SCHOOL CUSTOMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCHOOL CUSTOMS.

All of you have seen pictures of boys of Eton College wearing their black coats and top-hats. These clothes are worn because the boys arc still in mourning for King George 111. When that King died the boys donned black coats in mourning, and have worn them ever ftince. Another queer Eton custom is the famous '"Wall Game," played every year on St. Andrew's Day. Nobody who has not actually taken part in the game has discovered what the object of the gani" is, or by what rules it is played, but it looks like a cross between Rugby and all-in wrestling. It is said that a is scored once every generation. The moat distinctive feature of the dress of pupils of Harrow School is a flat rtraw "boater," worn tilted well forwatd. At Harrow, too, "arithmetic" is spelled "arithmetique," and referred to as "tique." This dates from the early days of the school, when a Frenchman taught the subject. Winchester College, like Eton, has its own peculiar type of football. It resembles- both Rugby and Association football, and is played on a narrow pitch with wire netting eight feet high on cither side. The ends of the field are bounded by a scries of lines cut in the turf, called "worms." The game consist* of a scries of scrums, and goals are scored by kicking the ball over "worms."