earliest years in History, Geography, Poetry, Singing, and Drawing The Latin required at public school entrance examinations is not, or never need be, such a bugbear as to hinder any of these, or to shut out opportunities for talks and indirect lessons on flowers, birds, rocks, and the other wonders of nature, which, or at least some of which, a child must be taught to observe and love, if he is to get full happiness out of his life hereafter.

Nothing is said as to the routine of work after 11. Unless in a few special cases a boy will rarely change Preparatory Schools after 11. It is better for him not to change later than ten. But, if he is at a lady's school where boys are regularly kept till the Public School age, there is no reason why he should not stay there. The difficulties of discipline and morals inseparable from the difference of sex are not insuperable. Women have evidently grappled with and mastered the momentous games question; there is no reason at all why, when they know that there is a moral question, they should not grapple with and master that. There is some reason to suppose that a large number of women are, or at any rate have been in the past, ignorant that there is a moral question anent boys, as men understand it.

It is satisfactory that all except one of the Head Mistresses of boys' schools who replied to the queries sent them keep the supreme power and discipline in their own hands. It is absolutely essential for the well-being of a school that the real head of it should keep in his or her own hands the supreme authority in all matters of discipline and morality. It is most distinctly not enough for ladies who keep boys beyond the ages of 10 and 11 to have a responsible master to cope with the difficulties into which his sex will perhaps naturally give him a readier insight. The chief part of the teaching may be relegated to a wisely-chosen subordinate without any risk; but in matters moral and disciplinary-and especially moral-no one who does not bear the real burden of responsibility can fully realise all that that responsibility implies.

CHARLES D. OLIVE.

THE PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT AT PUBLIC

SCHOOLS.

THE ground which is covered at what are generally called Preparatory Schools is, at Clifton, worked by two separate and entirely distinct departments, called respectively, the "Junior School" and "Preparatory School." Of these, the latter takes boys up to eleven years, at which age they pass into the Junior School, where they remain till they are about fourteen, when they enter the Upper School. Before entering into any details of the management and arrangements of these departments, it is necessary to give a short account of their history and growth, for they were originated at different times, and the Preparatory School may be regarded as an attempt to meet certain requirements suggested by the working of the Junior School.

Clifton College was opened under Dr. Percival, the present Bishop of Hereford, in September, 1862, with sixty-nine boys, of whom twenty-eight were boarders and forty-one town boys. In the next term there were forty-six new boys, of whom twenty-six were town boys. Some of these town boys subsequently became boarders, but at this early stage of the school's existence it must be noted that the town or day boys were considerably in excess of the boarders. It appears from the Register that the formation of a department for younger boys was contemplated before the end of 1862, i.e., before the end of the first term of the school's life, and the idea of a Junior School may therefore be said to date from the beginning of Clifton College. But the arrangements contemplated were not completed till April, 1863, when a small private Preparatory School was incorporated with the College, and the Junior School was opened with twenty-seven boys, of whom ten were town boys and seventeen boarders. Both Upper and Junior School continued to grow, but while in the former the proportion of the town boys to boarders showed a tendency to diminish, in the latter it steadily increased. It would seem that while the Junior School provided for the Upper School a certain number of boys who were trained on the lines adopted at Clifton, and thereby helped to keep up a high standard among candidates for entrance, it was found that in the case of boys entering the Junior at the age of from ten to twelve years there was something wanting both in the method and scope of their elementary training.

It was therefore decided to open a department which should take boys at an earlier age and so prepare them for entering the Junior School. The Preparatory School was accordingly begun in January, 1874.

The proportion of town boys to boarders in the Junior School having increased as has already been pointed out, the Preparatory may be said to have been primarily intended to supply a want among town boys, and though a Preparatory Boarding-house was opened in this year, this department was and has remained mainly a Day School. Apart from the original intention, this is, of course, the development that was to be expected, as on any theory of education the younger the boy the less obvious is the gain to be derived from the exchange of the influences of home life for those of a boarding school.

This is well illustrated by experience at Clifton, where the proportions of town boys to boarders are roughly as follows: In the Upper School as one to two, in the Preparatory School as three to one, while in the Junior School the numbers are equal. To sum up, it may be said that while the Junior School was founded almost with the College itself, the Preparatory School was founded to meet a definite want in the education of little boys living in the town. Clifton claims to have largely solved the problem of successfully educating day boys and boarders together in such a way that day boys are in no sense in an inferior position, and the inter-relation of these two elements will be found, when the detail of organisation is explained, to be an important factor in the life of a young boy at Clifton.

In explaining the organisation of these departments, it is necessary to point out first that although each of them is an integral part of the school, they are, as regards the life of the boys, entirely separated from each other. Both Preparatory and Junior Schools have severally their own school buildings and boarding houses, and the only time at which the three departments of the school are assembled is at the chapel services on Sunday, and occasionally at lectures or school concerts. The boys of one department may not mix in any way with those of another, the only exception being in the case of brothers, who may walk together on Sundays.

Preparatory and Junior boys are allowed to look on at certain school football and cricket matches, but for this purpose each has its own part of the Close. Baths and gymnasium are used by all alike, but at totally different times, so that for instance boys in the Preparatory School are being taught swimming and gymnastics while the Juniors are in school.

