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 A FEW WORDS 
 
 ON THE FUTURE 
 
 OF 
 
 WESTMINSTER SCHOOL 
 
 BY 
 
 J. LEE-WARNEE, M.A. 
 
 FEtLOW AND ASSISTANT TUTOK OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 LATE ASSISTANT -MASTEE AT WESTMINSTEK 
 
 JAMES PAliKER & CO. 
 
 OXFORD, AND 377, STEAND, LONDON 
 18G8
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 BY T. OOMBB, M.A., E. B. GARDNER, E. P. HALL, AND H. LATHAM, M.A, 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
 
 The writer has no other claims to express himself 
 upon the subject of the following pages than the in- 
 terest he cannot cease to feel in it, after his recent 
 connection, during four years, with Westminster School. 
 Possibly, too, there may be some advantage in its being 
 handled by one educated under different school-associa- 
 tions at E/Ugby. He does not for a moment presume 
 to forestall the decision of any future governing body : 
 but the subject is at least ripe for discussion, if not for 
 action ; and he ventures to bring together those points 
 which seem to him to bear most materially upon its 
 settlement. 
 
 Univ. Coll., Oxford, 
 May 5, i86S.

 
 A FEW WORDS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FUTUEE OF WESTMINSTEK SCHOOL. 
 
 The practical issue of how best to constitute West- 
 minster School permanently on its present site, has 
 long been partially suspended by the uncertain prospect 
 of its removal into the country. That idea first gained 
 currency in consequence of a meeting of old Westmin- 
 sters, held under the presidency of the late Dean, in 
 i860. It subsequently received the partial sanction of 
 the Public Schools Commissioners in their Report. It 
 may however be fairly said, that in neither case was 
 the idea examined very closely in detail with a view 
 to the practical carrying of it out : the opinions passed 
 afiected only the desirability and not the practicability 
 of the scheme. For instance, in neither case was any 
 estimate made, either of the whole endowment fund 
 at the disposal of the School, or of the proportion of 
 it which it was desirable should be expended on the 
 purchase of ground and the erection of suitable school- 
 buildmgs. This indecision was no doubt due to the 
 fact that the School, as a school, had then, as is the 
 case too now until the present Public Schools Bill 
 becomes law, no property or endowments which it can 
 deal with as its own ; but it is plain that, if there really 
 exists any reasonable hope of this idea being ever
 
 6 
 
 accomplished, tlie time is more than fully come when 
 plans should be forthcoming and estimates at hand 
 with a view to its immediate realization. If, on the 
 other hand, the difhculties are such as to make it un- 
 likely, then it is of the utmost importance for the 
 interests of the School, which have suffered not un- 
 naturally by this long pending possibility, that the idea 
 of removal should be distinctly renounced, and that 
 the question of how best to deal with it on its present 
 site should be deliberately entertained as the only 
 practicable issue. 
 
 The question of the removal of any school from its 
 existing site really turns on the possibility of carrying 
 out the scheme in such a way as to give the school 
 when removed ^ a start worthy of its past pretensions 
 in respect of site, buildings, &c., as compared with other 
 schools of the same grade. An exaggerated notion of 
 the wealth of Westminster School is not uncommon. 
 Its case is often quoted as identical with that of Char- 
 terhouse, whose removal to a country site is now in 
 course of being carried out. It may be well to state a 
 few considerations tending to suggest the limits within 
 which the removal of Westminster would be practicable 
 as well as desirable. 
 
 1. It may be instructive to compare more closely the 
 cases of Charterhouse and Westminster. The annual 
 income of Charterhouse, as stated in the Eeports of 
 both the Schools Commissions ^ aveiages 8000I. This 
 
 ' In illustration of the cost of land and buildings suitable for a 
 school of the Public School type, it may be stated that out of the 
 160,000^. constituting the endowment fund of Wellington College, 
 55,000/. was spent at the outset on the site and buildings. 
 
