HOMOSEXUALITY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Author(s): VERN BULLOUGH and BONNIE BULLOUGH

Source: International Review of Modern Sociology , July-December 1979, Vol. 9, No. 2
(July-December 1979), pp. 261-269
Published by: International Journals

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41420705

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 HOMOSEXUALITY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY
ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

VERN BULLOUGH
and
BONNIE BULLOUGH
California Stale University

International Review of Modern Sociology 1979, Vol. 9 (July-Dec.): 261-26

The nineteenth century English Public School system removed youn

boys from their home environments and placed them in an all male
society where certain homoerotic customs , such as the formation o
intimate adolescent relationships as well as fagging and floggi
were the norm . Yet when these practices were publicly reveale
graduates of the system reacted with denial and denunciation .

In the present paper we argue that the English public schools in

part of the nineteenth century tolerated, if they did not actually enc
the development of strong homoerotic friendships between stude
believe most of the English upper class males who attended thes
accepted such homoerotic attachment as not only natural but de
They, however, preferred not to publicly acknowledge such affairs
women folk (wives or mothers) or to the public at large who
attend such schools. Many of the friendships established in the
continued in adult life, some of them developing into adult hom
partnerships. These were also tolerated both by law and by cu
long as they did not become public; once they became public, or
school master publicly exceeded the bonds of friends with a stude
old boys (graduates of the public schools) reacted with great h
towards those who had publicly violated the norms. A good exam
the aroused antagonism of the old boys is their reaction to Osca
one of their own public school boys. The Wilde case, however, is
negative since ultimately it served to bring homosexuality out of the
Evidence for this thesis is not difficult to find. Legally in En
homosexuality came under the general category of a "crime
nature" and was classed in the same general category as mayhem,
abduction and rape. Blackstone, the English commentator on the
believed that even though both parties might consçnt to a sex act

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262 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MODERN SOCIOLOGY

nature" both should be liable to prosecution. Blackstone was reticent to

discuss in detail what he meant by the crime against nature, listing it only
as a crime not fit to be named (1811). Coupled with his reticence were
other ambiguities in English common law. Particularly important was
the fact that the testimony of a person consenting to a homosexual act was
not sufficient to convict the partner because such a person was regarded as
an accomplice. This meant that even sexual activities involving an adult
and a child had to have a third party as a witness for successful prosecu-
tion (Warton, 1857). Making conviction even more difficult was the fact
that mere solicitation to commit a criminal act was not considered a
criminal offence. Publicly, English attitudes were hostile to homosexuality
and it was periodically decried with horror, even though there were few
convictions for homosexual activities, and the old boy establishment mor
or less ignored it.
Further evidence for this thesis comes from the public school itself.
Historical data from the period suggest that there was a significant number
of homosexual teachers in the public schools and that there were severa
institutionalized practices within the system that can be regarded as encou-
raging homoerotic behavior among boys. For example in the early nine
teenth century school boys of all ages were locked up in dormitories for
the night' at 8 p.m. and no master entered the building until the next
morning. What happened to the boys while "out of school" was in fact
nobody's business. Sidney Smith in 1810 described the English publi
schools as a "system of premature debauchery that only prevents men
from being corrupted by the world by corrupting them before their entry
into the world" (Peterson, 1962: 7).
Eventually the British got around to reforming their schools but the
reforms did not change the homoerotic nature of the public school
Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby, 1828-42, was the leader in th
reforms. One of his major contributions was the establishment of the
prefect system. The prefects (sixth form boys) were expected to exercise
moral influence among the students from the inside rather than from th
outside. It was also supposed to give the boys the experience first of bein
ruled, and then eventually of ruling others, a concept that fitted in wit
Arnold's concept that boys learn by doing.
Closely allied with the prefect system was the practice of "fagging"
which existed in English schools before Arnold but became an importan
part of his system. Small boys had to carry out tasks for the larger boy
including mundane tasks such as cleaning boots and running errands to
more unexpected tasks which seem to have included sexual services. The
implication in these practices is obvious because it is from the English
public school term "fagging" which originally meant doing something

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 HOMOSEXUALITY IN 19ТН CENTURY ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS 263

which causes weariness that we derive one of the slang terms for homo-
sexual.1
The homoerotic experiences of boys have been described by several
writers who attended public schools in this period. For example, the editor
and essayist, Leigh Hunt in 1850 looks back upon his school boy crushes
with great longing.

