It is always a delight to provide a foreword for the Journal, and this edition is a particularly rich one. But before I come to the splendid range of articles, I must start by expressing the warmest possible thanks to Andrew and Shauna Gailey for their work for the Collections.
Both have of course made tremendous contributions to Eton in every aspect and there will be plenty of other opportunities for both Foundation and School to thank them properly on their retirement. But ever since he became Vice-Provost, Andrew has had overall responsibility for the Collections and deserves special thanks in that context. It is because of him that they have been restored to their proper centrality in the life of Eton. It was thanks to him that in the last revision of the Statutes the Collections received their correct recognition among Eton’s charitable purposes. It has been thanks to him that proper management and governance structures have been put in place. As a result, our first-rate Collections’ staff have their voices heard at all the right levels in Eton’s structure. It was not ever so: and future as well as present generations at Eton have reason to recognise with gratitude what he has achieved. Meanwhile Shauna will be hugely missed as Keeper of Silver: Tim Schroder writes a fine ‘thank you’ on page 22, as does Eleanor Hoare for Roddy Fisher who will also soon retire and who has done so much over the years for our Photographic Archive.
The Journal advertises one of Shauna’s final contributions, the Verey Gallery exhibition on food at Eton on which she has led. And
don’t miss the Tower Gallery’s upcoming exhibition on Anne Thackeray Ritchie; I look forward to both with great interest.
This issue’s first article by Cosmo Le Breton OS (PAH) is a perfect example of how the Collections – in this case the Natural History Museum – should be used for teaching, and how teaching should engage with the great issues of the day. There are few more important issues than the battle to preserve biodiversity in a world whose resources are under ever greater pressure: Cosmo is right that Eton should be educating boys to be leaders in this struggle, and the new NHM exhibit shows we are talking that responsibility seriously.
To Charles Milne we owe the fact that Eton owns some first rank modern works of art. His account of why we do not own a custom-made Tracey Emin tapestry makes me grind my teeth with rage. If only we could wind time back, Andrew and I would have secured a different end to THAT story!
Beck Price surveys the development of the school’s curriculum over the centuries, reminding us that the original poor scholars had to know Latin and plain song – so they weren’t all that poor. Many were the children of Lancastrians whose estates had been overrun by Yorkists assisted by my family. Michael Meredith writes charmingly about his and my old friend Kenneth Rose, who gave me second choice of his Eton books after Michael had quite properly made off with the best for College Library. Kenneth’s published journals contain many Etonian anecdotes and are a delight. To Maxine Fox I owe a special debt of gratitude for researching the lovely Italian Kunsthammer cabinet now returned to the Provost’s Lodge. I do hope it was brought back by Provost Henry Wotton in the 17th century! As her article shows she has identified a number of other important objects which need further research. Hannah Smith traces a delightful relationship between three of the greats of
English Gothic writing – Walpole, Shelley (or, at least his wife) and M.R. James, whose ghost stories my wife’s father heard first hand in the Provost’s Lodge before the War since he, Richard Burrows, was MRJ’s great nephew. The pandemic has of course meant frustrating lock-downs for the Collections as for everyone else: but Rebecca Tessier and Lucy Cordingley show how imaginative use of online resources has actually strengthened our outreach and our partnership with neighbours in the Thames Valley, while Georgina Robinson describes how she has been tweeting fascinating items from the archives. Next come podcasts!
As the father of a Captain of the Boats and brother of a stroke of the VIII I am delighted to read how the Eight Room records are both being preserved and kept in the room to keep the traditions alive: thank you again to the archivists, and well done Will Ferguson (PRKB), present Captain of the Boats, for helping take this initiative forward.
Philippa Martin writes of the arrival on loan from the Abinger Collection of the hugely important and poignant posthumous Severn portrait of Shelley composing Prometheus Unbound This is a fine thing to have here in College Library, reminding us of one of the most powerful of Eton’s radical voices and one of England’s greatest poets. Among other happy arrivals we must celebrate and remember Nigel Jaques, one of Eton’s most faithful servants, who left us some lovely watercolours in his will. And once more we thank the Friends for adding some fascinating new items to the Collections, including a design by Evie Hone for part of the East Window in College Chapel.
So thank you to all of the Collections staff. As we emerge finally (or so we hope) from the pandemic, Eton’s Collections are shown to be in rude good health!
Lord Waldegrave of North Hill
The Road to Extinction
After three years of planning and graphic design, we have recently installed a new exhibit on endangered species in Eton’s Natural History Museum. The importance of understanding conservation and the forces that drive species to become endangered led us to think that it was imperative to produce an exhibit exploring the subject using our collection. The exhibit uses 12 specimens to illustrate the different threats facing species worldwide. It is divided into two sections, one using examples from across the Animal Kingdom, and another focused primarily on reptiles.
The Natural History Museum contains numerous fossilised specimens of species that no longer exist today. These fossils are highly popular with visitors, and particularly with local schools. However, the focus of the new exhibit is species that are being driven to extinction by anthropogenic causes, and the process by which this occurs, using specific examples. The species were chosen to illustrate a ‘spectrum of endangerment’. The Living Planet Index, which measures global biodiversity of vertebrate species, shows a steep decline in biodiversity since 1970. In 50 years, this biodiversity has decreased by 68%.1 It is alarming, and our exhibit highlights the issues facing species worldwide by using specimens that provide vivid examples of threats, including the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), overfishing, climate change and invasive species. Starting with ‘Least Concern’ the display features increasing risk of extinction and ranges through categories
such as ‘Threatened’, ‘Endangered’, ‘Critically Endangered’ and ending with ‘Extinct’. These categories are defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Our stunning and rare specimen of a Gyr Falcon (Falco rusticolus; NHM-GT.70-2016) is part of the Thackeray Collection that was collected in the early 19th century by George Thackeray, Provost of King’s College, Cambridge. The Gyr Falcon is the relatively unknown largest species of Falconidae in the world, inhabiting the frozen tundra of Canada and Siberia. However, it has become hugely popular to falconers in the Middle East, where there is a booming legal wildlife trade in the species. Individual birds are bought for over $250,000 in a region where traditional hunting with falcons is seen by some to be tied to cultural identity.2 Captive breeding programmes have allowed wild populations in the Arctic Circle to thrive, and the species now is classified as Least Concern.
Many of the specimens in the new exhibit represent species that have been severely affected by the IWT, awareness of which has been brought to the fore by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The rostrum of a Large Tooth Sawfish (Pristis pristis; NHM.831-2018) acquired three decades ago and recently donated to the museum by the Grenier family, forms part of the display. This species, declared critically endangered in 2011, has been decimated by the IWT. Large rostrums are continually seized at major transport hubs because the meat is used to make so-called ‘shark fin’ soups in Asia. To add to their peril, they inhabit the estuaries of the world’s major rivers, which have become both highly polluted and often extensively dammed. The Amazon is a case in point – over 100 internationally financed ports have been built there in the last 20 years and the busy shipping lanes are immensely damaging to estuarine environments, chemically polluting freshwater and causing intense channel erosion. Such damage only puts the Large Tooth Sawfish at real risk of extinction.
