Page:Tom Brown's School Days (6th ed).djvu/21

This page has been validated.

PRESENT ASPECTS OF RUGBY SCHOOL

sufficient and full is the house supply. No longer do the boys go down to the "Planks and Swifts" on the River Avon for summer bathing; a well-appointed swimming-bath is quite near in the close.

Thus it is that most of the old customs have been abolished or died out. New boys are no longer clodded, cobbed, or chaired.

In regard to costume, according to old documents and prints the boys in early days wore white ducks, short or Eton jackets, and tall hats. To-day the costume is strictly regulated. The jacket for small boys is longer, or what is known as the Marlborough jacket, over which is worn the broad white collar, and the bigger boys wear a cutaway. All are in black, including the tall hat, which is worn at the present time by young and old on Sundays only. Week-days each house is denoted by the varied colored caps or straw-hat ribbons, and the same with football and cricket costume.