But if ever I tasted a disembodied transport on earth, it was in those

friendships which I entertained at school, before I dreamt of any
maturer feeling. I shall never forget the impression it first made on me.
I loved my friend for his gentleness, his candour, his truth, his good
repute, his freedom even from my own livelier manner, his calm and
reasonable kindness .... With the other boys I played antics, and rioted
in fantastic jests; but in his society, or whenever I thought of him, I fell
into a kind of Sabbath state of bliss .... I experienced this delightful
affection towards three successive schoolfellows, till two of them had
for some time gone out into the world and forgotten me. . . (Hunt,
1850:98).

Theodore Wratislaw, a graduate of Rugby and Oxford, a biographer of

Swinburne, and a poet, in his poem, "To A Sicilian Boy" (1893), wrote

Love, I adore the contours of thy shape

Thine exquisite breasts and arms adorable;
The wonders of thine heavenly throat compel
Such fire of love as even my dreams escape;
I love thee as the sea-foam loves the cape,

^he origin of the term "fag" is perhaps debatable. Some have argued that it
came from fagot, a bundle of sticks, twigs or small branches used for fuel, and since
burning and homosexuality were equated, this was the origin of the word. The
difficulty is that in England, at least, homosexuals were not burned at the stake and
it is debatable that they were elsewhere on the continent. Havelock Ellis who erro-
neously perpetuated this belief misread the meaning of a French term for heresy
and heretics ofien were burned at the stake. Though the English term buggery
ultimately is derived from the old French word for the Albigensian heretics (Boug-
gerie), the Albigensians were burned for heresy and not for their sexual practices. A
more likely origin of "fag" is the public school use. The term here derives from an
earlier form of "to flag," and means to do drudgery, to droop, to become weary, and
do menial services for others. It has also meant a person taking the place of another,
and in sewing, it is a decorative stitch. We believe the public school term is more
likely the origin than the burning at the stake theory. Already in the nineteenth
century fag was a term of contempt outside the public school for old women, and its
extension to homosexuals from this seems an easy step, i.e., acting like an old woman
is to be a fag, and from this equating homosexuality with fag (for further discussion
see Bullough, 390-91).

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264 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MODERN SOCIOLOGY

Or as the shore the sea's enchanting spell:

In sweets the blossoms of thy mouth excel
The tenderest bloom of peach or purple grape. (Wratislaw, 1893)

More recently the novelist Desmond McCarthy described the public

school homosexual practices of the early twentieth century in a less favo-
rable way:

As time went on it became clear to me that this thing, this abomination

in our midst, was next to games and, perhaps for a very few, their
studies, the most important element in school life. When I say that, I
am including its emotional off-shoots, which were of the most varied
nature, grading up from prompt animalism through jokes to gay tender-
ness, even to restless passion and Platonic idealism. Some boys would
be made happy for the day by a chance meeting, a few casual words
exchanged. Others would discuss chance of seduction with the cynicism
and aplomb of a Valmont. Distinction in games, winning colours, might
be coveted partly in view of the impression they could be counted upon
to make upon 'the object.'

And finally, the essayist and Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, described
the various roles played by his classmates at Wyvern in his autobiography,
Surprised by Joy . In the following passage he delineates the roles of the
powerful "Bloods" and the "Tarts."

A Tart is a pretty and effeminate-looking small boy who acts as a

catamite to one or more of his seniors, usually Bloods.
The Tarts had an important function to play in making school [what it
was advertised to be] a preparation for public life. They were not like
slaves, fcr their favors were [nearly always] solicited, not compelled. Nor
were they exactly like prostitutes, for the liaison often had some perma-
nence and, far from being merely sensual, was highly sentimentalized. Nor
were they paid [in hard cash, I mean] for their services; though of course
they had all the flattery, unofficial influence, favor, and privileges
which the mistresses of the great have always enjoyed in adult society.
That was where the Preparation for Public Life came in . . . one of my
friends shared a study with a minor Tart . . . and except that he was
sometimes turned out of the study when one of the Tart's lovers came in
[and that, after all, was only natural] he had nothing to complain of. I
was not shocked by these things. For me, at that age, the chief draw-
back to the whole system was that it bored me considerably. For you
will have missed the atmosphere of our House unless you picture the
whole place from week's end to week's end buzzing, tittering, hinting,

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 HOMOSEXUALITY IN 19ТН CENTURY ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS 265

whispering about this subject. After games, gallantry was the principal
topic of polite conversation; who had "a case with" whom, whose star was
in the ascendant, who had whose photo, who and when and how often
and what night and where .... I suppose it might be called the Greek
Tradition. But the vice in question is one to which I had never been
tempted, and which, indeed, I still find opaque to the imagination.
Possibly, if I had only stayed longer at the Coll, I might, in this respect
as in others, have been turned into a Normal Boy, as the system
promises. As things were, I was bored (Lewis, 1955).

