Eton in 1829 - 1830. By T. K. Selwyn. (John Murray. 10s.
6c1. net.)—T. K. Selwyn, younger brother of Lord Justice Selwyn (Senior Classic, 1828) and Bishop G. A. Selwyn, of New Zealand and Lichfield (Second Classic, 1831), was at Eton from 1826 to 1830, when he won the Newcastle Scholarship. He distinguished himself at Cambridge by winning the Greek Ode Medal and the Craven Scholarship and the Senior Chancellor's Modal,—he was too ill to attempt the Tripes. An enthusiastic " wetbob," he amused himself by writing in Thucydidean Greek a narrative of the doings of the boats, along with other cognate matters. This narrative now, after a lapse of seventy-odd years, sees the light, Dr. Warre editing, translating, and annotating it. And a very curious bit of work it is, an extraordinary performance for a boy, not so much for any special excellence of style as from the remarkable command of the language implied. T. K. Selwyn must have had his Greek at his fingers' ends to write so fluently on a subject so much out of the usual classical line. Perhaps the finest example of style is in the description of the melancholy aspect of Eton as contrasted with its usual gaiety (the occasion was the death of George IV.) ; the most sustained effort is the argument—Dr. Warm compares it to the Mellen controversy— with Mr. Coleridge, a master, on the Oppidans coming into the Lower River. Coleridge did not intend to be " shirked." He would go down to Upper Hope, and he goes on : JKei robe 743scGras Jr ertaltet irltarei nal Ade, Zrypaerte, fad was b wapepvineyor sAubserat. But what a place Eton was with its lack of discipline, drinking, and betting !
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