Mr. Editor.--If your very valuable work had existed in October, 1847,
when I published in the _British Magazine_ a part of Archibishop
Whitgift's accounts relative to his pupils while he was Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge, I should certainly have applied to you
for assistance.
In several of the accounts there is a charge for the pupil's
"salting;" and after consulting gentlemen more accurately informed
with regard to the customs of the university than myself, I was
obliged to append a note to the word, when it occurred for the first
time in the account of Lord Edward Zouch, in which I said, "I must
confess my inability to explain this word; and do not know whether it
may be worth while to state that, on my mentioning it to a gentleman,
once a fellow-commoner of the college, he told me, that when, as a
freshman, he was getting his gown from the maker, he made some remark
on the long strips of sleeve by which such gowns are distinguished,
and was told that they were called 'salt-bags,' but he could not learn
why; and an Oxford friend tells me, that going to the buttery to
drink salt and water was part of the form of his admission.... This
nobleman's (i.e. Lord Edward Zouch's) amounted to 4s., and that of the
Earl of Cumberland to 3s. 4d., while in other cases it was as low as
8d." To this I added the suggestion that it was probably some fee,
or expense, which varied according to the rank of the parties. It
afterwards occurred to me that this "salting" was, perhaps, some
entertainment given by the new-comer, from and after which he ceased
to be "fresh;" and that while we seem to have lost the "salting" both
really and nominally, we retain the word to which it has reference.
Be this as it may, my attention has just now been recalled to the
question by my accidentally meeting with one of Owen's epigrams, which
shows that in his time there was some sort of salting at Oxford, and
also of peppering at Winchester. As I doubt not that you have readers
well acquainted with the customs of both these seats of learning,
perhaps some may be good enough to afford information. Owen was at
Oxford not many years after Whitgift had been Master of Trinity at
Cambridge, if (as Wood states) he took his bachelor's degree in 1590.
The epigram is as follows:--
"Oxoniæ salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto;
Wintoniæque (puer tum) piperatus eram.
Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello,
Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper."
It is No. 64 in that book of epigrams which Owen inscribed "Ad Carolum
Eboracensem, fratrem Principis, filium Regis," p. 205, edit. Elz,
1628. 12mo. I give this full reference in order to express my most
hearty sympathy with the righteous indignation of my highly respected
friend, your correspondent "L.S." (No. 15 p. 230.), against imperfect
references. I do not, however, agree with him in thinking it fortunate
that he is not a "despotic monarch;" on the contrary, now that I have
not to take up verses, or construe Greek to him, I should like it of
all things; and I am sure the world would be much the better for it.