A FAMOUS SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 24

A FAMOUS SCHOOL

WESTMINSTER

ONE OF ENGLAND'S "BIG FOUR."

Visitors to Westminster Abbey .seldom realise as they walk along the solemn aisles of the Abbey or stroll through the cool, shady cloisters on the southern side, that they ato within a stone's throw of one of the "Bif Four' among England's public schools, says tho London correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor." Westminster School, like Eton, Harrow, and Winchester, ie a,' Royal Foundation; there is ample evidence that an Abbey school was iv existence on the present site as far back as the fourteenth century, though the foundation of to-day 'is due to Queen Elizabeth and dates from 1560. No school of such antiquity, situated as it ie in Litlc Dean's Yard, within a few paces of the west front of the Abbey, and lying in the very shadow cast by the Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament, could fail to gather traditions and fame with the passage of centuries.

The school buildings occupy the foul 1 sides of Little Dean's Yard, which is approached through the dark cloister from the southern door of the Abbey As the visitor emerges from the Cloister into the sunlight of the yard, he sees on his left the wonderful old stone archway, carved with the names of pact' scholars, which leads to the great schoolroom, known in Westminster parlance as "Up-School." Here it is that, in the days before, modern methods and requirements demanded expansion, the schoolboys did their daily work, sitting round their masters in circles.

The upper school was in those days out off from the lower by a curtain suspended from a rod crossing from side to side of the hall, about 30 feet from the ground. It is this rod which figures in the ancient custom for which the school is so famous, the "Tossing of the Pancake" on Shrove Tuesday, or, as the Westminster would describe it, the "Pancake Greeze." The school cook stands, beneath the bar, .holding a frying pan which contains a "pancake" largely composed of horsehair and putty, while just in front of him a line of eager competitors, consisting of representatives from each form in the school, stand waiting like greyhounds in. the slips.

At a signal from the headmaster, the cook hurls the pancake high over tho bar. As it reaches the ground the 20 competitors fall upon it, a mass of writhing. 7Janting. kicking; desperadoes, and for two minutes pandemonium reigns, 'while the remainder of the. school surges round laughing and yelling encouragement, and tho press photographers fill Hie atmosphere with the stench of their burning magnesium. At length the headmaster calls "Time!" and the scrum reluctantly breaks np. The fo> tunate youth who has succeeded in securing the largest portion of the pancake is presented, on the spot, to the dean of Westminster and receives as reward for his valour the traditional guinea.

But modern needs.have deprived tho great schoolrom if its old characteristics, and it now serves tho purpose of an assembly hall., where Latin prayers_ are read every evening, this, custom being a survival of the exceptional privilege granted to the school in the reign of Elizabeth, when by the Act of Uniformity it was ordained that all religious ser v,>p, should henceforth be conducted in English.

. Beyond tli© archway is "College," the home of the "King's Scholars," a select band of 40 residents, who have obtained scholarshiDs provided by the foundation. Among themselves it is considered that the King's Scholars form the nucleus and are tho mainstay of tho school. The King's Scholars wear academic caps and growns while on the school premises; outside they wear the ordinary uniform—a top hut and 1 tail coat.

Occupying the other sidea of the yard, aro the four houses oE tho schoolT Grant's. Rigaud's, Home Boarders; and Ashburnham, tho last two sheltering the day boys who, as can be expected in a school situated in the very hpart of London, greatly outnumber tho boarders, hi the Ashburnham House is the Scott Library, one of the finest of public school libraries in England. • Besides preserving her great classical reputation, Westminster has developed a modern side of equal repute, and still sends excellent representatives to Oxford and Cambridge. In games "Westminster holds a high position among other schools j she has strenuously resisted the modern tendency to foresake Association football for the' Rugby game. The school has basked for generations m the shadow of the home of British legislation. For centuries the ancient room adjoining the Jerusalem Chamber, where the monks of the Abboy used long ago to take their frugal meals] has served as dining hall, and, as a result of a long and harmonious connection with the Abbey, tho boys have the unique" privilege of using Poets' Corner as a cli.idol. By immemorial custom the Westminster lima lead the cry of "Long live the King" at, every coronation. Her position in tho. very heart of tho Empire's capital hns endowed her with a love of liberty and fervour for democratic ideals, which Imv'e led her to play no small part in the pohtiCK and progress of the pact and present centuries.