He himself had once, some six years before, expressed a wish to be sent for a year to the care of the monks at Rothbury, whose superior was a distant connection of his father, in order to be taught to read and write; but John Forster had scoffed at the idea.
"You have to learn to be a man, lad," he had said, "and the monks will never teach you that.

I do not know one letter from another, nor did my father, or any of my forebears, and we were no worse for it.

On the marches, unless a man means to become a monk, he has to learn to make his sword guard his head, to send an arrow straight to the mark, to know every foot of the passes, and to be prepared, at the order of his lord, to defend his country against the Scots.
"These are vastly more important matters than reading and writing; which are, so far as I can see, of no use to any fair man, whose word is his bond, and who deals with honest men.

I can reckon up, if I sell so many cattle, how much has to be paid, and more of learning than that I want not.

Nor do you, and every hour spent on it would be as good as wasted.