صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

welfare of the school. Some old Etonian relics are collected there; amongst them hangs on the wall a long roll of "Bacchus" verses by Porson.*

In the matter of bullying, fagging, and fighting-which in ancient times made a public school a word of awe to tender-hearted English mothers-modern Eton has become what even they would call a model school. It never had, at any time, the evil reputation which formerly attached to Westminster and Winchester on these points. So smooth and even does the course of schoolboy life run there now, that Etonian fathers are apt sometimes to doubt whether their sons do not find things made rather too pleasant for them-whether a little more of the hardening process in boyhood might not be absolutely good for those who will not find grown-up life entirely a bed of roses. They do not feel sure that it was not wholesome even for a small marquess to have to use his fists; or for a duke, upon his first entrance into public life, to get that "extra kick" which was once his traditionary welcome at Eton, and which might serve as some counterpoise to the extra compliments which society was sure to award him hereafter. They look back to that wager of combat between Dreadnought and Defiance in the playing-fields, or the great "Battle of the Bargees" (a dim tradition even amongst the oldest of their band, and which unhappily seems to have found no

sacer

vates), and say to themselves, perhaps with some natural exaggeration of the past, that Eton had its giants in those days. When they read in the evidence of a modern Etonian, questioned by an old Etonian commissioner, who is surprised to find the boys never fight, the naïve explanation that he supposes it is "because they funk each other," they protest against it

as a libel on the school. It is with a grim satisfaction that they hear still of collar-bones broken and knees put out in the fierce football bully, when heroes meet at the wall." For they have not forgotten the great Etonian captain who said that "the battle of Waterloo was won in the playing-fields of Eton." But modern or ancient, colleger or oppidan, they hold fast by the old school, wonderfully unchanged in tone and feeling amidst the many social changes which it has only shared with the larger world outside, and still maintaining, not only in their own partial estimate, but by the hearty and generous testimony of non-Etonians, the charter of the "Eton gentleman."

POSTSCRIPT.-The collection and publication of these notices of Eton has, of course, involved a good deal of correspondence with Etonians of all dates. We have received letters critical, complimentary, co-operative, and corrective. All which fell under the two first heads we have, with a magnanimous impartiality, consigned to the flames. From the others we make a selection for the benefit of our readers, who will find here and there a purpureus pannus which deserves a better fate than the waste-paper basket. These first fragments give a lively picture of the Eton of sixty years ago, still bright in the vigorous memory of the writer :—

"When I went to Eton, Goodall was head-master, and Cocky' Keate ruled the lower regions. We had an excellent staff of lieutenants: Thackeray, afterwards provost of King's; Bethel, a very magnificent gentleman; Carter, now vice-provost; Sumner, the most popular of tutors; Drury, eheu! facile princeps, in all things the Admirable Crichton of his day, but who disappeared in a clouded noon. In the lower

school were Charles Yonge, Plumtre, and Knapp. The system of the school

* See, for the custom, p. 218. + Public Schools Evid., Eton, 7206.

was then, as now, to prepare the lessons of the day with one's tutor, and then take them up to construe to the master of the division. There was too much tendency to favoritism; either from rank or ability, some had the lion's share of being called up. I conclude this is a weak point not confined to any age or system; but it acted badly at Eton in my day; it damped eager aspirations, crushed hope, and induced carelessness. The fairest chance a boy had was in his papers, his copy of verses, his theme, his personal stock that no one could touch; and as he rose in the school and reached 'play' (confined to the Sixth and a few of the upper division, before the head-master), whatever abilities he might have were then appreciated. But of this special teaching the collegers reaped the chief benefit; not many oppidans remained so long; there was a great drain in those days for the army and navy.

"Our battle-ground was the playingfields. The great battle in my time was between Coleridge (now Sir John) and Horace Mann; it had lasted an hour, when Goodall the head-master came down and stopped it. My friend Rawnsley also fought a capital fight with one W- a big bully, and thrashed him off in twenty minutes, the Duke of Leinster giving him a knee.

