"1. No Freshman shall ware his hat in the College yard except it
rains, snows, or hails, or he be on horse back or haith both hands
full.
"2. No Freshman shall ware his hat in his Seniors Chamber, or in
his own if his Senior be there.
"3. No Freshman shall go by his Senior, without taking his hat of
if it be on.
"4. No Freshman shall intrude into his Seniors company.
"5. No Freshman shall laugh in his Seniors face.
"6. No Freshman shall talk saucily to his Senior, or speak to him
with his hat on.
"7. No Freshman shall ask his Senior an impertinent question.
"8. Freshmen are to take notice that a Senior Sophister can take a
Freshman from a Sophimore,[28] a Middle Batcelour from a Junior
Sophister, a Master from a Senior Sophister, and a Fellow[29] from
a Master.
"9. Freshmen are to find the rest of the Scholars with bats,
balls, and foot balls.
"10. Freshmen must pay three shillings a peice to the Butler to
have there names set up in the Buttery.
"11. No Freshman shall loiter by the [way] when he is sent of an
errand, but shall make hast and give a direct answer when he is
asked who he is going [for]. No Freshman shall use lying or
equivocation to escape going of an errand.
"12. No Freshman shall tell who [he] is going [for] except he be
asked, nor for what except he be asked by a Fellow.
"13. No Freshman shall go away when he haith been sent of an
errand before he be dismissed, which may be understood by saying,
it is well, I thank you, you may go, or the like.
"14. When a Freshman knocks at his Seniors door he shall tell
[his] name if asked who.
"15. When anybody knocks at a Freshmans door, he shall not aske
who is there, but shall immediately open the door.
"16. No Freshman shall lean at prayrs but shall stand upright.
"17. No Freshman shall call his classmate by the name of Freshmen.
"18. No Freshman shall call up or down to or from his Seniors
chamber or his own.
"19. No Freshman shall call or throw anything across the College
yard.
"20. No Freshman shall mingo against the College wall, nor go into
the Fellows cus john.[30]
"21. Freshmen may ware there hats at dinner and supper, except
when they go to receive there Commons of bread and bear.
"22. Freshmen are so to carry themselves to there Seniors in all
respects so as to be in no wise saucy to them, and who soever of
the Freshmen shall brake any of these customs shall be severely
punished."
Another manuscript copy of these singular regulations bears date
September, 1741, and is entitled,
"THE CUSTOMS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, WHICH IF THE FRESHMEN DON'T
OBSERVE AND OBEY, THEY SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED IF THEY HAVE
HEARD THEM READ."
"1. No Freshman shall wear his hat in the College yard, except it
rains, hails, or snows, he be on horseback, or hath both hands
full.
"2. No Freshman shall pass by his Senior, without pulling his hat
off.
"3. No Freshman shall be saucy to his Senior, or speak to him with
his hat on.
"4. No Freshman shall laugh in his Senior's face.
"5. No Freshman shall ask his Senior any impertinent question.
"6. No Freshman shall intrude into his Senior's company.
"7. Freshmen are to take notice that a Senior Sophister can take a
Freshman from a Sophimore, a Master from a Senior Sophister, and a
Fellow from a Master.
"8. When a Freshman is sent of an errand, he shall not loiter by
the way, but shall make haste, and give a direct answer if asked
who he is going for.
"9. No Freshman shall tell who he is a going for (unless asked),
or what he is a going for, unless asked by a Fellow.
"10. No Freshman, when he is going of errands, shall go away,
except he be dismissed, which is known by saying, 'It is well,'
'You may go,' 'I thank you,' or the like.
"11. Freshman are to find the rest of the scholars with bats,
balls, and footballs.
"12. Freshmen shall pay three shillings to the Butler to have
their names set up in the Buttery.
"13. No Freshman shall wear his hat in his Senior's chambers, nor
in his own if his Senior be there.
"14. When anybody knocks at a Freshman's door, he shall not ask
who is there, but immediately open the door.
"15. When a Freshman knocks at his Senior's door, he shall tell
his name immediately.
"16. No Freshman shall call his classmate by the name of Freshman.
"17. No Freshman shall call up or down, to or from his Senior's
chamber or his own.
"18. No Freshman shall call or throw anything across the College
yard, nor go into the Fellows' Cuz-John.
"19. No Freshman shall mingo against the College walls.
"20. Freshmen are to carry themselves, in all respects, as to be
in no wise saucy to their Seniors.
"21. Whatsoever Freshman shall break any of these customs, he
shall be severely punished."
