It was a life of freedom and
terror, of prosody and rebellion, of interminable floggings and
appalling practical jokes. Keate ruled, unaided--for the
undermasters were few and of no account--by sheer force of
character. But there were times when even that indomitable will
was overwhelmed by the flood of lawlessness. Every Sunday
afternoon he attempted to read sermons to the whole school
assembled; and every Sunday afternoon the whole school assembled
shouted him down. The scenes in Chapel were far from edifying;
while some antique Fellow doddered in the pulpit, rats would be
let loose to scurry among the legs of the exploding boys. But
next morning the hand of discipline would reassert itself; and
the savage ritual of the whipping-block would remind a batch of
whimpering children that, though sins against man and God might
be forgiven them, a false quantity could only be expiated in
tears and blood.
From two sides this system of education was beginning to be
assailed by the awakening public opinion of the upper middle
classes. On the one hand, there was a desire for a more liberal
curriculum; on the other, there was a demand for a higher moral
tone. The growing utilitarianism of the age viewed with
impatience a course of instruction which excluded every branch of
knowledge except classical philology; while its growing
respectability was shocked by such a spectacle of disorder and
brutality as was afforded by the Eton of Keate.
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