"I think the type of our time was to be read in the excellence of our games. The boats were first-rate; the eleven of football, and the eleven of cricket, unrivalled. Then there were games illicit, but winked at; the amateur theatricals; the billiard-rooms-Huddleston's up in Windsor, and Gray's at the foot of the bridge, where you sometimes made way for your tutor! There was even Ascot, at rare intervals. There was the dear old Christopher in the midst of us, where many a bowl of bishop was discussed, in innocent proportions, prepared by the good and careful Garraway. The marvel of marvels was, that amongst the whole 600 all enjoyed their own peculiar privileges, according to age and standing, without disorder or collision -such was the discipline of the boys' own creating-from the lowest boy to him who held the enviable position of Captain of the school."

This next refers to a later date :"Any record of Eton seems to me incomplete without some mention of Henry Knapp, sometime lower master, and my excellent friend and tutor. He was an accurate and elegant scholar,

and in working his pupils enforced (as far as teaching and example could enforce it) fluent and vigorous construing. He had a wondrous facility for little classical jeux d'esprit. We were once lying on the bank at Medenham Abbey after a gipsy dinner, when he amused himself by turning the whole of 'Billy Taylor' into hexameters and pentameters. It was never committed to paper, and I only remember fragments, e.g.— 'Her lily-white hands were daubed all

over

With the nasty pitch and tar.' Nec puduit teneram maculasse bitumine dextram,'

A gust of wind blew her jacket open,

And all discovered her lily-white

breast.'

Aura tamen restem nimis officiosa removit,

Virgineique sinas mox patuêre nives.' Then she called for sword and pistol, Which did come at her command.'

'ensem postulat-ensis adest.'

"How perfectly Ovidian! and how far superior to Drury's version of the same lines in 'Arundines Cami'! And this reminds me that Knapp's sportive vein was as happy in English as in Latin. A letter of his now lies before me, in which he says:-'Have you seen the Arundines Cami'? What a labor ineptiarum! a provost of Eton translating Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall!' I can fancy old Cam thus rebuking him :

'No wreath of bays will I accord
To deck your hoary hair;
A pap-boat be your best reward,
Or perforated chair.

Shall woods which drank sweet Mason's

lay

Rejoice in 'Cat and Fiddle'?
Can groves that heard enraptured Gray
Respond to Diddle-diddle'?

Sing not Bo-Peep at evening late

In search of sheep that wander;
Try Shakespeare (if you must translate),
Not Goosey, goosey, gander.'
Shame on the Bard, who native force
Of talent thus misuses,
Makes Pegasus a rocking-horse,
And nursemaids of the Muses.'

"Knapp's boys, as was to be expected, were ringleaders in the playhouse. He had a pretty little theatre of his own at Ringstead in Northamptonshire, with some very clever actors; and a favoured pupil or two never missed joining in the Christmas performances there. Ascot, likewise, generally brought to his table Mathews, Hook, Terry, Yates, Jamie Henderson, and other celebrities

of the footlights,-not, however, includ. ing Edmund Kean, to whom (as I can assure Captain Gronow) he never spoke a word in his life. Then the occasional rattle up to London with him-the Juliet-the Sir Giles-the Bedford-the broiled fowl and mushroom sauce-the Hounslow posters-and the return in time for six o'clock lesson-O noctes cœnæque Deum!"

"I rejoice that you do justice to 'Gerard Montgomery.' Graver years, and, alas! sadder times, have since then quenched that brilliant humour and that trenchant gibe; but still survives the old sweet music, possessing the pathos of Wordsworth without his puerility' (non meus hic sermo, sed quæ præcepit Hawtrey). His correction of a translation (in Hora Otiosa ') of Dr Johnson's verses to Sylvanus Urban— Urbane nullis fesse laboribus '-lies before me :

Texente nymphis serta Lycoride
Rosa ruborem sic viola adjuvat
Immista-sic Iris refulget
Etheriis variata fucis.'

'Thus, when some nymph a garland
twines,

Brighter the rose contrasted shines

With violets' purple dye;
The crocus and the lily there,
And all the treasures of the year
In gay confusion lie.'

