THE JUNIOR’S START IN COLLEGE LIFE.
πεμπε—Tin Gloves—Test of Founder’s Kin—Tutor and Pupil—The Fag
“in Course.”
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.
Each boy, on his arrival, was allotted to a Præfect as his pupil,
who was called his tutor, and was supposed to exercise a general
superintendence over his morals and manners, to purge his exercises from
the grosser faults, protect him from the unjust treatment of other boys,
and generally to “Teejay”[3] him. It was ordinarily an advantageous
arrangement to both parties. My old friend Dummy, however, was not
fortunate in the selection made for him; he was handed over to a
tutor, who, by way of taking a great interest in his welfare, prevented
other boys from thrashing his pupil by operating on him so constantly
himself, that they scarcely had any chance of so doing. The tutor was
tall, thin, bullet-headed, and apparently about forty-five years of
age, and he used, from time to time, to conduct his pupil into a quiet
corner, and, with a cheerful smile beaming on his countenance, would
give himself a few minutes’ healthy, but not too violent, exercise. He
was economical, and found that a stout cane, tied with wax thread at
the end, was a less expensive chest-opener than a ground-ash, which was
not only very liable to break, but extracted less entertainment than
the thicker weapon. He was not very muscular, or the consequences might
have been serious. As it was, wherever Dummy went to bathe, a number of
spectators always assembled to see his back, which, from the nape of his
neck to his ankles, was a network of intersecting bruises. Dummy’s skin
gradually got as tough as a hippopotamus’s, and I don’t think it did
him much harm. At any rate, I saw him last year in rude health. He was
delighted to see me; and he told me that, not long before, he had met his
venerated tutor at a railway station in Northumberland, looking still
about forty-five, and apparently a bishop or dean, or something of that
sort, with a Gothic waistcoat, and a broad-brimmed hat, and altogether so
little altered, that Dummy’s body gave an instinctive shrink as it passed
him, in expectation of the never-failing blow or kick that used to follow
immediately on his propinquity.
A fortnight’s breathing-time was allowed to every new boy before he
commenced Fagging, to give him the necessary leisure to learn what would
be expected of him; at the expiration of which period his duties began,
and he was said to be “in Course.” Such is the natural craving in the
human mind for change, that I remember, in my case, I was quite impatient
for the time of probation to expire, that I might indulge in the manly
exercise of Fagging.
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