 ■^ Middle Class Schools Report, vol. i. App. v. p. (93.) Public 
 Schools, vol. i. p. I 77.
 
 sum comprises both the net annual value of school 
 endowment, and that of exhibitions, tenable as school 
 property, at the Universities. In the case of West- 
 minster these two items ^ amount respectively to 2,250/. 
 and 685?. With the additional income of 912/. recom- 
 mended by the Public Schools Commissioners, the whole 
 annual income of Westminster which it would be com- 
 petent for either the existing or proposed new governing 
 body to deal with, would even then be less than 4000/. as 
 compared with 8000Z. for Charterhouse. But it is in 
 her connection with Christ Church that the main wealth 
 of Westminster lies, through the junior studentships and 
 exhibitions restricted to the competition of Westminsters, 
 and amounting to the annual value of nearly 3000/.^ 
 These emoluments are tenable, of course, not as school, 
 but as college p)Toperty''^: it follows then that any scheme 
 for a satisfactory removal of the school must depend, in 
 the absence of other funds, on the willingness of the 
 Dean and Chapter of Christ Church to capitalise a por- 
 tion of this fund, and to submit to the corresponding 
 sacrifice. Such a suggestion was indeed thrown out in 
 some of the evidence given before the Public Schools 
 Commission. But inasmuch as the recommendation of 
 the Commissioners to include the Dean of Christ Church 
 and the Master of Trinity in the new governing body 
 does not extend to their respective societies, fresh legis- 
 lation, such as the clauses of the present Public Schools 
 
 ^ As kindly furnished to me, on inquiry, by the Head Master. 
 The details of the Exhibition fund are — Triplett's, 380/.; Bp. Williams', 
 75/. J various funds, 150/. ; election moneys, 80/. 
 
 ^ Twenty-one Junior Studentships, of more than 100/. yearly value, 
 tenable for seven years, and 600/. for the interest of the Carey money. 
 
 ^ The Trinity College Exhibitions, with Samwaies' Fund, amount 
 to 430/. in all annually ; they are not specially discussed here, as not 
 bearing so much on the removal question.
 
 8 
 
 Bill do not at any rate seem to contemplate, would be 
 required for a measure affecting the property of either 
 of those bodies. Upon this contingency the question of 
 removal must to no small extent depend. Again, the 
 net return from the sale of all the ground and build- 
 ings occupied by Westminster School in Dean's Yard 
 and Vincent Square — supposing that this area were 
 assigned to the School as its own, which hitherto it 
 has never been — was estimated ^ in the evidence 
 given before the Public Schools Commission at no 
 more than 30,000/. Charterhouse has sold its site 
 and buildings for 90,000?. Again, the character of 
 Charterhouse is in no way bound up with its pre- 
 sent site : the School is enclosed within its own walls, 
 and the neighbourhood is nothing but an inconvenient 
 appendage, which may be dropped with positive and 
 obvious advantage. In the case of Westminster School, 
 however, its most characteristic features depend upon 
 the locality : separated from the Abbey and the Houses 
 of Parliament, the School would no longer be West- 
 minster. Removed into the country, there would be 
 some difficulty in its retaining its identity. 
 
 2. But assuming the Public Schools Bill to pass, and 
 to put the School definitely and directly in possession of 
 a fixed income, the present time does not seem very 
 favourable for the foundation of a new school of the 
 Public School type in the country. 
 
 (a) The need of more Public Schools, felt some years 
 ago, has been since met by the rise of Marlborough, 
 Cheltenham, Wellington College, Haileybury, and Clif- 
 ton, not to mention other schools. To some extent 
 Westminster, if removed now, would start at a dis- 
 advantage as compared with them. 
 
 ' Vol. iii. Westminster Evidence, 3809.
 
 (h) Action may be expected soon to be taken upon 
 the Report of the Middle Class Schools Commission, 
 which, while it will set some rich foundations free to 
 compete on equal terms from their existing sites with 
 the above-named schools, may be expected to give rise 
 to a different class of schools, the comparative absence 
 of which hitherto, in any satisfactory form, has tended 
 to increase the numbers who have been glad to avail 
 themselves of schools of the Public School type. 
 