Introducing species from one country to another can be tremendously disruptive to ecological communities. The display features a model of a Cane Toad (Rhinella marina) and provides a clear example of the disastrous effects on native fauna when species are introduced into a new country. The Cane Toad is originally from Central and South America, where it has many natural predators, but when introduced to countries such as Australia, it has decimated wildlife due to its highly toxic flesh. It is classified as an invasive species in over 20 countries and is causing local extinctions of multiple species, including varanid lizards, the Freshwater Crocodile and Northern Quoll, as its populations rise exponentially.
The need for education is as important as ever, and this exhibit is a small part of meeting this imperative. The overlap between epidemiology and conservation has been highlighted by the recent pandemic, and zoonotic viruses that have ‘species jumped’ to humans have become increasingly common. Of the 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% are zoonotic in origin.3
Viruses that have crossed from animals into humans in recent years include HIV, MERS, Swine Flu (H1N1) Bird Flu, Ebola, Lassa Fever, Rabies and, of course, Covid-19. Conservation is intimately linked to zoonotic disease transmission – animal reservoir host communities are typically found in species which have broad ecological roles, low habitat specificity and reproduce quickly. As land use intensity increases and as habitats become increasingly fragmented, host populations increase, and the risk of a zoonotic
disease outbreak increases dramatically. An understanding of endangered species and a drive to protect habitats is key in an era when we have all become armchair epidemiologists.
There is a plethora of threats to species around the world, although it is not all bad news. One of our featured species is a model of European Eel (Anguilla anguilla; NHM.614-2017), a species that matures in the freshwater rivers of northern Europe. The IWT is a significant threat, along with habitat destruction. The EU implemented a ban on the trade in young eels in 2010, and between 2017 and 2020, the volume of eels seized decreased from 35 tonnes annually to just 5 tonnes annually. On a more global scale, multiple species this year have been discovered or saved from the brink of extinction – a rare species of water frog from Chile, of which only 14 remained, produced 200 tadpoles, and an expedition to the Bolivian Andes discovered 20 new species. Nemonte Nenquimo, the leader of an Ecuadorian indigenous tribe, gained international recognition after she successfully filed a lawsuit to protect 500,000 acres from oil exploration and became one of Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People in 2020.4
Such inspirational stories demonstrate that conservation is rising on the political agenda, as people realise the value of protecting endangered species. The newly installed exhibit in our museum is a very small part of that, but we believe that our message can make a difference. Educating younger generations with regards to conservation is becoming a global priority and having a highly visual exhibit in our own Natural History Museum will be invaluable in educating the next generation of leaders, whilst simultaneously displaying our collection to good effect.
Cosmo Le Breton OS (PAH) Boy volunteer, Natural History Museum
Some 20 years ago, Eton College embarked on an ambitious programme of collecting contemporary art for the enrichment of the boys. Over a period of just two years, a remarkable collection was built, representing some of the most exciting British artists of the time. While the collection has been augmented with works by contemporary artists since (generally by former artists-in-residence or Old Etonian artists), the targeted and generously supported programme that formed its core remains a highlight in the collecting history of the College, as Charles Milne recalls.
In the course of an evening spent with Tim Card during his last year as ViceProvost, he and I found ourselves agreeing that the artistic splendours of the Eton Collections might benefit from some modern acquisitions to introduce the boys to the world of contemporary art. To my surprise, Tim was able to convince the Provost and Fellows of the value of this enterprise, and so the Modern Collection flashed briefly into life between 1999 and 2001 before being killed off by a squeeze on the school’s finances. Our aim was to buy works of contemporary art which would hang in working spaces around
the school, readily accessible to the boys who would see them as they went about their daily lives.
The contemporary art scene and Eton College might not have seemed natural bedfellows, but with strong support from the Head Master, John Lewis, and a surprisingly like-minded committee to work with, we were able quite quickly to make some bold statements. We were fortunate in having a wonderful adviser in Roger Bevan, an Old Etonian and art historian. Much early support and encouragement came from David Verey (another OE with
strong interests in the arts, and whose generosity enabled the creation of the College’s Verey Gallery). Our first artist was an obvious choice: Howard Hodgkin, briefly educated at Eton, but holding no grudges as he came back to the school in 2002 to open the extension to the Drawing Schools and to see our first purchases, his two large prints Venice Evening and Venice Night, hanging in the foyer of the Farrer Theatre.
The committee was unanimous in its view that we should try to buy a statue of Antony Gormley’s. Through the good offices of Roger Bevan, we found ourselves heading to Peckham one afternoon for a meeting with Antony to discuss possibilities. We were initially taken by a standing contemplative figure (Learning to See III) which we thought might fit well into the context of school library but were persuaded by the bolder statement made by Edge II which would project horizontally from a wall. Choosing a site wasn’t easy: the committee had imagined it somewhere near the Drawing Schools and the theatre, but Gormley wisely preferred the nondescript brick wall of Common Lane House, where it shares its space with electricity and phone cables strung across the road and a flag pole projecting from the boys’ house.
In the summer of 2001 I was in Edinburgh for the festival where I spent an afternoon looking at commercial art galleries. The Ingleby Gallery was showing a Sean Scully exhibition and my attention was immediately drawn to an untitled pastel. On enquiry, I learned that the government art fund was interested in buying it: a decision was due in the autumn. I asked whether the school’s money now spoke louder than government money in a month’s time, and on being assured that it would, wrote out a cheque.
One of the delights of building up a collection is the contact with the artists and, just as importantly, with other collectors and donors. Amongst the advisers on the College’s Collections Committee was an Old Etonian, Francis Carnwath, whose recent death following a tragic accident in 2020 deprives the art world of a man of taste and discernment allied to an energetic ability to run organisations and get things done. He had a leading role in the choice of the Bankside Power Station as the home for Tate Modern and rescued Greenwich Palace from an uncertain fate after the government decided to sell it off. Francis led by example: a keen supporter of the Modern Collection, he decided that we must have an example of the work of William Scott, donating to us his 1970 print White Bowl, Black Pan on Brown. He was a man of firm opinions, delighted that we had bought the Scully pastel but relieved that we had passed up the temptation to buy a series of Damian Hirst prints.
aided by the kind offices of Jay Jopling. Like all Tracey’s work, it was autobiographical but with a resonance for young students: Be Faithful To Your Dreams was the message stitched across the top. The week before I was due to travel to White Cube in London to view the finished tapestry and see Tracey again, the Vice-Provost rang me with the news that an imminent need for financial savings meant that the funding for the contemporary collection was withdrawn. This was devastating and embarrassing. Tracey, however, took it on the chin: when I offered to buy it myself but only if I could spread payment over five or six years, she said ‘No, sorry, Charles, a girl’s gotta live.’
