Notions (Winchester College)

Last updated

A page from Winchester College Notions, by Three Beetleites, 1901. This was long considered authoritative. Win coll notions 3 beetleites page 110.jpg
A page from Winchester College Notions, by Three Beetleites, 1901. This was long considered authoritative.

Winchester College Notions are the specialised terms, and sometimes customs, that have been used by pupils, known as men, at Winchester College. [2] Some are specific to the school; others are survivals of slang or dialect that were once in wider usage. Notions tests were formerly held in each house of the school, and numerous manuscript and printed books were written to collect notions for pupils to learn. Some notions were customs, such as the Morning Hills assembly held on top of St. Catherine's Hill; others were humorous, like the Pempe, a practical joke played on new pupils. Most notions have now fallen into disuse.

Contents

Definition

A notion is "any word, custom, person or place peculiarly known to Wykehamists", pupils of Winchester College. [2] The notions in use have continually changed; even in 1891, the Old Wykehamist Robert Wrench noted that some had vanished through neglect or had become obsolete as circumstances had changed. [3] The earliest notions book, circa 1840, contained some 350 notions; around 1000 current and obsolete notions were listed by 1900. [4] Most of these fell into disuse in the 20th century, so that by 1980, the number of notions in use was according to the former headmaster of Winchester College James Sabben-Clare "really quite small". [5]

Notions books

Notions were traditionally recorded in manuscript books for the use of new men, pupils joining the school. [6] [3] Many old examples of such manuscript notions books are preserved by Winchester College. [1] Among them are books by R. Gordon (1842); F. Fane (1843); Thomson (c. 1855); J. A. Fort (1874); A. L. Royds (1867); and A. H. S. Cripps (1868–72). Printed versions are Wrench's Word Book [7] and Three Beetleites. [8] The latter was long considered authoritative. [1]

The fullest book of College notions (as opposed to Commoners notions) is that by Charles Stevens. This book is unusual in that it reflects the usages of the 1920s, when the author was at school, but was continually revised by the author from a scholarly point of view and typed out in the 1960s. It was edited by Christopher Stray and printed in 1998. [9] [1] Other manuscript books are those of Steadman (1955), Foster (c. 1969), Tabbush (1973–4) and Gay (1974). These were generally kept by whatever senior man was most interested in notions, and circulated shortly before Notions Examinā in each year. In the late 1980s this was formalized, and the custodian was known as "Keeper of the Notions and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sutton Scotney".

A slim brochure, containing only the most basic notions in common use, is printed by P & G Wells and used to be distributed to new men. [10] In earlier times this was available for sale, but was confined to Commoner notions (as recorded in Three Beetleites) and never seen in College.

Etymologies

Winchester-specific

Page of "Notions" from Winchester Word Book by Robert Wrench, 1891 Page from Winchester Word Book Wrench 1891.jpg
Page of "Notions" from Winchester Word Book by Robert Wrench, 1891

Winchester College notions are not all specific to the school, but have a variety of origins. Clearly specific are some of the names of places or objects inside the school, such as "Gunner's Hole" for the old swimming-place on the river, [11] or "Moab" for the washing-place in College, from the passage in Psalm 60 "Moab is my wash-pot". [12]

There are, too, some quite specific notions based on school customs. "College Men" are pupils with scholarships, living in the school's medieval buildings, while "Commoners" are all the rest. For his first few weeks as a "Jun Man" (junior pupil), a Commoner has a Tégé (pronounced and sometimes written "Teejay") while a College Man has a Pater (Latin for "father"): a Middle Part (second year) Man appointed to look after his "Protégé" (from French) or, in College, "Filius" (Latin for "son"). [13] A Toys is the upright wooden stall with a seat and cupboard where a pupil works and keeps his books; it is said to derive from Old French toise, "fathom", for the original width of a Toys. From this comes Toytime, evening homework or prep. [14]

Shared

A few notions have historically been shared with other schools: for instance Eton once used words like "div" (class or form [lower-alpha 1] ) [15] and "poser" (examiner, as used in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer), [16] and Radley uses "don" for teacher. [17] [18] Some are common words used in a particular sense, like Man, which at Winchester means a pupil of any age. [19] Other are derived from common usages, such as "to mug up" which has a dictionary meaning of "to study intensively"; [20] the notion to mug just means "to work"; hence Mugging Hall, the room in every house (not including College) surrounded by rows of Toys cubicles where pupils work. To mug also means to bestow pains upon (something), [21] like "to muzz" at Westminster School. [22]

