The Public School Word-book / A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities

by John Stephen Farmer

1841. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. viii. Non-university men sneer at RUSTICATION; they can’t see any particular punishment in having to absent yourself from your studies for a term or two.

1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xxx. Who, the landlord tells me, has just been RUSTICATED for insulting Dr. Doublechin.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, iv. “The Master ... said as how Mr. Bouncer had better go down into the country for a year, for change of hair, and to visit his friends.” “Very kind indeed of Dr. Portman,” said our hero, who missed the moral of the story, and took the RUSTICATION for a kind forgiveness of injuries.

1885. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 29. Students who are liable at any moment to be RUSTICATED.

Saccer, subs. (Harrow).—The Sacrament. Cf. Soccer, Rugger, Brekker, Collecker, &c.

Salt, subs. (Eton).—The gratuity exacted at the now obsolete triennial festival of the Montem (q.v.).

1886. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Salt-hill. At the Eton Montem the captain of the school used to collect money from the visitors on Montem day. Standing on a mound at Slough, he waved a flag, and persons appointed for the purpose collected the donations. The mound is still called SALT-HILL, and the money given was called SALT. The word salt is similar to the Latin sala’rium (salary), the pay given to Roman soldiers and civil officers.

1890. Speaker, 22nd Feb., 210. 2. In lively but worldly fashion we go to Eton, with its buried Montem, its “SALT! your majesty, SALT!” its gin-twirley, and its jumping through paper fires in Long-Chamber.

Salt-bearer, subs. (Eton).—See Montem.