Description
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by Henry Jermyn Brooks
Engraving
Paper Size: 21 x 30 ins / 53 x 76 cm
Image Size: 18 x 26 ins / 44 x 64 cm
One of a pair. The playing fields of famous public schools provide the setting for these cricket matches. Stevenson, the engraver, etched various similar views after Brooks and others around 1890, which seems to be the approximate date of the two scenes shown here. At the beginning of the 19th century there were three kinds of secondary school: public schools (actually private), with a purely classical curriculum; private academies, offering a more progressive education; and the old grammar schools. The public schools tended to be undisciplined places, but were reformed at the example of the pioneering educational improvements brought about by Dr.Thomas Arnold at Rugby School in the 1830s. Organised games offered a complement to the academic aspects of school life.
watermarks do not appear on prints
