College. West Woods are on the western side of the valley and nearer Marlborough.
P. 26 (X). Line 11: Clinton Stiles has not been identified and is probably imaginary.
P. 29 (XI). This poem was sent to a friend in December 1914. The author wiote, "I have tried for long to express in words the impression that the land north of Marlborough must leave.... Simplicity, paucity of words, monotony almost, and mystery are necessary. I think I have got it at last." Sending it home, along with a number of others, in April 1915, he described it as "the last of my Marlborough poems." Line 7: the signpost, which figures here as well as elsewhere (pp. 76, 83) in the poems, stands at "the junction of the grass tracks on the Aldbourne [Poulton] downs—to Ogbourne, Marlborough, Mildenhall, and Aldbourne. It stands up quite alone."
P. 33 (XII). The Marlburian, 31 October 1912. Line 2: Court, the quadrangle, surrounded by classrooms, hall, chapel, and college houses, and intersected by a lime-tree avenue between the gate and C House. This house (to which the author belonged) was the old mansion of the Seymours, built in the middle of the seventeenth century, and is the only ancient part of the college buildings. Line 6: sweat (school slang), run. P. 34, line 1: Four Miler, see note on VII.
P. 36 (XIII). The Marlburian, 11 November 1912. Line 2: kish (pronounced kïsh), a flat cushion which folds double and is used by the boys as a book-carrier. The "bloods" (or athletic aristocrats of the school) affect garish colours (loud and gay) for the lining of their kishes. Line 4: barnes (school slang), trousers. The school rules for dress are slightly relaxed for "bloods." Line 11: forty-cap, for football, equivalent to about second fifteen—obtained by the author a year after these verses were written.
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