home to school, usual in English public-school
education,* was never in his case completely made. No doubt he is
right in speaking in the _Autobiography_ of "the sort of prickly
protection like hair" that "grows over what was once the child," of
the fact that schoolboys in his time "could be blasted with the
horrible revelation of having a sister, or even a Christian name."
Nevertheless, he went home every evening to a father and mother and
small brother; he went to his friends' houses and knew their sisters;
school and home life met Daily instead of being sharply divided into
terms and holidays.

[* The terminology for English schools came into being largely before
the State concerned itself with education. A Private School is one
run by an individual or a group for private profit. A Public School
is not run for private profit; any profits there may be are put back
into the school. Mostly they are run by a Board of Governors and very
many of them hold the succession to the old monastic schools of
England (e.g., Charterhouse, Westminster, St. Paul's). They are
usually, though not necessarily, boarding schools, and the fees are
usually high. Elementary schools called Board Schools were paid for
out of local rates and run by elected School Boards. They were later
replaced by schools run by the County Councils.]

This fact was of immense significance in Gilbert's development. Years
later he noted as the chief defect of Oxford that it consisted almost
entirely of people educated at boarding-schools. For good, for evil,
or for both, a boy at a day-school is educated chiefly at home.

In the atmosphere of St. Paul's is found little echo of the dogma
of the Head Master of Christ's Hospital. "Boy! The school is your
father! Boy! The school is your mother." Nor, as far as we know has
any Pauline been known to desire the substitution of the august
abstraction for the guardianship of his own people. Friendships
formed in this school have a continual reference to home life, nor
can a boy possibly have a friend long without making the acquaintance
and feeling the influence of his parents and his surroundings. . . .
The boys' own amusements and institutions, the school sports, the
school clubs, the school magazine, are patronised by the masters, but
they are originated and managed by the boys. The play-hours of the
boys are left to their several pleasures, whether physical or
intellectual, n