Arthur Conan Doyle writing to his mother from Stonyhurst School in 1872. Conan Doyle was 12 at the time.

Last thursday was the rectors day the following was the order of the day. We got up at 6 and had washing till ½ past 6 then mass till 7 then studies 8 & breakfast of bread and milk till ½ past 8 then we took our skates and went to the recevoir near, and skated till 12 we then had some tarts and other refreshments & went out skating till 5 o'clock we then went home & had dinner of pork & apple sauce & potatoes & then tarts & oranges till ½ past 5 we then went to the playroom and played games till 7 we then said night prayers and had supper of bread & milk we then again took our skates and went to the pond and there we found it all illuminated with Chinese lanterns & torches & blue & red lights so that it was as light as day and there was a band playing rule britannia and other popular songs we then began skating after being all provided with cigars & matches we had barely begun skating when the masters on all sides began throwing crackers & squibs among us & letting off rockets & roman candles & so we enjoyed ourselves till 11 o'clock & then we all got a tumbler of punch to drink the Rector's health & then we took off our skates and went to bed.

I'm trying to imagine the consequences if a kid wrote a letter like that today.

Can you imagine the furore if, in 2010, teachers at a boarding school were to throw fire crackers at skating pupils? Or were to give them punch and cigars!

Oh, I thought you were talking about his grammar - which obviously improved, undoubtedly via his education. Sounds like a great school to me, but you're right: times have changed, and not always for the better.

stevenlmeyer: I get what you're saying. I think that nowdays we are almost too attentive to fewer children and try to control their time and behaviour too much. I remember long, long days before even the age of 10, wandering the bush armed against snakes and whatnot with only a pointy stick. Sometimes my friends and I would come across a dam and or stream and muck about on the water's edge.

Also remember hanging out in paddocks of cattle and horses or unknown temperament. I can think of lots of my happiest times that could well be labeled nowadays as lack of supervision or even neglect.

However, back to Conan Doyle. Apart from his wonderful grammar and spelling, we maybe have to consider that the average life span then was about 42 or so. That means that at 12 he had lived more than 1/4 his probable life span. Taken proportionately, he would be in his late 20s today.

We know that Western society has increasingly extended the period of childhood and dependency on adults. No doubt there are a lot of reasons why that's happened. Maybe in part it's because education has broader content and takes more time; maybe it's because of job skill requirements or competitiveness (to keep competitors out of the market for as long as possible - keep increasing the educational or skill level). Families now are smaller too - in his day the average number of siblings was about 1/2 dozen. Child mortality was high. So maybe we have fewer, healthier children and so we invest more in each individual's growth and development.

In any case I suppose that if a child of 12 nowadays started smoking cigars that they would have a pretty short lifespan too.

Btw - I wonder if girls got cigars too ?

'Btw - I wonder if girls got cigars too ?'

Yep, that right there sums you up pynchme.

Thanks for the chuckle.

Dear Steven,

Thanks for the quote.
Those were the days ...

You'd probably enjoy reading, "The Moon's A
Balloon," by David Niven. "The funniest volume
of reminiscences for ages ... forthright,
bawdy, and often hilarious," Sunday Express.

His experiences of English schools are classic!

However, letters like the one you cited would probably
never be allowed to reach parents. They'd be
censored by at least one private school that I'm
familiar with. The school motto is - their teachers
and faculty are above reproach. We asked for an
explanation once over a certain incident - and were
told via letter in no uncertain terms to mind our own
business (which is what I thought we were doing).
Needless to say - we took our children out of that
school.

Yes, times have changed, and yes, definitely not for
the better!