Though from a Catholic and Nonconformist background, he attended the Church of England school of St Nicholas in Leicester, an establishment maintained by the National Society to provide elementary education for children from poor homes, until the age of nine. Though he rebelled against the catechism and disliked the creed, describing them in later life as "my especial abomination", Mundella remained loyal to his early education in Anglicanism for the rest of his life. Outside school, his mother, with her wide knowledge of English literature, particularly Shakespeare, instilled in his mind a love of the beautiful in nature, in literature, and in art. Because of the family's then abject financial circumstances, when Rebecca Mundella's eyesight worsened and she could no longer work at lacemaking the boy had to be withdrawn from school so that he could earn money to help the family. At nine, he started work in a printing office as a printer's devil, an opportunity used by him as a means of extending his education. At eleven he was apprenticed to William Kempson, whose business made cuffs, ruffs, tippets, mantillas, boots, shoes, slippers, hosiery and a wealth of other garments and haberdashery.