I did consult Francis about the potentially controversial commission of a tapestry by Tracey Emin. He offered support, essential as the committee was not entirely convinced. To my relief, the commission went ahead,
Gallery owners and artists alike warmed to the idea of contemporary art in working spaces around a school and were often generous in the financial terms we were able to negotiate. Good relations were established with Alan Cristea, for example, from whom we had bought the Hodgkin prints as well as a fine Ian McKeever print from his Jerusalem series. This was
followed up by an exhibition of works by contemporary British and American printmakers lent by the Cristea Gallery. One of Sean Scully’s dealers, Tim Taylor, was instrumental in arranging for Scully to visit Eton and talk to the boys about the development of his work. Antony Gormley was back in Eton in 2012 for a small exhibition of recent drawings in the newly created Verey Gallery. Ceramics too have been added through the generosity of the late John Peyton and his wife Mary, whose collection of British studio pottery, some of which can be seen in the Drawing Schools, is unrivalled in any school. One of the many deprivations of the pandemic has been our isolation from the arts. The aim of the Modern Collection at Eton was to ensure the interaction of art and the life of the boys. It is to be hoped that the demise of the original vision for the collection has not signalled a loosening of this essential link.
Charles Milne Master in Charge of the Modern Collection, 1999-2014
Sean Scully (born 1945) Untitled 2001, pastel on paper (FDA-D.962-2014)
William Scott (1913-89) White Bowl, Black Pan on Brown 1970, screenprint on paper (FDA-E.1598-2014)
An Everchanging Education: the curriculum through the archives
There have been many changes to Eton College’s curriculum which we can see through the archives. When the College was first founded in 1440 as a charity school by Henry VI, the only subject in the curriculum was Latin. Prior to applying, potential scholarship boys, known as King’s Scholars, were required by the statutes to have ‘a competent knowledge of reading, of the grammar of Donatus, and of plain song’,1 therefore requiring some skill in Latin before attending. We also know from a 1637 letter from Sir Henry Wotton, the Provost of Eton College at the time, that applicants were given a brief test on their knowledge of Latin during their entrance exam in order to ensure they fulfilled this requirement. The questions, according to Wotton, included basic ones such as ‘Quod est tibi nomen?’ and ‘Quave villa?’,2 which the applicant would likely have been taught how to answer by a previous tutor.
Once a boy secured his place in the College, he would be tutored in various aspects of Latin (and from the 1600s, also Greek): translation,
composition and grammar. Verse writing was perhaps the most prominent reflection of the quality of work done at Eton, and had become a well-developed art form by the 18th century. This is highlighted by the collection of verse anthologies kept in the archives (SCH B 01 01), which contain verses that were seen as impressive enough to be published eventually in the Musae Etonenses. As well as demonstrating the teaching methods used at the time, these show us which topics were of interest to the boys writing them, as well as their proficiency in Greek and Latin, both in translation and original composition.
The first major change to the curriculum and style of teaching at Eton was the introduction of mathematics as a regular subject in 1851. Prior to this change, boys could be taught mathematics or any other subjects while at Eton, but they would have to hire a separate tutor for this purpose and would have been taught these subjects in their free time. However, by this time the Army and many universities required those wishing to apply to learn mathematics, and therefore through the encouragement of Stephen Hawtrey, who had taught mathematics at Eton since 1836, the subject was added to Eton College’s timetable. In the Collections, we are lucky enough to have a series of letters written from Stephen and his cousin Edward Hawtrey, the Head Master, which detail how mathematics was to be incorporated into the curriculum (ED 383 05). The letters detail the building of the New Mathematical Schools in order to accommodate maths teaching, as well as alterations to the timetable such as alternating classics and maths classes in order to allow for regular study. Stephen Hawtrey also requests in one of his letters for maths reports to be sent directly to parents. This direct contact with parents was formerly reserved for classical masters and therefore this allowance to mathematical masters would put them on the same standing, thus highlighting the newly elevated position of the subject. In the event, only Stephen Hawtrey was granted this privilege, becoming Mathematical Assistant Master.
Not long after the implementation of regular maths classes, Eton was made to further expand its curriculum. In 1865, the Clarendon Commission published a report suggesting changes in the way the leading boarding schools taught their students. After this, various changes began to take place as a result. This included a change in school books used for subjects such as Latin, with the Eton Latin Grammar being replaced with the Public School Latin Primer,3 a more updated school book for all public schools. Following the
Stephen Hawtrey, teacher of mathematics 1836-72 (PA-DP.6:74-2016)
report, the Public Schools Act was passed in 1868. As a result of the Act, science gradually became part of regular study, as well as geography and, for the lower boys, French. The reactions to these changes were heavily documented in The Eton College Chronicle and often these were, perhaps unsurprisingly, very critical. One article states that ‘we are opposed to “Natural Sciences” being introduced here’ and that those who wish to learn such subjects ‘are welcome to do so, but we must vote them away from here’.4 There was also concern about promoting boys independently of their performance in classics, which could lead to a boy being in a higher form in one subject, and potentially ‘unplaced’ in another.5 Despite this, however, non-classics masters were soon given the same privileges as classics masters and more classrooms were built from 1869 to accommodate these extra subjects, thus cementing their place in the school curriculum.
The next and most recent major change to education at Eton came with the introduction of A Levels and O Levels in 1951. This new system for school leavers required earlier specialisation for students,
Circular by Stephen Hawtrey on introducing Mathematics as regular study, 1851 (ED 383 05 02)
which meant further changes were needed for Eton’s generalised curriculum. In order to accommodate this change, the College implemented a specialisation system, in which boys would have to choose between two possible paths, mathematics and science or arts, when selecting which subjects they wanted to pursue for A Levels. The curriculum brochures from this period (SCH T C 01)
Dr Porter’s Lab in the Science Schools, 1899 (PA-DBC.28:5-2016)
give a clear view of how this operated.
The Chronicle again highlights the boys’ dissatisfaction with this new system. One article claims that specialisation for A Levels ‘comes possibly at exactly the wrong time in a boy’s education’ and that those going down one route will forget their basic knowledge of the other subjects, such as his ‘nine times table’.6 However, the same article does highlight that this new system was necessary to achieve university standards and that ‘we must make the best of our position’ – a much more forgiving view than those expressed after the Public Schools Act. Thanks to the material in the archives, we are offered a glimpse into how these changes in the curriculum shaped the life of a boy at Eton, even if they were not always welcomed with open arms
Beck Price
Archives Assistant
1. H.C. Maxwell Lyte, A History of Eton College, 1440-1884, Macmillan, New York, 1889, p. 499
2. ‘Election to College at Eton and King’s from the earliest times’, Etoniana no. 63, 1936, p. 193
3. Lyte, p. 478
4. ‘The Public Schools Commission. No. III.’, The Eton College Chronicle no. 21, 1864, p. 81
5. ‘The Public Schools Commission. No. IV.’, The Eton College Chronicle, no.22, 1864, p. 85
6. ‘Eton Reform – 1: Specialization’, The Eton College Chronicle, no. 3416, 1965, p. 5695
Latin verses written in the 18th century (SCH HM GH 01)
Kenneth Rose and his Books
rich and famous at his London clubs, or at his own table. A little of the gossip and information he gleaned at lunch and dinner would appear in his Albany column, but all of it was carefully transcribed in his journal every evening.