 More positive reasons are not wanting which have 
 been urged in favour of retaining the School upon its 
 present site. If less frequented than of old by the sons 
 of old Westminsters, it has met the wants of an increas- 
 ing number of London parents, and in their behalf it is 
 pleaded that the schools at present existing in London 
 are not more than are required, and that they ought to 
 be retained for the benefit of the resident population. 
 As an additional recommendation of this view, it is 
 further urged that the situation of Westminster is 
 eminently convenient of access by railways and public 
 conveyances ; the neighbourhood has been greatly im- 
 proved in recent years, and still further changes in the 
 same direction are in prospect. The School has ever 
 enjoyed a singular immunity from serious epidemics, 
 with the single exception of a fever in Dean Buckland s 
 time, which was clearly caused by a mismanagement of 
 the sewage. 
 
 If, then, it be determined that the School remain on 
 its present site, the question arises whether any altera- 
 tions in its present constitution, with regard either to 
 the arrangement of hours or the use made of the endow- 
 ment-funds, are desirable, in order to make it as efficient 
 as possible m its character of a school of the highest
 
 10 
 
 class situated in London. A ' school of the highest 
 class ' is said, because the connection with Christ Church 
 and Trinity, as well as a universally felt desire among 
 all old Westminsters, which is not unpardonable, seem 
 to point indisputably to its remaining a school mainly 
 preparatory for the Universities. 
 
 Any alterations made must depend to a considerable 
 extent on the relation which exists between the arra^ige- 
 7nent of the school hours and the use made of the endotv- 
 ment fund. As regards the former, the convenience of 
 London parents is the first element to be taken into 
 consideration. As regards the latter, by which is 
 understood mainly election to ' college,' and the subse- 
 quent election to Christ Church and Trinity, the first 
 element to be taken into account is to secure the largest 
 range of competition possible. It is evident that it 
 would be easy to sacrifice one of these considerations to 
 the other. But is it possible to adjust them to one 
 another in a manner altogether satisfactory ? 
 
 1. To consider the arrangement of school hours as 
 affecting the character of the School. Under present 
 circumstances the School is more of a boarding-school 
 than a day-school. Besides forty boys who are boarded 
 in college, there are about sixty boys now boarding in 
 two other houses. The day-boys consist of two 
 classes — half-boarders, who remain in the middle of 
 the day and dine at one or other of the board- 
 ing-houses, and home-boarders, as they are called, for 
 whom their parents provide dinner either at their own 
 homes or in the neighbourhood. While the increase of 
 the day-boy element, whether half-boarder or home- 
 boarder, is the result now to be mainly aimed at for the 
 School, the local circumstances of Westminster do not 
 seem to demand that the result should be attained in
 
 11 
 
 precisely the same manner as at King s College School, 
 for instance, or the City of London School. 
 
 As compared then with these two schools, the situa- 
 tion of Westminster is not such as absolutely to preclude 
 recreation finding any place in the school system. It is 
 presumed that, in the cases of King's College School and 
 the Cit}^ of London School, it is necessity rather than 
 desirability which compels the school hours to adapt 
 themselves to ordinary business hours in London, and to 
 be concentrated within the hours from 9 or 9.30 to 3 
 or 4, with only a short interval for lunch in the middle 
 of the day. It is not so much for the convenience of 
 the parents as of the school that the return of the 
 boys home at so early an hour as 3 or 4 in the after- 
 noon is rendered necessary. In the case of Westminster, 
 there exists, besides a gymnasium and racket-courts in 
 Little Dean's Yard, a playground within less than ten 
 minutes' walk, of considerable size, in Vincent Square. 
 There is nothing to prevent the relation of day-boys to 
 the School conforming rather to the type of the position 
 of day-boys at country schools, who take part in the 
 school games, than to that of boys educated at the 
 above-named schools. The practical details of this would 
 be morning school from 9 to 12.30 ; from 12.30 to 3 or 
 3.30 recreation and dinner ; afternoon school from 3 to 
 5 or 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. There is reason to think that 
 many London parents will always be glad of such 
 opportunities of amusement as well as instruction 
 being provided, which are none the less fully com- 
 patible with the possibility of their sons returning 
 home at a conveniently early hour in the evening. 
 This means of fusing the common life of the school in 
 out-of-door life beyond school hours, while it holds out 
 the advantages which the Public Schools in the country
 
