A history of Eton college

Preface

It would seem as if some apology were due for the publication of this book. Eton has been a fruitful, perhaps too fruitful, source of inspiration to writers of all ages in the nineteenth century. The attractiveness of the subject cannot be gainsaid; but it may fairly be asked. Why write another book when there is nothing new to be said, no new record to be discovered ; why try and glean in a field which has been reaped close, and swept clean, moreover, by other gleaners before ?

Yet the series of English Public Schools in course of publication by Messrs. Duckworth & Co. could hardly be complete without the inclusion of some account of Eton College ; hence the present work.

The general history of Eton College has been completed and added to from time to time by Sir Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte, K.C.B., Deputy-Keeper of the Records, than whom no one by inclination or experience could be better fitted for his task. A third edition of his work has just been issued to the public. It should be clearly understood that no writer can hope to add anything of vi PREFACE

importance to the history of Eton College, as set forth in Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte's monumental work.

The history of the buildings of Eton College — a most interesting subject in itself — has been set forth in minute detail, and with the greatest care and accuracy, by Mr. John Willis Clark, Registrary of the University of Cambridge, in the chapters on King's College and Eton College, which are embodied in the Architectiir'al History of the University of Cambridge^ compiled by Mr. Clark and the late Professor Willis. It is to be hoped that this valuable contribution to the history of Eton and King's may some day be issued in a separate volume.

The general history of King's College, Cambridge, so closely associated with that of Eton College, has recently been set forth, in what will probably prove a final form, by the present Provost of King's, the Rev. Augustus Austen-Leigh.

The biogi'aphies of famous Etonians have been collected by various writers, such as Mr. J. Heneage Jesse and Sir Edward S. Creasy, to say nothing of so famous a work as Harwood's Alumni Etonenses. They are now about to be put into a final shape in the sympathetic hands of Mr Arthur C. Benson. Mr. Chetwynd- Stapylton's Eton Sclwol Lists have, in spite of many inaccuracies, proved an inexhaustible mine of information.

The various books in which stories have been col-

PREFACE vii

lected of Eton and Eton boys are very numerous, and continue at the present day to multiply their progeny. The same may be said of those in which the doughty deeds of Etonians on the river, the cricket-field, and elsewhere are recounted with Homeric enthusiasm, and perhaps also with something of Virgilian piety.

With all these books on Eton the present volume does not hope or wish to compete. An attempt has been made to give a short narrative touching on the most important features of the history of Eton College, without however making it any the less necessary to refer to the more important works of Sir H. C. Maxwell- Lyte and Mr. J. W. Clark ; and also to make such allusion to the various books of reminiscences, such as Etoniana and others, as may create in the stranger, not only in the Etonian, a desire to become more closely acquainted with the peculiar intimate atmosphere which envelops Eton and Eton boys, and converts apparently trivial and commonplace occurrences or sayings into events as important as any recorded in Herodotus, Livy, or the Student's Hume.

Thanks are specially due to Mr. Arthur C.Benson and Mr. Ingalton Drake for permission to use some of the negatives taken in view of Mr. Benson's forthcomingwork ; to Mr. Philip Norman for the use of the beautiful drawings here reproduced ; to Mr. Thomas Carter for the viii PREFACE

use of some new photographs taken by him at Eton ; to Earl Waldegrave for permission to reproduce the portrait of the fifth Earl ; and also to Mr. W. Essington Hughes for permission to reproduce the curious portrait of the founder, Henry VI., which was copied from the original in the British Museum at Mr. Hughes's expense. The author has also to thank Mr. Reginald J. Smith, Q.C., for his kindness in reading the proofs, and for much sympathetic advice.

i

ETONENSIBUS OMNIBUS

UBICUNQUE

ER ORBEM TERRARUM

DISPERSIS

HUNC LIBELLUM

ETONENSIS SCRIPTOR

ETONENSIS EDITOR

CONDICAVERUNT

MDCCCXCIX

Contents

PREFACE

CHAF.

I, FOUNDATION AND EARLY HISTORY OF ETON COLLEGE