Kenneth came to Eton as a master in 1948, to fill a vacancy in the History Department for two halves, and he quickly made friends among the younger beaks and enjoyed the teaching. He was invited to stay on, but decided he needed a greater independence for his own writing. Even so, he came back frequently to visit friends and to learn the latest Eton news and gossip. In 1970 he found himself invited to the reopening of School Library by the Queen Mother, the occasion when I first met him. Kenneth became excited by the library’s collecting plans, and on future visits often brought a small present with him, including letters he had received from Max Beerbohm, Osbert Sitwell and Field-Marshall Montgomery, as well as A.C. Swinburne’s copy of William Johnson Cory’s Hints to Eton Masters
of Common Prayer in a beautifully tooled contemporary binding, with hand-coloured illustrations.
But it is the late 19th and 20th-century books which express Kenneth’s tastes and interests the best: Sir Alexander Fleming writing about the discovery of penicillin; Andrew Devonshire describing the successful career of Park Top, his favourite racehorse; the James Lees-Milne diaries; John Piper’s book illustrations; several books written by Victor Rothschild, a particular friend of Kenneth’s and subject of his final biography. His favourite poet, John Betjeman, is represented by a clutch of early books, showing how his modest muse grew and flowered when it began to relate to public taste. Mary Wilson’s poems, much influenced by Betjeman, are there too, and a letter from her discussing Remembrance Day and the Duke of Windsor’s funeral. Among the novels are firsts of Evelyn Waugh’s WW2 trilogy, and uncorrected proof copies of C.P. Snow’s The Affair and Anthony Powell’s Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant.
Kenneth Rose was an historian and a journalist, author of highly-praised biographies of Lord Curzon and King George V, and for 36 years the writer of the Albany column in The Sunday Telegraph His journals, which he left to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, reveal what an intelligent commentator he was on politics and the social scene. They fill 350 boxes and amount to six million words, covering the years from 1944 to 2014, and are his lasting legacy, making him a modern Samuel Pepys or Thomas Creevey.
Kenneth had the remarkable gift of gaining a person’s confidence at a first meeting, then cultivating and never betraying it. Kings, courtiers, musicians, prime ministers, politicians, poets and novelists trusted him with their reminiscences, invited him to their homes and befriended him; in return he would frequently entertain the
From time to time I was invited to his London flat. It was on these occasions that learned the breadth of his acquaintance, as he quite naturally introduced into the conversation a visit he had recently paid to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Paris or King Juan Carlos in Madrid. Among present and ex-prime ministers he knew and liked were Harold MacMillan and Harold Wilson, both of whom he helped, in Wilson’s case writing sympathetic apolitical pieces in Albany during his premiership. The great and the good enjoyed Kenneth’s company as much as I did, and he made genuine friends with the Queen Mother and the Duke of Kent among the Royal Family. His life and work seemed to merge effortlessly together, as, day by day, he became the chronicler of the national and international events of his time, seen from a private rather than a public perspective.
Some time before he died in 2014 he asked me whether I would like some of his books for College Library. He was not a collector. Books for him were just for reading, but, even so, after his death I could take my pick. There were thousands to look through, but, when the time came, I chose about a hundred, which in their variety epitomise something of Kenneth himself. Among the older books are a lovely 1641 Frankfurt printing of Plautus’s plays and a fifth edition of Milton’s Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes illustrated with engravings. The prettiest is an 18th-century Book
Two rarities relate to Eton. The first is a small 12-page pamphlet, Cornishiana, gathering some of the more outlandish sayings of the much-loved but formidable Blanche Warre-Cornish (1848-1922), wife of the Vice-Provost, who was renowned for her disconcerting table-talk with its frequent non-sequiturs and bon mots. Some of these were written down in the late 1890s by Logan Pearsall Smith after visits to Eton and carelessly lent in 1935, in manuscript, to a young Old Etonian, who had 50 copies surreptitiously printed. Passing from hand to hand, these became much sought after. Kenneth’s copy, originally owned by the poet Lascelles Abercrombie, includes a letter from Pearsall Smith explaining its origin.
The other rarity is a copy of Ionica, the poems of William Johnson Cory, arguably Eton’s greatest teacher, in a lovely art nouveau binding. An 1886 Christmas present, it is inscribed ‘C.D.R.W. from R.B.B. qua cursum ventus’. Behind it is the story of a close Eton friendship between two of Johnson’s pupils, Reginald Brett, later Lord Esher, and Charles ‘Chat’ Williamson, which foundered after university when Williamson became a Roman Catholic priest, while Brett entered parliament and began a distinguished political and social career. The Virgilian quotation means ‘as the wind blows’; Brett regrets that passing time has blown the two apart and hopes that their old tutor’s poems will briefly bring them together again. It was Kenneth’s favourite book, most appropriate to a diarist and chronicler concerned with passing time and changing relationships.
Kenneth’s books in College Library are a rich memorial to a gifted and accomplished friend of the school. They are also choice teaching material, and a number have already been used in English, history and science lessons.
Michael Meredith Librarian Emeritus
Kenneth Rose, image courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, Rose C59. Published under licence number OWLS000252
Poems in the Porch uniting a favourite poet and artist, Betjeman and Piper (Lk.6.06)
The dedication in Kenneth’s copy of Ionica (Lk.6.31[01])
‘Through the looking glass’: adventures of a furniture cataloguer at Eton
Stepping out of my familiar world of auction houses into the ‘rabbit warren’ of Eton, to undertake the role of Decorative Arts Project Cataloguer and work on the College’s eclectic furniture collection, has been a unique voyage of discovery for me. From February 2020, I spent 13 months cataloguing furniture located throughout the College, helping to make possible the preservation, further investigation and public access to the most interesting examples. I also edited the existing records and catalogued many smaller furnishing objects. In total, over 1000 examples of furniture and furnishings from across the College are now on the Collections catalogue. These are some of my favourite discoveries.
A small table cabinet, known only as a ‘locked box’, piqued my curiosity. Once
the lock was opened, its treasures within were revealed. Known as a ‘stipo’ in Italian, it is Neapolitan in origin, dating to the early 17th century. It can be seen in a c.1926 photograph of the Provost’s Dining Room (or Parlour), whence it has now returned.
These captivating cabinets were an essential part of a nobleman’s Kunstkammer, a room containing furniture and objects showcasing the collector’s taste and education. Their function was to contain precious objects including coins, medals and private correspondence. They were architectural in form and symmetrical in design, typically with a central door surrounded by rows of drawers with engraved ivory panels. Made from exotic materials imported at considerable expense, they also reflected the wealth of the patron.1 Spain gained a monopoly on the trade in Indian ivory and
ebony after the annexation of Portugal in 1580 and, by the 1590s, cabinets with ebony veneers and engraved ivory plaques were the height of fashion in Spain and Italy. The finest examples were made in Naples.
The engraved ivory scenes were often mythological or biblical, based upon contemporary engravings that reflected the erudition of their owners. The scenes on this cabinet appear to be a combination of mythological and biblical subjects, with Athena on the central door, ‘Abraham Sacrificing Isaac’ on some of the drawers and ‘Susannah and the Elders’ on the inside of the fall-front. Further research will reveal the prints from which these designs derive.
