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DIFFICULTY OF REFORMS 165
were University dons or even assistant masters rather
than Heads. As to the authors to be read, I suppose that
at every school this had been left to the Headmaster,
and more and more of questions purely educational had
for many years been found to be inevitably outside the
purview of the Goveming Bodies. Not so at Eton. It
was not till I had been in office for many months that I
found myself wholly unable to determine the number of
boys who ought to leam both Latin and Greek. If there
was to be any sensible, cautious change, it involved a slight
alteration of the Entrance Examination. That could only
be by permission of the G.B.
Now, I must make it clear that neither in regard to
this matter nor any other do I wish to hint the slightest
disparagement of tbe care bestowed on Eton by the
Governors, called nowadays the Provost and Fellows.
Many of them were and long had been close personal
friends of my own ; but that fact did not predispose them
to smile upon any proposal of mine which could be construed
as the thin edge of the wedge, threatening to
loosen one tiny stone in the foundations of the " Classical '!
System. Another point to be remembered is, though
they treated me with all consideration and our relations
were most cordial, they harboured quite justifiable suspicion
that I was likely to embark on schemes not fully
thought out. Hence a profound unwillingness for change
and, on my side, ignorance how to deal with such a situation,
However, by hook and by crook, backed up by
some skilful financial adjustments of Rawlins, I was able
to get a gymnasium built, to set going some improvements
in the musical work, and make more than before
of the recitation work of the Vlth Form, and, more important
than anything else whatever, to establish friendly,
confidential relations with the leading boys, captains ef
houses, etc.
Attempts to effect certain lesser changes were not only
abortive but tended to stiffen the authorities into the
conviction that any proposals I had to make were prima