John Betjeman’s family lived in Highgate.
”Here from my eyrie, as the sun went down,
I heard the old North London puff and shunt,
Glad that I did not live in Gospel Oak.”
He didn’t fancy living in Slough either.
“Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn’t fit for humans now,
There isn’t grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!”
Educated at Marlborough (Victorian, founded 1843) he was prepared to sneer at a school founded in the reign of Richard II.
“Broad of Church and ‘broad of Mind’,
Broad before and broad behind,
A keen ecclesiologist,
A rather dirty Wykehamist.”
Winchester has quietly educated an astonishing range of men with capabilities. I have only met one Wykehamist who has been to prison. Eton does better on that score. Curiously Winchester can only chalk up three Prime Ministers, two of whom don’t carry much weight: John Dring (Bahawalpur, 1948 – 1952), Viscount Brookeborough (Northern Ireland, 1943 – 1963). Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth was British Prime Minister 1801 – 1804.
Charterhouse similarly flies below the radar, politically; only Prime Minister the Earl of Liverpool, 1812 – 1827. Now they are head-to-head – Sunak v Hunt. Both are rich men which I find comforting and I like to think are orthodox, good eggs that want to serve their country not experiment with the economy like novice Scalextric drivers. Yes, I’m thinking of Etonian Kwarteng. Both Sunak and Hunt will rally round the Charterhouse motto: deo dante dedi. (“God having given, I gave”)
In the House of Commons they should inculcate Winchester’s motto: manners makyth man. I doubt they will succeed.
I loved this post. My old school motto, Esse quam videri (to be and not to seem), would also provide sound guidance for our political leaders, I think.
Or mine would be equally useful:
‘Non verba sed facta’
‘Not words but deeds’
You are a credit to your alma mater and its motto in your career. As you might expect my school motto, Floreat Etona, is self-serving and arrogant – like some of its alumni.
“Kwarteng”, not “Kwartang”.
Thank you, corrected.