Crossgates Boarding School

Orwell attends Crossgates School from age eight to about age fourteen. Crossgates, a fictionalized name for St. Cyprian's School, in Eastbourne, Sussex, is a boarding school for young boys. The school is said to be a common recruiting resource for Harrow and Eton, and most of the students come from aristocratic or affluent families. Some few students, including Orwell, attend on scholarship which is essentially a reduced-rate tuition offered to promising students from poorer families. Scholarships are offered in the hope of counting scholastic achievers among the school's alumni - as such, scholarship students are held to a very high academic standard and are nearly required to excel and obtain subsequent scholarships to remain in the school. The various scholarships awarded to school graduates of course increases the school's overall prestige and standing. Orwell is highly critical of the instructional methods used at Crossgates.

Dickens' Novels