The accompanying portrait of Jack Shepherd, who for fifty-three years
was so familiar a figure with the Fife Hounds, is reproduced from a
photograph of a picture recently painted by Mr. A. F. Lucas Lucas as a
companion to that of old Tom Carr, a former huntsman of the Bentley
Harriers, also the work of Mr. Lucas Lucas. Jack Shepherd has a great
record as a hunt servant. Born in 1835, he was very early entered to the
work of the kennel, for at the age of 8 years he went to assist his
father, who for thirty-five years held the office of feeder to the Fife
Hounds. During the fifty-three years that Jack Shepherd was with the
Fife there were naturally many changes in the Mastership of the pack;
and as kennel huntsman he served under the late Colonel Anstruther
Thompson and Colonel Cheape, Colonel Babington, Sir Arthur Halkett, Mr.
R. Wemyss, and Major Middleton. In commemoration of his fifty years’
service with the Fife Hounds, Jack Shepherd was presented with a silver
horn and a purse of gold subscribed by nearly two hundred of his
admirers in Fifeshire. Last year he went as kennel huntsman to the
Bentley Harriers, of which Mrs. Cheape is “Master.” It will be
remembered that Mrs. Cheape, well known as “The Squire,” hunted the
Bentley herself for many years; in fact, until she met with an accident
last season. The picture, which was painted for Mrs. Cheape, represents
Jack on his favourite mare, Whitethorn, with three and a half couple of
the Bentley Harriers—Willing, Racket, Wanderer, Butterfly, Demon, Druid,
and Lancelot by name.
The Preparatory School.
The last half century has seen a very great increase in the number of
preparatory schools. As demand and supply always depend on each other,
it is not difficult to see from this that the practice of sending boys
to preparatory schools is becoming yearly more customary, and it must be
admitted that this is of the greatest value in laying the foundations of
a sound education and healthy constitution.
It is impossible to overrate the important effect which the preparatory
school may have upon a boy’s life. It is the gradual substitution of
school discipline for the unfettered liberty of home-life, and a gradual
hardening process whereby the weakling gathers strength. At the age of
eight and a half or nine the bitterness of leaving home is very great,
and those who have the misfortune to be sent to a big school at that
tender age find the plunge very cold indeed. The preparatory is a sort
of half-way house between home and the public school, and not only in
the matter of work but in every department of school life it has the
greatest influence. The intellect of the average boy, when first he goes
to school, is frequently quite frozen, and it sometimes requires several
weeks of untold patience and individual attention before the thaw sets
in. But not only is the mind of the small boy often in the most primary
stages of development, but his physical strength is sadly deficient: and
to plunge him suddenly into the midst of a number of boys far bigger and
stronger than himself may very likely cause him to overtax his forces
and to do himself real physical injury. Further, neither in the
class-room nor in the playing field can he hope to have the same
individual care and attention which is part and parcel of the
preparatory curriculum. It is obvious, for instance, that the ordinary
day at a public school is too long for most boys under fourteen years of
age, and it is interesting to note that the headmaster of Eton is
advocating more sleep for growing boys. Neither is the average boy under
fourteen physically strong enough to rough it in the same way as older
boys; he has no idea of taking care of himself, and would no more think
of voluntarily changing his stockings because they were wet than of
voluntarily going to bed because he was tired. When first a boy goes to
school he cannot, as a rule, think for himself, and the first service
which a preparatory school does for him is to teach him how to think,
and the necessity of so doing. It may be argued that a boy will learn to
think and act for himself far quicker if he is sent at once to a big
school, but this is akin to the argument that throwing a man overboard
is the best way to teach him to swim. It must be admitted, however, that
there is a tendency nowadays to do too much for the boy, and that
feeling of responsibility—which always has such a steadying and
beneficial effect upon a boy’s character—is not sufficiently stimulated,
owing to the overanxiety of parents and masters.
Perhaps the most charming and fascinating of God’s creations is the
manly little boy of three or four years of age, and when first a boy
goes to a preparatory school he retains much of this innocent charm. He
is, as a rule, simplicity itself, and credulous to a degree, whilst
probably at no time in his career is he so impressionable. It is,
therefore, not difficult to see that, at no time in his life, is the
influence which is brought to bear on him of more vital importance.
After four or five years at a preparatory a boy has, or should have, a
certain feeling of self-reliance, and a strong feeling of
self-respect—two very essential attributes to his character when he
enters the larger field of the public school. An excellent feature in
the education of the modern boy is that he is continually rising to the
top, and having to begin at the bottom again; when he is just beginning
to feel a bit big for his boots at the preparatory, he goes on to the
public school, where he is nobody, and has to start climbing up again.