A written copy of these regulations in Latin, of a very early
date, is still extant. They appear first in English, in the fourth
volume of the Immediate Government Books, 1781, p. 257. The two
following laws--one of which was passed soon after the
establishment of the College, the other in the year 1734--seem to
have been the foundation of these rules. "Nulli ex scholaribus
senioribus, solis tutoribus et collegii sociis exceptis, recentem
sive juniorem, ad itinerandum, aut ad aliud quodvis faciendum,
minis, verberibus, vel aliis modis impellere licebit. Et siquis
non gradatus in hanc legem peccaverit, castigatione corporali,
expulsione, vel aliter, prout præsidi cum sociis visum fuerit
punietur."--_Mather's Magnalia_, B. IV. p. 133.
"None belonging to the College, except the President, Fellows,
Professors, and Tutors, shall by threats or blows compel a
Freshman or any Undergraduate to any duty or obedience; and if any
Undergraduate shall offend against this law, he shall be liable to
have the privilege of sending Freshmen taken from him by the
President and Tutors, or be degraded or expelled, according to the
aggravation of the offence. Neither shall any Senior scholars,
Graduates or Undergraduates, send any Freshman on errands in
studying hours, without leave from one of the Tutors, his own
Tutor if in College."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, App., p. 141.
That this privilege of sending Freshmen on errands was abused in
some cases, we see from an account of "a meeting of the
Corporation in Cambridge, March 27th, 1682," at which time notice
was given that "great complaints have been made and proved against
----, for his abusive carriage, in requiring some of the Freshmen
to go upon his private errands, and in striking the said
Freshmen."
In the year 1772, "the Overseers having repeatedly recommended
abolishing the custom of allowing the upper classes to send
Freshmen on errands, and the making of a law exempting them from
such services, the Corporation voted, that, 'after deliberate
consideration and weighing all circumstances, they are not able to
project any plan in the room of this long and ancient custom, that
will not, in their opinion, be attended with equal, if not
greater, inconveniences.'" It seems, however, to have fallen into
disuse, for a time at least, after this period; for in June, 1786,
"the retaining men or boys to perform the services for which
Freshmen had been heretofore employed," was declared to be a
growing evil, and was prohibited by the Corporation.--_Quincy's
Hist. Harv. Univ._, Vol. I. p. 515; Vol. II. pp. 274, 277.
The upper classes being thus forbidden to employ persons not
connected with the College to wait upon them, the services of
Freshmen were again brought into requisition, and they were not
wholly exempted from menial labor until after the year 1800.
Another service which the Freshmen were called on to perform, was
once every year to shake the carpets of the library and Philosophy
Chamber in the Chapel.
Those who refused to comply with these regulations were not
allowed to remain in College, as appears from the following
circumstance, which happened about the year 1790. A young man from
the West Indies, of wealthy and highly respectable parents,
entered Freshman, and soon after, being ordered by a member of one
of the upper classes to go upon an errand for him, refused, at the
same time saying, that if he had known it was the custom to
require the lower class to wait on the other classes, he would
have brought a slave with him to perform his share of these
duties. In the common phrase of the day, he was _hoisted_, i.e.
complained of to a tutor, and on being told that he could not
remain at College if he did not comply with its regulations, he
took up his connections and returned home.
With reference to some of the observances which were in vogue at
Harvard College in the year 1794, the recollections of Professor
Sidney Willard are these:--
"It was the practice, at the time of my entrance at College, for
the Sophomore Class, by a member selected for the purpose, to
communicate to the Freshmen, in the Chapel, 'the Customs,' so
called; the Freshmen being required to 'keep their places in their
seats, and attend with decency to the reading.' These customs had
been handed down from remote times, with some modifications not
essentially changing them. Not many days after our seats were
assigned to us in the Chapel, we were directed to remain after
evening prayers and attend to the reading of the customs; which
direction was accordingly complied with, and they were read and
listened to with decorum and gravity. Whether the ancient customs
of outward respect, which forbade a Freshman 'to wear his hat in
the College yard, unless it rains, hails, or snows, provided he be
on foot, and have not both hands full,' as if the ground on which
he trod and the atmosphere around him were consecrated, and the
article which extends the same prohibition to all undergraduates,
when any of the governors of the College are in the yard, were
read, I cannot say; but I think they were not; for it would have
disturbed that gravity which I am confident was preserved during
the whole reading. These prescripts, after a long period of
obsolescence, had become entirely obsolete.
