SCHOOLS 



and fives head the list, and the Eton fives court, 

 with its pepper box and step, was derived from 

 the space between the two chapel buttresses near 

 the door, which formed the principal court. A 

 tennis court is mentioned. 



From this time onward the career of Eton has 

 been one of almost unchequered success. To 

 the influence of George III this is largely due. 

 Living chiefly at Windsor, he identified himself 

 with the school like a local patriot ; the boys 

 were frequently asked up to the castle to ftes 

 and entertainments, and the king or his family 

 often attended the Speeches and other school 

 functions, and in 1 799 he actually performed the 

 duty of marshal to the 'Montem' procession. 



Jonathan Davies, who succeeded Foster as 

 head master in 1773, created a record in the 

 length of his stay in the office, which was just 

 short of twenty years. He was ' in conversation 

 too much of a Stentor,' but ' learned, pleasant, 

 generous.' He had to cope with a rebellion in 

 1783, when the whipping-post or flogging-block 

 was broken up ; but the cause of the outbreak 

 was a contest of the lower forms with the 

 assistant masters, not with him. In 1791 he 

 retired on election as provost. The first printed 

 school list is for this year, and shows 433 boys, 

 of whom 45 were in college. He founded some 

 scholarships for collegers. George Heath, who 

 followed, was a great flogger, and after flogging 

 70 boys on one occasion it is supposed on the 

 occasion of the first cricket match played against 

 Westminster in 1796 at Hounslow Heath, which 

 resulted in a complete defeat he was laid up 

 with aches and pains for more than a week. In 

 1798 there was another great flogging because a 

 number of Vth Form and Lower boys shirked 

 'absence 'to row up to Maidenhead. There 

 were then four 8-oars and two 6-oars in the pro- 

 cession on the king's birthday, 4 June, which 

 had, not without reason, superseded the obit of 

 Henry VI as the great day at Eton. Boat races 

 had not yet begun. In 1802 Heath retired on a 

 fellowship. Joseph Goodall reigned from 1802 

 to 1809, when he was made provost ; Benjamin 

 Heath, recommended by the Prime Minister, 

 being rejected by George III because 'he ran 

 away to Harrow,' i.e. had been head master 

 there. The greatest name in his day is that of 

 Shelley, who, however, does not seem to have 

 enjoyed his schooldays. Then began the 

 'reign of terror* of John Kcate, who had been 

 lower master. His name is famous as the modern 

 Orbilius, the champion flogger of modern times. 

 He was very unpopular to start with. He is 

 described in Kinglake's Eothen as ' little more if 

 at all than 5 feet high,' with bushy red eyebrows, 

 which he used as a beetle does its antennae, as a 

 kind of index fingers. ' He had a really noble 

 voice, which he could modulate with great skill, 

 but also had the power of quacking like an angry 

 duck, and he almost always adopted this mode of 



communication in order to insure respect.' His 

 determination to enforce discipline, which had 

 been very slack under Goodall, soon brought him 

 into collision with the boys. In 1810 a rebellion 

 was caused by an ' absence ' being imposed to 

 prevent an unseemly rush into chapel. Some 

 HO boys were involved. When 20 had been 

 flogged the rest began to throw rotten eggs. The 

 other masters were summoned, and flogging or 

 expulsion was offered to the culprits ; and 60 

 more submitted to the flogging. The well-known 

 stories of ' Be pure in heart or I'll flog you,' and 

 of the flogging of a whole confirmation class 

 because the list of them was taken for a flogging 

 bill, must be received cum grant, as good stories, 

 in the double sense. 



During his long reign of twenty-five years 

 Keate encountered at least two more e'meutes 

 which were of the dimensions of a rebellion. 

 One was in 1818, when he tried to put down 

 tandem driving. His desk was broken to pieces. 

 When 4 boys were expelled and the rest were 

 told to behave better, one Palk exclaimed 

 ' Never,' and was expelled on the spot ; so the 

 rebellion became known as Palk's rebellion. 

 Towards the end of Keate's career an outbreak 

 took place over the expulsion of a boy named 

 Monro, who went to a boat race when he ought 

 to have been doing a poena or imposition. The 

 Vth Form shouted ' Monro ! Monro ! ' at 

 absence, so three penal ' absences ' were imposed. 

 Over 100 stayed away, but Keate waited till 

 they were in bed and then had them up in blocks 

 of 10 to 20 and flogged them all, the opera- 

 tion lasting till the small hours of Sunday morn- 

 ing. On this occasion he was cheered by the 

 Vlth Form next morning. It must not be 

 supposed that Eton was singularly barbarous at 

 this time. Winchester, Harrow, Rugby all 

 had their rebellions and their floggings. The 

 whole system of the Public Schools was behind 

 the age, and the turmoil they lived in was due to 

 the manners and customs of barbarous ages being 

 continued at school in times when home life and 

 manners in society had become civilized. 



With all his flogging Keate did not succeed 

 in keeping order even in school. The reason 

 chiefly was that the classes were enormous. In 

 1833 for 570 boys in the Upper School, which 

 had repeatedly enlarged itself at the expense of 

 the Lower School, the lower forms gradually 

 vanishing away, there were only 9 masters all 

 told. Keate had at one time 198 boys in his 

 own division, and one of them records that he 

 was only called on in school twice in a whole 

 half. By further sub-divisions these were reduced 

 to 170 boys, and eventually to 100. But order 

 or decent teaching with even 100 boys in a class 

 was well-nigh impossible. Songs were sung in 

 school, paper pellets, and, on occasion, rotten 

 eggs, were thrown. As an illustration of Keate's 

 milder moments, a story is told of how one 



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