A early example of a school magazine produced by some of the boys attending Blemell House school in the South Kensington area of London. The first number opens with a mock introduction by the editor: ‘In consigning so laborious an undertaking to the public the editor with a view to render his weekly publication both interesting and communicative he spared neither pains not trouble to obtain all the information in his power and to observe with a vigilant eye the daily occurrences of the past week his only ambition will be to increase more and more into the public favour he is also solicitous for the lenity and trust that this literary production will prove worthy of patronage it claims and the subject it illustrates.’ After a number of ‘advertisements’ the magazine contains articles on stone throwing in the playground, fashionable movements, cricket matches, ‘Gross absurdities’, enigmas etc. The second number continues in the same vein with an advertisement for an auction, a proposed masquerade at michaelmas time, the account of a dormouse ‘ the property of a neighbouring gentleman was safely delivered of 5 young ones…’ with a coroners inquest further on said dormouse! We know from the last page of the first number that the magazine was circulated among four boys ‘B. Layard Esq., W. Lamotte Esq., S, Davies Esq. and C. Prettyjohn Esq., and dated August 27th 1826. It seems probable that the magazine was an end of term amusement, however, after two numbers it was likely abandoned when the boys returned home for their summer break. Robert Blemell Pollard (1783-1864) was educated at Westminster and subsequently became Master of the Green Coat School there, which then stood on the outskirts of Tothill Fields, adjoining the Bridewell. In 1819 he bought a three and a half acre site in South Kensington and opened School there. Incidentally, he received compensation in 1830 for Mount Charles Estate in Jamaica. There were 80 enslaved people valued at £1993 17s 1d for which Pollard made two claims, one for £645 18s 2d, one for £760 7s 4d. Perhaps it was money from these ‘investments’ that Pollard used when he originally set up the school. The earliest records of the school come from the 1841 census where it was recorded that Pollard had three teachers, 40 male pupils aged between 7 and 17 years, two male servants and four female servants together with his family at the Blemell House. The site of the School was sold to make way for the Brompton Oratory as the area was fast developing from a semi-rural area to the Museum quarter of London.