"The most degrading item in the list of customs was that which
made Freshmen subservient to all the other classes; which obliged
those who were not employed by the Immediate Government of the
College to go on any errand, not judged improper by an officer of
the government, or in study hours, for any of the other classes,
the Senior having the prior right to the service.... The privilege
of claiming such service, and the obligation, on the other hand,
to perform it, doubtless gave rise to much abuse, and sometimes to
unpleasant conflict. A Senior having a claim to the service of a
Freshman prior to that of the classes below them, it had become a
practice not uncommon, for a Freshman to obtain a Senior, to whom,
as a patron and friend, he acknowledged and avowed a permanent
service due, and whom he called _his_ Senior by way of eminence,
thus escaping the demands that might otherwise be made upon him
for trivial or unpleasant errands. The ancient custom was never
abolished by authority, but died with the change of feeling; so
that what might be demanded as a right came to be asked as a
favor, and the right was resorted to only as a sort of defensive
weapon, as a rebuke of a supposed impertinence, or resentment of a
real injury."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_, Vol. I. pp. 258,
259.
The following account of this system, as it formerly obtained at
Yale College, is from President Woolsey's Historical Discourse
before the Graduates of that Institution, Aug. 14, 1850:--
"Another remarkable particular in the old system here was the
servitude of Freshmen,--for such it really deserved to be called.
The new-comers--as if it had been to try their patience and
endurance in a novitiate before being received into some monastic
order--were put into the hands of Seniors, to be reproved and
instructed in manners, and were obliged to run upon errands for
the members of all the upper classes. And all this was very
gravely meant, and continued long in use. The Seniors considered
it as a part of the system to initiate the ignorant striplings
into the college system, and performed it with the decorum of
dancing-masters. And, if the Freshmen felt the burden, the upper
classes who had outlived it, and were now reaping the advantages
of it, were not willing that the custom should die in their time.
"The following paper, printed I cannot tell when, but as early as
the year 1764, gives information to the Freshmen in regard to
their duty of respect towards the officers, and towards the older
students. It is entitled 'FRESHMAN LAWS,' and is perhaps part of a
book of customs which was annually read for the instruction of
new-comers.
"'It being the duty of the Seniors to teach Freshmen the laws,
usages, and customs of the College, to this end they are empowered
to order the whole Freshman Class, or any particular member of it,
to appear, in order to be instructed or reproved, at such time and
place as they shall appoint; when and where every Freshman shall
attend, answer all proper questions, and behave decently. The
Seniors, however, are not to detain a Freshman more than five
minutes after study bell, without special order from the
President, Professor, or Tutor.
"'The Freshmen, as well as all other Undergraduates, are to be
uncovered, and are forbidden to wear their hats (unless in stormy
weather) in the front door-yard of the President's or Professor's
house, or within ten rods of the person of the President, eight
rods of the Professor, and five rods of a Tutor.
"'The Freshmen are forbidden to wear their hats in College yard
(except in stormy weather, or when they are obliged to carry
something in their hands) until May vacation; nor shall they
afterwards wear them in College or Chapel.
"'No Freshman shall wear a gown, or walk with a cane, or appear
out of his room without being completely dressed, and with his
hat; and whenever a Freshman either speaks to a superior or is
spoken to by one, he shall keep his hat off until he is bidden to
put it on. A Freshman shall not play with any members of an upper
class, without being asked; nor is he permitted to use any acts of
familiarity with them, even in study time.
"'In case of personal insult, a Junior may call up a Freshman and
reprehend him. A Sophomore, in like case, must obtain leave from a
Senior, and then he may discipline a Freshman, not detaining him
more than five minutes, after which the Freshman may retire, even
without being dismissed, but must retire in a respectful manner.
"'Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable errands for any
superior, always returning an account of the same to the person
who sent them. When called, they shall attend and give a
respectful answer; and when attending on their superior, they are
not to depart until regularly dismissed. They are responsible for
all damage done to anything put into their hands by way of errand.
They are not obliged to go for the Undergraduates in study time,
without permission obtained from the authority; nor are they
obliged to go for a graduate out of the yard in study time. A
Senior may take a Freshman from a Sophimore, a Bachelor from a
Junior, and a Master from a Senior. None may order a Freshman in
one play time, to do an errand in another.
"'When a Freshman is near a gate or door belonging to College or
College yard, he shall look around and observe whether any of his
superiors are coming to the same; and if any are coming within
three rods, he shall not enter without a signal to proceed. In
passing up or down stairs, or through an entry or any other narrow
passage, if a Freshman meets a superior, he shall stop and give
way, leaving the most convenient side,--if on the stairs, the
banister side. Freshmen shall not run in College yard, or up or
down stairs, or call to any one through a College window. When
going into the chamber of a superior, they shall knock at the
door, and shall leave it as they find it, whether open or shut.
