Posted by Robert Hill on 09/06/00 from 129.11.153.35 via proxy proxy1.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: Re: PM: Roger & Latin posted by John Wilson on September 05, 2000 at 12:51:27:
If you're asking whether some of the boarding schools attended by the
S's, A's and D's might have been "state" schools (what would be called
"public" schools in other countries), I think it's very unlikely.
As far as I know there have only ever been very few state boarding
schools in Britain, and they have been mostly limited to special
purposes.
If you mean something else by the distinction between "grammar" and
"public" schools, then I'm not clear what you're trying to ask.
The British (or perhaps I should say English) meaning of the phrase
"public school" is often explained as synonymous with "private school"
but that's an oversimplification. I'll have a go at explaining where I
think it it comes from. I hope others will correct me if I get it
seriously wrong.
If you or I set up a fee-paying school of our own, employed our own
teachers, and lived off whatever was left of the pupils' fees after
paying the teachers and meeting other expenses, then that would be a
"private" school. If we wanted to retire or change occupation we could
close the school down, or more likely sell it to somebody else.
In past centuries there would have been little or no government
regulation. Prospective parents would have little assurance of quality.
I think such schools were often very small with only the head/owner and
one or two assistants.
In contrast with this, "public" schools came into being, founded for
the public good, not for profit; endowed with capital or income (rents
from land??), perhaps by some nobleman, cleric, king, or group of
philanthropists. They would be controlled by some sort of board of
governors or trustees in accordance with the terms of their foundation.
But over time many of them tended to change in nature, becoming less
local in their intake and more oriented to a better-off clientele.
The OED has a long entry for "public school", from which I'll quote a bit:
"... from the 19th century, applied especially to such of the old endowed
grammar-schools as have developed into large, fee-paying boarding schools
drawing pupils from all parts of the country ... "
"State" schools, controlled by national and/or local government, only
begain in the nineteenth century.
Returning to AR, I think Tom Dudgeon is notable as apparently the only
character who attends a day school whose parents could presumaly afford
to send him to a boarding school if they wanted to. I can't remember
whether we have any further clues as to what sort of school it is.