Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-11-19

conduct of Eton college affairs. Our own
colleges and universities often far excel
these old world seats of learning in their
huge proportions and lonely vastness and
isolation. But most of the latter gain i'm
messuIsbly In the pleasant feeling of
homelikeuess and winsomeness, and that
charm which always comes from a COM
munity of huddled antique structures,
where age subdues and mellows, and gent
ly adds, as art can never do, its softening
grays and greens.
The antiquity of the school Is very
great. The pious Henry VI. was its
founder. Some material token of his sf-
fection for the Holy church must be made.
Evidently his idea was to emulate the ex5
ample of William of Wykeham, who es-
tablished the first endowed school of this
class at royal Winchester. and New school
at Oxford to receive its graduates. So
Henry made the preparatory school of
Eton and the secular Kings college in the
University of Cambridge, to which schol-
ars are elected from Eton. The site was
undoubtedly selected so that the institu-
tion might be under the immediate eye
of Henry. 1t offered no unusual natural
advantages, and all the beauty of the
pleasant surroundings have been the
growth of care and age. A dreary, low,
hdt dAu 1OAcll spOb II nave Dccn
in the olden days. The king did not
even own it. 1t was entirely outside the
royal demesne of Windsor. He was com
pelled to purchase the perpetual sdvow-
son of the parish church of Eton, and
many tracts of land in the shires of
Bucks and Berks; and some of the es-
tates still held by Eton college were
taken from such ancient abbeys as Fe-
camp, Fontenoy, Yyry and st. Stephens
at Caen.
Though the college was founded In
1440, solemn admission was not given to
the provost, fellows, clerks and scholars
ensctments for Eton were almost lite
raj transcript of those at Winchester
Its incorporated name was 1.-THE Kings
College of our Lady Of Eton beside
Windsor" and its original foundation pro-
vided for provost, ten fellows, four
clerks, six choristers, a schoolmaster,
twenty-five poor and INDECENT scholars,
and twenty five poor and infirm men who
were to ''prsy for the king" Its first
provost was the celebrated churchman,
William Waynefete, whom Henry brought
from the mastership of Winchester, &C
companied by five fellows and thirty-fve
scholars from the older school, as a nu-
cleus at the new.
1u6 pESStnI Iuc
growth of a recognizing act of parlis-
ment in 1868, has for its actual govern
ing body the provosts of Eton and Kings
college, Oxford, the Royal society, the
Lord Chief Justice, the Eton masters and
four other members elected by the former.
Aside from the official governing body, the
actual school officers of Eton now COM
prise crown appointed provost, similar
official to our principal" or president"
who must be master of arts and mem
Der of the Church of England mot neces-
sarily In orders) over thirty years of age,
ten ''fellows," who are members of the
secretaries or clerks, an auditor, head
master, lower master, and conducts" or
chaplains.
All ordinary discipline may be said to
emanate from the "houses" where boys
not on the foundation reside, whose mas
ters are directly responsible to the head
and lower masters for the good conduct of
those in charge; to the Captains" of these
''houses" who are selected from among the
scholars in the houses to assist in keeping
order; and, secondarily, both from flag
masters" over their respective deputiZed
Gags" and through the general supervi-
sion by all upper forms or divisions of the
school over all members of the successive
to us Americans; but it is good one here
because its results are good.
The seventy free or foundation scholars
are called ''collagers." Formerly they
wore the black cloth gown to distinguish
them. but this bad ge of poverty was some
time since removed. The foundation
scholarships are open to all boys, British
subjects, between the ages of twelve and
fourteen, and are only-tenable to the com
collagers are educated and maintained dur
ing school term or time out of the funds
of the college. At the beginning of the
century the collsgsrs' routine and fare
were far from envisble. They dined most
meagerly at twelve o'clock every day, and
supped at six on whole school days, and
at five on other days They assembled in
the hall at seven every night aud sat there
reading for an hour under the care of their
captain. At eight they proceeded to the
lower school, where they recited the pray
ere, which ueed, in still earlier times, to
be esid in the long chamber. They were
then locked up for the night. On Sunday
morning they went to the upper school to
sing the one hundredth Psslm, and to Join
in prayers resd by the fifth form pTepos,
tor. Collsgers and Oppidans alike went
to church at ten o'clock on Sundays, and
they all had to sit in the upper school be
tween two and three, while a member OF
the fifth form read aloud several pages OF
that exciting essay the whole Duty OF
Man"
The dinner consisted invariably of NUT
ton, potatoes, bread and beer, with the sd
dition of pudding on Sundays. AS mat
ter of fact almost every collager hired 6
room in the town, in which to get his
breakfast and tea, which the college did
not furnish, and in which to prepare his
lessons, which rendered his expenses near
| ly equal to those not on the foundation
and an old Etonisn vehemently states ths
boys unsbls to incur these unjust exps snsel
underwent "priyations that might hav,
broken down a csbin-boy, and would b
thought inhuman if inflicted on a galley
slave" An code on Nearer Prospect o.
Eton," after Gray, written in 1898 was vir
lie with satire upon this order of things
and hastened reformation. The quality oi
the beer was thus alluded to:
''I'int after pint you drink in vain,
| Still sober you may drink again,
You can't get drunk in Hail.
Everything is now different. Good fooC
is supplied for the Hall. Breakfast anc
tea are furnished at trifing cost. Servant
lessen the impositions of tagging. An as
sistant master and a matron have domesti'
superintendence. Long Chambers of old
famous for its ffsy-two bsds, 6lth ant
frolics, has been practically abolished anC
a new building with separate rooms proyi
ded, chiefly by subscriptions from old Etc
mans. All badges of inferiority have beel
done away with. To be INDECENT and
psuper is no longer necessary to eligibility
and some of the best families of England
are glad to have their sons become Etol
commissioners.
The "Oppidsns" are all Eton boys, no
free scholars or "collagers" There is n
bar to any boy entering Eton as soon as b
can read, and some have been received Q