A Collection of College Words and Customs. Benjamin Homer Hall
to take charge of the liquors, food, plate, &c. In the old laws of Harvard College we find an enumeration of the duties of the college butler. Some of them were as follows.
He was to keep the rooms and utensils belonging to his office sweet and clean, fit for use; his drinking-vessels were to be scoured once a week. The fines imposed by the President and other officers were to be fairly recorded by him in a book, kept for that purpose. He was to attend upon the ringing of the bell for prayer in the hall, and for lectures and commons. Providing candles for the hall was a part of his duty. He was obliged to keep the Buttery supplied, at his own expense, with beer, cider, tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar, biscuit, butter, cheese, pens, ink, paper, and such other articles as the President or Corporation ordered or permitted; "but no permission," it is added in the laws, "shall be given for selling wine, distilled spirits, or foreign fruits, on credit or for ready money." He was allowed to advance twenty per cent. on the net cost of the articles sold by him, excepting beer and cider, which were stated quarterly by the President and Tutors. The Butler was allowed a Freshman to assist him, for an account of whom see under FRESHMAN, BUTLER'S.—Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ., App., pp. 138, 139. Laws Harv. Coll., 1798, pp. 60–62.
President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse pronounced before the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850, remarks as follows concerning the Butler, in connection with that institution:—
"The classes since 1817, when the office of Butler was, abolished, are probably but little aware of the meaning of that singular appendage to the College, which had been in existence a hundred years. To older graduates, the lower front corner room of the old middle college in the south entry must even now suggest many amusing recollections. The Butler was a graduate of recent standing, and, being invested with rather delicate functions, was required to be one in whom confidence might be reposed. Several of the elder graduates who have filled this office are here to-day, and can explain, better than I can, its duties and its bearings upon the interests of College. The chief prerogative of the Butler was to have the monopoly of certain eatables, drinkables, and other articles desired by students. The Latin laws of 1748 give him leave to sell in the buttery, cider, metheglin, strong beer to the amount of not more than twelve barrels annually—which amount as the College grew was increased to twenty—together with loaf-sugar ('saccharum rigidum'), pipes, tobacco, and such necessaries of scholars as were not furnished in the commons hall. Some of these necessaries were books and stationery, but certain fresh fruits also figured largely in the Butler's supply. No student might buy cider or beer elsewhere. The Butler, too, had the care of the bell, and was bound to wait upon the President or a Tutor, and notify him of the time for prayers. He kept the book of fines, which, as we shall see, was no small task. He distributed the bread and beer provided by the Steward in the Hall into equal portions, and had the lost commons, for which privilege he paid a small annual sum. He was bound, in consideration of the profits of his monopoly, to provide candles at college prayers and for a time to pay also fifty shillings sterling into the treasury. The more menial part of these duties he performed by his waiter."—pp. 43, 44.
At both Harvard and Yale the students were restricted in expending money at the Buttery, being allowed at the former "to contract a debt" of five dollars a quarter; at the latter, of one dollar and twenty-five cents per month.
BUTTER. A size or small portion of butter. "Send me a roll and two
Butters."—Grad. ad Cantab.
Six cheeses, three butters, and two beers.—The Collegian's Guide.
Pertinent to this singular use of the word, is the following curious statement. At Cambridge, Eng., "there is a market every day in the week, except Monday, for vegetables, poultry, eggs, and butter. The sale of the last article is attended with the peculiarity of every pound designed for the market being rolled out to the length of a yard; each pound being in that state about the thickness of a walking-cane. This practice, which is confined to Cambridge, is particularly convenient, as it renders the butter extremely easy of division into small portions, called sizes, as used in the Colleges."—Camb. Guide, Ed. 1845, p. 213.
BUTTERY. An apartment in a house where butter, milk, provisions, and utensils are kept. In some colleges, a room where liquors, fruit, and refreshments are kept for sale to the students.—Webster.
Of the Buttery, Mr. Peirce, in his History of Harvard University, speaks as follows: "As the Commons rendered the College independent of private boarding-houses, so the Buttery removed all just occasion for resorting to the different marts of luxury, intemperance, and ruin. This was a kind of supplement to the Commons, and offered for sale to the students, at a moderate advance on the cost, wines, liquors, groceries, stationery, and, in general, such articles as it was proper and necessary for them to have occasionally, and which for the most part were not included in the Commons' fare. The Buttery was also an office, where, among other things, records were kept of the times when the scholars were present and absent. At their admission and subsequent returns they entered their names in the Buttery, and took them out whenever they had leave of absence. The Butler, who was a graduate, had various other duties to perform, either by himself or by his Freshman, as ringing the bell, seeing that the Hall was kept clean, &c., and was allowed a salary, which, after 1765, was £60 per annum."—Hist. Harv. Univ., p. 220.
With particular reference to the condition of Harvard College a few years prior to the Revolution, Professor Sidney Willard observes: "The Buttery was in part a sort of appendage to Commons, where the scholars could eke out their short commons with sizings of gingerbread and pastry, or needlessly or injuriously cram themselves to satiety, as they had been accustomed to be crammed at home by their fond mothers. Besides eatables, everything necessary for a student was there sold, and articles used in the play-grounds, as bats, balls, &c.; and, in general, a petty trade with small profits was carried on in stationery and other matters—in things innocent or suitable for the young customers, and in some things, perhaps, which were not. The Butler had a small salary, and was allowed the service of a Freshman in the Buttery, who was also employed to ring the college bell for prayers, lectures, and recitations, and take some oversight of the public rooms under the Butler's directions. The Buttery was also the office of record of the names of undergraduates, and of the rooms assigned to them in the college buildings; of the dates of temporary leave of absence given to individuals, and of their return; and of fines inflicted by the immediate government for negligence or minor offences. The office was dropped or abolished in the first year of the present century, I believe, long after it ceased to be of use for most of its primary purposes. The area before the entry doors of the Buttery had become a sort of students' exchange for idle gossip, if nothing worse. The rooms were now redeemed from traffic, and devoted to places of study, and other provision was made for the records which had there been kept. The last person who held the office of Butler was Joseph Chickering, a graduate of 1799."—Memories of Youth and Manhood, 1855, Vol. I. pp. 31, 32.
President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse pronounced before the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850, makes the following remarks on this subject: "The original motives for setting up a buttery in colleges seem to have been, to put the trade in articles which appealed to the appetite into safe hands; to ascertain how far students were expensive in their habits, and prevent them from running into debt; and finally, by providing a place where drinkables of not very stimulating qualities were sold, to remove the temptation of going abroad after spirituous liquors. Accordingly, laws were passed limiting the sum for which the Butler might give credit to a student, authorizing the President to inspect his books, and forbidding him to sell anything except permitted articles for ready money. But the whole system, as viewed from our position as critics of the past, must be pronounced a bad one. It rather tempted the student to self-indulgence by setting up a place for the sale of things to eat and drink within the College walls, than restrained him by bringing his habits under inspection. There was nothing to prevent his going abroad in quest of stronger drinks than could be bought at the buttery, when once those which were there sold ceased to allay his thirst. And a monopoly, such as the Butler enjoyed of certain articles, did not tend to lower their price, or to remove suspicion that they were sold at a higher rate than free competition would assign to them."—pp. 44, 45.
"When," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam,