At the school for potential divinity students, a new master is resented though a graduate of the school, because his father was a tradesman,chapel, and not a gentleman. So even though the had been the most brilliant student ever to attend the school, his appointment to head it is bitterly resented. Among his faults is "enthusiasm".

"Enthusiasm was ill-bred. Enthusiasm was ungentlemanly. They thought of the Salvation Army with its braying trumpets and its drums. Enthusiasm meant change. They had goose-flesh when they thought of all the pleasant old habits which stood in imminent danger. They hardly dared to look forward to the future."

I suspect the now probably obsolete epithet "bounder" has a
similar origin.