 12 
 
 (though some of these too are situated under analogous 
 conditions in large towns) are enabled to supply, would 
 be more satisfactory in many ways to the masters than 
 a system where their intercourse with the boys is limited 
 entirely to the hours spent within the walls of the 
 school-room, 
 
 2. To consider next the best use of the endowment 
 fund. The two main elements of this are election of 
 boys to ' college,' and the election to junior student- 
 ships at Christ Church and exhibitions at Trinity. 
 
 (a) To consider the case of the last of these two 
 elements first. Under the present constitution the 
 competition for Christ Church and Trinity is confined 
 to members of ' college' only. No change seems to the 
 writer more imperatively required than that the compe- 
 tition shovild be opened \ as it has been at Winchester 
 with the happiest results, to the whole School, a certain 
 amount of previous residence, say three years, being 
 the only condition requisite for eligibility. This would 
 create a wholesome feeling of rivalry within the walls 
 of 'college,' and save its members from the intellectual 
 stagnation which, it cannot be doubted from the past 
 history of the School, has tended to arise from the too 
 great certainty of securing the ultimate election to Christ 
 Church or Trinity. The privilege of an almost gratuitous 
 education in ' college' for four years, which will be the 
 case if the Public Schools Bill passes in its present form, 
 is quite sufficient attraction in itself to render it wholly 
 unnecessary to make it imply absolute certainty of 
 further emoluments at the University. It is probable 
 too that the ablest boys, as at Eton and Winchester, 
 will be generally found among the ' Queen's Scholars.' 
 On the other hand, cases will arise where, either from 
 
 * As recommended by the Public Schools Commissioners.
 
 13 
 
 the affluence of the parents or from their living in the 
 neighbourhood, or owing to ill-health, it may not be an 
 object to have sons competing for ' college,' to whom, 
 at the same time, the honour of winning ultimately 
 the election to Christ Church or Trinity would be 
 a great stimulus \ Besides, the effect of excluding all 
 but collegers from the competition for Christ Church 
 or Trinity has been to withdraw one great induce- 
 ment from that class of boys, half-boarders and home- 
 boarders, whose presence it is the interest of the School 
 most of all to encourage. 
 
 (h) As regards * college,' the existing system requires 
 a year's residence in the School previous to eligibility 
 for the foundation. The tendency of this is un- 
 doubtedly to narrow the field of competition. Two 
 other courses are open : (i) On the supposition of the 
 conversion of Westminster into a day-school of the 
 same type as the City of London School and King's 
 College School, to annul 'college' and to convert 
 the fund at present devoted to its maintenance into 
 exhibitions tenable at home ; (2) Ketaining ' college,' to 
 open the candidature to all comers with or without 
 previous residence in the school, as at Eton and 
 Winchester. 
 
 As regards (i), apart from the question of converting- 
 Westminster into a day-school pure and simple, which 
 does not seem necessary, the tendency of exhibitions 
 tenable at home would be really, in the case of a prize — 
 shown by the similar cases of Eton and Winchester to 
 be one greatly valued by parents — to narrow the com- 
 petition to boys who happened to live within such a 
 
 ^ The great value of the junior studentships at Christ Church, which 
 fully equals, if it does not surpass, that of the best scholarships ^in 
 Oxford, still further enhances the- importance of the prize.
 
 14 
 
 radius as would admit of their being day-boys. More- \ 
 over, the plan of residence as boarders seems to combine 
 with the reward offered to merit the advantage of giving | 
 valuable assistance to a class of parents who, living at a I 
 distance from good Public School instruction, show by 
 their eagerness for success that some such help in the ' 
 education of their sons is a real boon to themselves. 
 
