Scouting for Boys

INTRODUCTION

By LORD ROWALLAN

Chief Scout of the British Commonwealth and Empire

To those who are reading this new edition of Scouting for Boys for the first time it may be of interest to set down what information it has been possible to glean about the way in which the book was composed.

Owing to the kindness of Lady Baden-Powell, B.-P.’s private diaries and letters have been read, and from these some fresh facts can be given. Another source of information is the portion of the original manuscript now in the possession of I.H.Q. The story is far from complete, but we now know much more than was available even twelve months ago.

The manuscript is on many kinds of paper and was evidently written at many times and in many places. The earliest dated portion, the yarn on “Tracking,” contains one page written on notepaper addressed “Harwood, Bonchester Bridge, Hawick, N.B.” (Perhaps it should be explained that” N.B.” stands for” North Britain “ and is an outmoded way of saying “Scotland.”). The date of this is June 18, 1907. B.-P. had an amusing habit of occasionally using notepaper for his manuscripts ; one page, for instance, is on Savoy Hotel paper; others are from addresses in Kensington and Newcastle.

The diary shows that actually on that date, June 18th, B.-P. was staying at the Izaak Walton Hotel, Dovedale, on a fishing holiday. The entry under June 18th is marked with a large red cross and reads, “Got 6½ brace.” Then for June 19th, “Wrote S for B most of the day—writing 9 hours.”

The next date is July 15th with the entry “Wimbledon; a letter to his mother from Mill House, Wimbledon, dated July 16th, contains the following passage, “It is perfectly delightful here, and I am getting on with my writing very well—being entirely my own master—and very quiet sitting out in the garden all day.”

Nothing further is given until the diary entry of December 22nd, when B.-P. was at Middleton in Teesdale; he noted,

“Worked all morning on S for B.”

One point of interest is that one of his letters to his mother (dated December 21, 1907) is on Boy Scout notepaper.

The next date is December 26th, and the diary reads, “Went into residence at Mill House” (i.e. Wimbledon).

A letter to his mother dated December 30th contains this passage, “All goes well here, I am working hard—enjoying frequent walks between whiles in this splendid air.” Though Scouting for Boys is not mentioned here, we know that he was then writing it because Sir Percy Everett has told us how he used to visit B.-P. at Wimbledon and discuss the book.

From the diary we learn that he left Mill House on January 6th, 1908, but there is no evidence of how far at that date the book was completed. Although publication began that month, the whole was not ready, for under the date February 24th is the note, “Sent in Part V of S for B.” That is the last reference.

The manuscript suggests that Part VI gave him the most trouble; this, however, is a conjecture, since the surviving manuscript is not complete. There are three drafts for this Part—it was entitled “Notes for Instructors; it was later called “Principles and Methods.” In two of the drafts much space is given to developing the theme, “T he same causes which brought about the fall of the great Roman Empire are working to-day in Great Britain.” B.-P. had been deeply impressed by an anonymous pamphlet entitled “The Decline and Fall of the British Empire. A brief account of those causes which resulted in the destruction of our late Ally, together with a comparison between the Britis h and Roman Empires. Appointed for use in the National Schools of Japan, Tokio, 2005.” This was published in 1905. (History seems to have reversed the roles of Great Britain and Japan !). It was, as the title indicates, an imaginative account of what might happen if we did not pull up our socks. So greatly was B.-P. impressed that his first two drafts for the last part of Scouting for Boys were mainly on this theme and hardly touched on many of the topics he later discussed; and now it has all been condensed to a sentence. The main text of the book was not radically changed in any of the later editions revised by B.-P., but this last part he altered considerably from edition to edition.

It is important to realise that every development of Scouting has been produced on the demand of the boys themselves. B.-P. indeed never intended that Scouting for Boys should be other than an addition to the training already provided by the Boys’ Brigade, the Y.M.C.A., and other organisations. It was the boys who got hold of the Book, formed their own Patrols and found their own Scoutmasters. It was because the sisters would not stay away that the Guides were born; the little brothers made the Wolf Cubs inevitable, and the unwillingness of those who had outgrown the Scout Troop to sever all connections with it brought in Rovering.

Once again in recent years the older boys in many places wanted more virile activities than were possible for the 11 and 12-year-old. Senior Scouts were the only answer. Many of the Courts of Honour had already banded the older boys into Patrols of their own and the new branch was merely a recognition of established fact. Scouting provides, if we use it rightly, what the boys want; not what we older people think they should want.

Scouting for Boys remains the basis for Scouting and the source of inspiration for Scoutmasters. When Scouting has failed it has been because we have departed from the Patrol System and have failed to trust the boys with responsibility, because we have made our Scouting too nearly a school subject and not a life of joyous adventure. Boys, particularly those who have reached adolescence, demand a challenge to their powers of mind, body and spirit. Scouting can and does provide that challenge if we use it aright. Read this book, not just once nor even twice, but constantly. Each reading will provide something new. Each reading will give us just that inspiration which we require to prevent us from becoming stale. We must recognise that through all the changes in our national life, in our educational system and our ideas of recreation, B.-P. did “know best.” While minor amendments may be necessary from time to time, the fundamentals of Scouting which have produced the most universal brotherhood of youth the world has seen, remain secure as a monument to one of the greatest benefactors to mankind.

1951 Chief Scout.