DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52059#0046
[ 44 ]
bottle, which the young squire had a very early relish
for.”
From Swift’s remarks, quoted above, and from
numerous passages in Defoe’s book, it appears that a
thorough education was only thought necessary for
younger sons, who had to make their own way in the
world. Locke {Thoughts on Education, § 16) says ex-
pressly that gentlemen sent to grammar schools only
their younger sons, intended for trades. But the son
who was to inherit the title grew up in idleness among
the grooms and gamekeepers ; and if he was taught to
read and write a little, it was thought enough for him.
Even this modicum of instruction was often forgotten
in after-life. It must therefore be borne in mind that
what is said, later on, of school and university educa-
tion applies only in a limited degree to elder sons.
The position of tutors was not an enviable one, and
many of them probably deserved nothing better. Ac-
cusations against them of ignorance, and even of bad
morals, occur as frequently as complaints of the low pay
and the little esteem with which they were rewarded.
Elyot, in his Governour (ed. H. H. St. Croft, 1880,
vol. i. p. 163), exclaims : “Lord God, how many good
and clene wittes of children be now-a-days perisshed by
ignorant schole-maisters.”1
In a foot-note, Mr. Croft cites the following passage
from Henry Beacham’s Compleat Gentleman (1634):—
“ For one discreete and able teacher, you shall find
twenty ignorant and carelesse, who, whereas they make
one scholler, they marre ten.”
Higford (Institution of a Gentleman, 1660, p. 59 0
1 Cf. also vol. i. p. 166.
bottle, which the young squire had a very early relish
for.”
From Swift’s remarks, quoted above, and from
numerous passages in Defoe’s book, it appears that a
thorough education was only thought necessary for
younger sons, who had to make their own way in the
world. Locke {Thoughts on Education, § 16) says ex-
pressly that gentlemen sent to grammar schools only
their younger sons, intended for trades. But the son
who was to inherit the title grew up in idleness among
the grooms and gamekeepers ; and if he was taught to
read and write a little, it was thought enough for him.
Even this modicum of instruction was often forgotten
in after-life. It must therefore be borne in mind that
what is said, later on, of school and university educa-
tion applies only in a limited degree to elder sons.
The position of tutors was not an enviable one, and
many of them probably deserved nothing better. Ac-
cusations against them of ignorance, and even of bad
morals, occur as frequently as complaints of the low pay
and the little esteem with which they were rewarded.
Elyot, in his Governour (ed. H. H. St. Croft, 1880,
vol. i. p. 163), exclaims : “Lord God, how many good
and clene wittes of children be now-a-days perisshed by
ignorant schole-maisters.”1
In a foot-note, Mr. Croft cites the following passage
from Henry Beacham’s Compleat Gentleman (1634):—
“ For one discreete and able teacher, you shall find
twenty ignorant and carelesse, who, whereas they make
one scholler, they marre ten.”
Higford (Institution of a Gentleman, 1660, p. 59 0
1 Cf. also vol. i. p. 166.