SCHOOLS 



A SCHOLAR'S COMMONS, AS LATELY 

 Tuesday 



Morning Beef broth of the dinner beef 



Boiled beef cold, or sodden in water 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



Noon 



Night 

 Wednesday 



Morning 



Noon 



Night 

 Thursday 



Morning 



Noon 



Night 

 Friday 



Morning 



Noon 



Night 

 Saturday 

 Morning 

 Noon 

 Night 



Beef broth of the dinner beef 

 Boiled beef cold, or sodden in water 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



Beef broth of the dinner beef 

 Boiled beef cold, or sodden in water 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



Nothing . 

 Cheese and butter 



s. d. 



- 2 



- 2 



- 2 



- i 



A SCHOLAR'S PRESENT COMMONS 



s. d. 



Beef broth saved Monday . - 

 Boiled beef hot without broth - i 

 Boiled mutton and broth . - i 



Beef broth saved Tuesday . 

 Boiled beef hot without broth 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



- 2 



Nothing 



Nothing 



Cheese and butter - i 



Baked pudding made up with water -- i 



Beef broth saved Wednesday 

 Boiled beef hot without broth 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



Beef broth saved Thursday . 



Baked pudding made of flour, 

 bread, fruit, spice, milk 

 and butter ..... 



Boiled mutton without broth 



Mutton broth saved Friday . 

 Baked pudding and butter . 

 Boiled mutton and broth . 



2 



- 2 



Total 



The total weekly 2 



One wonders how the modern schoolboy's stomach would stand the 

 awful period from Thursday night to Sunday morning, with nothing 

 through the whole of Friday but one midday meal of bread, cheese and 

 butter, and on Saturday the same, tempered by a batter (?) pudding on 

 Saturday night, especially when all the floggings of the week were 

 accumulated for that grim Friday. The self-flattery of the fellows on 

 the augmentation of 2.\d. a week on each scholar's commons strikes one 

 as quaint. Their memorandum however pointed out that a further 

 improvement had been made by giving supper on certain fast days, 

 vigils, Rogation days, Ember days, and the eves of ' Gaudies,' though the 

 cost of it was probably saved by reducing ' Gaudies ' to the level of 

 Sundays. Also the ' Lenton Diet ' had been made the same as at other 

 times. That however cost the fellows nothing, as Dr. Harris, the late 

 headmaster and warden, had left 200 for the purpose of substituting 

 veal for salt fish, his experience having no doubt shown him the folly of 

 starving the schoolboy in the most trying time of the year in our climate. 



The subject of drink was dealt with separately. Perhaps to modern 

 notions the most astonishing item in a dietary so scanty in solid food was 

 the abundance of beer. In that article there had never been any stint. 

 It bore much the same relation to the commons as FalstafFs sack to his 

 bread. We have seen how the boys who dined at St. Cross in the 

 fourteenth century had three /agene, commonly translated gallons, allowed 

 them. In 1709 the three chaplains had between them seventy quarts a 

 week, or at the rate of something over three quarts a day, and the 

 scholars and choristers had an unlimited quantity, though it is stated 

 ' three pints per diem each is more than they are observed to drink.' 

 Under the new arrangement ' the beer allowed the scholars is such a certain 



