SCHOOLS 



white-duck shirts with ribbons in front of the 

 distinguishing colour of the boat. The hats are 

 straw hats garlanded with ribbons and a sort of 

 gilded figure-head or crest in front. They row 

 up to Surly and dine there in state on the bank 

 of the river. At 8.30 they return in the same 

 order to Eton, where fireworks are displayed, and 

 as the boats reach the fireworks the crews stand 

 up and toss their oars in salute. 



In winter St. Andrew's Day, 30 November, 

 is the great feast, when the wall game of foot- 

 ball between collegers and oppidans is played in 

 the morning, and a field game between Oxford 

 and Cambridge Etonians in the afternoon. The 

 wall game is played along the wall which bounds 

 the original playing fields, the goals being a door 

 in the wall at one end where it turns at right 

 angles, and a tree at the other. The forwards 

 on each side have their heads covered with sack- 

 cloth as they rub against the wall, trying to ' hot ' 

 or push their opponents back to their own goal, 

 and the ' flies ' stand out prepared to kick the ball 

 out of the boundary line, as far towards the oppo- 

 site goal as possible, as soon as it emerges from 

 the scrimmage. 



The small nation of Etonians, now at the 

 highest figure it has ever reached, 1,045, ' s 

 domiciled in twenty-four houses of about forty 

 each, and college, which is ruled by a master in 

 college. They are taught by forty-seven masters, 

 of whom fifteen are teachers of mathematics, 

 five of science, ten of modern languages, one 

 teaching Italian, one gentleman essaying French, 

 German, and Spanish, the rest German or French 

 or both, some combining mathematics and a 

 modern language, or Classics and a modern lan- 

 guage. The ultima ratio in discipline is still 

 the birch, to which, though but sparely adminis- 

 tered, in comparison with the days of the ' best 

 beater in England,' or Keate, with his wholesale 

 executions, is still administered in the ancient 

 way, the victims being still personally con- 

 ducted to the head master by one of the two 

 prepostors for the week. The prepostors, who 

 used to be so numerous in Malim's day, are now 

 reduced to two, one colleger and one oppidan, 

 the Sixth Form taking it in turn to be in course 

 for a week. During that time they collect 

 absences from the form masters, take communi- 

 cations from the head master to them and bring 

 up the victims for chastisement, and are excused 

 schools in return. The ordinary discipline is 

 administered by the captain of each house, who 

 inflicts the extreme penalty of the law for offences, 

 often on reference by the house master, by a cane, 

 the culprit bending over to receive a ' smacking.' 

 In college the operation is termed 'working 

 it off.' For such offences as shirking football in 

 Michaelmas half or other game offences the cap- 

 tain of the games in each house exercises similar 

 jurisdiction. 



The results of Eton education as exhibited at 



the universities show that learning is assimilated 

 as effectually under its elastic system as in more 

 rigid systems. In 1906, for instance, a scholar- 

 ship, and a History scholarship at Balliol, two 

 scholarships at Christ Church, two at University, 

 and a demyship at Magdalen were won, with 

 a major scholarship at Trinity, Cambridge. In 

 1907 Etonians obtained scholarships at Trinity 

 and Brasenose, with the two great university 

 scholarships, the Hertford and Ireland, and the 

 Stanhope Historical Essay at Oxford ; and two 

 major scholarships at Trinity, one in mathe- 

 matics, five scholarships at King's, one at Gon- 

 ville and Caius, and the Chancellor's Medal for 

 English verse at Cambridge. Considering how 

 few Etonians seek the financial assistance afforded 

 by scholarships this record cannot but be acknow- 

 ledged as extremely good. That Eton should 

 flourish in learning as in other ways is therefore 

 something more than a pious aspiration. Floret 

 Etona. 



THE ROYAL LATIN SCHOOL, 

 BUCKINGHAM 



Buckingham Grammar School has been sadly 

 libelled. Carlisle 1 in 1818, after imputing its 

 foundation to Edward VI, said : 'It is of little 

 note in any respect, none but the children of the 

 Lower Classes having been educated here, for 

 time immemorial.' 



Those who have perused the history of schools 

 in the former volumes of the Victoria County 

 History will not need to be told that this state- 

 ment of the status and history of the Royal 

 Latin School of this ancient county town is 

 untrue. It is indeed strange that Carlisle should 

 without further inquiry have printed this per- 

 functory misrepresentation. For Browne Willis's 

 History of the Town, Hundred, and Deanery of 

 Buckingham, published in 1755, was at hand to 

 correct it, with a list of masters from 1553 who 

 were mostly dubbed M.A. It must, however, 

 be admitted that the good folk of Buckingham 

 have done their best to discredit their school and 

 to destroy its history, by destroying or losing 

 their municipal records. 



There is, however, reason to think that the 

 school is of very great antiquity. 1 * From the 

 time of Edward VI to that of Edward VII it 

 was held in an ancient building, said to have 

 been the chantry chapel of St. John the Baptist 

 and St. Thomas, otherwise Thomas Becket, 

 which is stated* in a deed on the appointment of 

 a new schoolmaster in 1 830 to have been annexed 

 to the Trinity Gild. The Chantry Certificates 

 taken under the Chantries Act of Henry VIII do 

 not bear out this account. They connect the 

 chantry with the college of Aeon, the hospital 



1 End. Gram. Schools, i, 47. 



'* See p. 145, note I, for mention of schoolmaster 

 of Buckingham at Mich. 1423. 

 ' Char. Com. Rep. vii, 59. 



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