Buckinghamshire.
At Eaton, on Shrove Tuesday, as soon as ever the clock strikes nine, all the boys in the school cry ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, ΤΩ ΒΑΚΧΩ, as loud they can yell, and stamp and knock with their sticks; and then they doe all runne out of the schoole.—Aubrey MS., A.D. 1686, Brit. Mus.
A MS. in the British Museum already alluded to (Status Scholæ Etonensis, A.D. 1560, MS. Brit. Mus. Donat. 4843 fol. 423) mentions a custom of the boys of Eton school being allowed to play from eight o’clock for the whole day; and of the cook’s coming in and fastening a pancake to a crow, which the young crows are calling upon, near it, at the school door.