He substitutes for these last

'Tis thus, in heaven's ethereal bow,
Each colour takes a livelier glow

Contrasted with the sky.'

"How cleverly he lifts his tired horse, and lands him safe on the other side!"

"Was Balston right in so peremptorily rejecting the modern languages for Eton, when under examination by the Commissioners? I dare not give an opinion; we know full well their indispensable necessity to every gentleman moving in the world; but the serious difficulty arises, 'Who is to teach them?' If a Frenchman, he must be an Anglicised one; if an Englishman, a Frenchified one; and schoolboys are sturdy rebels against foreigners. I remember my poor friend Bullock saying to me, Ah, old fellow! what capital

Frenchmen we should have been, if we had

spent half the time in learning French at Eton that we did in mimicking Berthomier!' The idea of teaching French

(except grammatically) by an Eng lishman, appears to me simply absurd. Then the jealousy of the classical masters would hardly admit of extra teachers being placed on the same elevation with themselves. The writing-master in my time was a Mr Hexter, who combined with this office the somewhat incongruous honours of a magistrate for the county, a 'major' (in the Middlesex militia, I believe), and a 'Dominie' at Eton. This gentleman once applied for an interview with Provost Goodall, and, after stating his views and pretensions, finished by requesting permission to wear a gown, and that the boys should not shirk' him. With his blandest smile, Giuseppe Il Magnifico replied, 'Well, Major Hexter, as to wearing a gown, do as you like; as to the boys shirking you, let them do as they like.' Nor, moreover, is it at all clear that that criterion of foreign accomplishment, Prince Albert's prize, always goes in the intended and hoped-for direction. It was never meant that the sons of foreigners, or of Englishmen constantly resident abroad-still less the sons of mothers blest in the possession of French ladies'-maids- should walk off with the Prince Consort's prize. No doubt, as Byron says—

"Tis pleasing to be schooled in a strange tongue

By female lips and eyes;'

but this is not the grammar by the study of which the Prince intended the honours of modern languages to be won. And may it not be worth while to inquire whether, for a little history, a little French, a little chemistry, a little geometry, it is worth while to jeopardise the classical fame of this great school, and whether additional surface of knowledge may not be too dearly purchased by diminution of its depth?'

A small oppidan (who, to judge from his handwriting, must have "shirked" Major Hexter's successors very effectually) informs us, under the signature of Experto Crede," that the collegers still "assist" at the execution-block in the manner which has been described as obsolete. In so describing it we feel sure that we have only anticipated the good feeling of the Eton authorities.

PICCADILLY: AN EPISODE OF CONTEMPORANEOUS AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

PART II.

As the event which I am about to recount forms the turning-point of my life-unless, indeed, something still more remarkable happens, which I do not at present foresee, to turn me back again-I do not feel that it would be either becoming, or indeed possible, for me to maintain that vein of easy cheerfulness which has characterised my composition hitherto. What is fun to you, O my reader! may be death to me; and nothing can be farther from my intention than to excite the smallest tendency to risibility on your part at my misfortunes or trials. You will already have guessed what these are; but how to recur to those agonising details, how to present to you the picture of my misery in its true colours, nothing but the stern determination to carry out my original design, and the conscientious conviction that "the story of my life from day to day" may be made a profitable study to my fellow-men, could induce me in this coldblooded way to tear open the still unhealed wound.

I came down to breakfast rather late on the morning following the events narrated in the last chapter. Broadbrim and Grandon had already vanished from the scene; so had Mr Wog, who went up to town to see what he called "the elephant," an American expression, signifying "to gain experience of the world." The phrase originated in an occurrence at a menagerie, and as upon this occasion Mr Wog applied it to the opening of Parliament, it was not altogether inappropriate. I found still lingering over the debris of breakfast my host and hostess, Lady Broadbrim and her daughters, the Bishop and Chundango. The latter appeared to be having all the talk to him

FLITYVILLE, March. self, and, to give him his due, his conversation was generally entertaining.

