ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on preliminary work for a forthcoming major study of classics in English education. The Taunton Commissioners had recommended the setting up of county education authorities, coordinated by a department of central government. The public schools joined in the successful opposition to the interventionist proposals, and organised a standing conference, the Headmasters' Conference, which met for the first time in 1869. By 1900, the public schools were at the height of their influence. The endowed grammar schools which had been surveyed by the Taunton Commission in the 1860s were in a much less comfortable position. Recruitment to classics in secondary schools showed a slight increase through the 1920s. Greek numbers remained low and a large proportion was accounted for by the public schools. Greek scholars had turned to art, archaeology and the anthropological analysis of ancient religion.
