The record-union., 1892-11-19

other members elected by the former.
Aside from the official governing body,
the actual school officers of Eton now
comprise crown-appointed provost, a
similar official to our "Principap' or
President" who must be a master of
arts and member of the Church of Eng
land mot necessarily in Orders) over thir-
ty years of age; ten fellows" who are
members of the governing body, vice
provost, bursars, 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 i'll charge; to the captains of
these houses" who are selected from
among the scholars IN the houses to as
sist in keeping order; and, secOndarily,
both from 'fagmasters' over their re-
spective deputiZed ''fags," and through
the general supervision by all upper
forms or divisions of tue school over all
members OF the successive grades below
them. 1t Is an odd system to US Amerl
cans, but it is a good one here because its
results are good.
The seventy free or foundation schol-
ars are called "Collagers." Formerly
they wore the black cloth gown to diStin-
was sometime since removed. The toun-
datlon scholarships are open to all boys,
British subjects, between the ages of II
and II, and only tenable to the compile
ton OF the 18th year. These Collagers are
educated and maintained during school
term or time out of the funds Of the col
lege. At the beginning Of the century the
Collagers' routine and fare were far from
enviable. They dined most meagerly at
u o'clock every day, and supped at on
Whole school days, and at on other
days. They assembled in the hall at
every night and sat there reading for an
hour under the care of the captain. AT 8
they proceeded to the Lower School,
where they recited the prayers, which
used, in still earlier times, TO be said 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 hGndredth Psalm, and to
join in prayers read by the Fifth Form
Pr8pOstor. COllagers and OppidanS
alike went to church at 10 o'clock on sun
days, and they all had TO sit in the Upper
School between and 3, 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
addition of pudding on Sundays. AS a
matter Of fact almost every Collager hired
a 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
nearly equal to those not on the tounda-
ton, and an old Etonian vehemently
states that boys unable to incur these
unjust expenses underwent ''priVationS
that might have broken down a cabin
boy, and would be thought inhuman if
inflicted on a galley-slave." An 'Ode on
a Nearer Prospect of Eton," after Gray,
written in l7Jo, was virile with satire
upon this order of things, and FASTENED
reformation. The quality OF the beer was
thus alluded to:
Pint after pint you drink in vain,
Still sober you may drink again,
You can't get drunk in haLI
Everything is now different. Good
food is supplied for the hall. Breakfast
and tea are furnished at trifiing cost.
Servants lesson the impositions of fag-
ging. An assistant master and a matron
have domestic superintendence. Long
Chambers of old, famous for its tifty-tWO
beds, filth and trOlics, has been practi-
cally abolished and new building with
separate rooms provided, chiefly 10y sub
scriptiOns from old Etonians. All badges
OF inferiority have been done away with
To be INDECENT and a pauper is no longer
necessary to eligibility, and some of the
best families of England are glad to have
their sons become Eton foundationers.
The "Oppidans" are all Elton boys not
free scholars, or "Colagers." There is
no bar to any boy entering Elton as soon
as he can read, and some have been re-
ceived as young as Z years. The Eton
system provides that from the moment
he enters until he leaves for good he shall
be under the immediate control, so far as
his intellectual guidance is concerned, of
a tutor who stands to him, while at Eton,
in the entire relation of parent or guard
ian. There is now perhaps an average
attendance of 1000 boys. Fully 800 are
non-reSidents. All of these live in board
ing-houses, formerly conducted by women
or ''dames,' and while now all but one
are under the supervision Of boarding
masters, who each care for from thirty to
fifty youths, they are still known as
danes houses" These boarding mas
ters are assistant masters of and teachers
in the college. So far as college life and
discipline are concerned all of these
houses are as strictly subject to college
law and regulation as though they We're
set down and securely locked within
either of the two college quadrangles.
The principal and original buildings
form two huge Quadrangles. The first,
entered from the highway through a
much battered archway, is adorned by a
bronze. This square, called the "school-
yard,' is inclosed by the chapel, schools.
dormatories, masters chambers, clock
tower and election chamber" where the
highest gifts of the college, the scholar
ships at Kings College, Cambridge, are
annually bestowed.
The lesser quadrangle, nearest the
Thames, which Eton College properly
faces comprises the cloisters, in which
are the residences of the provost and fel-
lows, and the library, which is reached
by flight of steps to the lett of the en-
trance of the cloisters. Beyond the
cloisters are the fine college gardens, and
still beyond these, through a small post
ern gate luxuriantly lnautled with ivy
and "Weston's Yard" you come upon
the playing Field" where on holiday
evenings, in what is called Poets
Walk the crickaers are wont to take
their tea. These Playing Fields" dear
est of all things at Elton to all Etoniaus
past and present, comprise an extensive
tract OF ground, intersected by a pret-
ty stream, and crossed by a small bridge.
They are crowded with rich verdure and
shaded by venerable elms, the Thames
calmly ripping along their banks, and
Windsor Castle in the distance.
Here in the silent memorials to those
who have rendered the old school famous
by their own subsequent greatness; in
the Upper School adorned with its mar
BILE busts of Etonian worthless who be-
came England's greatest statesmen, di-
vines. philosophers and poets, and in the
host OF noted names carved everywhere
upon the ancient woodwork by erst boy
ish hands, one finds the real answer to all
impulse of criticism upon what seems at
first to an American a dead age system of
education of the British youth OF to-day
Two tlogging blocks have been in past
times triumphantly borne away, but an
other stands in its place. 1t was not so
long ago that the famous DR.. keate ClS09-
A..c---cl I..A--e-