| £ | s. | d. | |
| Board and washing | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| Public tuition and school charges | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| Entrance to school and house | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Private tuition | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | 11 | 0 |
Of course the 16l. entrance fees do not come in again, but this is more than spent on extras. There are subscriptions to endless things and payments for extra tuition, for which a long list of printed names on the first account in some measure prepares the unhappy parent, who somehow never is prepared, for the extraordinary amount of new clothes, mending, hair-cutting, and other trifles, which go to sum up the accounts in the ensuing terms.
Eton seems to me to cost about 20l. a year more, and the bills of one term are as follows:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Board and tuition | 44 | 0 | 0 |
| Washing | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| Head master, school instruction, &c. | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 54 | 8 | 7 |
This is without entrance fee, and the extras seem to me to be rather more frequent, while Rugby is considerably less than either, the bills there being as under:
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Tuition | 13 | 6 | 8 |
| Boarding | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| School stationery (this varies) | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| Medical officer | 0 | 10 | 6 |
| 39 | 7 | 2 |
Both at Eton and Rugby the allowance given by the house master is 1s. a week, at Harrow 2s., but besides this of course the boys take money to school. The smaller boys at Harrow should not have more than 3l. during the term, and out of this they must pay sundry subscriptions. At Eton I think the pocket-money can be almost anything, while at Rugby 3l. does until the boy gets into the Sixth, when he should have more money, and when the books, a heavy item in most school bills, are far more expensive than they were in the lower forms.
Individually I know most of Harrow, as I said before; but, as these bills have been copied from actual accounts rendered to friends of my own, I think I am justified in printing them, and they will also serve as a guide to those parents who are hesitating where to put down their boys’ names, a ceremony which should take place when the boys are about six or seven; and if the parents have no ‘traditions,’ and are not wedded to any special school by reason of the father having been there before, or relations on either side having been in the special school, the school should be chosen in some measure to suit the boy’s health, and also in some measure his future occupation. I should not send a lad who was going to work in any shape or form to Eton. That school should be reserved for those useless individuals, who toil not neither do they spin, nor should I send a boy to Harrow who intended to go in for trade or anything save one of the learned professions. Those who have a big business to go into might be sent to Rugby or Clifton, but I should prefer to let them attend St. Paul’s or the London University School, or else send them to Bedford or a similar establishment.
When the boys are at school, the holidays should be in some measure legislated for and all arrangements made for the boys’ welfare; and of course no parent who cared for his or her children would possibly be away from home or out of reach of the boys during that time: the parents’ holidays, which are as important in some measure as the children’s, should come off when school has begun again, but on no account should they occur when the boys are at home; and if possible the summer holidays should be spent by the sea, the beloved sea, which, as fashion changes, is, I am sorry to say, becoming unpopular, and is left alone by those who are fashion led, and in consequence impelled towards the country or ‘foreign parts.’