SCHOOLS 



Scripture History, the Gospel in Greek, or a book 

 of the Septuagint) is given the place of honour ; 

 the first hour on Monday morning, from 7 to 

 7.50 we are speaking of the Summer term, 

 1 908 being devoted to going over with the mas- 

 ter what has been prepared, or supposed to be 

 prepared, on Sunday, difficulties discussed, and 

 explanations suggested. Religious instruction is 

 given on one morning of the week for fifty 

 minutes. On other days than Mondays Classics 

 occupy that hour, save on Thursday, when there 

 is a lecture on History. From 8 to 9.25 is devoted 

 to breakfast and preparation, the length of time 

 of one or the other being at the option of the in- 

 dividual. One of the strangest features of Eton 

 life until the last ten years was that, though the 

 charges for board and lodging were higher there 

 than at any other school, breakfast was not pro- 

 vided by the master, but by the boys at their 

 own expense, in theirown rooms. Even in college 

 the ' poor and needy scholar ' had to keep a room 

 up town in which to get his breakfast and live 

 during the day. Now, however, in all the houses 

 but one breakfast is provided in the boys' rooms, 

 mostly in messes of four. At 9.25 is chapel, a 

 shortened service. School begins at 9.45, and 

 lasts for fifty-five minutes, during which 'Extras,' 

 or extra studies, are done in form. Extra studies 

 is a charming instance of survival ' in nomencla- 

 ture. It meant, at first, extra subjects beyond 

 the ordinary purely classical curriculum, and the 

 list includes English (which includes History), 

 Mathematics, French, German, Science, Draw- 

 ing, and Spanish ; but it also includes, for the 

 bulk of the first 1 20, who are on what in more 

 modern schools might be called the classical side, 

 Greek play for the university, Plato, and Pindar. 

 Why Greek play, or Greek philosophy, or Greek 

 lyrics should have been considered extras in a 

 classical curriculum it is not easy to explain. At 

 1 1 o'clock school the ordinary Classics, that is, 

 construing of authors, resume sway, except on 

 Tuesdays, when the hour is devoted to History 

 in the form of doing questions on Monday's lec- 

 ture, and on Thursdays, when it is given to Latin 

 prose, which is, however, done out of school, 

 and shown up at lunch-time, 1.30. Classics 

 means in 1908, in preparation for the Higher 

 certificates of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools 

 Examinations Board, Livy's History, Book V ; 

 Virgil's Aeneid, X ; Horace's Odes, IV ; Thucy- 

 <lides III, 1-51, and Sophocles' Oedipus Coloneus. 

 History is the outlines of English History from 

 1714-1837, and more special study of thespecial 

 period, 1793-1815. English is represented by 

 two plays of Shakespeare, King Lear and 

 Henry V ; French by Le Cid of Corneille and 

 de Tocqueville's Quinze years au Desert and 

 Voyage en Sici/e. On three days in the week, 

 Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, there is no 

 more school after 12 ; but on all days from 12 

 to 1.30 is supposed to be devoted to work, 



doing composition or preparation. Dinner is 

 at 1.30. After dinner there is practice at nets 

 for the professed cricketer, but no organized 

 games or practice for anyone else. On whole 

 school days there is school at 3.45 for 'Saying 

 Lesson,' or repetition of Latin verse learnt by 

 heart ; in Vlth Form, forty old and twenty new 

 lines, in First Hundred forty new, each day. 

 Those at the top of the form are free to depart 

 as soon as they have said their lines, while those 

 at the bottom learn theirs while the others are 

 saying them. The interval is spent in prepara- 

 tion. At 5 o'clock three-quarters of an hour's 

 school is devoted to Classics on Monday to 

 Greek or Roman History, Wednesday to reading 

 in rooms, and Friday to Classics in school. 

 Reading in rooms is a theoretical pursuit not 

 carried on in actual practice if it can be avoided. 

 Those who belong to ' Pop.' go to ' Pop.,' and 

 do their composition or write letters there ; others 

 to school library, others to their house library. 

 Tea, which comprises bread and butter and jam, 

 is at 5.45. After it, till 8.30, comes the serious 

 business of pleasure, or rather exercise ; whether 

 to chase the rolling circle's speed for dry-bobs, or 

 to cleave with pliant oar the glassy wave for 

 wet-bobs, or practice at the butts for those who 

 prefer the leaden bullet. For those who do not 

 even strive for places in their house eleven or 

 in the boats there is no compulsion. At 8.30 

 comes supper, a moderate late dinner of two or 

 three courses, hot meat and pudding, and cheese 

 and butter. From 9 to 10 is a time for prepara- 

 tion, perforce in rooms or house library, and 

 lights are out at 10 p.m. Peace then attends 

 the wearied mind or body till the boys' maids 

 waken them to another day by setting out their 

 baths or bringing hot water (shades of Malim !) 

 at 6.15 a.m. The composition of the week, 

 done in the odd hours out of school, which, as 

 will have been seen, are more numerous than 

 the hours spent in school, consists of Latin verses, 

 which alternate between original theme and 

 translation, given out on Saturday, shown to 

 their tutor on Wednesday, and given up corrected 

 to the head master, or other form master, on the 

 Saturday following. Greek Prose and Verse, 

 a piece of each for translation from English, are 

 set on Wednesday, to be shown upon the follow- 

 ing Saturday morning. ' My tutor,' or rather, 

 in Etonian pronunciation, ' me-tutor,' is no longer 

 a third person, distinct alike from form master 

 and ' dame ' or other house-master, but is the 

 house-master ; though if the house-master is not 

 a classic and the boy is, or vice-versa, the function 

 of tutor is assigned to another master. But he is 

 not ' me-tutor.' 



So far for the ordinary course for the 

 ordinary classical students. It would be a hope- 

 less task to pursue the specialist in all his ramifi- 

 cations. In the first 1 20 the specialists number 

 37 as against 84 ordinarians. Of them 14 are 



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