Arrived at the top he goes, or may go, to the ’Varsity, where again—for
a time, at any rate,—he is nobody. Many a man’s character has been
spoilt through the rise and fall not being sufficiently pronounced, and
it is no uncommon thing to hear it said of a man that he was not kicked
enough at school. Whilst a boy’s self-reliance is trained and
stimulated, he learns continually that he is not the only person in the
world, and that self-assertion is not the golden road to success. It is,
however, in the nature of things that the home estimate of a boy should
be somewhat different to that which is formed of him at school, and thus
a boy frequently fails to realise the expectation of his fond parents.
The state of mental ignorance in which some boys come to school is quite
phenomenal, and it is no uncommon thing to find a new boy who actually
cannot spell his own name or add three and four together. His very
ignorance has led him to make droll remarks at home, which have, of
course, been regarded as the soul of wit, and by mistaking instinct for
intelligence, an entirely false estimate of his capabilities is
frequently arrived at. So many small boys dislike reading, but are quite
content to be read to—one of the primary causes of backwardness—the
result being that when they come to school they have the greatest
difficulty in keeping up with the others. It is most unfair, both to the
master and to the boy, to send a child to school in this lamentable
state of ignorance, and a great deal of valuable time has to be devoted
to teaching a boy the most elementary things which are so easily learnt
at home. A boy of this description could have little or no chance at a
big school with forms of twenty or thirty boys in them, as it would be
quite impossible for the master to give him the necessary amount of
individual attention, whilst even at the preparatory, his progress is
sadly hampered. The effect of this is that he fails to reach the higher
forms of the preparatory school, and some of that essential grounding
has to be hurried over or skipped altogether.
If, on the other hand, he has learnt to read and write well, and knows
his arithmetic tables thoroughly—quite an unusual accomplishment—and has
also a slight idea of what is meant by a substantive or an adjective, he
has a fair chance of being in the swim, and at the end of his four or
five years at the preparatory he will have passed through the different
forms, each with their fixed standards, and will have received a
thorough grounding which is of the most vital importance to his
subsequent work. The usual number of boys in a form being nine or ten,
it is easy to see that a master will be able to give each boy a
considerable amount of individual attention, and will insist upon his
work being very thorough. It is a mistake for boys to be kept at home
too long, nine years of age being quite the limit, for unless a boy is
exceptionally quick he will not get through the work necessary to enable
him to take a good form at his public school, the advantage of which
cannot be overrated, as he may otherwise vegetate in the lower forms,
and lose all chance of getting to the top of the school.
Next in importance to his mental training, comes the physical
development of the boy. That more attention is being paid nowadays to
the health and strength of small boys is generally admitted. To quote
from a paragraph in the _Field_ of February 10th: “The modern
preparatory schoolmaster has for more than a generation introduced
greater comforts and more liberal diet for small boys, and the physical
effect of it is visible to the eye that can recall and compare the
average size of the twelve-year-old school-boy half a century ago with
his modern representative.”
The old Spartan idea of hardening boys by a system of roughing it can be
carried too far and may have the most detrimental effects. Montesquieu
was not far from the mark when he advocated a liberal diet and moderate
exercise till the age of twenty-one, by which time a man is fully formed
and more fitted to undergo a stricter diet and more violent physical
exertion. Till recent years, however, the reverse has been the case;
school fare was synonymous with the bare necessities of life, plus the
unwholesome concoctions which were eaten at all times of the day at the
tuck-shop, whilst most violent exercise was taken immediately after
dinner, the one square meal of the day. It is a popular fallacy that a
boy has a digestion like an ostrich, but there are many men whose health
has been permanently impaired by the trials to which their digestions
were subjected when they were boys at school. One has memories of what,
in school-boy parlance, were called “stodgers” (being square slabs of
warm dough made palatable by a covering of burnt sugar), to say nothing
of ices and sweetmeats and such like unwholesome things. Needless to
say, the tuck-shop is a thing unknown at the preparatory school.
The ordinary day at the preparatory generally begins at about 7.30 a.m.