The importance given to notions at Winchester caused them to be recorded carefully over a long period, so that compared to schools like Westminster or Eton which had similarly rich and old traditions, Winchester's notions are now uniquely accessible to scholars, who have begun to examine them both as words and as the customs of "an institution notoriously eccentric even within living memory and almost unimaginably so before the reforms of 1867". [23]

Vowel-modifications

Many notions were formed by vowel-modification, a widespread practice in the 19th century; thus "crockets" is the notion for the playground game of French cricket, [3] while "Bogle" or "bogwheel" is a modification of "bicycle". [24]

Slang and dialect

Other forms derive from slang, such as "ekker" (exercise), using the common speech ending "-er"; others again were once dialectal forms, such as "brum" for penniless, from Kentish dialect "brumpt" (bankrupt). [4] Wrench suggests that Lob[ster] for "to cry" may come from Hampshire dialect "louster", to make an unpleasant noise. [25]

Survivals from Latin, Old English and Middle English

Some notions, such as foricas (toilet) and licet/non-licet (permissible/forbidden) are straightforwardly Latin terms. [4]

A few are derived from Old English: brock (to bully) is ultimately from Old English broc, badger, which Three Beetleites suggests survived by way of northern dialect "brock" (badger) and the bullying sport of badger-baiting. [26] Swink (to work hard) is a survival from Old English swincan (Middle English swynke), with the same meaning, [27] while Cud, meaning pretty, derives ultimately from Old English cuð, via northern dialect "couth" or "cooth". [28]

Other notions are from Middle English: a scob, a type of chest used as a desk in College, is a Middle English word derived from Latin scabellum, French Escabeau, [29] while thoke (a rest, an idle time [13] ), meant "soft, flabby" in the 15th century. [30] [31]

Abbreviations

Several notions were created by abbreviating words, as in Div (from "Division of the School"), for class or form. [13] Such notions could be assembled into phrases – for example, the Dons' Common Room Notice Board became Do Co Ro No Bo. [4] Abbreviations are often indicated by a colon, as in 18th-century handwriting, for example "Sen: Co: Prae:" (Senior Commoner Prefect); some end with a long vowel, indicated with a macron, for example "competī", "mathmā" and "examinā" (for "competition", "mathematics", and "examinations" respectively). [4] [32] There were slight differences of vocabulary between College Men and Commoners. [33]

Folk etymologies

Some notions acquired a folk etymology:

As customs

Morning Hills was the only regular full-school assembly of Winchester College, held early in the morning on the top of St. Catherine's Hill (shown), and an example of a "notion" that is a school custom. St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester 12 (cropped).jpg
Morning Hills was the only regular full-school assembly of Winchester College, held early in the morning on the top of St. Catherine's Hill (shown), and an example of a "notion" that is a school custom.

An example of a custom which is a notion is Morning Hills, when the whole school gets up early in the morning, once a year, to meet on the top of St. Catherine's Hill, a nearby hill belonging to the college. [36] It used to be the only time that the whole school regularly assembles together; a former headmaster, James Sabben-Clare, wrote that each year, the head explained this fact "to disbelieving parents of first-year boys". [37]

A "bad notion" was a custom that was not permitted to pupils in a certain group; for instance, in 1901 it was a bad notion for a pupil who had been at the school for less than four years to wear a speckled straw hat. [32]

Notions tests

Annual event

Notions examinā, or latterly just "Notions", used to be an annual event in each house, including College. [38] It was held after the first two weeks of the autumn term, and was designed to test new boys' familiarity with the manners and customs of the school. [3] [39] In College, it was accompanied by feasting and a ritual list of absurd formulaic questions and answers, such as [38]

Which way does College clock face?
Into Mrs. Bendle's boudoir. [38]

Sabben-Clare writes that the clock has no face, and doubts whether the odd-job man's wife had a boudoir. [38]

The "Tunding Row"

In 1872, under the headmaster George Ridding, "tunding", beatings given by a prefect (a senior pupil), using a ground-ash across the shoulders, were still permitted. The matter became a national scandal, known as "the Tunding Row", when "an overzealous Senior Commoner Prefect, J.D. Whyte," [40] beat the senior boy of Turner's house, William Macpherson, for refusing to attend a notions test. He received "thirty cuts of a ground-ash inflicted on his back and shoulders". [40] Ridding made matters worse by trying to defend the action; the public came to understand that both the housemaster and the headmaster knew and approved of the action. The result was public outrage. Ridding "less than whole-hearted[ly]" [40] limited the prefects' power to beat to twelve cuts, to be administered only on the back. [40] Notions tests were forbidden as a "disgraceful innovation". [41] The Dictionary of National Biography wrote in 1912 that "The incident was trivial, but the victim's father appealed to The Times , and an animated, though in general ill-informed, correspondence followed." [42] Two governors resigned. [42] The notions test however persisted, but more gently and more informally. [38]