Many of these cabinets, including this example, lack a signature, making a definitive attribution difficult and often they were a collaboration between various makers. One of the most renowned makers of this type of cabinet was Iacobo Fiammengo and the intagliatore d’avolio (ivory inlayer) Giovanni Battista De Curtis was another important figure. Both were active in Naples in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Related cabinets can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; and Burghley House, Lincolnshire.
The Eton cabinet is typical of the kind of object an English aristocrat would have brought back from a Grand Tour of Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, it is interesting to speculate whether Eton’s former Provost, Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), might have brought it to Eton after serving as ambassador to Venice.
Other rediscovered gems are the bookcases designed for School Library. School Hall and School Library were constructed from 1906-08 as a memorial to the 129 Etonians killed in the 2nd Boer War. Old Etonian architects were invited to submit designs for the buildings and in 1904 Laurence Kirkpatrick Hall (1875-1950) was chosen. Hall worked in partnership with Sidney Kyffin Greenslade (1867-1955). If you glance skywards at the impressive exterior stonework, there are the most exquisitely carved ribbon-tied laurel wreaths with fruiting and floral trails. This recurring motif can be found, albeit in a modified form, carved on the set of Edwardian oak library bookcases, in the wreaths enclosing the letter ‘E’ for Eton. These bookcases are now dispersed throughout the College.
My final choice is the impressive pair of Art Deco silky oak library tables by Betty Joel (1896-1985). Both have a label on the underside of the top that reads: “Token” Hand Made Furniture / Designed by: Betty Joel / Made by: C. Kempe / at Token Works, Tolworth / Jan 4th 1935 Together with her husband, David, Betty started the Token furniture company (the name being a corruption of teak and oak) that was to become an iconic brand.
Joel was an accomplished and innovative 1920s Arts and Crafts furniture maker
and founder of Betty Joel Ltd. She inherited the ethos of the English Arts and Crafts Movement and combined it with manufacturing techniques from boatbuilding, as she was initially based on Hayling Island, Hampshire. The expertise of the local yacht fitters was utilised in the execution of her designs, which were both practical and beautiful, made from timbers such as teak and Queensland silky oak. Joel stated: ‘I personally began to design furniture because I despaired of trying to adapt old furniture to the needs of my own entirely modern house’.3
By 1937, Joel was the most revered name in bespoke furniture and interior design in England and many of England’s leading social and commercial patrons of the day commissioned her to design interiors and furniture for their homes and offices. Examples of her work are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of the Home, London. The tantalising, unanswered question is: ‘who at Eton commissioned this leading designer, so à la mode in the 1930s, and why?’ This is one of the many mysteries to be solved following the furniture cataloguing project. With further research, these questions will be answered in the course of time.
M.
pp. 49-50
2. A. Gonzáles-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle due Sicilie, Milan, 1984, Vol. I, figs. 416-439
3. J. Banham, ed., Encyclopedia of Interior Design London, 1997, pp. 658–659
Maxine Fox
Project Cataloguer, 2021-21
Neapolitan engraved ivory and ebony table cabinet, early 17th century (FDA-A.513-2017)
Edwardian carved oak library bookcase designed by L.K. Hall, c.1906-08 (FDA-A.1037:1-2020)
One of a pair of Art Deco oak library tables by Betty Joel, c.1935 (FDA-A.2245:2-2020)
1.
Riccardi-Cubitt, The Art of the Cabinet London, 1992,
Etonian Gothic
In Gothic fiction, secret passageways are hidden beneath trapdoors, suits of armour come to life, portraits leave their frames. Eton feels like a place where such a story might unfold. More than that, it may be a setting that inspired some of Gothic fiction’s tropes.
No one played a greater role in the creation of the genre than Horace Walpole (1717-97). The eccentric son of the prime minister, Walpole thrived at Eton and embraced his education in Greek and Latin. He was a prodigious reader of unfashionable medieval romances, too, for which his cousin and fellow pupil Henry Seymour Conway delighted in teasing him, writing many years later ‘... you carried your taste for it so far that not a fairy tale escaped you. Quantum mutatus!’1 In fact, little had changed: Walpole continued to nurse a love of ‘venerable barbarism’2 which eventually found expression in his mock-Gothic Strawberry Hill House (like Eton, both a residence and a collection of historical artefacts) and later in The Castle of Otranto. The first Gothic novel in English, it tells the story of a medieval prince’s downfall, brought about by an ancient curse and the malevolence of his own castle.
The Castle of Otranto was published anonymously in 1764. Emulating closely several of the romances which were his favourites at Eton, Walpole framed the work as a recently discovered late medieval tale first printed in the 16th century. In its second edition an emboldened Walpole set out a treatise for a new form of literature, one that married the two sides of his reading at Eton: the imaginative freedom of medieval romance with the rigorous rationality of neoclassicism.
Gothic architecture looms large in The Castle of Otranto and the many imitations that followed it. Walpole’s fascination with the architectural style was fostered at Eton, in the shadow of the Gothic College Chapel. Walpole must have heard the rumours of Windsor Castle’s medieval tunnels hidden beneath trapdoors, and perhaps these inspired his heroine’s archetypal flight down a ‘subterraneous passage’ between castle and chapel.3 When in
Byzantine coin (ECM.5900-2017). M.R. James’s A School Story (1911) is set in a boarding school much like Eton and features a similar, sinister Byzantine coin
adulthood Walpole wrote – coining an evocative portmanteau word – of the ‘gloomth of abbeys and cathedrals’,4 one can be confident that he was recalling, among other places, the Gothic buildings of the College he loved so dearly.
Four decades later, another young Etonian was writing his own Gothic novella. During his final year at Eton, Percy Shelley (17921822) published Zastrozzi: A Romance (1810), the story of the eponymous antagonist’s quest for revenge against his half-brother.
At 11 years old, Shelley, on account of his precocious intelligence, had joined Upper School with pupils four years his senior and initially was subject to their ‘Shelley-baiting’. Just as he had done at his previous school, Shelley withdrew into the world of Gothic tales. Fellow pupil Walter Halliday recalled Shelley telling ‘marvellous stories of fairyland, and apparitions, and spirits, and haunted ground.’5
Eton provided Shelley not only with an education but also an institution against
which to rail. Alluding to his schooldays, an older Shelley wrote that ‘I did with earnest thought heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore; yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught cared to learn’.6 One can imagine the young Shelley reading Gothic literature as a small act of rebellion, but in reality, the pupil also took to his classical education more than he liked to own. A printed record preserved in College Library (Kl.2.11) reveals that in 1810 Shelley opted to recite Cicero’s fourth Cataline oration at the Election Monday speeches. Shelley’s education is evident in his novella. Zastrozzi defends atheism ‘sophistically’,7 drawing on classical philosophy and oration. This combination of Gothic deviance with classical logic was so shocking to one reviewer that he called the character ‘one of the most savage and improbable demons that ever issued from a diseased brain’.8
It is no surprise that the sensational plot of Zastrozzi was devised by a schoolboy; perhaps it was one of Shelley’s ‘marvellous stories’. Nevertheless, he is tied to the genre forever by his marriage to Mary Shelley, author of the century’s finest Gothic novel. Though the degree of Percy Shelley’s contribution to Frankenstein is debated, several passages have parallels with his Etonian novella, almost word for word.
