FAGGING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The article on fagging in your laSt issue contains statements 'which -should not pass unchallenged. - First, it is • assumed- that all' public schools- approximate' to the same type. This is largely a myth. They differ very greatly among themselves:e.g., as to fagging, powers of prefects, &c. It is always dangerous to generalize—fetv can know intimately more than two or three schools. As to the unhappy early years, I have been* assured quite spontaneously by many boys that they went to their public school fully expecting to be freely ragged as new boys : they had been 'surprised by the complete absence of such treatment and by the con. sideration meted out to them on all hands ; they had been supremely happy from the earliest days of school life.
Then I would protest most strongly against the idea implied in the phrase " the strait-jacket." The public schools are not turning out boys all ,.of O. type _ they, differ as much as the schools themselves,, and I feel sure that most headmasters and assistants are striving to give every 'opportunity for free developinents of every 'kind. We are only too glad if we find a boy Striking Out 'a distinctive line for hiMielf—We deplore as 'much as anyone the innate conservatism and ccinveii- tionality of the average htiman being. The 'more I see 'of public school boys, the more I realiie hovigreatly they differ one frorn another--LschoOti are no longer beds of Piocrustes I doubt if they'eVex were.
But one must not 'generalize aM, Sir; &c., Taunton School, Taunton. H. ltricnoLsoN.
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