At some schools the boys are taken for a short walk of about twenty
minutes’ duration, with a sprint of a hundred yards about half way to
warm them up and fill their lungs with fresh air, but this has the
disadvantage of being somewhat dependent on the weather, and therefore
liable to be irregular, when it ceases to be beneficial. At other
schools it is the custom to do half-an-hour or an hour’s work before
breakfast, which, in summer, at any rate, is no hardship, and this has
the advantage of lengthening the play hours later in the day. If,
however, small boys are to do much work before breakfast, they should
have a cup of cocoa or milk before they begin. Breakfast, which should
be a liberal meal, is generally at eight or half-past, and in winter
this should always begin with a plate of well-cooked porridge. A doctor
in the north was once heard to complain that he got nothing to do
because “all the inhabitants began the day by putting themselves outside
a big poultice of porridge.” If this is followed by either fish, eggs,
bacon, or sausages, with plenty of marmalade, there is little danger of
colds or chills. Weather permitting, the boys go out for half-an-hour
after breakfast in the grounds, or there are classes with easy exercises
in the gymnasium—a very necessary adjunct to every preparatory,
especially in wet weather. From two and a half to three hours is the
usual amount of work done in the morning, leaving an interval of
three-quarters of an hour or an hour before lunch. At some schools an
interval is taken in the middle of the morning, and work then goes on
till dinner time; but the hour or three-quarters of an hour before
dinner is very useful, especially in the summer, when the senior boys
have cricket practice in the nets and are individually coached by the
masters; whilst some of the boys have boxing, fencing, carpentry, or
music lessons. Most preparatory schools possess swimming baths, and
those boys who are not otherwise employed are generally permitted to
bathe before dinner, under the supervision of a master, and nearly every
boy learns to swim before he leaves school. The bathe seldom is allowed
to exceed five or six minutes. Dinner is always a liberal meal, with
plenty of vegetables, milk puddings, and so forth.
In the summer it is sometimes found advisable to work for an hour or an
hour and a-half after dinner, leaving the cooler part of the day for
cricket, which is continued till tea time. In the winter, on the other
hand, the boys change fairly soon after dinner, and play football for an
hour (generally Association, which is more suitable for small boys),
after which they are free to carpenter, play racquets, or, at some
schools, play golf. If the grounds are fairly large, a small nine-hole
golf course is very easily laid out, and affords a vast amount of
amusement and gentle exercise, and teaches a boy to keep his eye on the
ball. Several schools are making little rifle ranges, which should serve
a most useful purpose. The training of the eye cannot be begun too
young, and every boy should be taught to handle a rifle. Work in the
gymnasium should be as light as possible, heavy exercises having a
tendency to develop the larger muscles at the expense of the smaller
ones, and boys should never be in the gymnasium without someone in
attendance. In winter, afternoon school generally begins at 4.30 and
continues till 6 p.m., the usual hour for tea all the year round. At
some schools the boys do an hour’s preparation after tea, but it is
generally found that at this early age they are, for the most part,
unable to concentrate their attention on one thing without assistance
for any great length of time, and very frequently school continues from
6.30 or 7 till 8 p.m. After evening prayers or chapel they have a light
supper of milk and buns, going off to bed about half-past eight. As most
boys “live every minute of the day,” they are generally ready for bed
and sleep without rocking. To quote from the _Field_ again: “Nine hours
between the sheets is not a moment too much for growing boys who have
been taxing mind or muscle, or both, from réveille to tattoo, barring
interludes of meal times. Among luxuries for the young few are greater
than sleep, and none does less harm even when bountifully conceded.”
Every attempt is made at the preparatory to discover and foster any
hobby which a boy may have, and the school library will probably contain
many books on natural history, engineering, locomotion, electricity,
shooting, fishing, sailing, and so forth, in addition to the usual
novels. Perhaps no books are in greater demand than those of William J.
Long, “Beasts of the Field,” “Fowls of the Air,” “School of the Woods,”
and of Seton Thompson; though Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Stanley
Weyman, and Max Pemberton are great favourites. Kingsley, Merriman, and
R. L. Stevenson are mostly read by the bigger boys. Some schools have a
small natural history museum, with collections of birds’ eggs, fossils,
moths and butterflies; but the small boy has not, as a rule, sufficient
patience and perseverance to make him a good collector. Stamp-collecting
has many devotees, but by far the commonest hobby is photography, though
good results are seldom obtained by the majority. It is also a common
idea for boys to have little plots of garden, over which they spend no
end of time and trouble; although their industry has frequently little
to show for it, a love for flowers and an interest in gardening is often
engendered. Anything, in fact, which serves to occupy boys’ minds, and
which makes them think, is of the utmost value. The boy who can amuse
himself is quite the exception, and it is one of the objects of the
preparatory school to teach him how to do so.
In conclusion, it may be said that the chief functions of the
preparatory school are the gradual substitution of school discipline for
the liberty of home, the gradual training of a mind, generally quite
unaccustomed to think, till it is able to understand and think for
itself; the gradual development of the body, the encouragement in every
form of manly pastimes and interesting hobbies; last, but not least, the
engendering of that spirit of self-reliance and self-respect which are
the safest armour a boy can have in the battle of life.