ABSTRACT
By the end of the nineteenth century athleticism was to marshal a coherent set of educational arguments for its existence and become the hallmark of an acceptable public school. By a process of observation, borrowing and assimilation it was to become a remarkably uniform manifestation. Then, a further process of reappraisal, ideological and organisational reconstruction commenced. And its decline began. Its evolution is analogous with the formation of an ancient river: its sources are minor tributaries; its main force is a broad and powerful stream; its mouth is a silted and sluggish delta. However integrated its main confluence, its origins, at least in the schools of this study, were markedly diverse. This diversity can be seen clearly from the separate investigation ofeach of the six schools which follows in this and the next chapter.
