SCHOOLS 



figures in the list, but there are three baronets. 

 Comparing this list with the contemporary one 

 at Winchester, where lists are extant, with some 

 gaps, from 1653, it shows that Eton was already 

 the bigger school, Winchester containing 136 

 names only. It, too, only boasted of one lord, 

 Clifford, and four sons of noblemen. West- 

 minster was probably bigger than either, as its 

 earliest list in 1656 contains 241 boys. Through- 

 out the 1 7th century Winchester was the most 

 frequented by the aristocracy, being patronized 

 by Charles II, whose favourite residence was 

 Winchester. In the i8th century, when the 

 next extant Westminster lists are found, West- 

 minster eclipsed both Eton and Winchester in 

 numbers, in aristocratic connexion and in the 

 scholars, poets, statesmen, and other celebrities 

 it produced. In 1706, for instance, it had 353 

 boys, in 1725 434; while Eton numbered 353 

 in 1707, but in 1742 only 284. It is to the 

 patronage of George III, making Eton a school 

 for the Tory aristocracy in rivalry to the detested 

 Whig junto who flocked to Westminster, that 

 Eton owes the beginning of its proud pre- 

 eminence among schools. 



From this time we may date the modern era 

 in schools. Henceforth the religio-political 

 rivalries, which had caused provosts and fellows 

 and masters to be put in or put out as one fac- 

 tion or the other dominated church and state, 

 ceased to operate on schools. Schools indeed 

 went up or down in numbers on account of 

 their political connexion during the i/th and 

 1 8th centuries, but this was owing to the pre- 

 dilections of parents, and no longer to the 

 forcible interference of politicians. 



Rosewell is said 'to have much raised the 

 credit of the school.' He retired on a fellow- 

 ship in 1680. His successor was Charles 

 Roderick, Etonian and Kingsman, who had been 

 usher. From his time until now, the head- 

 mastership, instead of being held chiefly by 

 outsiders, together with the other masterships, 

 was always held by Etonians, and, until 1868, 

 by collegers and Kingsmen. Roderick, who 

 held office for ten years, was described as 'the 

 flogging schoolmaster of Welsh extraction with 

 a Spanish name.' He became in 1690 the hero 

 of a struggle between King's College and the 

 Crown for the right to elect its own provost, in 

 his person, and prevailed. Again the usher, 

 John Newborough, succeeded to the vacant 

 place, and held it for eleven years. In 1694-5 

 the present Upper School was built. A new 

 Upper School had been erected not thirty years 

 before by Provost Allestree, but was so badly 

 built that it was already falling down. The 

 cost of the new one, raised chiefly by subscrip- 

 tion,, came to just under ^2,300. Newborough 

 is highly spoken of in Rawlinson's unpublished 

 history as ' of a graceful person and comely 

 aspect. . . . Very pathetical were his reproofs 



and dispassionate his punishments, and when any 

 hopes of amendment appeared he declined severe 

 remedies.' From which it would seem that the 

 rule of the rod was somewhat abated. He had 

 'a delightful copla vcrborum . . . Terence's vis 

 comica received new graces from his mouth.' 



On Newborough's resignation in 1711 An- 

 drew Snape became head master. So successful 

 was he that the school had risen to 399 when in 

 1719 he was elected Provost of King's. Henry 

 Bland, his successor at Eton, headed the roll to 

 King's in 1695, the next but one being Robert 

 Walpole, the first Etonian Prime Minister. 

 From 1700 Bland had been master of Doncaster 

 Grammar School, where his salary was ^50 a 

 year, with 10 'for a good usher not concerned 

 in any curacy in the church or chapel.' There 

 was not then the gap which now separates the 

 grammar school, which arrogates to itself the 

 exclusive title of Public School, from the gram- 

 mar school of local fame ; the county families 

 then frequented the nearest grammar school, 

 whether Eton or Chesterfield, or Doncaster. 

 Bland had the honour of educating William 

 Pitt, the great Lord Chatham, who, however, 

 does not appear to have thought himself much 

 indebted to Eton, as he brought up his even 

 more famous son at home under a private tutor. 

 The elder William Pitt's school bills are pre- 

 served. His half year's bill in 1719 amounted 

 to ^29 Of. 3< He was then under Mr. Good, 

 the usher, to whom he paid two guineas for the 

 half year, and double that amount to his tutor 

 Mr. Burchet, while ji 21. was paid to the 

 writing master. His great rival, Henry Fox, 

 and Charles Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, 

 were his contemporaries there. William Pitt 

 wrote from school to his father as ' Honored Sir* 

 and gave his ' duty to mama.' Bland, being a 

 good Whig, was made Dean of Durham by his 

 old school-fellow, Walpole, in 1728, and four 

 years later also Provost of Eton. 



Bland's son-in-law, William George, followed 

 him at Eton. He is said by Lord Chancellor 

 Camden to have been ' pompous, sour tempered, 

 ill-mannerly and brutal.' Yet two of his pupils 

 were the sprightly Horace Walpole, and Thomas 

 Gray, the author of the Ehgy, who delighted 

 'to cleave with pliant arm the glassy wave . . . 

 to chase the rolling circle's speed, and urge the 

 flying ball.' It is a moot point whether the 

 ' rolling circle ' is a hoop or a cricket ball ; the 

 ' flying ball ' must be football. The first re- 

 corded school rebellion took place in George's 

 second year. His successor, William Cooke, 

 who had been an assistant master, held office for 

 only three years. According to Cole, the anti- 

 quary, who was an Etonian, Cooke ' being found 

 not equal ' to the post ' was made fellow to let 

 him down gently and to get rid of his imperti- 

 nence, insolence, and other unamiable qualities.' 



Of John Summer, the next master, Cole 



199 



