9. ROWING AND GAMES 252 10. YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY 286 INDEX 331 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR FACE PAGE The Great Court of Eton College _Frontispiece_ The Oppidan’s Museum or Eton Court of Claims at the Christopher 116 Ad Montem, 1838 144 The Cloisters of Eton College 158 The College Hall before Restoration 164 The Chapel before Restoration 184 A Colleger, 1816 196 Eton College from the River 328 IN BLACK AND WHITE Eton in the Seventeenth Century 16 Eton College from Crown Corner 32 Headmaster’s Room, showing Swishing Block and Birches 82 Jack Hall, Fisherman of Eton 102 Herbert Stockhore, the “Montem Poet,” going to Salt Hill in 1823 129 The Montem of 1823 130 The Montem of 1841--The March round the School-Yard 140 Old Oak Panelling formerly in Eton Chapel 174 Carved and Decorated Organ Case formerly in Eton Chapel 176 James Culliford, the last Chief Butler of College to wear the livery of Eton blue 202 Old College Servants 206 Sixth-Form Bench 226 Say Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race, Disporting on thy margent green. The paths of pleasure trace.--_Gray’s Ode_ 242 I EARLY DAYS Amongst public schools Eton admittedly occupies a unique position. Every one admires the beauty of its surroundings, whilst to those possessed of imagination--more especially, of course, if they are Etonians--the school and its traditions cannot fail to appeal. In addition to many of its associations being connected with glorious chapters of English history, the old quadrangle, chapel, and playing fields possess a peculiar charm of their own, due to a feeling that the spirit of past ages still hovers around them. There is, indeed, a real sentimental pleasure in the thought that many of England’s greatest men laid the foundations of brilliant and successful careers amidst these venerable and picturesque surroundings. No other school can claim to have sent forth such a cohort of distinguished figures to make their mark in the world; and of this fine pageant of boyhood not a few, without doubt, owed their success to the spirit of manly independence and splendid unconscious happiness which the genius of the place seems to have the gift of bestowing.