Eton’s connection to Gothic literature did not end with Shelley. Writing in the genre that Walpole established and using many of the same tropes, Old Etonian and Provost M.R. James (1862-1936) allowed Eton to creep into his ghost stories. Many of his tales are set in ancient colleges that evoke Eton as well as King’s College, Cambridge, where he had also served as Provost. His protagonist academics, at night on the playing fields or in their tower offices,
are transported to a darker age by way of an ancient, mysterious object of the sort found in Eton’s Collections.
Famously, James invited select audiences to his study to hear him read his latest stories by firelight. Like Walpole, he recognised the pleasant ominousness of Eton’s architecture and storytelling tradition. Eton’s ‘gloomth’ became part of the Gothic genre and, once the sun goes down, can cause goosebumps to this day.
Hannah Smith Assistant Librarian
1. W.S. Lewis, ed., The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937-1983 [electronic version], Henry Seymour Conway to Horace Walpole, 18th April 1745
2. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, 27th April 1753
3. H. Walpole, The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (second ed.), London, 1765, p. 22
4. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, 27th April 1753
5. J. Mulhallen, The Theatre of Shelley, Cambridge: OpenBook, 2010, p. 56
6. P.B. Shelley, dedication to ‘Laon and Cyntha’ in D. Reiman, N. Fraistat, and N. Crook, ed., The complete poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley John Hopkins University Press, 2012, p. 124
7. P.B. Shelley, Zastrozzi: A Romance London, 1810, p. 36
8. T.G. Smollett, in The Critical Review, or, Annals of Literature 21(3), London, 1810, p. 329
Shelley’s name, purported to have been carved by his own hand, into the panelling of Upper School.
Joseph Constantine Stadler (engraver; active 1780-1819) after Frederick Mackenzie (1787-1854) Eton College Chapel, published 1816, aquatint (FDA-E.2407-2015)
Making a Virtue of the Virtual: Creatures of the Wild Wood
During times of access restrictions and lockdowns, the Collections have been exploring new ways to reach our audiences virtually, investigating approaches that can make our online offer as exciting, interactive and engaging as an in-person visit.
Using the ‘Wild Wood’ displays in Eton’s Natural History Museum as a starting point, Creatures of the Wild Wood is the Eton Collections’ first online-only exhibition, with accompanying resources and activities integral to its design. It explores the richness of local Thames Valley woodland and urges visitors to learn more about the nature on their doorstep.
The construction of the exhibition allows the Collections team to add further content over time and we have built in means, such as an image gallery of activity responses, for visitors to engage, interact and contribute.
There is also a variety of activities and learning tools with opportunities to think, make and do. The creation of the exhibition itself has also been collaborative in nature; the museum custodians and gallery stewards who usually welcome our visitors to the collections on Sunday afternoons have undertaken research, contributed text, taken photographs and created some of the downloadable craft activities.
Creatures of the Wild Wood provides an opportunity for visitors to delve into Eton College’s natural history collections and archives from home and to understand how these collections can be an invaluable source for connecting with and understanding our natural environment. The content of the exhibition is closely aligned to the national curriculum for Key Stage 2, and the language and activities included can be shared, with assistance, with younger children. There is plenty to
interest older children and adults too, and the exhibition adds in layers of information for pursuing subjects further. Our hope is that the exhibition prompts both discussion and learning – whether that is formally as part of school-based research, with family at home, or out of an individual’s own interests.
As part of this virtual engagement, the Collections hosted our first online family event during February half-term, with Creatures of the Wild Wood as its focus. Families from local primary schools gathered on Zoom to explore adaptations, habitats and food-chains together, led by Collections Education Officer Saskia Nesja. After a talk and Q&A with museum curator George Fussey, they took part in a quiz and a series of art activities using craftpacks that had been sent out in advance.
Whilst the online exhibition has provided access to our Natural History collections during the museum’s closure, the exhibition was also created with the physical limitations of the Natural History Museum in mind. Those who are unable to access the display cases on the first floor of the Natural History Museum miss out on the opportunity to view hundreds of objects exhibited there along with their interpretation. The intention is that this online exhibition can be used in the future not only remotely but also onsite (using devices available on the ground floor) to continue to widen access to the collections, well beyond the time of the pandemic.
You can explore the exhibition online: www.creaturesofthewildwood.com
Exploring the College Archives on Social Media
The College Archives has recently established a new Twitter account to make the contents of the archives more accessible to an online audience. @EtonArchives will be used to share stories from the archives; news about exhibitions and link to blog posts that delve into the history of Eton College.
With a different theme for our tweets every week, we have so far explored the history of Eton’s food, houses, slang, curriculum, exams, poetry and much more. With enough material in these collections to fill 700 metres of shelving (equivalent of seven football pitches in length if laid end to end), there is much more to explore!
We are also excited to announce a new ‘Within the Archives’ podcast series launched on the Collections Blog earlier this year. This series will use the archival collections to look at how Eton College has changed over the decades.
Rebecca Tessier Museums Officer
Lucy Cordingley Exhibitions and Access Coordinator
Georgina Robinson Archivist
Woodland Food Web, designed by Ann-Louise Schweizer
Tawny Owl (NHM.748-2017)
Grey Squirrel (NHM.744-2017)
The Archive in the Eight Room
It is exciting to think that there are still archive collections waiting to be found within the walls of Eton College. The latest ‘discovery’ by the College Archives was a small and significant collection of records generated by the Eton College Boat Club, kept in the Eight Room, the official quarters of the Captain of Boats and the Ninth Man in the Monarch. The term ‘discovery’ is tentatively used, as these materials have long been known to the boys of the Boat Club and carefully perused and cherished by them for decades. It was out of concern for the collection that the incumbent Captain of the Boats requested professional assistance from the College Archives.
The collection consists of manuscript books, working files, numerous letters, invitations and publications of the Boat Club and affiliated groups, dating back to 1888. Some of these records are the missing pieces
of existing collections within the College Archives, such as the Aquatic Register (1903-36), the missing edition from a series spanning from 1829 to 1963 (SCH SP ROW 01) and the Athletics Committee minutes (1936-97), which will help to fill in gaps about the history of Athletics at Eton (SCH SP ATH).
Part of what makes this collection so remarkable, is that they have survived the relocation of the Eight Room. The quarters of the Boat Club are currently based off the 18th century courtyard of the former Christopher Inn on the High Street. The Club was moved here in 1981 following the reorganisation of the College boathouse at Windsor Bridge, known as ‘Rafts’ since its purchase in 1894.1 We therefore owe this collection’s survival to the boys who moved it from one headquarters to another. One of the books in the collection (SCH SP ROW 21 01) was started in 1888 by the
Captain of the Boats, Lord Ampthill (at Eton 1883-88) to give successors the benefit of experience gained during his time in office. Ampthill’s example has been followed for decades and as a result, it is not just the content of this collection that makes it so special, but its significance as a legacy handed down through the generations. For the Archives, the fact that the Boat Club has an ongoing tradition of record-keeping will greatly aid the continued recording of the history of the College.