Another aspect of the English public school system which may have
encouraged other variant sex practices was the custom of flogging. Arnold,
the reformer, believed in corporal punishment and he expected his prefects
to beat the younger boys. Teachers also flogged students. Just how much
flogging is associated with sexual feelings, feeding the sadistic impulse in
the master and the masochistic impulse in the victim is debatable, but we
do know that the richest source of nineteenth century Victorian porno-
graphy deals with spanking and punishment, often with boys forced to
dress as girls or play the feminine role. Among the underground porno-
graphic works circulating in nineteenth century England were The Order of
St. Bridget : Personal Recollections of the Use of the Rod , The Romance of
Chastisement : or, The Revelation of Miss Darcy , Sublime of Flagellation ,
Venus School Mistress , and many others. Closely allied are the epics about
bondage such as Miss High Heels and Gynecocracy (Cooper, 1896; Fraxl,
1962). Many brothels of this period, both homosexual and heterosexual,
had spanking rooms.
What existed then was a society in which homosexuality and sadomaso-
chism were officially denounced, yet institutionally encouraged. This is
particularly true after the period of the Arnold reforms. Some evidence of
increased homosexual activity during the late nineteenth century is sug-
gested by the vast literature of homosexuality dating from this period.
Among those who wrote on homoerotic themes are Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Frederick William Faber, William Cory, John Addington Symonds, Algernon
Swinburne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Carpenter, Walter Pater,
Alfred Douglas, A.E. Housman, Aleister Crowley, Oscar Wilde and many
others (Reade, 1970).
Once rumors of homoeroticism began to publicly surface, the English
reacted with a great hostility and any public claim of homosexuality was
grounds for dismissal. Valuable information about these reactions can be
found in Victorian diaries and memoirs, some of which are finally beginning
to be published. John Addington Symonds, the English defender of homo-
sexuality, wrote about many of his homosexual experiences at Harrow.
When one of Symonds' friends told him he was having a love affair with

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266 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MODERN SOCIOLOGY

his headmaster Dr Charles John Vaughan, Symonds who was himsel

homosexual, expressed disbelief. The statement was soon confirmed and
Symonds watched one night while both boys were reading; Dr Vaughan
gently stroked the thigh of his friend. Whether Symonds was jealous o
his friend or anxious about his own homoerotic learnings, he (Symonds
continued to brood about Dr Vaughan, after he left Harrow and wen
onto Oxford. During a walk with one of his professors at Oxford, t
whom he was also attracted, he blurted out the story about Dr Vaughan
The professor rather than being sympathetic was horrified and urged him
to tell his father. The guilt ridden Symonds did as directed; he showed h
father extracts of his diary and the letter that Dr Vaughan had written t
his friend.
Symond's father, fearful of publicity, acted immediately, corresponding
with Vaughan and requesting his resignation. Vaughan and his wife cam
to see Symonds senior, and Mrs Vaughan flung herself on her knees con-
fessing that her husband had "this weakness" but begged Symonds to have
mercy upon him because it never interfered with his useful service to th
school. Vaughan was however forced to retire. The affair did not end
there since his retirement caused some gossip. Symonds senior was adaman
that Vaughan never be allowed to hold a responsible position again and
when shortly after this Vaughan was offered a Bishopric of Rochester, th
elder Symonds threatened to expose him unless he withdrew. Vaughan
complied and all was kept quiet, and the system at Harrow was left
unchanged (Grosskurth, 1964).
Alleged homosexuality could also be used as cause for dismissal, on
that no teacher could dare fight publicly. Symonds diary also identified
two other teachers who were dismissed, allegedly for homosexuality
William Johnson, who became assistant master at Eton in 1845, left th
school and resigned his fellowship at King's College, Cambridge in 1872
Apparently a parent of one of the boys with whom he had been involved
had complained to the headmaster (Grosskurth, 1964: 48). It seems that
the incident caused Johnson great embarrassment because he changed hi
name to William Johnson Cory. It is interesting to note that the Dictionary
of National Biography says that he left Eton because he had inherited som
property which involved changing his name. Perhaps both factors were
involved. At any rate Johnson-Cory returned to his native Devonshire,
where he married the local vicar's daughter, fathered a son, and w
employed teaching classics to young women. He died in 1892.
The second teacher, Oscar Browning, one of Johnson's pupils, also wen
to King's College and returned to Eton. He was an extremely popula
teacher although he upset the headmaster by his outspoken views o
educational reform. He even went so far as to advocate giving advice on
sexual matters to the boys. In 1875 the headmaster dismissed him and

