GRAVEL DAY. The following account of this day is given in a work entitled Sketches of Williams College. "On the second Monday of the first term in the year, if the weather be at all favorable, it has been customary from time immemorial to hold a college meeting, and petition the President for 'Gravel day.' We did so this morning. The day was granted, and, recitations being dispensed with, the students turned out en masse to re-gravel the college walks. The gravel which we obtain here is of such a nature that it packs down very closely, and renders the walks as hard and smooth as a pavement. The Faculty grant this day for the purpose of fostering in the students the habit of physical labor and exercise, so essential to vigorous mental exertion."—1847, pp. 78, 79.
The improved method of observing this day is noted in the annexed extract. "Nearly every college has its own peculiar customs, which have been transmitted from far antiquity; but Williams has perhaps less than any other. Among ours are 'gravel day,' 'chip day,' and 'mountain day,' occurring one in each of the three terms. The first usually comes in the early part of the Fall term. In old times, when the students were few, and rather fonder of work than at the present, they turned out with spades, hoes, and other implements, and spread gravel over the walks, to the College grounds; but in later days, they have preferred to tax themselves to a small amount and delegate the work to others, while they spend the day in visiting the Cascade, the Natural Bridge, or others of the numerous places of interest near us."—Boston Daily Evening Traveller, July 12, 1854.
GREAT GO. In the English universities the final and most important examination is called the great go, in contradistinction to the little go, an examination about the middle of the course.
In my way back I stepped into the Great Go schools.—The
Etonian, Vol. II. p. 287.
Read through the whole five volumes folio, Latin, previous to going up for his Great Go.—Ibid., Vol. II. p. 381.
GREEN. Inexperienced, unsophisticated, verdant. Among collegians this term is the favorite appellation for Freshmen.
When a man is called verdant or green, it means that he is unsophisticated and raw. For instance, when a man rushes to chapel in the morning at the ringing of the first bell, it is called green. At least, we were, for it. This greenness, we would remark, is not, like the verdure in the vision of the poet, necessarily perennial.—Williams Monthly Miscellany, 1845, Vol. I. p. 463.
GRIND. An exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very long lesson which they are required to learn, or of any thing which it is very unpleasant or difficult to perform, as a grind. This meaning is derived from the verb to grind, in the sense of to harass, to afflict; as, to grind the faces of the poor (Isaiah iii. 15).
I must say 't is a grind, though
—(perchance I spoke too loud).
Poem before Iadma, 1850, p. 12.
GRINDING. Hard study; diligent application.