St. Paul's School, Concord, probably has as great a variety of winter sports as any school in the country, and, as at Lawrenceville, every student is expected to take his part in some athletic exercise. A few years ago tobogganing was one of the most popular winter sports, but of late hockey has rather usurped its prominence.
LOOKING ACROSS THE LOWER POND TOWARDS THE CHAPEL, ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL.
St. Paul's has a toboggan slide nearly 1000 feet long, with a fall of 250 feet. Four years ago, before the Canadian game came in vogue, every boy had a toboggan, or a share in one; now not fifty care for it. Snow-shoeing and winter trapping, on the other hand, are rapidly growing in popularity. There are many opportunities for the pursuit of both these sports, and probably one out of every ten boys in the school has trophies of his traps upon his walls.
THE UPPER POND, ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL.
Skating is indulged in by the great majority of the students. There are two ponds by the school—the Upper and the Lower ponds. These, with the connecting "strait" and the adjacent "gulfs" (actually large puddles)—"Mexico" and "Guinea"—offer a skating surface large enough to accommodate 5000 people.
Every one plays hockey. Each building has a team, each "form" (i.e., class), and often scrub teams representing the various tables play for the championship of the dining-room. All this is more or less "scrub." The greater interest centres in the club games. In this sport, as in every other, except rowing, the school is divided into three clubs—Old Hundred, Isthmian, and Delphian. Every boy joins some club. In hockey alone each club has a first, second, and third team.