Covert, James Thayne2023-05-292023-05-291961-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/28341116 pagesAfter the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington is reported to have said: “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.” Only a true Englishman, and spirit of if not in nationality, can fully comprehend the meaning of this remark. At first glance it appears to be just another variation of the theme that permeates English history and literature -- a reoccurring theme that is perhaps more familiarly expressed in the several lines from Rupert Brook’s poem, The Soldier: “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.” This sincere but romantic glorification of England and its way of life has been a dominant feature of the English personality. And yet, deep rooted in the endless chasms of the same personality, there seems to have been -- indeed, perhaps still is-- the ultimate awareness that great men are born and not made; And that by virtue of birth and social position, the British system is able to superimpose virtues and ideals upon its gentlemanly sons to a degree elsewhere unknown.enCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USpurchase systemCardwell military reformsmilitary paralysisThesis / Dissertation