Apart from the ceremonial of Eton and Christ Church for the aristocracy, ...

Apart from the ceremonial of Eton and Christ Church for the aristocracy, a public-school education was no necessary part of the social curriculum.

Of Victorians born in good circumstances, neither Macaulaynor Tennyson, Newman, Disraeli, or Harcourt got their schooling that way, and at the University or in after-life it made no difference. The Old Giggleswickian was not yet a named variety.' The first old man I have noticed is, as might be expected, an old Rugboean in 1840. A man born in the fifties told me that until he was twelve he was intended for the local grammar school, as the family could only support one son at Eton.

A discovery of coal on the estate altered the position.

He

had to begin by learning

English in place of the N. Riding dialect which was his native speech. Indeed, if the grammar schools had been equipped for their task, it is very probable that our higher education would, to our great advantage, have developed on a less expensive, less exclusive, basis.

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