A hundred years ago
Breaking-up Day has come in hundreds of Schools all over England, and boys have descended upon their happy parents and their peaceful homes. This has always been a serious event in the life of a household, and if we are not mistaken, it is likely to grow in importance. Boys used to be boys, and nothing else; that is to say, boisterous, mischievous beings, full of fun and frolic but with a little consciousness that youth was not everything, and with a longing and amibition to quit school, and to be men.
All this is changed. Some parent who has not made the discovery for himself previously, will make it before the holidays are over, as he witnesses the inroads of young life, and watches the pleasant, unconscious air with which the boys enter and take possession; the frankness with which, as Hood says, "they push us from our forms," or take the last magazine, or occupy the billiardroom or the bath-room during the favourite hours, and appropriate the conversation during the intermediate period. Many a parent will feel very small before he sorrowfully parts with his youngsters. The fact is that we have come to a state of things in which adults must be content to "fag" for the boys. It is the fate of age, and must be submitted to.
Spectator, 3 August 1878
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