school was, as he remarks, that parents in this class did not care about
learning; they wished their children to be gentlemen, and to be 'bold
and active, and to make friends and to enjoy themselves, and most of
them had their wish.'

The second good point in the school is more remarkable. 'There was,'
says Fitzjames, 'a complete absence of moral and religious enthusiasm.
The tone of Rugby was absolutely absent.' Chapel was simply a kind of
drill. He vividly remembers a sermon delivered by one of the Fellows, a
pompous old gentleman, who solemnly gave out the bidding prayer, and
then began in these words, 'which ring in my ears after the lapse of
more than forty years.' 'The subject of my discourse this morning, my
brethren, will be the duties of the married state.' When Balston was
examined before a Public Schools Commission, he gave what Fitzjames
considers 'a perfectly admirable answer to one question.' He had said
that the Provost and Fellows did all the preaching, and was asked
whether he did not regret that he could not, as headmaster, use this
powerful mode of influencing the boys? 'No,' he said; 'I was always of
opinion that nothing was so important for boys as the preservation of
Christian simplicity.' 'This put into beautiful language,' says my
brother, 'the truth that at Eton there was absolutely no nonsense.' The
masters knew that they had 'nothing particular to teach in the way of
morals or religion, and they did not try to do so.'

The merits thus ascribed to Eton were chiefly due, it seems, to the
neglect of discipline and of teaching. My brother infers that good
teaching at school is of less importance than is generally supposed. I
shall not enter upon that question; but it is necessary to point out
that whatever the merits of an entire absence of moral and religious
instruction, my brother can hardly be taken as an instance. At this time
the intimacy with his father, already close, was rapidly developing. On
Sunday afternoons, in particular, my father used to walk to the little
chapel near Cumberland Lodge, in Windsor Park, and on the way would
delight in the conversations which so profoundly interested his son. The
boy's mind was ripening, and he was beginning to take an interest in
some of the questions of the day. It was the time of the Oxford
movement, and discussions upon that topic were frequent at home.
Frederick Gibbs held for a time a private tutorship at Eton while
reading for a fellowship