The archives in the Eight Room provide boys with a tangible link to the members who came before them. Although it is common practice for archive materials, once donated or discovered, to be transferred to the College Archives for permanent storage, the Boat Club collection will stay in the Eight Room but will still be available to external and internal researchers. It will also be subject to environmental monitoring, in order to ensure its continued preservation for generations of rowers to come.
Perhaps there is the possibility of more ‘discoveries’ to be made at Eton? We would love to know if there are similar pockets of materials within the College that we can help to preserve.
Georgina Robinson Archivist
The Eton College Boat Club: a living history
The manuscript records in the Eight Room are a part of the precious inheritance that each Eton rower possesses for as long as he wears the Eton Blue, but which he keeps in his heart forever. In the Boat Club, there is a strong sense of a ‘living history’. Today’s oarsmen feel a real and deep connection to their predecessors, knowing that they share in a single tradition handed from crew to crew since 1791. When the Eight gathers in the Eight Room on the night before a race, names like De Havilland, Pocock and Old Froggy feel no more remote than Cross, Louloudis and Pinsent. In this way, the Eight Room is the perfect living museum.
While this history is alive in spirit, it also exists in the books, pamphlets and letters that remain in the Eight Room. The most important of these are the handwritten volumes. I am glad to be collaborating with the College Archives to ensure that these documents will survive for every future crew, that they may cherish them as much as we do, and find in them wisdom and inspiration.
William Ferguson (PRKB) Captain of the Boats 2021
1. R.C. Austen-Leigh, The Eton Guide, 2008
Captain of the Boats’ Box (FDA-A.954-2020)
Entry by Lord Ampthill, 1888, in the Captain of the Boats’ Book, 1888-1929 (SCH SP ROW 21 01)
Lord Ampthill, Captain of the Boats, 1888 (PA-A.77-257)
Captain of the Boats’ Book, 1888-1929 (SCH SP ROW 21 01)
Art Arrivals: an important loan and new acquisitions
More than two decades after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned off the west coast of Italy, his son commissioned a portrait of his late father from the artist Joseph Severn. The posthumous portrait is derived from another by Amelia Curran of 1819 (National Portrait Gallery), that was owned by the widowed Mary Shelley. In his portrait, Severn places Shelley amongst the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, near Rome. The poet pauses to look up from his writings, pen in hand, a direct reference to Shelley’s own words from the preface of Prometheus Unbound (1820): ‘This Poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, among the flowery glades, and thickets of odoriferous blossoming trees...’.
Mary Shelley visited the artist’s studio to view the work and later complained in a letter to Marianne Hunt (wife of the critic and poet Leigh Hunt): ‘the nose is anything but right… the mouth is defective - & so is the shape of the face’. However, on receiving the painting at the home she shared with her son in Chelsea, in January 1845, she wrote a grateful and complimentary letter to the artist, stating: ‘Percy & I are delighted to possess it & are thankful to you…’. 1 When exhibited at the Royal Academy that summer, the portrait was not included in the main rooms, but instead hung among the drawings, watercolours and miniatures. Its placement caused The Athenaeum to comment: ‘Shame upon the Hanging Committee!’,2 but despite its location, the work received attention as ‘a truly romantic
composition, spiritedly executed’.3 Severn’s portrait is now on loan to Eton College from the Abinger Collection and on display in College Library, where it may be viewed alongside holdings relating to both Shelley and Severn.
In addition, despite the complications of the past year, some interesting acquisitions have been made to the Fine & Decorative Art Collection. We were successful in acquiring a self-portrait by Old Etonian artist Sir Richard Rees, who was a boy in Evans’s from 1913 to 1918. After Eton, Rees studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later became a writer and publisher. He succeeded John Middleton Murray as editor of the literary and political magazine The Adelphi In this position, Rees befriended and encouraged George Orwell, becoming the inspiration for the character of Ravelston, the publisher of a socialist magazine, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying Rees later abandoned his literary career to retrain and become a full-time artist, exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy and elsewhere.
The portrait shows Rees in his studio, gazing into the large mirror he used to capture his likeness. Various vessels, including a vase filled with brushes, are arranged just in front of the mirror and reflected in it. For the sitter and the painting, the acquisition is a return to Eton. Twenty years after the artist’s death, the portrait was lent by Rees’s sister to a 1990 exhibition of the work of Old Etonian artists in the Drawing Schools, part of the celebrations marking 550 years since the foundation of the College. By coincidence, the canvas measures 30 x 25 inches, the standard size of an Eton Leaving Portrait.
The most recent and poignant addition to the Fine & Decorative Art collection comes from an old friend, Nigel Jaques, a former Eton Master, who died in December 2020. Nigel, the son of an Eton House Master, was born at the College. He taught classics and Art History, and became a House Master himself, first briefly at Keate House, and then at Manor House. In his later years, Nigel joined the Friends of the Eton College Collections and regularly attended Friends events. He also volunteered with the Collections for successive archivists and provided valuable information for the
On behalf of the College we have just accepted, with gratitude, Nigel’s bequest of drawings, watercolours and prints. Among the collection is a series of six watercolours that Nigel commissioned from his friend, the artist, designer and architect Hugh Casson, recording each of the College residences he lived at throughout his life-long association with Eton.
exhibition Eton College During the Wars (2016). Nigel was a regular visitor to the College Library kitchen, where (before Covid struck) staff from across the Eton Collections gathered for morning coffee. He would greet each person cheerfully and always apologised profusely if he stumbled over a name, despite his impressive ability to keep track through changes of staff.
One of his many interests was collecting watercolours. He would sometimes gently test my imperfect knowledge of watercolour artists, while always lavishing me with enthusiastic encouragement.
1. Grant F. Scott, ed., Joseph Severn: Letters and Memoirs Routledge, Oxford, 2005
2. The Athenaeum No.918, 31 May 1845, p. 547
3. The Atlas 24 May 1845, p. 11
Philippa Martin Keeper of Fine & Decorative Art
Joseph Severn (1793-1879) Shelley Composing ‘Prometheus Unbound’ in the Baths of Caracalla 1844-45, oil on canvas (FDA-L.68-2020)
Sir Richard Rees (1900-70) Self Portrait in the Studio, c.1950 oil on canvas (FDA-P.591-2021)
Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (1910-99) View of Ballards (birthplace of N.J.T. Jaques), c.1984, watercolour on paper (FDA-D.1635:1-2021)
Fond Farewells
This summer we shall lose two excellent keepers to retirement. We have been most fortunate that Roddy Fisher and Shauna Gailey both chose to devote the final chapters of their long associations with Eton to the College Collections. The Photographic Archive and the Silver Collection have benefitted immensely from their dedication, care and championship. The curation and promotion of these collections will be taken forward by colleagues responsible for the College Archives and Fine & Decorative Art, but we shall greatly miss the presence, contributions, wisdom and humour of Shauna and Roddy themselves.
