206 When we Old Fogeys ivere Boys. 



matcli, the warden entertained the two elevens and all kind 

 of Eton dons royally at dinner, and when the warden died, 

 and the Provost of Eton preached on him in Eton chapel, 

 and alluded to the cricket and the warden's hospitality to 

 the eleven, there was not a dry eye amongst the Eton boys. 



We had a little world of our own, and never recorded 

 our sports, except our cricket scores. Fighting, except 

 amongst the little boys, was not much cultivated, as boys 

 who had been juniors together and fellow sufferers in early 

 hardships grew up pretty much knowing their own powers ; 

 but occasionally there would be a real fight, with the cogni- 

 sance and full concurrence of the prefects, and that was 

 when two big fellows had a deadly feud and neither would 

 apologise. I remember two very memorable fights, in one 

 of which two inferiors — i.^"., not prefects — of eighteen years 

 of age, who were high up in the school, and both of them 

 in the football team, fought. They were larking with two 

 switches, and one hit the other accidentally in the face, 

 which was immediately returned by a left-hander. They 

 were separated, but they both determined to fight, and fight 

 they did at twelve o'clock in Commoners, and I went in to 

 see it. There was little science, but awful slogging, and 

 one was clean knocked out of time in twenty minutes, and 

 the doctor had a hard job to get him round, as there was 

 much threatening of blood to the brain. He had to go 

 home after a few days. His opponent, who was a very good 

 fellow was in great distress about the effect of his own 

 handiwork, and was constantly with his former foe ; and 

 they both agreed they had been a couple of fools, and 

 nothing but the dread of being considered cowards prevented 

 them from shaking hands without fighting. 



Another fight between a College and Commoner inferior, 

 mtat each about seventeen, was an equally bloodthirsty 

 affair ; and the vanquished had to be put to bed and kept in 



