New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-17
ROYAL ETON COLLEGE.
The Largest English SchooI-Buch-
ing, Tutoring and athletics.

Elton, November "a.
Elton College, having royal foundation oppo-
site Windsor, became inevitably the most fash
inable school In England. To royal patronage
Ind environment were due its prestige and Sue
Tess IN attracting generation after generation
Of the privileged class. from which statesmen,
colonial governors and generals were recruited.
Yet when 1t WAS founded In the fifteenth cen
tury by Henry VI It close copy Of the
college which William Of wykeham had estab-
hshed sixty years before at Winchester. 1t was
J secularized rather than monastic institu-
Ion; It had dual system Of government with
L provost and a neadmaster: there were sew
enty Kings scholars the foundation, and pro-
vision was made for the education of COM
nensals, afterward known as oppidans; and
there was a connection with Kings College,
Cambridge, as there was between Winchester
and New College. Oxford. The original build
fngs at Elton were like those at winchester, the
chapel being much grander in architectural
lines and the cloisters smaller and less pict-
uresque while the gateways, schoo1rooms and
chambers for coIlegers in the two institutions
closely correspondent one with another The
Erst headmaster Wykehamist and he
carried the discipline and methods of work with
aim to the royal college. Elton, ike Winches-
te- richly endowed; and while the royal
foundation source Of danger during
periods of intrigue and warfare between the
Roses the storm and stress of Professionalism
and reaction and the crisis of the Common
wealth. the governing body was always flexible
In adapting itself to conditions and sue
decided in retaining the bulk of Its property
One loss during the Tudor period never
made good-the provost's London residence, the
Leper's Hospital, which the site of St
with either
of PiccadflJy; but the income, after alternately
rising and falling with accessons to the throne,
ultimately increased by leaps and bounds as
Eton became the training school for young
nobIemen of the kingdom and sons of rich men.
With over LOO students and between sixty and
seventy instructors, it is now the largest and
most prosperous English public school.
The development of the medieval secular
college into the modernized school has been
more complete at Elton than at old fashioned
Winchester. The seventy colegers still wear
GOWNS in school and surpIces in chapel and
have dinner and supper in the quaint hall, with |
It's gaudy screen and huge fireplaces; but they
live more comfortably and have more privacy
than in the old days, the Long Chamber of the
school yard having been subdvided into cubicals
and ADDITIONAL accommodation having been pro-
vided for them in the newer buildings in Yves
toms Yard. The thousand or more Orphans,
In characteristic Elton costume, live in twenty
seven large boarding houses in Keates Lane
and other streets adjacent to the college. Some
of these gabIed houses are picturesque, and all
are comfortable residences, with a separate
room for every student. The collegers pay |
about 500 a year, their scholarships being /
roughly estimated worth about $500 an |
nualy; but few oppidans get off with less than |
81 600 when their entrance and school fees |
their house payments, their private tuition |
charges, their athletic and club subscriptions |
and their miscellaneous expenses are footed up. /
In return for the increased cost there is varied
and comprehensive cvrse of instruction in /
classics, mathematics, science, modern Ian
guages music and art; and men are trained /
not only for the universities, but also for the /
army, the navy and the Civil Service With the
enlargement OF the courses the original accom- /
modations of the Upper and Lower schools have |
been supplemented by many groups of nine !