Laudator Temporis Acti

John Clayton, letter to his father (Uppingham, November 2, 1808), in An Account of the Roman Antiquities Preserved in the Museum at Chesters, Northumberland, to which is Added a Series of Chapters Describing the Excavations Made by the Late John Clayton, Esqire, F.S.A., at Cilurnum, Procolitia, Borcovicus, and Other Sites on the Roman Wall, 2nd rev. ed. (London: Gilbert & Rivington, 1907), pp. 20-22:

I received your letter, and will, in compliance with your request, endeavour, as far as I am able, to give you a full and candid account of all that you require. I shall in the first place lay before you my daily occupations, and the books with which I am at present engaged. On Monday, in the morning we read Homer and Theocritus in turn, and in the afternoon Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, together with a portion of Virgil's Aeneid, or the Odes of Horace, which two last we take by turns, besides which we write a Latin theme. On Tuesday, in the morning, we read the Epistles in the Greek Testament, and in the afternoon write a copy of Latin verses. On Wednesday our occupations are the same as on Monday, except that instead of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations we read his Epistles; and instead of a Theme we translate a portion of some Latin author or other; unless we have the week before executed our exercises particularly well, and in that case we are excused the Translation. On Thursday we read Thucydides or Herodotus, the two first Greek historians, and translate a Greek epigram into Latin verse. On Friday morning we read the Satires or Epistles of Horace, and in the afternoon Huntingford's Greek Exercises, that is, convert bad Greek into good, together with a second lesson in Horace. Saturday morning is employed in Geography, and in the afternoon in writing a copy of Latin verses. Besides which, we are occupied in accounts daily an hour-and-a-half. My leisure hours (which are principally on Saint days, id est, whole Holidays) I partly employ in reading Sallust, as we do not read it all in school. I have already finished the Bellum Catiiinarium, and am beginning the Jugurthine War, which I hope also to finish before the Christmas Holidays. We have at this season of the year no amusement that can in any great degree divert our attention; by that means very little time is lost, but it is utterly impossible for a school-boy to seclude himself entirely from amusements, he must now and then join in the recreations of the Play Grounds. I have now laid before you in as full a manner as I am able (and I hope to your satisfaction) my weekly occupations. I shall in the next place give you a list of the books I have entirely or nearly finished. I have gone through nearly the whole of Horace, and likewise of Virgil. I have finished what are extant of the Works of Callimachus, and read a great part of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Epistles, and two plays of Terence.