In this chapter, I propose to recount some of the solemnities attendant on the first appearance of a new boy. I need not go through a list of the ordinary questions and chaffings to which a greenhorn is subjected at all schools, but will confine myself to some of the ordeals peculiar to Winchester in the dark ages of which I write. On the first appearance of Green in school, Humbug would ask him, with an air of sympathy, if he had a book entitled “πεμπε μωρον προτερον,” (send the fool farther,) without which it would be impossible for him to get up properly his appointed task. On finding that he has not a copy of the work in question, Humbug would offer his own which he had lent to Brown, and to whom he despatches Green to get it. Brown, however, having lent it to Jones, Green goes to him, who refers him to Robinson, who sends him down to sick-house, whence he is again sent back to school, and, after numerous similar peregrinations, he is ultimately referred to one of the Masters, who soon puts an end to his search. But there were other ordeals that were not quite so harmless. Green was liable to be asked whether he possessed a pair of “Tin gloves.” As this article does not generally form part of a boy’s outfit, Bully would proceed to furnish him with a pair in the following manner:—Taking a half-consumed stick from the fire, he would draw the “red-hot end” down the back of Greens hand between each of the knuckles to the wrist, and, having produced three satisfactory lines of blisters, would then make two or three transverse lines across. A scientifically fitted pair of gloves of this description was generally, if not pleasant wear, at any rate, of great durability. Bully might then, perhaps, inquire of the wretched Green if he was of “Founder’s kin,” and, whatever his answer, proceed to test the assertion by trying to break a plate on his head—the theory being that, if the plate broke first, his descent was proved.