The one with the elephant (a further reflection on adolescence).

In 1774, two years before the American Declaration of Independence , there was a revolution at Winchester College. The boys insisted on the sacking of an unpopular master. In 1793 there was another, when the whole school was punished for one boy frequenting the Cathedral Close to hear the band of Bucks militia playing martial music. The boys contended that the warning had been that "if one individual is present, he shall be severely punished; but if numbers are seen the whole school shall be punished... ." Forty senior boys took an oath of mutual solidarity and wrote to the warden, saying that he had contradicted his own statement, "by punishing many for the fault of one, thus afflicting great hardship on the innocent-we hope that in future you will act differently." Later, receiving an inadequate reply, the College gates were shut and barricaded, the red cap of liberty was hoisted over the gate, and cobbles from the courtyard pulled up as ammunition. An amnesty was declared, and the warden promised in the future not to punish the community for the sake of one individual. Peace, but not goodwill, for Winchester lost 37 of her sons that day, among them several distinguished soldiers and a Bishop who later wrote "Bright the vision that delighted once the sight of Judah's seer." In 1818 a boy's diary records that he went in to dinner at 1 o'clock, "very bad roast beef, had pudding afterwards, ate half of it, saved the other half with great difficulty as I had no paper-wrapped it in the tablecloth, tablecloth taken away, poor pudding on the table exposed to the full view of Swin, put it into my pocket, sine paper, better have greasy pockets than no pudding." Later a prefect is recorded as licking another boy: "he hurt him so much that he was taken up quite senseless and the surgeon said that if it had been an hour later he would have been a corpse." The position worsened. Porters were locked up. "We opened every place and took possession of the towers, whilst another party nailed up the Warden's doors." Watchers were placed on the towers. Three pickaxes were taken. The bread and cheese room was opened. Amateur cooks prepared breakfast so that "when the lids of the tureens were taken off there appeared two inches of lukewarm fat; under that was a quantity of …