R.
RABBITER—A blow on the neck with the side of the hand, similar to the coup de grâce ordinarily given by a keeper to put a rabbit out of its misery.
RACK—Part of a neck of mutton.
RAMROD, RAYMONDER—Names given to a ball bowled all along the ground.
READER—An office in the gift of every Præfect in senior Fardel, which excused the recipient from watching out at Cricket. His business was to read out aloud the translation of any book his Master was cramming for Election examination.
READING SHELF—A shelf with a drawer fixed inside the head of a boy’s bed, on which to place a candle for nocturnal studies.
REMEDY—A kind of mitigated holiday, of which there was always one, and, generally, two a week. The boys went into school twice in the course of the day for an hour, (Books Chambers, v. sup.,) but no Master was present. A Remedy was not a matter of course, but the Head Master was always asked by Præfect of Hall to give one while he was walking up and down “Sands” (the pavement of Quadrangle under Chapel windows) before morning chapel: if he intended to grant the request, he gave to the suppliant a ring engraved with the words, “Commendat rarior usus.” This ring he wore till the following day, and returned to the Head Master at Middle school.
REMISSION—When, owing to a Saint’s day having fallen on the day previous to that on which a Verse or Prose task or Vulgus was due, the boys were excused from doing it, there was said to be “Remission” from it.
ROKER—Anything wherewith to stir up anything else.
ROLL—Any list of boys’ names. “The Roll” par excellence is the list of the boys who have passed their examination for New College, and of those who are to come in to Winchester. There is also a Roll printed every November, which contains the name of every one connected with the School, from the Warden to the Choristers. The lists from which the Præfects of Hall and Chapel called names; the papers on which the names of the absentees on such occasions were written; the papers on which were written the “Standing up” (v. inf.;) the lists of the boys who had leave out on a Saint’s day; the papers put on the Master’s desk when boys wished to go out of school; those handed to the Master at the close of school by the Bible Clerk or Ostiarius with the names of delinquents, and many other similar papers, were all called “Rolls.”
ROUSH—A rush or charge by any man or beast, or of water.
ROWS—The fixed benches at each end of School, called respectively Senior, Middle, and Junior Row.