I

f a school in England is called a public school, it is in fact a private school. However, in Scotland a school that is called a public school is run by the state. I thought it worth stating the difference for the sake of readers who haven't heard of Eton Public School.

However, a public library in both countries is state-run, for use by the general public.

The term "public" (first adopted by Eton College) refers to the fact that the school is open to the paying public, as opposed to a religious school, which was open only to members of a certain church. It also distinguished it from a private education at home (usually only practical for the very wealthy who could afford tutors) and of course at the time the college was founded an awful lot of the folk who were going to be educated were educated at home, or in a religious school, and not in the public domain.