n his thoughtful history of Eton, Christopher Hollis points out
the complexities involved when discussing matters of class
distinction at the school and in society as a whole during the
centuries since its founding. First of all what we may call a
Whig theory of history doesn't really apply; that is, class
distinctions have not, as many have claimed, gradually
attenuated. Things are more complicated than that. When
discussing either British society or the institution of the
English Public School, one frequently encounters the claim, as
Hollis puts it, "that class distinctions are perhaps still
strong but . . . that they have been gradually and steadily
growing less over the generations. The truth is . . . by no
means so simple. Turning to the issue of class in the Eton Henry
VI founded, he argues, It would be somewhat less than a half
truth to say that Eton was in its foundation a school for poor
boys. In the first place of course the 'poor and needy' boys
whom Henry had in mind were not the sons of serfs. Th