No . 130
The Trusty Servant
Chamber Sport menu Chamber Sport fancy dress , summer 1920
when it was still a museum , the room above Fromond ’ s Chantry as the Art classroom , the stage and organ at the east end of School , the building of War Cloister , the interior of the Porter ’ s Lodge and the College kitchen , the original Ridding Gate and the now lost Webbe Tent . There are informal photographs of boys and masters up to books , and of the scholars in their chambers . Uniquely , Stevens includes photographs of other staff , such as the Bursar , the domestic staff in College , the tailor , the cook ( and her dog ). All these photographs are accompanied by a description of the characteristics , dress , and manner of speech or the foibles of each person , a great antidote to the ‘ official ’ portraits given in published obituaries . Favoured individuals are given extensive coverage - the Headmaster , Monty Rendall , gets half a volume to himself because he was ‘ so marvellously , so intoxicatingly , so memorably , so splendidly funny ’. Stevens comments that Rendall ‘ wanted to be funny : he tried and succeeded in being funny : and he immensely enjoyed the effects his humour had upon us ’.
In volume 3 , Stevens documents life in Chambers . He gives us Chamber
Rolls or lists of all the scholars who have lived and worked in a particular chamber since the 17 th century , and he includes examples of chamber notices . In July 1920 we learn that ‘ The habit of soliloquising is becoming common . It is offensive . It is forbidden in this Chamber ’; and there are rolls for all manner of things , including the toe-pan roll which was a rota of bath-nights . We learn about Chamber Sports or entertainments , evenings of music , charades , food and fancy dress , illustrated with invitations , menus and photographs . Stevens also includes photographs of the 1921 Win Coll football Hot Roll based on the Bayeux Tapestry which inspired the mural painted in Thule in 1924 ; and one can almost see the Thule Frieze as a pictorial version of what Stevens was trying to record in his scrapbooks .
Stevens is best known for his definitive work on Notions , the traditional special vocabulary of Winchester College . In addition to his scrapbooks , we have Stevens ’ s own Notions Book and his copies of several , earlier , notions books . He illustrated these too and gave us an account of Notions examinations and how they were conducted .
All this work of recording of seemingly ordinary things means that Stevens ’ s notebooks are an invaluable source of reference today . They tell us information only a Wykehamist can know and the archives are much richer for Stevens ’ s dedication to Winchester College .
Message from the Archives
One man ’ s rubbish is another ’ s treasure !
If you are using this time to de-clutter and come across any reminiscences of your Winchester school days , letters home or memories of VE / VJ Day , then please do email our Archivist , Suzanne Foster , who is always pleased to hear from you .
sf @ wincoll . ac . uk .
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