THE ETON SYSTEM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " spiecTAToan SIR,—I am obliged to your critic for a review of my novel, "Kate Grenville," in the Spectator of September 12th, in which he deals, I am afraid, too leniently with the plot and writing of the story, and I do not quarrel with him for dis- senting from my suggestion that a poacher may be actuated not entirely by sordid motives, but occasionally by a love of sport, like his betters. That is a matter on which your critic is entitled to his own opinion; but I think he should have read what I had to say on the Eton system, and not condemned me for entertaining views thereon of which no trace can be found in the book.
I never said "that the genius and industry of the oppidans is sacrificed to a system of routine which gives undue advan- tage to the King's scholars." I never said one word as to the relative advantages and disadvantages annexed to the position of oppidans and King's scholars, or collegers as they are usually called, but a good deal might be said on that subject. As regards their place in the school, collegers are under some disadvantage as compared with oppidans, for it is one of the many absurdities of the Eton system that a colleger's place is regulated not by the number of marks he gets in the entrance examination, but by the number of vacancies in college. A boy who passes for colleba, and is admitted in September, finds himself two divisions higher than a boy who is not admitted till the ensuing summer half, but if all the vacancies had occurred in September both boys would have been in the same division. This absurdity and many others I did not touch upon. What I showed was that a boy who was no scholar might be higher in school order than an older boy who had proved himself to be a very good scholar. A striking illustration of this peculiarity of the Eton system took place in the last examination for the Newcastle Scholarship. Waterlow, K.S., who won the scholarship, had seventy-six boys above him in the school list. This is, I think, a circumstance worthy of the attention of the governing body of Eton.
Truth is stranger than fiction. I greatly understated the case against the Eton system. All I ventured to suggest was that while an indifferent scholar might be in the sixth form —i.e., in the first twenty—the best oppidan in the school might not have achieved that distinction ; I did not venture to contemplate so great an absurdity as the unearthing of a Newcastle scholar towards the bottom of the third division. May I add that I am no hostile critic; while I am alive to the defects of the system, I acknowledge with pride and satisfac- tion that on the whole, taking it all round, the training a boy gets at Eton is the best in the world.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
