Tom Brown at Rugby

601

Chivalrous: here, gallant, polite.

602

"Thou didst take my part with kindly admonitions, and restrain their tongues with soft address and gentle words." —Bryant's translation.

603

Profane: here, not sacred.

604

Slogger: a "slugger," a hard hitter.

605

Summary: quick, short.

606

Sprats: a kind of small fish.

607

Unctuous: fat, oily.

608

Cut out: prepared, ready.

609

To handle him and give him a knee: to give him assistance between the rounds of the fight.

610

Amateurs: here, those who enjoy and understand the art of pugilism, without being proficient in it.

611

Sodden: here, soft.

612

Tuck: sweet stuff.

613

Making play: using.

614

Hard all: do your best.

615

Partisans: adherents, "backers."

616

Thunder-and-lightning: probably showy, flashy.

617

Feint: make a pretended attack.

618

Frontispiece: face.

619

Parrying: warding off.

620

Lunging hits: straight-out blows.

621

Counter: to give a return blow.

622

Quarter: to move about.

623

Blown: out of breath.

624

Winded: out of breath.

625

Use his head: be more careful.

626

Pull: advantage.

627

Keep your head: keep cool.

628

Sponge: in a pugilistic encounter the sponge is thrown up as an acknowledgment of defeat.

629

Go to Bath: shut up; mind your business.

630

Of his hands: of sturdy make; able to use his fists.

631

Turret: a small tower.

632

Gravelled: embarrassed, confused.

633

The science: "the manly science of self-defence."

634

Magnates: here, the upper class boys.

635

Malice prepense: with deliberate purpose.

636

Cant: hypocritical or meaningless talk.

637

Bequest: something given by will.

638

Marylebone match (merrybun): a match by the London cricket club of that name. It is the leading cricket club of the world. The celebrated Lord's grounds in London are its property.

639

Geordie: Georgie (his full name was George Arthur).

640

Pie-Match: a match for a supper.

641

Dot and go one: with a skipping movement.

642

Ethnology: that science which treats of races of men.

643

Cock medicine-man: chief doctor.

644

Boomerang: a throw-stick in use as a weapon among the natives of Australia. It is so shaped that when thrown at any object it returns to the thrower.

645

Blackies: rooks.

646

Clerk: a clergyman's assistant – he reads the responses in the English Church service.

647

Gammon: pretend.

648

Cribs: translations, "ponies."

649

His flank was turned: he was taken at a disadvantage.

650

Agamemnon, etc.: a Greek tragedy. Thucydides was a Greek historian; "The Birds," a Greek comedy; Tacitus, a Latin historian.

651

2 Kings v. 18.

652

Isa. xxxviii. 19.

653

Eccl. ix. 10.

654

Ezek. i. 24.

655

Seal: here, mark of acceptance.

656

Hab. ii. 3.

657

Combes: valleys.

658

Peat: a kind of turf used as fuel.

659

Cairngorm: a yellow or brown variety of crystallized quartz found in Cairngorm, Scotland.

660

Moor: an extensive waste plain covered with heath.

661

Tors: high-pointed hills or rocks.

662

Allowance: spending-money.

663

Twisters: balls thrown with a twisting motion.

664

Surrey: a county in the south of England.

665

Eton: a noted maker of fishing-rods, etc.

666

Had the sack: got expelled.

667

Squaretoes: an over-precise or "goody-good" sort of a person.

668

Sucking wiseacre: a young Solomon.

669

Chorus: the chorus of a Greek play.

670

Momus: the god of ridicule; here, a nickname for a teacher.

671

Locus penitentiæ: a place or opportunity for repentance or reformation.

672

Goth: a barbarian.

673

Churchwarden windows: probably cheap, narrow windows.

674

Sheridan Knowles: a writer of popular plays.

675

Came out of Egypt: escaped from bondage, began a new course of life.

676

Last: endurance.

677

Snob: here, a mean-spirited fellow; one destitute of manliness.

678

Don't hit under the line: don't take unfair advantage.

679

Vice (vī-sē): in place of.

680

Play: lightness, elasticity.

681

Midge: a gnat or small fly.

682

Grampus: a whale-like fish.

683

Raising his standard: advancing, improving.

684

Sapped: undermined.

685

Confirmed: admitted to church membership; here, to that of the Church of England.

686

Curry favor: seek favor by flattery and the like.

687

Elect: chosen to salvation; one of the favored few.

688

Land me: here, persuade me.

689

Uncovenanted mercies: that is, to such mercies as God will grant to the heathen or those outside the church.

690

Exercised: made thoughtful or anxious.

691

When you get to earth: when you are buried.

692

Ken: knowledge.

693

Clough: poem of "Qua cursum ventus."

694

Tennyson: "In Memoriam."

695

Exhibitions: allowances of money, etc., made to certain scholars at Oxford and Cambridge. The boys of the sixth form, who were preparing for the universities, were competing for these.

696

Lord's grounds: see note on Marylebone, p. 304.

