Floreat Etona: Anecdotes and Memories of Eton CollegeNevill, Ralph
History
Floreat Etona: Anecdotes and Memories of Eton College
Nevill, Ralph
Eton College
At various periods since the last date ephemeral publications have
intermittently appeared. These, however, are scarcely of sufficient
importance to require mention, the majority having enjoyed but a very
brief existence. The most recent of these journalistic efforts was the
_Eton Illustrated Magazine_, two numbers of which made their appearance
at the beginning of the present year (1911). Though a third was
announced, the magazine came to a premature end, owing, it was said, to
the censorship exercised by the authorities. According to an unwritten
law, no reference must be made to the Eton Officers’ Training Corps,
and owing to this and the suppression of skits and humorous paragraphs,
it was decided to suspend publication.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century one of the most prominent
Etonians was William Windham, in after-life a powerful politician, and
“the darling of Norfolk.” At school he achieved distinction as a fine
scholar, besides being “the best cricketer, the best leaper, swimmer,
rower, and skater, the best fencer, the best boxer, the best runner,
and the best horseman of his time.”
The owner of a splendid estate--Felbrigg Hall--Windham was the
beau-ideal of an English gentleman, whose merits were recognised alike
by friend and foe.
Heath was succeeded in the headmastership by Dr. Goodall, under whose
mild and easy-going rule discipline continued to be lax. Owing,
however, to the warm affection and patronage of George III., the
school continued to prosper, its numbers rising under Goodall to 511.
Of fine appearance and courteous bearing, he is said to have looked
every inch an Eton Headmaster. Devoted to the school where, as a
scholar and assistant master, he had passed most of his life, he was
an ultra-Conservative in everything which appertained to it; under his
rule no changes took place.
[SN: DR. GOODALL]
Probably this Headmaster never appeared to better advantage when, after
the glorious battle of Trafalgar, he publicly called up Horace Nelson,
nephew of the immortal admiral, and in a kind and delicate manner
informed him of his heroic uncle’s death. Though the tears were visible
in the boy’s eyes, Dr. Goodall’s well-chosen words soothed his grief,
and there lurked on his countenance a smile of delight at the greatest
victory ever gained by this country in any naval engagement over a
gallant foe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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