[Illustration: 1. ETON COLLEGE FROM THE PLAYING FIELDS.]
[Illustration: 2. THE CRICKET-GROUND.]
Soon the famous Eton College comes into view on the northern bank of the
river--an institution dear to the memory of many English schoolboys. The
village consists of a long, narrow street which is extended across an
iron bridge to Windsor, on the southern bank of the Thames. Henry VI.
founded the "College of the Blessed Mary of Eton beside Windsor" as
early as 1440. The older parts of the buildings are of red brick, with
stone dressings and quaint, highly ornamental chimneys, and they are
clustered around two quadrangles. Here are the Lower and Upper Schools
and the Long Chamber. About thirty-five years ago fine new buildings
were erected in similar style to the old buildings, which provide a
beautiful chapel, schools, and library (though books are said to be
scarce there), and extensive dormitories. Adjoining them to the
north-east are the Playing Fields on the broad green meadows along the
river's edge, with noble elms shading them. In the Upper School of the
ancient structure high wooden panelling covers the lower part of the
walls, deeply scarred with the names of generations of Eton boys crowded
closely together. In earlier times all used to cut their names in the
wood, but now this sculpturing is only permitted to those who attain a
certain position and leave without dishonor. Thus the panelling has
become a great memorial tablet, and above it, upon brackets, are busts
of some of the more eminent Etonians, including the Duke of Wellington,
Pitt, Fox, Hallam, Fielding, and Gray. In the library are kept those
instruments of chastisement which are always considered a part of
schoolboy training, though a cupboard hides them from view--all but the
block whereon the victim kneels preliminary to punishment. More than
once have the uproarious boys made successful raids and destroyed this
block or carried it off as a trophy. But vigorous switching was more a
habit at Eton in former days than it is now. Of Head-master Keate, who
was a famous flogger a half century ago, and would frequently practise
on a score of boys at one _seance_, the scholars made a calculation to
prove that he spent twice as much time in chastisement as in church, and
it is recorded that he once flogged an entire division of eighty boys
without an intermission. On another occasion he flogged, by mistake, a
party who had been sent him for confirmation. Tall stories are also told
of Eton flogging and "rug-riding"--the latter being a process whereby a
heavy boy was dragged on a rug over the floors to polish them. Down to
1840 the Eton dinners consisted entirely of mutton, with cold mutton
served up for supper, but this regulation diet is now varied with an
occasional service of beef and other courses. Games are no
inconsiderable part of the English schoolboy's education, and the Duke
of Wellington said that in the "Playing Fields" of Eton the battle of
Waterloo was won. These fields, "where all unconscious of their doom the
little victims play," contain one of the finest cricket-grounds in
England. The boys divide themselves into "dry bobs" and "wet bobs," the
former devoted to cricket and the latter to boating. The procession of
the boats is the great feature of June 4th, the "Speech Day." Of late
years the Eton volunteer corps has attained great proficiency, being a
battalion of over three hundred of the larger boys. This famous college
is one of the preparatory schools for the universities. It is a world in
miniature, where the boy finds his own level, and is taught lessons of
endurance, patience, self-control, and independence which stand him in
good service throughout after-life.