Graves, Robert, Bangers, & Mash; Goodbye To All That
"The intimacy that frequently took place was very seldom between an older boy and the object of his affection - that would have spoiled the romantic illusion - but almost always between boys of the same age who were not in love, and used each other as convenient sex-instruments. So the atmosphere was always heavy with romance of a conventional early-Victorian type, complicated by cynicism and foulness."
"The school consisted of about six hundred boys, whose chief interests were games [sports] and romantic friendships."