1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 157. Queen Elizabeth seems to have been present on at least one occasion, and to have contributed liberally to the CAP, for she is recorded to have paid, in January 1564, the sum of £8, 6s. 8d. for certain plays by the grammar school at Westminster and the children at Powle’s. A shout of “CAP, CAP!” arises, and all available trenchers having been pressed into the service, the captain distributes them amongst the Old Westminster portion of the audience, who present substantial proofs of their satisfaction. The sum collected in the CAP has frequently amounted to above £200. After discharging all expenses of the play the surplus is divided among the performers. But as these expenses have a natural tendency to increase rather than diminish, while the number of old Westminsters present is necessarily fewer than in the more prosperous days of the school, the balance has of late been now and then on the wrong side.
2. (Harrow).—A cap of House Colours, given by Captains of House Cricket elevens to the House eleven, or to some of them. The gift confers permanent membership. Hence, the recipient of such a distinction. See Fez.
1890. Great Public Schools, 94. Second Eleven matches are played between the various Houses, and a challenge cup is presented at the end of the term to the best house. No CAP may play in these matches.
3. (Rugby).—Each House had [1871] two CAPS, one the football cap and the other the house-cap. The former was a sign of distinction, and worn only by the few boys in the school to whom it had been given.... If a boy distinguished himself in cricket, he was allowed to wear a red band; or, as a higher distinction, a blue band.... Distinctions might be varied in all manner of ways according as a boy had won his red or his blue band, his flannels, or his cap.... Caps are now (1890) given by the head of the School Fifteen. After the Caps come the Flannels (q.v.), and then come the players without distinction. The Caps and Flannels in each House go to make up the House Fifteen; the Flannels, without the Caps, go to make up the second fifteen in each House, which is called Below Caps, or for brevity, Below. The next fifteen in each House are called Two Belows, and so on, though it rarely happens that a House has more Belows than two.—Lees Knowles.
Verb (general).—To take off or touch one’s hat in salutation: also TO CAP TO and TO CAP IT.
1593. H. Smith, Scrm. (1871), i. 203. How would they CAP me were I in velvets.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, p. 23, s.v. BORE. Other bores are to attend a sermon at St. Mary’s on Sunday ... TO CAP a fellow.
Captain of Election, subs. (Westminster).—See quot.
1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 183. The CAPTAIN OF ELECTION—the boy who gains first place—has the privilege of being almost entirely exempted from the fagging incidental to his junior year, and has his name painted on the election board in gold letters. These tablets, fixed up in the dormitory, go back as far as 1629; and among the names of the CAPTAINS, besides Lord Mansfield, as already mentioned, may be read those of Markman, Warren Hastings, Cyril Jackson and his brother the bishop, Randolph (Bishop), Abbot (Speaker), Longley, &c.
Captain of the Boats, subs. phr. (Eton).—See quot.