys. He was most enthusiastic in his teaching, and had a great belief in training the memory, requiring every boy to learn poetry and to stand up and declaim it before the whole school. One year he offered a prize of £5 to the boy who at one effort repeated the most lines. This caused great excitement in the school, and expectation soon centred on two youths, these being a boy named Wilson, from Sheffield, and Joe Knight. Wilson started off with eight hundred lines of 'The Lady of the Lake,' ending with a torrent of applause. Knight followed with 'Paradise Lost,' and when he had completed the first book without a stumble, and was complacently starting on the second, Dr. Haigh cried "Enough!" and awarded him the prize.

Dr. Haigh, believing in the possibility that "some mute inglorious Milton here may rest" under the shadow of the College walls, required each boy to compose weekly a minimum of eight lines of original poetry, good, bad, or indifferent; and when a poem of exceptional ability presented itself, he would have it printed hi dainty form and distributed among the boys' parents. Knight secured this honour by composing the following poem, of which a few copies were printed by J. H. Greaves, Snig Hill, Sheffield, 1848. It is now hardly obtainable.