LAND AND .WATER 
August 14, 1915. 
VINDICATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
By S. P. B. Mais. 
FOR many years there have not been wanting 
critics in plenty who have found matter for 
animadversion' against the Piibhc School 
spirit. They pointed to what they called the 
sausage-machine system and declared that 
►his average product of Eton', Winchester, and so on 
was a tiioroughlv bad average. Boys left these schools 
imbued with the idea that the highest term of encomium 
that could be employed about their fellow-creatures was 
" good sportsman '' ; success in games was the be-all 
and the end-all here; all intellectual attainments were a* 
a discount; the cultivation of tlie straight eye and 
physique was what mattered; the cultivation of the 
brain, the broadening of the mind were of no account m 
a world where a " Blue " was more eagerly sought after 
than a " First in Greats." 
There was a substratum of truth in this, as ther? is 
in most criticism, but I should very much like to have 
had the privilege of showing the most bigoted anti- 
Public School critic what a year of war has wrought at 
Winchesborough. We reassembled last September in 
a state bordering almost on nervous panic. So many 
boys, so many of the younger members of the stall had 
left us that it" seemed inconceivable that we could carry 
on for long at all, much less " as usual." The wonder 
of it even now leaves us at a loss to explain it, but the 
fact remains; the reins of government fell on shoulders 
which we thought incapable of bearing any burden of 
responsibility ; captains of games, captains of Houses, 
captains of schools have changed not terminally but 
weekly in some cases, and always there have been found 
boys, incredibly young, who have stepped into the 
breach vacated by another newly-commissioned subal- 
tern, and the machine has run as smoothly and ade- 
quately as ever. 
The Only Object. 
Every Public Schoolboy lives for one thing and for 
one only — to gain a commission and to get out to the 
Front as expeditiously as possible; but, in the mean- 
time, he is perfectly clear in his mind as to his present 
duty ; he is willing to work much more keenly than here- 
tofore at his classics, mathematics, or English, for not 
only have they become things of great moment and in- 
terest in themselves, but, nearly in every case, has the 
stereotyped subject of the school curriculum in some in- 
sidious manner come to have a direct bearing on his 
training. Is he a mathematician or a scientist ? There is 
unending scope for ability in this direction in the 
Gunners, the Flying Corps, as bomb or machine-gun 
officer. Is he gifted with an aptitude for classics, 
English, or history ? He will read of ancient wars and 
distant heroes with a renewed interest, especially when 
told with that force and point w hich makes the appeal of 
all the work of genius so instant and so strangely modern. 
I know of one young subaltern in the Sherwood 
Foresters who has written to me from " somewhere in 
France, in the thick of it," weekly since November, who 
has depicted the scenes of horror through which he has 
lived simply by quoting passages from " Paradise 
Lost." The result has been so vividly reproduced in my 
mind that I feel that I, too, have been living in the same 
trenches with my friend. 
Though there is but little chance of the Scholarship- 
hunter ever going up to Balliol or Trinity, though the 
London Matriculation candidate will in all probabiUty 
never benefit materially from taking his examination, 
yet all these specialists work with a vigour that speaks 
extraordinarily well for their powers of imagination. It 
is a fallacy to suppose, as I have seen it somewhere 
asserted, that the Army side is the only part of the school 
that now works with any seriousness of purpose. 
Naturally, Woolwich and^ Sandhurst candidates have 
received a special impetus on account of the war, but at 
16 
Winchesborough, at any rate, there is no sign of any 
falling away in intellectual effort; rather is there a quite 
noticeable renaissance which is calculated to make glad 
the heart of all keen ushers. 
And do not let it be imagined because most of 
our " club " matches at " Rugger " and cricket have 
perforce had to be abandoned that there is any diminu- 
tion of keenness in games. Tliough the school XV. 
and XI. are small and voung, there is no lack of dash or 
ability ; the marvel is that these youngsters liave come 
on so quicklv. Blase Old Boys in khaki come down to 
see their old liouses attempt to keep up pristine honours 
and laugii scornfully at young " Buggins " as he goes 
out to bat; the same child returns an hour or so later 
for an almost perfect 67, and the laughter has changed to 
a cheer. 
"By George! the kid has got guts. Whoever 
would have thought of his coming out like this in a 
year? Why, I remember him last summer term as a 
fag, with no more cricket in him than a sponge." 
Same Old Discipline. 
It is the same all through the school. Captaincies 
and colours are not cheap, even though they adorn 
young heads : discipline is just as well kept by the six- 
teen-year-old as by the moustached giant of nineteen this 
time last year. 
Most of the stall are, as I said, fighting; but the 
entire common-room have come into the O.T.C. to take 
their place; when the full complement of officers was 
reached they overflowed into the ranks. It is no un- 
common sight to see a young corporal or other N.C.O. 
hounding his perspiring form-master up a ravine or over 
a ploughed field, or cursing liim for his slowness in 
failing or rising when his section is attempting to rush 
a trench under the all-seeing eye of the O.C. 
There is a new spirit of competition prevalent in all 
platoons, which is easily noticeable at all times. On 
the march the school " Carmen " and " Who Were 
You With Last Night? " are varied by obscene refer- 
ences to less fortunate companions who have been 
reprimanded by an umpire in field operations. Listen 
to them now as they swing down the Bristol Road : 
They c-a-an't lift their k-ne-es up in Number Three Platoon; 
They c-a-an't lift their k-ne-es up in Number Three Platoon. 
Five hundred full-throated boys bawling at the tops 
of their voices all in unison with the exception of the un- 
fortunate " Number three," who are savagely raking 
up old mistakes of the platoons nearest to them and let- 
ting fly with any noise that may help to drown the 
chorus of the others. 
Eagerness for EflSciency. 
Each platoon strives to secure as many efficiency 
badges for Morse and semaphore, for scouting and 
shooting as is possible. A list of promotions on the 
school board is awaited with more interest than the 
awarding of school colours, and field-days and night 
attacks are the most eagerly anticipated of any of the 
great events of the term. The disappointment when we 
heard that the great general who always inspects us 
annually had deputed an inferior oflicer in his place was 
so acute that, had he been aware of it, I believe he would 
have come at any cost. He had, of course, adequate 
reasons, but we felt his absence almost as a slight, for 
though we do not wish to overestimate our own import- 
ance, we know full well how much the future of England 
depends on her Public Schools. There has never been 
a lack of officers since the war began, and there never 
will be, however long the war continues, so long as the 
schools remain open and there are boys to go. 
I can conceive nothing finer than the spirit of the 
Public .Schools to-day. Boys are not only willing but 
glad to give up all their most cherished ambitions and 
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