ABSTRACT
A public school in those old days might be Paradise to the Tom Browns, but it was purgatory to the luckless lads marked out for brutality by the thinness of their skins. The training it gives is of the rough and ready order, with plenty of hard blows and little allowance for sentiment. It may be that the recent edifying discussions upon our great schools have revived in outsiders certain old-fashioned reflections not quite in accordance with the orthodox opinions of to-day. Few things are more astonishing to such observers than that mysterious sanctity which broods over such places as Eton and Winchester. The governing classes in England prefer certain schools; and the schools which they prefer are attended by the governing classes. Infinite collation of bluebooks and study of inspectors' reports and balancings of the opinions of foreign observers would be necessary for such a task.
