March 31, 1902, King Edward VII appointed a commission of nine “to enquire into the opportunities for physical training now available in the State-aided schools and other educational institutions of Scotland; and to suggest means by which such training may be made to conduce to the welfare of the pupils; and further, how such opportunities may be increased by continuation classes and otherwise, so as to develop, in their practical application to the requirements of life, the faculties of those who have left the day schools, and thus to contribute towards the sources of national strength.” This commission reported under date of March 14, 1903,[176] and perusal of the second volume shows the Swedish system still in use in elementary schools for girls under the London School Board, and in two Merchant Company’s higher schools for girls in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Ladies’ College and George Watson’s Ladies’ College. Having regard to the findings of this Royal Commission an “Interdepartmental (_i.e._, English and Scotch) Committee on the Model Course of Physical Exercises,” under date of March 10, 1904, presented to both Houses of Parliament a report directed to “the Right Honorable the Lord President of the (English) Board of Education and the Right Honorable the Vice-President of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education in Scotland.”[177] On pp. 10-49 is the proposed Syllabus of Physical Exercises, based in general on the Swedish system. In consequence of this report the English Board of Education published its first official “Syllabus of Physical Exercises for Use in Public Elementary Schools” in 1904.[178] The next year it was reprinted, with slight alterations; but the third edition,[179] four years later, contains “further amendments and extensive revisions, which are based upon experience.... Speaking generally the new Syllabus, like its predecessor, is based on the Swedish system of educational gymnastics which has been adopted in several European countries, and is now the basis of physical training in the Army and Navy in this country” (p. vi). The part played by Denmark in this transplantation of an alien system to British soil has been already indicated (p. 192). Even in the endowed Public Schools, the very strongholds of athletic sports, we find it introduced as a general requirement, to supplement the effects of outdoor recreation. Lieutenant F. H. Grenfell, who had taken work at the Stockholm Central Institute of Gymnastics, brought it to Eton College in 1907, and Captain E. C. Brierly, of the Army, undertook a similar task at Rugby in September of 1911. Harrow and Winchester, at least, among the other public schools, also possess gymnasia in addition to their extensive playgrounds. [Illustration: FIG. 55.—Eton College: The Gymnasium (1913).] [Illustration: FIG. 56.—Rugby School: The Gymnasium (From H. H. Hardy’s “Rugby”).]