Some years ago I read an autobiography of an Eton boy written in 1874 – at the height of the Victorian Public School system and in fact the year, the oft-mentioned here, Winston Churchill was born. It described this boy’s first birching in detail and apparently it was far less severe than he had imagined it would be. I think he said the first few strokes stung a little but after that it was nothing. The build up to his birching was the worse part, as he described shivering while ‘letting down’ his britches and kneeling on the block.
I wonder why even the well made films of today can’t keep to such historical facts? There would be no need to show it but I think it should be allured to.
Tom Brown’s schooldays1
