The state of college at Winchester, and at Eton, was in many respects as bad.

Public schools had not yet felt the influence of Arnold and of the reforming spirit.

Head masters considered domestic details beneath them, and parents, if they felt any responsibility at all, persuaded themselves that boys were all the better for roughing it as a preparation for the discipline of the world.

The case of Froude, however, was a peculiarly bad one.

He was suffering from hernia, and the treatment might well have killed him.