Natale Christi hilare et faustum annum novum!

Journalists are paid to be thought-provoking, but something very odd comes over them when they unfold their thoughts on the subject of Latin. Neal Ascherson, for example, once argued in the Independent on Sunday that he had been taught Latin at Eton as ‘a rite of exclusion for those outside, a ceremony of submission for those inside’, with a view to ‘subordinating the will on a mental barrack-square’ and producing people subservient to authority. Further, it prevented him learning Slavic languages. He concluded that Latin was ‘part of England’s fake heritage, part of that pseudo-ancient landscape which I call Druidic. And it should be left to fall down.’

There is something faintly risible about someone who has been to Eton drawing conclusions applicable to all from his own educational experience. But if that was how Latin was taught at Eton, it can hardly be the subject’s fault. Blame the staff at Eton who taught it and invested it with those characteristics.