A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



original example set by Winchester, and, instead of having all the 

 commoners in the headmaster's house, opened ' tutors' houses,' or 

 boarding houses kept by assistant masters, for some of them. The 

 experiment tentatively and hesitatingly made in 1860 by the opening of 

 Chernocke House, a charming red brick eighteenth century house in St. 

 Thomas' Street, was immediately successful. Since then the numbers 

 have only been kept down by a cast iron rule limiting them. 



The second quarter of the nineteenth century will be distinguished 

 in school history, not for its achievements in learning so much as in the 

 development of games. We may claim for Winchester School the 

 earliest poet of cricket, and the chief of its earliest heroes. Hampshire, 

 and in particular Hambledon, one of the possessions of the college, was, 

 as is well known, one of the earliest haunts of scientific cricket. George 

 Huddesford (scholar, 1764), writing in 1769 a cricket song 1 for the 

 Hambledon Club already proclaims it as the established national game. 



There are many descriptions of the school life at this time, more 

 books having been written about Winchester than about any other school. 

 In one way this has been unfortunate. The idea that Winchester was 

 exceptionally rough is chiefly due to the exaggerations of writers, who 

 put down the most striking instances of hardship or ferocity that they 

 had seen or heard of, and piled them together in such a way as to give 

 the impression that they were everyday or all day occurrences. In 

 point of fact, at Winchester there was infinitely less bullying and other 

 hardships than at other schools. In the middle of this century it was a 

 paradise compared with less organized schools. That it would appear 

 exceeding rough and unpleasant to the college or commoner junior of 

 to-day is certain, that it was less rough and unpleasant than other schools 

 at that date is also certain. 



The most curious custom, now disappeared, was that of * pealings.' 

 At the . beginning of ' cloister-time,' when middle and junior part were 

 joined together as one division for purposes of ' standing-up,' they 

 assembled in school before the masters came in, and sitting ' up to books ' 

 under the presidency of the commoner court-keeper or fag-master, who 

 took the headmaster's chair, chanted derisive sentences on the prefects 

 standing on the steps of the stove. The formula ran, ' Once, twice, thrice, 

 followed by the name or nickname of the prefect, with some remarks, 

 usually uncomplimentary, on him, with cheers to punctuate them. The 

 samples quoted 2 are not very witty. 'Once, twice, thrice: Thompson's 

 score in Harrow match,' when he had made 'Crocketts,' or, in vulgar 

 slang, ' a pair of spectacles,' was harmless and dull enough. The custom 

 curiously recalls the ' Saturnalia' and Soldiers' Chorus at triumphs in 

 Roman history, or the ' despotism tempered by epigrams ' of later times. 

 Then there were pealings in Commoner Hall on the three last Fridays in 

 the half after breakfast. The ' Once, twice, thrice ' on the first Friday was 

 followed by ' Locks and keys,' on the next by ' Boots and leathers,' and 



1 The Wiccamical Cbaplet (London, 1 804). 

 3 Wykehamica, p. 398. 



362 



