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80 ETON [CHAP.m
sympathy felt, and a wonderful amount of preventive work
done with care and tact began to drive vice into holes and
corners, instead ofletting it flaunt its hideous face in public.
Foremost in this noble work was my old friend H. E.
Luxmoore; who is still with us, full of vigour at eighty-two,
a fine specimen of what Dean Hole's garaener described
as an "octogeranium." Very gradual and unnoticed
was the improvement, and it was retarded in some few
houses ; but both at Eton and elsewhere, as far as I know,
by 1906, no house existed which would be charged with
the flagitious neglect which was common in 1870.
The question of the secret of Eton's spell will be considered
presently._ Here I must point out that it is possible
to exaggerate the number of boys who have passed through
the school with feelings of cordial affection for the place.
For if the truth were known, the number who leave her
chilled at heart is considerable. They are those who
have never reached positions of influence--members of
the community who have never quite got " into the
swim," but were all the time fine specimens, full of quiet
grit of character, and later on showed themselves men of
sterling worth and sometimes of conspicuous ability.
These are they who have had the gift of constancy and
patience ; seeing without bitterness many a meaner soul
preferred 'by an intolerant and blindly judging society.
It should be remembered that at Eton a peculiarity of
the position was the absence of the monitorial system. At
every other school boys of merit and fair ability would
be officially recognized as being. among the leading boys,
though often they were unathletic and consequently
likely to be ignored by ·the vulgwt. At any rate, they
received the mark of adult approval, but how poor and
unsubstantial a meed is that compared with the unthinking
admiration of the multitude I
Something, indeed a good deal, must be put down to the
beauty of the place. The admonitwt locorum; as Cicero
expresses it, tells in different degrees on every temperament;
but very many must have been touched by the