ional professions.
Students who do poorly might be expected to enter the diplomatic
corps or the army or navy, though a son of the aristocracy might
be thrust into a minor church role. To enter into business or
manufacturing engineering or the research sciences would require
an inheritance or family connection.

Latin was still taught because the best literature available to
them was still the ancient Greek and Roman poets and
philosophers, and the legal and medical professions still used it
extensively, though the ecclesiastical and educational fields had
largely abandoned it.

Tom finds that there is a social barrier between the wealthy
students and the students that are there on the equivalent of a
modern academic scholarship, or have to work as a graduate
student tutor to earn their stipend. There were no sports
scholarships at this time, though the author hints vaguely at one
point that someday the idea could be explored.

There were no female students at this time. Tom becomes involved
with a local barmaid. The barmaid being of a different social
class than Tom, this relationship causes problems for both of
them, and it is important for the modern reader to realize that
such social distinctions were very real and inflexible in those
days. The working class referred to the educated class as their
"betters", meaning better educated and entitled to better
respect, regardless of whether it was earned or deserved.

There were no dormitories and self-serve cafeterias as with
modern colleges, instead meals were served in a dining hall by
scouts, and each student gets what are called "rooms", consisting
of a bedroom and a sitting room for study and entertaining.
"Scouts" are a kind of servant attached to one student or a small
number of students. They run errands, bring meals from the
kitchen, and take care of clothing. A bootblack called the
"boots" takes care of footwear. A charwoman called the "char"
cleaned the rooms.

If a student wished to study without interruption, he would close
the oak door to his rooms, which was called "sporting his oak",
the signal not to disturb.

The term "the eleven" refers to the cricket team, and "prize-men"
refers to students who win prizes for scholarship. "Hunting
Pinks" are red riding jackets, and "hunters" are horses
especially suited to steeplechase or fox hunting type riding.

The Boating Club and Boat Racing is the popular sport of crew
rowing or sculling, where each