Upon entering the chamber of a superior, they shall not speak
until spoken to; they shall reply modestly to all questions, and
perform their messages decently and respectfully. They shall not
tarry in a superior's room, after they are dismissed, unless asked
to sit. They shall always rise whenever a superior enters or
leaves the room where they are, and not sit in his presence until
permitted.
"'These rules are to be observed, not only about College, but
everywhere else within the limits of the city of New Haven.'
"This is certainly a very remarkable document, one which it
requires some faith to look on as originating in this land of
universal suffrage, in the same century with the Declaration of
Independence. He who had been moulded and reduced into shape by
such a system might soon become expert in the punctilios of the
court of Louis the Fourteenth.
"This system, however, had more tenacity of life than might be
supposed. In 1800 we still find it laid down as the Senior's duty
to inspect the manners and customs of the lower classes, and
especially of the Freshmen; and as the duty of the latter to do
any proper errand, not only for the authorities of the College,
but also, within the limits of one mile, for Resident Graduates
and for the two upper classes. By degrees the old usage sank down
so far, that what the laws permitted was frequently abused for the
purpose of playing tricks upon the inexperienced Freshmen; and
then all evidence of its ever having been current disappeared from
the College code. The Freshmen were formally exempted from the
duty of running upon errands in 1804."--pp. 54-56.
Among the "Laws of Yale College," published in 1774, appears the
following regulation: "Every Freshman is obliged to do any proper
Errand or Message, required of him by any one in an upper class,
which if he shall refuse to do, he shall be punished. Provided
that in Study Time no Graduate may send a Freshman out of College
Yard, or an Undergraduate send him anywhere at all without Liberty
first obtained of the President or Tutor."--pp. 14, 15.
In a copy of the "Laws" of the above date, which formerly belonged
to Amasa Paine, who entered the Freshman Class at Yale in 1781, is
to be found a note in pencil appended to the above regulation, in
these words: "This Law was annulled when Dr. [Matthew] Marvin, Dr.
M.J. Lyman, John D. Dickinson, William Bradley, and Amasa Paine
were classmates, and [they] claimed the Honor of abolishing it."
The first three were graduated at Yale in the class of 1785;
Bradley was graduated at the same college in 1784 and Paine, after
spending three years at Yale, was graduated at Harvard College in
the class of 1785.
As a part of college discipline, the upper classes were sometimes
deprived of the privilege of employing the services of Freshmen.
The laws on this subject were these:--
"If any Scholar shall write or publish any scandalous Libel about
the President, a Fellow, Professor, or Tutor, or shall treat any
one of them with any reproachful or reviling Language, or behave
obstinately, refractorily, or contemptuously towards either of
them, or be guilty of any Kind of Contempt, he may be punished by
Fine, Admonition, be deprived the Liberty of sending Freshmen for
a Time; by Suspension from all the Privileges of College; or
Expulsion, according as the Nature and Aggravation of the Crime
may require."
"If any Freshman near the Time of Commencement shall fire the
great Guns, or give or promise any Money, Counsel, or Assistance
towards their being fired; or shall illuminate College with
Candles, either on the Inside or Outside of the Windows, or
exhibit any such Kind of Show, or dig or scrape the College Yard
otherwise than with the Liberty and according to the Directions of
the President in the Manner formerly practised, or run in the
College Yard in Company, they shall be deprived the Privilege of
sending Freshmen three Months after the End of the Year."--_Laws
Yale Coll._, 1774, pp. 13, 25, 26.
To the latter of these laws, a clause was subsequently added,
declaring that every Freshman who should "do anything unsuitable
for a Freshman" should be deprived of the privilege "of sending
Freshmen on errands, or teaching them manners, during the first
three months of _his_ Sophomore year."--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1787,
in _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XII. p. 140.
In the Sketches of Yale College, p. 174, is the following
anecdote, relating to this subject:--"A Freshman was once
furnished with a dollar, and ordered by one of the upper classes
to procure for him pipes and tobacco, from the farthest store on
Long Wharf, a good mile distant. Being at that time compelled by
College laws to obey the unreasonable demand, he proceeded
according to orders, and returned with ninety-nine cents' worth of
pipes and one pennyworth of tobacco. It is needless to add that he
was not again sent on a similar errand."
The custom of obliging the Freshmen to run on errands for the
Seniors was done away with at Dartmouth College, by the class of
1797, at the close of their Freshman year, when, having served
their own time out, they presented a petition to the Trustees to
have it abolished.
In the old laws of Middlebury College are the two following
regulations in regard to Freshmen, which seem to breathe the same
spirit as those cited above. "Every Freshman shall be obliged to
do any proper errand or message for the Authority of the College."
