ABSTRACT
The tables in Chapter I show that private schools played an important rôle in the formation of the intellectual élite of the eighteenth century. About 10 per cent of all cases in D.N.B. were educated in them. If we take all students the percentage will rise to about 20. It is difficult to classify private schools into various groups. Very few of them published a detailed curriculum of studies. Secondly, the dividing line between vocational or technical private schools and classical or private Grammar Schools was not sharply defined. A school with an official title of a Naval Academy sometimes taught classics as well and occasionally sent a student to Oxford or Cambridge. On the other hand a classical school, preparing students for the two Universities, sometimes had teachers of Navigation and Merchants’ Accounts and prepared directly for the Navy or business. As we have seen in Chapter II even the foundation Grammar Schools in some cases crossed the dividing line.