"My dear mother," he was saying, "still unconverted, has buried all my jewellery in the back verandah. After I had cleared a million sterling, I divided it into two parts; with one part I bought jewels, of which my mother is an excellent judge, and the other I put out at interest. Not forgetting," with an upward glance, "a sum the interest of which I do not look for here."

"Then, did you give all your jewels to your mother?" asked Lady Broadbrim.

[ocr errors]

Oh, no; she is only keeping them till I can bestow them upon the woman I choose for her daughter-in-law."

"Are you looking out for her now?" I asked, somewhat abruptly.

"Yes, my dear friend," said John; "I hope to find in England some Christian young person as a yoke-mate."

There was a self-satisfied roll of his eye as he said this, which took away from me all further desire for the bacon and eggs I had just put on my plate.

66

"Dear Mr Chundango," said Lady Broadbrim, tell us some of your adventures as a catechist in the Bombay Ghauts. Did you give up all when you became one? Was your family noble? and did you undergo much persecution from them?'

"The Rajah of Sattara is my first cousin," said Chundango, unblushingly; "but they repudiated me when I became a Christian, and deny the relationship."

66

Are you going up to convocation?" said Dickiefield to the Bishop, to divert attention from Chundango's last barefaced assertion. "I hear they are going to

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

"Yes," said Joseph; "and I see there is a chance of three new sees being created. I should like to talk over the matter with you. Considering how seriously my health has suffered in the tropics, and how religiously I have adhered to my liberal opinions in politics, even in the most trying climates, it might be worth while

"Excuse me for interrupting you, my dear Lord," said Dickiefield, "but the present Government are not so particular about the political as the theological views of their Bishops. Palmerston especially has very decided opinions on certain moot points of theology, and is fully impressed with the tremendous spiritual responsibility, if I may use the expression, which his position imposes upon him. When you remember that the Prime Minister of this country is held morally accountable for the orthodoxy of its religious tenets, you must at once perceive how essential it is, not only that he should be profoundly versed in points of scriptural doctrine himself, but that he should never appoint a bishop of whose soundness he is not from personal knowledge thoroughly satisfied."

66

"I have no objection to talk over the more disputed points with him," said the Bishop; when do you think he could spare a moment?"

"The best plan would be," replied Dickiefield, with a twinkle in his eye, "to catch him in the lobby of the House some evening when there is nothing particular going on what books of reference would you require?"

The Bishop named one, when I interrupted him, for I felt Dickiefield had not put the case fairly as regarded Palmerston.

66 It is not Palmerston's fault at all," said I; "he is the most liberal theologian possible, but he has nothing to do with doctrine;

that lies in Bethel's department. As the supreme arbiter in points of religious belief, and as the largest dispenser of spiritual patronage in the kingdom, it is evident that the qualifications for a Lord Chancellor should be not so much his knowledge of law, as his unblemished moral character and incapacity for perpetrating jobs. He is, in fact, the principal veterinary surgeon of the ecclesiastical stable, and any man in orders that he warrants sound,' Palmerston can't object to on the score of orthodoxy. The Prime Minister is just in the same position as the head of any other department,-whoever passes the competitive examination, he is bound to accept, but may use his own discretion as to promotion, and, of course, sticks to the traditions of the service. The fact is, if you go into the Colonial Episcopal line you get over the heads of a lot of men who are steadily plodding on for home_promotion, and, of course, they don't think it fair for an outsider to come back again, and cut them out of a palace and the patronage attached to it on the strength of having been a missionary Bishop. It is just the same in the Foreign Office,

if you go out of Europe you get out of the regular line. However, we shall have the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the Colenso case before long, and, from the little I know of the question, it is possible you may find that you are not a bishop at all. In that case you will have what is far better than any interest

-a grievance. You can say that you were tempted to give up a good living to go to the heathen, on false pretences, and they'll have to make it up to you. You could not do better than apply for one of the appointments attached to some cathedrals, called 'Peculiars.' I believe that they are very comfortable and independent. If you will allow me I will write to my solicitor about one. Lawyers are the men to manage these matters, as they are all in

« السابقةمتابعة »