The Pempe

The Pempe was formerly a practical joke perpetrated in Commoners. A junior boy was asked to obtain a book called Pempe ton moron proteron (Ancient Greek: Πέμπε τον μωρών προτέρων, 'Send the fool further'); each person he asked for it would refer him to someone else, often in a different house, until someone took pity on him. [43] A similar joke, involving an "important letter" with the words "send the fool further", was practised in Ireland on April Fools' Day. [44]

The College man and natural historian Frank Buckland described his own Pempe experience of 1839: [45]

So he sent me to another boy, who said he had lent his Pempe moron proteron, but he passed me on to a third, he on to a fourth: so I was running about all over the college till quite late, in a most terrible panic of mind, till at last a good-natured præfect said 'Construe it [from Greek], you little fool.' I had never thought of this before. I saw it directly: Pempe (send) moron (a fool) proteron (further)." [45]

By tradition, a notions book should not define a Pempe beyond calling it "A necessity for all new men". [46]

Notes

  1. ↑ At Winchester, the "div" is the form to which pupils belong, and where for instance scientists are taught unexamined humanities by their "div don" (form teacher), as opposed to their French or Mathematics classes where they are taught by specialist teachers in those subjects.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester College</span> Public school in Winchester, England

Winchester College is a public school with some provision for day pupils, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 as a feeder school for New College, Oxford, and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the nine schools considered by the Clarendon Commission. The school has begun a transition to become co-educational, and has accepted male and female day pupils from September 2022, having previously been a boys' boarding school for over 600 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester College football</span>

Winchester College football, also known as Winkies, is a code of football played at Winchester College. It is not played outside the community directly connected to Winchester College. The game's season is during Common Time (January–March), the second term of the academic year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faggot (unit)</span> Archaic unit for bundles of sticks

A faggot, in the meaning of "bundle", is an archaic English unit applied to bundles of certain items. Alternate spellings in Early Modern English include fagate, faget, fagett, faggott, fagot, fagatt, fagott, ffagott, and faggat. A similar term is found in other languages.

Basil Champneys was an English architect and author whose most notable buildings include Manchester's John Rylands Library, Somerville College Library (Oxford), Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Mansfield College, Oxford and Oriel College, Oxford's Rhodes Building.

Edmund Horace Fellowes, was a Church of England clergyman and musical scholar who became well known for his work in promoting the revival of sixteenth and seventeenth century English music.

Francis John Haverfield, was an English ancient historian, archaeologist, and academic. From 1907 to 1919 he held the Camden Professorship of Ancient History at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Wright (linguist)</span> English philologist and Oxford professor

Joseph Wright FBA was an English Germanic philologist who rose from humble origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederic G. Kenyon</span> British palaeographer and classical scholar (1863–1952)

Sir Frederic George Kenyon was an English palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He held a series of posts at the British Museum from 1889 to 1931. He was also the president of the British Academy from 1917 to 1921. From 1918 to 1952 he was Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod.

The Lowson baronetcy, of Westlaws in the County of Perth, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.

Cricket, and hence English amateur cricket, probably began in England during the medieval period but the earliest known reference concerns the game being played c.1550 by children on a plot of land at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey. It is generally believed that cricket was originally a children's game as it is not until the beginning of the 17th century that reports can be found of adult participation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Catherine's Hill, Hampshire</span> Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England

The Old Wykehamist Association Football Club is an English association football club whose players are alumni of Winchester College, in Winchester, Hampshire.

John White was a Headmaster and Warden of Winchester College during the English Reformation who, remaining staunchly Roman Catholic in duty to his mentor Stephen Gardiner, became Bishop of Lincoln and finally Bishop of Winchester during the reign of Queen Mary. For several years he led the college successfully through very difficult circumstances. A capable if somewhat scholastic composer of Latin verse, he embraced the rule of Philip and Mary enthusiastically and vigorously opposed the Reformation theology.