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 HOMOSEXUALITY IN 19ТН CENTURY ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS 267

although the matter was widely discussed, homosexuality was never

publicly mentioned. Browning returned to Cambridge where he lived on his
King's College fellowship and did historical research.
The unofficial tolerance of closet homosexuality was challenged in 1885
when the legal penalties for being identified as homosexual became more
severe, the motivating factor for the change was an earnest desire to pro-
tect young boys as much as young girls from sexual activities with adults
but the law had legal implications far beyond this. Giving impetus to the
change was a long campaign to end involuntary prostitution in England.
It was alleged and more or less effectively documented that children were
being sold by their parents for sexual purposes. It was found that many
young English girls were being taken to the continent under false pretences
and many ended up in continental brothels. When documented evidence
of such actual sale was presented in the Pall Mall Gazette , edited by
W.T. Stead, there was a mass public demonstration and Parliament which
had been reluctant to deal with the issue made haste to do so. During the
debate on the white slavery act an amendment was suggested theoretically
designed to include boy prostitutes as well but which in fact included any
sexual activity between males (Bullough, V., 570-72). The most publicized
victim of the new act was not a child procurer, but instead Osc^r Wilde.
When the Marquess of Queensberry accused Wilde of enticing his son,
Alfred Douglas, into homosexuality, Wilde sued him for criminal libel.
On the strength of the evidence presented in the first trial, Wilde himself
was arrested and ultimately convicted (Hyde, 1956). It has often been
hypothesized that the main reason the government prosecuted Wilde so
vigorously was that the Liberal party, then in power, was fearful that it
would be tarred with the brush of homosexuality. Though at this date it is
impossible to determine how many members of the Liberal party were
homosexual or had homoerotic contacts, two prominent young Liberals
were later involved in publicized homosexual affairs, Lewis Harcourt, later
Viscount Harcourt, and William Earl Beauchamp.
One of the few public figures who had anything to say on Wilde's behalf
was W.T. Stead, one of those most responsible for the passage of the anti-
White Slave Act. Stead, who was a dissenter, and therefore not eligible
to attend the public schools, complained that Wilde was unfairly singled
out, because if all persons guilty of Oscar Wilde's offences were to be
clapped into goal, there would be a very surprising exodus from Eton and
Harrow, Rugby and Winchester (Bullough, V., 574). A similar feeling was
expressed by a friend of Wilde, Christopher Sclater Millard who protested
against the discrimination shown to Wilde since the crown, if it were con-
sistent, should prosecute "every boy at a public or private school or half
the men in the Universities .... In the latter places ťpoederism' is as

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268 INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF MODERN SOCIOLOGY

common as fornication and everybody knows it . . (Reynolds Newspaper

1895; Hyde, 1970).
In sum the English public school was known by much of the leadership in
England to have been a haven for adolescent homosexual practices, many
of which continued beyond adolescence. Most of the men who dominated
public affairs had attended such schools themselves and had either parti-
cipated in or observed homosexual practices. Yet at a later date many of
them either denied to themselves or to others that these boyish behavior
were in fact homoerotic. Consequently if a master became indiscret
enough to be caught writing a mash note, or his homosexuality became to
obvious to outsiders, the alumni of the system acted shocked and joined
in meting out punishment, or at least they kept quiet when others did so. In
effect they denied that homoerotic behavior was a part of the norms of the
public school system. What men knew about themselves was not to be
revealed to others, While publicly homosexuality could be condemned,
legally there were few prosecutions. The legal system in fact was not suite
to dealing with homosexuality. The closet homosexual, however, was sti
vulnerable to dismissal, and even an allegation of homosexuality proved
enough for dismissal if someone such as a headmaster wanted to get rid
of a recalcitrant faculty member.
This situation changed with a change in law which probably went beyond
the intentions of most members of parliament although prosecution fo
homosexuality remained difficult. The new law, however, by serving as
the base for the prosecution of Oscar Wilde, in the long run served a
valuable purpose. It brought homosexuality out into the open, and a
whole series of defenders of homosexuality appeared from John Addingto
Symonds to Edward Carpenter, to any number of others. The result wa
to force a public discussion of homosexuality, and though there were rea
dangers for some of those involved (Addington did not sign his name t
his pro homosexual works), the basis was laid for the beginning of the
English movement out of the closets.

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 HOMOSEXUALITY IN 19ТН CENTURY ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS 269

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