--"It shall be the duty of the Senior Class to inspect the manners
of the Freshman Class, and to instruct them in the customs of the
College, and in that graceful and decent behavior toward
superiors, which politeness and a just and reasonable
subordination require."--_Laws_, 1804, pp. 6, 7.
FRESHMANSHIP. The state of a Freshman.
A man who had been my fellow-pupil with him from the beginning of
our _Freshmanship_, would meet him there.--_Bristed's Five Years
in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 150.
FRESHMAN'S LANDMARK. At Cambridge, Eng., King's College Chapel is
thus designated. "This stupendous edifice may be seen for several
miles on the London road, and indeed from most parts of the
adjacent country."--_Grad. ad Cantab._
FRESHMAN, TUTOR'S. In Harvard College, the _Freshman_ who occupies
a room under a _Tutor_. He is required to do the errands of the
Tutor which relate to College, and in return has a high choice of
rooms in his Sophomore year.
The same remarks, _mutatis mutandis_, apply to the _Proctor's
Freshman_.
FRESH-SOPH. An abbreviation of _Freshman-Sophomore_. One who
enters college in the _Sophomore_ year, having passed the time of
the _Freshman_ year elsewhere.
I was a _Fresh-Sophomore_ then, and a waiter in the commons' hall.
--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XII. p. 114.
FROG. In Germany, a student while in the gymnasium, and before
entering the university, is called a _Frosch_,--a frog.
FUNK. Disgust; weariness; fright. A sensation sometimes
experienced by students in view of an examination.
In Cantab phrase I was suffering examination _funk_.--_Bristed's
Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 61.
A singular case of _funk_ occurred at this examination. The man
who would have been second, took fright when four of the six days
were over, and fairly ran away, not only from the examination, but
out of Cambridge, and was not discovered by his friends or family
till some time after.--_Ibid._, p. 125.
One of our Scholars, who stood a much better chance than myself,
gave up from mere _funk_, and resolved to go out in the
Poll.--_Ibid._, p. 229.
2. Fear or sensibility to fear. The general application of the
term.
So my friend's first fault is timidity, which is only not
recognized as such on account of its vast proportions. I grant,
then, that the _funk_ is sublime, which is a true and friendly
admission.--_A letter to the N.Y. Tribune_, in _Lit. World_, Nov.
30, 1850.
_G_.
GAS. To impose upon another by a consequential address, or by
detailing improbable stories or using "great swelling words"; to
deceive; to cheat.
Found that Fairspeech only wanted to "_gas_" me, which he did
pretty effectually.--_Sketches of Williams College_, p. 72.
GATE BILL. In the English universities, the record of a pupil's
failures to be within his college at or before a specified hour of
the night.
To avoid gate-bills, he will be out at night as late as he
pleases, and will defy any one to discover his absence; for he
will climb over the college walls, and fee his Gyp well, when he
is out all night--_Grad. ad Cantab._, p. 128.
GATED. At the English universities, students who, for
misdemeanors, are not permitted to be out of their college after
ten in the evening, are said to be _gated_.
"_Gated_," i.e. obliged to be within the college walls by ten
o'clock at night; by this he is prevented from partaking in
suppers, or other nocturnal festivities, in any other college or
in lodgings.--Note to _The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May,
1849.
The lighter college offences, such as staying out at night or
missing chapel, are punished by what they term "_gating_"; in one
form of which, a man is actually confined to his rooms: in a more
mild way, he is simply restricted to the precincts of the college.
--_Westminster Rev._, Am. ed., Vol. XXXV. p. 241.
GAUDY. In the University of Oxford, a feast or festival. The days
on which they occur are called _gaudies_ or _gaudy days_. "Blount,
in his Glossographia," says Archdeacon Nares in his Glossary,
"speaks of a foolish derivation of the word from a Judge _Gaudy_,
said to have been the institutor of such days. But _such_ days
were held in all times, and did not want a judge to invent them."
Come,
Let's have one other _gaudy_ night: call to me
All my sad captains; fill our bowls; once more
Let's mock the midnight bell.
_Antony and Cleopatra_, Act. III. Sc. 11.
A foolish utensil of state,
Which like old plate upon a _gaudy day_,
's brought forth to make a show, and that is all.
_Goblins_, Old Play, X. 143.
Edmund Riche, called of Pontigny, Archbishop of Canterbury. After
his death he was canonized by Pope Innocent V., and his day in the
calendar, 16 Nov., was formerly kept as a "_gaudy_" by the members
of the hall.--_Oxford Guide_, Ed. 1847, p. 121.