School-life at Winchester College : $b or, the reminiscences of a Winchester junior under the old régime, 1835-40.Mansfield, Robert Blachford
History
School-life at Winchester College : $b or, the reminiscences of a Winchester junior under the old régime, 1835-40.
Mansfield, Robert Blachford
Students -- England -- Winchester; Winchester College -- History
In the centre quadrangle (_vide_ Plan) are situated the seven Chambers
in which the College boys sleep. They are on the ground-floor, and are
called, after their respective numbers, “First,” “Second,” “Third,” &c.
The number of beds varied in each, the largest (Seventh, which used to
be the school before the present was built, about two centuries ago)
containing thirteen, the smallest (Fifth) eight.
I will suppose our Fag to have been located in Fourth, and, for the
benefit of the uninitiated reader, I will endeavour to sketch this
somewhat remarkable apartment. There are nine beds made of massive
timber, coeval with the College, with a solid wooden canopy and
sides, extending a quarter of the way down the bed. This canopy was
generally papered inside with coloured prints, and wherein was fixed a
“Reading-shelf” for books, and candlestick. The beds were comfortable,
and I have never enjoyed sleep more than I have in those quaint old
receptacles. By the side of each was a chest of about three feet long,
in which clothes were kept, and it also served as a seat whereon to
sit at “Toys.” This was a kind of bureau, the upper part of which was
fitted with shelves for books, where might be found also tea and other
groceries, crockery, and odds and ends innumerable; the lower part opened
and formed a desk. If a search was to be made under our Junior’s bed,
one would have found two candle-boxes, one for rushlights, and the other
for “Tollys,” as the moulded article was generally named, three or
four tin coffee-pots, two large tin boilers for water, (called “Toe-pan
boilers,”) a large earthenware bath, (the “Toe-pan,”) a huge jug of
beer, (the “Nipperkin,”) and lots of candlesticks. Behind the door was
a pile of faggots; in the centre of the room was fixed a strong wooden
“post” or pillar, and alongside of it a form, on which were placed three
or four “Washing-drawers,” (_i.e._, oaken dressing-cases.) Opposite the
window yawned the great fireplace, with its dogs, on which rested the
faggots and bars for the reception of the array of boilers. Above it was
a rushlight, (fixed in a circular iron pan fastened to a staple in the
wall; it was called “The Functior;”) and on each side of it a strong
four-legged table, (or “Washing-stool,”) at which sat the two Præfects.
Around the walls above the beds were inserted, on slabs of slate or
stone, the names of former heroes who had passed safely through the
trials of a College Junior, and there many a boy could see the names of
his ancestors looking down on him, and silently bidding him be of good
heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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