A number of English gentlepersons managed to create a holiday by means of wrought1) bequests2) in their wills. One of these was Provost Bost, administrator of the public school, Eton. Upon his death in 1504, it was revealed that Bost had willed a sum of money that was earmarked3) to provide tuppence4) a year in perpetuity5) for each of Eton’s “collegers.” (Collegers are boarding students whose families live far away；the remainders are town boys or “oppidans6).”) The money was to ensure that the boys would get enough to eat. At the time of Bost’s death, tuppence bought nearly half a sheep, and it was an Eton tradition, dating back to the reign of Henry VI, that collegers were to be fed no meat except mutton.

Provost Lupton, Bost’s successor, added his own posthumous7) bequest to the original charity so that the annual dole8) would amount to thruppence. Every February 27, the collegers gather――a dignified cadre of jackets, vests, and ties――in College Hall for the Threepenny Ceremony. Each boy in turn plucks his threepence from the crown of a tall silk hat. As consideration for the gift, each boy must recite a prayer for Bost’s soul.
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