An Easter Sunday wander along an incredibly cold Eton High Street might have been expected to inspire kinky thoughts. After all, the school is synonymous with discipline and birchings.
In the event, it was so cold that we didn’t make it as far as the College itself, turning back towards the comparative comfort of Costa Coffee. As we crossed the road, I happened to glance up – and look what I found:
So, it was deemed that the local girls would benefit from a traditional Etonian-style education, was it? One imagines that the experience must have been fully authentic – the masters strict, the birchings soundly administered at the front of the class.
Further along the street, we came across the village stocks, abandoned in front of (I kid you not) a half-timbered Chinese restaurant.
And around the corner? Could it be – I so wanted to tie Haron to what we guessed to be the whipping post, but it was far, far too cold!
Monsieur Porny???? What an amazing name! One can only wonder at what may have gone on in his school!
Ergh Eton boys. I’ve never met one who wasn’t a complete bastard.. What I do like is that the whipping post has a chain around it- perhaps there have been previous attempts to steal it?
Harriet – well spotted. I believe the school is actually referred to in the history books as “The Porny School”. Sounds like a dodgy video, to me!
Evie must be posh, spending time with Eton boys! I love the thought of a group of the local girls, one of whose number was due to be whipped, stealing the post. Needless to say, once the whipping post was recovered, the whole group (and not just the original offender) would be tied in place for a public thrashing.
Not so much posh as really really unlucky, Eton boys really are such arses- to be avoided as much as possible.
Ooh just googled and apparently it’s the name of a primary school on Eton hight street!
Some of the terms in the glossary of Eton expressions give food for thought:
The Long Walk…..the space in front of the office !!!
The Tardy Book,the Order Card and Private Business,I can feel my imagination beginning to run riot!
Sweet Dreams everyone. xx
I’m glad Harriet said it first, but the poor chap’s name was the first thing I noticed about the pic too!
Evie, you have been unlucky. Not *every* Eton boy is a complete arse. I do think it’s funny how you can always tell an OE though – boys from other schools have “public school” accents, but boys from Eton have an accent all their own 😉
NO! This is NOT the Eton birching block!
The block which was used for generations was destroyed by fire, some years after it was last used.
I can testify that it was uncomfortable to the knees when you were upon it — and your bottom was even more so when you stood up!
Bob – sounds like you speak from painful experience. We didn’t suggest this was Eton College’s birching block – but that it does look very like a public whipping post.
(There’s an interesting ‘Time’ magazine article about the demise of the College’s block in WW2, which Haron’s going to post about sometime).