The Preparatory School is divided for teaching purposes into three forms of from twelve to fifteen boys each. Latin, French, English subjects, Scripture, Drawing, with a little elementary Natural History or Science, are taught in all forms, and as form subjects. For Mathematics the boys are classified separately into sets. No one learns Greek. Boys are moved into the Junior School at the age of eleven, but this, as will be pointed out later, may or may not mean promotion.

All learn swimming and gymnastics under the school instructors, and the three form-masters personally superintend the cricket and football.

There is one boarding house which takes about fifteen boys,

and inasmuch as there are no boys in this house over eleven, it forms for boys of eight or nine a remarkably easy introduction to school life.

The school hours are the same in total amount as in the Junior School, but the lessons last for either half an hour or three-quarters of an hour; and there is a break for an hour in the middle of the morning, when organised games are played. This shortening of lessons has been found with young boys to be a great success.

The Junior School is divided into six forms of from sixteen to twenty boys each. Latin, English subjects, Scripture, Science, and Drawing are taught throughout as form subjects. French is taught as a form subject in the bottom three forms, but in the upper half of the school it is taught in sets. Greek is taught in the three higher forms but is not compulsory--extra French and Mathematics being accepted as an equivalent. There is also special provision for the training of boys intended for the Navy. For French, Science, and Drawing, the Junior School staff is supplemented by masters from the Upper School.

All lessons last an hour, and the school lessons, including a Sunday lesson in the Old Testament, amount to 29 hours a week. There are two boarding-houses of not more than 30 boys each. In each house there is a resident house tutor besides the house master. The town boys, who are about equal in numbers to the boarders, are divided into two "houses," called North and South Town. Over each there is placed a Master, who is responsible for the welfare and progress of his charge in exactly the same way as a house master in a boarding-house.

These Towns meet at least once a week, when the house master has the opportunity of speaking to his assembled “house,” and of going into matters connected with their library, games, and house life.

The Junior School have their own fives' courts, and the regular games, in which all the masters of the Junior School interest themselves, consist of football (both Association and Rugby), cricket, and fives. Very great care is taken to teach boys, not only the art of cricket and football, but also the spirit in which games ought to be played. The Junior School is allowed to play one foreign match in both cricket and football, but with this exception, the interest of competition is entirely maintained by house matches between the four houses-i.e., two boardinghouses and two Towns." These games excite the keenest interest, and, although the boarding-houses have probably on the average slightly the better of the matches, a "Town" has frequently been "cock-house," and the presence of day boys adds largely to a wholesome rivalry, in which there is no taint of ill-feeling. As a check to any possible excess of "house" feeling, and also to prevent monotony in sides, morning games are organised by houses, and half-holiday games are arranged either by forms or by some classification of the whole school.

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In the boarding-houses the life is almost the same as in an ordinary Preparatory School, and calls for no special comment.

The next point which requires explanation is the way in which these two entirely separate departments of Junior and Preparatory School are bound together so as to form with the Upper School one homogeneous whole.

As regards work, this is done firstly by the arrangement of forms, which is, with one important exception, consecutive from the bottom of the Preparatory to the top of the Upper School.

This exception consists in the fact that the top of each department overlaps the bottom of the one above it. In the Upper School the lowest forms are the Upper, Middle, and Lower Third. The top three forms of the Junior School are considered parallel with these, and are called by the same name, with the addition of the letters J. S. to denote Junior School. The top of the Junior is, however, parallel with the bottom of the Upper School in more than name, for these parallel forms do the same work, read the same books, and are examined by the same examiners on the same papers. In the same way the top forms of the Preparatory, called A and B, overlap the bottom of the Junior School, and are parallel respectively with the Lower Second, and First forms. In promotion this works as follows:-A Junior Schoolboy in the Upper Third can be moved out when old enough-often before fourteen-into the Lower Fourth in the Upper School. If he were fourteen, and in the Lower Third, and not fit for promotion, he would be moved from the Junior School into the parallel form in the Upper School. A removal of this kind from one department to another would not, of course, be promotion.

Another fact which tends to homogeneity is that most, if not all masters, have during some period of their career taught in other departments. Many have taught in all three, and thus there is complete agreement in all three departments as to methods and standards of work.

Lastly, the headmaster gives a due share of his time to all departments alike. He takes each form in the Junior as in the Upper School for at least one hour a term, and he has the whole school together twice every Sunday in chapel. As regards discipline, he personally exercises authority throughout, and all serious matters are submitted to him.

In games, although the departments are distinct and never come into contact, yet the Preparatory and Junior feel that they belong to a big school, and take pride in its achievements.

From this account of the history and organisation of these departments it will be advisable to pass on and try to form some estimate of their real value and attempt to answer the question which is so often asked-Is a Public School the better for having its own Junior departments or not?

At Clifton at any rate there can be no doubt that as far as teaching is concerned the Preparatory School in every way achieves the objects for which it was founded. Preparatory boys have been taught from the first on the lines considered best throughout the school, and they have nothing to unlearn as