697

Lakes: Dr. Arnold spent his vacations at his country place of Fox Howe in Westmoreland, in the beautiful lake region of the northwest of England.

698

By three wickets: three players yet to bat.

699

Hard-bitten: keen.

700

Lawrence Sheriff: See note on Rugby, p. 72.

701

Runs: the running from one wicket to the other by the batsmen. The game depends on these runs.

702

Over: a certain number of balls pitched in succession from one side.

703

Middle stump: the middle stake of a wicket.

704

Bails: two small, round sticks laid across the top of a wicket.

705

Scoring-table: a table where the reckoning of the game is kept.

706

Long-stop: a person who stands behind the wicket-keeper to stop the balls that escape him.

707

Swiper Jack: hard-hitting Jack.

708

Cover-point: the person who stops a ball or the act of stopping it.

709

Byes: runs on balls that have passed the wicket-keeper.

710

Team: one of the parties or sides in a game.

711

Off: to the right of the batsman.

712

Stumped off a leg-shooter: perhaps to put a man out of play by knocking down his wicket.

713

Cobs: balls peculiarly bowled.

714

Innings: turns for using the bat.

715

Topping: wonderful.

716

"The Knights": a Greek comedy by Aristoph´anes.

717

Set-tos: fights or encounters of any kind.

718

Leg-bail: part of the wicket.

719

To leg: to the left and rear.

720

Draws: good play by the batsman.

721

Hard away for six: to the best advantage.

722

Herodotus: an early Greek writer, "the father of history."

723

Don Quixote: a Spanish romance.

724

Habeas corpus: a writ for bringing a prisoner before a judge and inquiring into the cause of his detention, its object being to prevent illegal imprisonment.

725

Flat: fool.

726

Turf-cart: Tom, with the other boys, used to decorate the "island" in the school-grounds with turf and flowers, which they stole "out of all the gardens in Rugby for the Easter show." They took the "turf-cart" for this purpose. The "island," by the way, no longer exists.

727

Worships: here, mock titles of honor.

728

Leg-bye: the ball glances from the batsman's leg.

729

Swiping: not a scientific hit.

730

His play: his skill.

731

Winter can get in: before Winter can get a chance to play.

732

Town: London.

733

Snuggery: a small, cosy room.

734

Hob: that part of a grate on which things are placed to be kept hot.

735

King's College Chapel: a chapel of King's College, Cambridge. It is celebrated for its architectural beauty.

736

Nestor: oldest member of the School.

737

The twenty: the fifth form.

738

Constitutional authority: here, the authority established by school customs.

739

Constituted authorities: here, the upper-class boys.

740

Dogmatically: positively.

741

Toryism: here, adherence to the established customs of the School.

742

Vested: long established; fixed.

743

Thomas Carlyle: a distinguished British author, died 1881. One of his best-known books is "Heroes and Hero Worship."

744

Chaired: here, carried.

745

Skye: an island off the west coast of Scotland.

746

Scrub: stunted shrubs.

747

Shingle: a pebbly beach.

748

Hostelry: inn.

749

Corn-laws: laws imposing a heavy tax on imported grain. They made bread dear, and caused great distress among the laboring classes in England.

750

Sliding-scales and fixed duties: different kinds of revenue tax.

751

Goodwood: a famous annual horse-race.

752

Flies: artificial flies used as bait.

753

Arnold: Dr. Arnold died suddenly at the School on Sunday morning, June 12, 1842, the day before his forty-seventh birthday.

754

Cast: throw.

755

Listlessly: carelessly.

756

Parley: conversation.

757

Offices: servants' apartments.

758

Hieroglyphics: here, writing not easily read.

759

Chapel: the late Matthew Arnold wrote the following lines on his father's tomb in the chapel: —

"O strong soul, by what shoreTarriest thou now? For that force.Surely, has not been left vain!Somewhere, surely, afar.In the sounding labor-house vastOf being, is practised that strength.Zealous, beneficent, firm!"Yes, in some far-shining sphere.Conscious or not of the past.Still thou performest the wordOf the Spirit in whom thou dost live, —Prompt, unwearied, as here!"Still thou upraises! with zealThe humble good from the ground.Sternly repressest the bad!Still, like a trumpet, dost rouseThose who with half-open eyesTread the border-land dim'Twixt vice and virtue; reviv'st,Succorest! – this was thy work. 'This was thy life upon earth.'"But thou would'st not aloneBe saved, my father! aloneConquer and come to thy goal.Leaving the rest in the wild.Therefore to thee it was givenMany to save with thyself:And at the end of thy days,O faithful shepherd! to come.Bringing thy sheep in thy hand."Rugby Chapel, November, 1857.—Matthew Arnold.

760

Gad-fly: a gad-fly sent by Juno to torment Io, a beautiful maiden whom Jupiter had transformed into a heifer.

761

Pall: lose strength.

762

Round tower: the entrance to the head-master's residence at Rugby is through this tower over which a flag generally flies.

763

Vestibule: entrance hall or anteroom.

764

Birth-right: here, the highest manhood. (See Ephesians iv. 13.)