This school was at Stoke Newington, a quiet, old-fashioned country town, only a few miles out from London.  Here was the house of Leicester, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth, whose story you may read in Scott’s “Kenilworth”; and here too was the house of Anne Boleyn’s ill-fated lover, Earl Percy.

The Manor House School, as it was called, was in a quaint and very old building, with high walls about the grounds, and great spiked, iron-studded gates.  Here the boys lived and studied, seldom returning home, and seldom going outside the grounds, except when they went with a teacher.

In this strange school, Edgar Allan lived and studied for five years.  The schoolroom was long, narrow, and low; it was ceiled with dark oak, and had Gothic windows.  The desks were black and irregular, covered with the names and initials which the boys had cut with their jackknives.  In the corners were what might be called boxes, where sat the masters—­one of them Eugene Aram, the criminal made famous in one of Bulwer’s romances.  Back of the schoolroom, reached by winding, narrow passages, were the bedrooms, one of which Poe occupied.  When the boys went out to walk they passed under the giant elms, amid which once lived Shakespeare’s friend Essex, and they gazed up at the thick walls, deep windows, and doors massive with locks and bars, behind which the author of Robinson Crusoe wrote some of his famous works.

Within the walls of this school a large number of boys had a little world all to themselves; they had their societies and their games and their tricks, along with hard work in Latin and French and mathematics; and though such work may seem monotonous and dreary, they managed to enjoy it.  Poe has described his life here very carefully in his famous story of “William Wilson.”  “Oh, a fine time were those years of iron!” says he.  The life produced a deep impression on his mind, and molded it for the strange, weird poetry and fiction which in later years he was to write.

At last, in 1820, the Allans returned with Edgar to their home in Richmond, Virginia.  The lad now added his own name to that of Edgar Allan, and became known as Edgar Allan Poe.

He was at once sent to the English and Classical School of Joseph H. Clarke, where he prepared for college.  He did not study very hard, but was bright and quick, and at one time stood at the head of his class with but one rival.  He was a great athlete, too, being a good runner and jumper and boxer.  He was a remarkable swimmer, and it is stated that he once swam six miles in the James River, against a strong tide in a hot sun, and then walked back without seeming in the least tired.

He was slight in figure, but robust and tough, and was a very decided character among his classmates.  He took part in the debating society, where he was prominent, and was known as a versifier of both love poems and satire.  When Master Clarke retired, in 1823, Poe read an English ode addressed to the outgoing principal.