Nicholas Love (1608–1682) was an English lawyer and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester College War Cloister</span> Grade I listed war memorial in Hampshire, United Kingdom

The Winchester College War Cloister is a war memorial at Winchester College, in Hampshire, designed by the architect Sir Herbert Baker. The roofed quadrangle is said by Historic England to be the largest known private war memorial in Europe. It became a Grade II listed building in 1950, and was upgraded to Grade I in 2017, as one of 24 war memorials in England designed by Baker that were designated by Historic England as a national collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Winchester College</span> History of the schools buildings

Winchester College is an English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 to 18. Its original medieval buildings from the 1382 foundation remain largely intact, but they have been supplemented by multiple episodes of construction. Additions were made in the medieval and early modern periods. There was a major expansion of boarding accommodation in the Victorian era; further teaching areas were constructed at the turn of the 20th century and more recently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester College in fiction</span> Public school in Hampshire, England

Winchester College appears in fiction both as a school and as fictional Old Wykehamists, people who had been to the school. At least 50 fictional Old Wykehamists have appeared in novels, sometimes following the stereotype of the dull civil servant, though in fact relatively few real Wykehamists choose that profession. The school is further represented indirectly by the writings of Old Wykehamists on other topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Sabben-Clare</span> Headmaster of Winchester College

James Sabben-Clare was headmaster of Winchester College. He had been educated at the school and spent most of his career on the teaching staff there, serving as head from 1985 to his retirement in 2000. He has been described as "one of the most gifted schoolmasters of his generation". He was chairman of the Headmasters' Conference in 1999.

The history of Winchester College began in 1382 with its foundation by William of Wykeham. He was a former Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor to both Edward III and Richard II. He decided to found the school in response to the lack of trained priests after the Black Death. Winchester was to operate as a feeder or Latin grammar school to New College, also founded by Wykeham.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 146.
  2. 1 2 Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901 , pp. 84 and passim
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Winchester Notions". The Spectator . 11 July 1891. p. 23. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Sabben-Clare 1981, pp. 146–148.
  5. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, pp. 150–151.
  6. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, pp. 144–146.
  7. ↑ Wrench 1891, pp. 1ff.
  8. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 1ff.
  9. ↑ Stevens & Stray 1998, pp. 1ff.
  10. ↑ Winchester College: Notions. Winchester: P. & G. Wells. c. 1967. p. 1ff.
  11. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 52.
  12. ↑ Bompas 1888, p. 24.
  13. 1 2 3 Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 121–122.
  14. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 125–127.
  15. ↑ "July: Public School Slang". The English Project. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  16. ↑ Wrench 1891, pp. 40–41.
  17. ↑ "Public School Slang". Holland Park Tuition and Education. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  18. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 37.
  19. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 73.
  20. ↑ "mug up: verb". Merriam-Webster . Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  21. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 81–83.
  22. ↑ Partridge, Eric (2003). The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang. Routledge. p. 3479. ISBN   978-1-135-79542-9.
  23. ↑ Jacobs, Nicolas (February 2000). "Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: Winchester Notions: The English Vocabulary of Winchester College by Charles Stevens, Christopher Stray". The Review of English Studies. 51 (201): 96–98. doi:10.1093/res/51.201.96.
  24. ↑ Partridge, Eric (1984) [1937]. "Cambridge undergraduate slang 1924-40". Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (8th ed.).
  25. ↑ Wrench 1891, p. 32.
  26. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 14.
  27. ↑ Le Gallienne, Richard (1900). Travels in England. Chapter 4: Hindhead to Winchester. "Wykehamist 'notions'": Grant Richards. pp. 90–91.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  28. ↑ Wrench 1891, p. 18.
  29. ↑ Wrench 1891, p. 49.
  30. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 146, which however calls it "Anglo-Saxon"..
  31. ↑ "thoke adj". Middle English Compendium. University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  32. 1 2 Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 140–141.
  33. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 24–27.
  34. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 99.
  35. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 44.
  36. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, pp. 55–57.
  37. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 151.
  38. 1 2 3 4 5 Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 150.
  39. ↑ Old Wykehamists 1893, p. 115.
  40. 1 2 3 4 Sabben-Clare 1981, pp. 44–45.
  41. ↑ Gwyn 1982 , pp. 431–477
  42. 1 2 Kenyon, Frederic George. "Ridding, George", Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, Volume 3.
  43. ↑ Sabben-Clare 1981, p. 144.
  44. ↑ Johnson, Helen (1 April 2020). "Why do we celebrate April Fools' Day? The history and traditions behind the pranks". The Scotsman . Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  45. 1 2 Bompas 1888, p. 12.
  46. ↑ Lawson, Hope & Cripps 1901, p. 90.

Sources

Notions books
History
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.