19th Century Winchester College Notion Book Illustrations from the Winchester College Archives

by Charles R. E. Cresswell, Herbert Evelyn Campbell, James FitzWalter Clifford-Butler

The Winchester Notions are well understood to every graduate of Winchester College. A 1901 book on the subject ["Winchester Notions" by the Three Beetleities] defines them as ". . . all traditions and customs peculiar to Winchester, or elsewhere used in a different sense; and finally, the names which have been given to certain places by past generations of Wykehamists."This is a selective presentation of the Winchester Notions, and is in no sense comprehensive. The emphasis is on illustrations, rather than strictly words and definitions. The Winchester College Archives contains over sixty handwritten Notion books, with the earliest dating to 1838. It is safe to say that most Winchester scholars wrote their own notion dictionary as a way of learning them. There was a test! While not official to the College, the test was taken very seriously but the scholars.There are a dozen or so printed books/dictionaries/wordlists pertaining to the notions. The most comprehensive and authoritative of these is Winchester Notions by Charles Stevens, published by The Athlone Press in 1998.The material presented here has been chosen with two purposes in that a book emphasizing notion illustrations has not been published previously, and secondly, that the images, in and of themselves, will appeal to the general reader with an interest in Winchester, as well as to Wykehamists.

136 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2021