Shauna took over as keeper of the Silver Collection in 2012 and hit the ground running. She has been running ever since and has achieved a huge amount. Her arrival in post was timely, coinciding with the development of the Provost and Fellows’ ambitious plans to improve the documentation of the College’s various collections. Shauna found much to do: there were records to update, repairs to be made and storage conditions to be upgraded. It was a massive task which she undertook with energy and determination, making it her business to learn as much about the history of the collection as she could.
Thanks to her initiative, new photography was commissioned and an extensive programme of repairs was undertaken. By far the most significant of these was the restoration of one of the Savile flagons that had been crudely and disfiguringly repaired long ago and which has now been returned to its original glory.
Her tenure has also been marked by acquisitions, both new and old. A spectacular ancient piece – a tankard made in 1594 that left Eton in the 18th century – was returned to the College on her watch in 2014 and in the last year, a wonderful Gothic-revival mug of 1861 (see Eton College Collections Journal Michaelmas 2020). Two major commissions for the College Chapel altar have been undertaken as well: a pair of outstanding candlesticks by Rod Kelly and a chalice and paten by Miriam Hanid.
Shauna’s swansong will be an exhibition in the Verey Gallery, Six centuries of food and dining at Eton College due to open this year. If it is true that the purpose of life is to leave the world in a better state than you found it, then Shauna has certainly lived her ‘life’ as keeper of the Eton College silver collection as purposefully as anyone. She will be much missed.
Timothy Schroder Adviser, Collections Committee
Roddy Fisher
Roddy first arrived at Eton in 1974 as a young beak. Besides being head of the biology department and a House Master, he maintained his long-running personal interest in photography through the Photographic Society and Film Unit. He also ran the school’s yearbook for five years and became known for his excellent photography of the many drama productions held in the school. When the post of Keeper of the Photographic Archive became available in 2009, Roddy was the perfect person to ask.
On taking over, Roddy soon realised how inaccessible the many wonderful historic photographs of Eton were in their carefully wrapped-up albums. He began the long process of digitising hundreds of 19th- and 20th-century albums in order that the images contained within them could be better known, effectively catalogued, and accessed from anywhere, while at the same time protecting the originals.
To date, Roddy has digitised some 22,000 photographs and made them available on the Collections’ online catalogue, a fantastic achievement on just two days a week. He also found time to curate the superb exhibition Eton College During the Wars: A Photographic History, held in the Verey Gallery – November 2015 to May 2016.
In addition to this, Roddy has assisted numerous researchers in their search for images, which has resulted in such publications as Lachlan Campbell’s magnum opus on the Field Game. Roddy’s keen interest in the history of the College and her people has made him ideally placed for this work.
Following Roddy’s retirement, the Photographic Archive will come under the remit of the College Archives. I have some very big boots to fill.
Eleanor Hoare College Archivist
Shauna Gailey
Six centuries of Food & Dining at Eton College
Food has been sourced, prepared, cooked and served to the boys and staff of Eton College from its foundation in 1440 until the present day. Eton has the second oldest working kitchen in England, and College Kitchens and College Hall have therefore been operating for the purpose of placing meals on tables in the same spaces for over 500 years. This exhibition will examine and illustrate the serving of food at Eton through the centuries using objects and records from the College Collections.
This exhibition will unite objects with social history using records from the college audit books, cooks’ records and menus for Founder’s Day feasts alongside pieces from the silver collection, centred around a central dining table laid àlafrançaise for a Georgian dinner party.
Coming soon to the Verey Gallery, Eton College
Anne Thackeray Ritchie, the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, was a novelist, biographer, wife, and mother, and is responsible for much of how we remember the Thackeray name. Based on an extensive archive of over 1000 letters, family albums and other personal papers in Eton College Library, A Victorian Legacy: Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s life and writings’ is the first exhibition dedicated to her in her own right.
Coming Soon.
Set against the backdrop of a wide and high-profile social circle and the ever-changing landscape of the of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain, the exhibition takes us on a journey through the colourful life of a woman her step-niece Virginia Woolf described as ‘the unacknowledged source of much that remains in men’s minds about the Victorian age’.
Curated by Ceri Sugg with Stephie Coane
Please contact collections@etoncollege.org.uk or visit etoncollege.com/exhibitions for more details.
Explore
The Museums and Galleries of Eton College
Friends Review
We are delighted to report that, since we last wrote in the autumn, support from the Friends has made possible a number of additions to the College Collections, all with strong Eton connections. These include designs for significant works already in the Eton Collections, which offer insight into how the designers developed their ideas. The first is a design by Evie Hone for part of the East Window of Eton College Chapel (c.1949-50), arguably her most important work. The second is the design drawing for the impressive silver tankard by John Hardman Powell of Hardman & Co. (1861-62) that was made for Vice-Provost Francis WarreCornish (1839-1916). In addition, the Friends have funded the purchase at auction of 19th-century watercolour views of Eton and Windsor, two by William Evans of Eton (1798-1877) and one by John Buckler (1770-1851). We have also enabled the College Archives to acquire a diary written in 1890 by Charles Bill, a boy who left Eton the following year. The College Archivist notes that records such as this add life and colour to the official documents kept in the archives. Indeed, this diary offers an account of daily life at the school down to the details of how many minutes every Sunday sermon lasted!
At our second online event on 25th February, a highly enjoyable and enlightening evening flew by when Dr Tessa Murdoch of the Victoria and Albert Museum gave a lecture on Huguenot silver. Dr Murdoch brought objects from the College’s silver collection to life by setting them in 18th-century contexts and by offering illuminating comparisons to objects held in various major collections elsewhere. After the fascinating lecture, Justin Nolan chaired a lively question-and-answer session in which Dr Murdoch was joined by Shauna Gailey, Keeper of Silver at Eton; Ellenor Alcorn, Martin Curator of European Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Wolf Burchard, Associate Curator of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Ninety-six Friends joined us that evening from the United States, Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as from all over the UK. A recording of the event is available to Friends upon request; please email friends@etoncollege.org.uk for access.
This event has well and truly whetted our appetites for Shauna Gailey’s forthcoming exhibition Six Centuries of Food and Dining at Eton College We also look forward to the Friends’ online Summer event on Thursday 17th June, 6.30-8.15pm. In the meantime, you can keep up with the College Collections by visiting the blog (collections.etoncollege.com/blog), where new articles and podcasts regularly appear, and have a look at the online exhibition Creatures of the Wild Wood (see p. 16).
The Museum of Eton Life Free Admission
The Eton Galleries host a programme of changing exhibitions showcasing objects from the Eton College Collections as well as exciting loans from other institutions and galleries. Free admission. Entrance through the Museum of Eton Life.
For further information, see https://collections.etoncollege.com/
Friends of the Collections Committee
Friends online event, 25 February 2021
Evie Hone (1894-1955) Study for a Light of the East Window, c.1949-50 pencil and gouache on paper (FDA-D.1629-2020)
The Natural History Museum The Museum of Antiquities