 As regards {2), it has been objected that the present 
 limit of residence in ' college ' to four years involves 
 the admission of boys averaging from fourteen to I 
 fifteen years of age, and that at such an age, as com- | 
 pared with the usual age of candidates at Eton and i 
 Winchester, there is less chance of the masters se- 
 curing any good influence over a boy of unruly disposi- 
 tion then first entering the School. To remedy this, ^ 
 one suggestion made has been to limit the number of | 
 annual vacancies to eight, which would allow of five I 
 years' residence, and limit the maximum of age at en- ' 
 trance to fourteen, where under the present system ten 
 annual vacancies only allow a residence of four years, 1 
 there being room for forty boys in all in ' college/ Or 
 again, a combination of the existing system with that 
 of Eton and Winchester might meet the difficulties of 
 the case : half the annual vacancies might be opened to 
 public competition with the restriction of previous resi- 
 dence, the other half being limited to boys who had I 
 already been members of the School for one year. For 
 both the same examination would suffice, which should 
 be thoroughly simple in its details, and for which parents 
 living in the country, or private schoolmasters, might 
 be able to prepare boys without need of any special J 
 initiation into the technicalities of a peculiar system of I 
 examination, such as the present system of ' the chal- 
 lenges' undoubtedly is.
 
 15 
 
 Finally, the circumstances of the School as re- 
 gards its situation, which is universally aclaiowledged 
 to be healthy, and its playground in Vincent Square, 
 do not seem to require the breaking up of the existing 
 boarding-houses. While there is no room to extend 
 the boarding-house system further at Westminster, the 
 existence of the present houses is quite compatible with 
 the presence of a large day-boy element, and may satisfy- 
 some needs which are felt even in London. To some 
 parents in the country it is an attraction that their 
 sons should be brought up within the neighbourhood 
 of such historic associations. Other parents again, 
 resident in or near London, are attracted by the pos- 
 sibility of having their sons home for the Saturday 
 afternoon and Sunday, which is an especial feature 
 of the School. Moreover, it has been the experience of 
 schools less favourably situated, like the City schools, 
 that with the growth of the reputation of the School as 
 a place of efficient teaching has come a demand from 
 parents living at a distance for boarding-house accom- 
 modation. All these claims the continuance of the 
 existing boarding - houses would be ready to meet. 
 With the forty Queen's Scholars, the boys in these 
 boarding-houses would form a valuable nucleus, of 
 sufficient permanence in itself, round which might 
 cluster an addition of some 150 or 200 more day-boys, 
 whether half- boarders or ' home - boarders ' — the class 
 of boys which it is anticipated the throwing open of 
 the competition for Christ Church and Trinity, the 
 definite liberation of the School from the long-pending 
 uncertainty of removal, and the advantages expected to 
 accrue from the final passing of the Public Schools Bill 
 will draw. It is only of late years that an alteration 
 of school hours to suit day-boys has been made, and
 
 Ki 
 
 that a willingness to accept such half- boarders and 
 homevfeoarders has been i»iit forward as a prominent 
 feature of the School. No doubt with this increase in 
 the numbers of the School, fresh accommodation will be 
 required, and it is hoped that the Dean and Chapter, 
 who in recent years have "jhown so much kindness 
 towards it, will not be w; n^ ig in readiness to grant 
 space for its expansion. 
 
 Nothing has been said ; ut changes in the educa- 
 tional system itself, th i this is a question of 
 paramount importance ; b ^use full confidence is felt 
 that the present Head M i't is quite alive to the 
 important changes which ri progress of opinion is en- 
 forcing on the Universities aid which will necessitate, 
 if they do not even presu ppose, corresponding changes 
 in the Public Schools. 
 
 Nor, again, has it been thought pertinent to the 
 present remarks to discu,-^ the question of the com- 
 parative morality of scliooi'^ in London or in the 
 country. It would be too miich to hope for, even if 
 it were desirable, that schc >ls should cease to exist in 
 London and other large to^v us ; but the present writer, 
 without entering into deiaUs, can honestly assert that 
 Westminster boys as knowji by him may be very favour- 
 ably compared in this re spcct with those of schools 
 situated in the country.
 
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