Eton Montem was a custom observed by Eton College

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 from at least 1561 until it was finally suppressed in 1847, at the Montem Mound

Montem Mound

The Montem Mound is a mysterious and ancient mound of earth. It lies on Montem Lane, around half a mile west of central Slough, Berkshire, overlooking the Chalvey Brook, a minor tributary of the River Thames....

 (or Salt Hill

Salt Hill

Salt Hill is a district within the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire in the south of England, close to London. Before 1974, Salt Hill was part of Buckinghamshire...

) in Chalvey

Chalvey

Chalvey is a former village which is now a suburb of Slough in the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974....

, Slough

Slough

Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 (later Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

)The mound is situated some 2 miles from the college near the London to Bath coach road, now the A4.

Montem is first reported in William Malim's consuetudinarium (book of customs) of 1561, when it seems to have been an initiation ceremony for new boys, who were scattered with salt (which can mean 'wit' as well as 'salt') at the mound.

By the eighteenth century, the nature of the ceremony had changed to a glorified flag day

Flag Day

A flag day is a flag-related holiday—either a day designated for flying a certain flag , or a day set aside to celebrate a historical event such as a nation's adoption of its flag....

. Salt was no longer scattered on scholars; instead, pinches of salt and little blue tickets were sold to passers-by (the blue ticket - inscribed on alternate celebrations with 'Mos Pro Lege' or 'Pro More et Monte' - acted as protection from being asked for a further contribution) for 'salt' - money that went towards the Senior Colleger's anticipated expenses at King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

. Collecting was restricted to two 'salt-bearers' (also senior boys at the college) and ten or twelve 'servitors' or 'runners' who between them covered all the roads around Eton and Windsor

Windsor, Berkshire

Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....

.

Until 1758, Montem was held annually in January. The timing was then moved to the more clement weather of Whitsun

Whitsun

Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...

 Tuesday and the festival became biennial. In 1778, the frequency was reduced further so that Montem was only celebrated one year in 3.

As time passed, the event seems to have become bigger, becoming eventually a semi military muster of the whole school. Crowds and royalty (including at various times Queen Charlotte, George IV

George IV of the United Kingdom

George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...

, William IV

William IV of the United Kingdom

William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...

, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) flocked to see the event. Towards the end of the ceremony's life, more than £1000 would typically be collected in salt, but this was before expenses, leaving substantially less for the Senior Colleger to take to university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

.

A feature of the later Montems was the publication of a "Montem Ode", which was composed for the occasion, and was sold, in the form of a broadside

Broadside (music)

A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations...

 to visitors and Etonians. It typically consisted of doggerel punning rhymes, giving the names of the chief personages in the procession and alluding to their individual characteristics. It professed to be written by a local worthy who was styled the "Montem Poet", but in reality it was the production of some youthful wags in the school. The office of Montem Poet was held from the 1770s until 1834 by Herbert Stockhore of Windsor, an eccentric individual who had begun life as a bricklayer. Arrayed in a tunic and trousers of patchwork, an old military coat, and a chintz-covered conical head-dress, with rows of fringe on it like the crowns on a papal tiara, he drove about in a donkey-cart, reciting his Ode, and flourishing copies of it in the air to attract the attention of possible customers. After his death, there was a contest for the vacant office, and a certain Edward Irwin was elected, the boys recording their votes as they came out of Church one afternoon.

The final Montems in 1841 and 1844 followed the opening of the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 and attracted large and rowdy crowds from London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. In view of this (and the much diminished profit to be made), headmaster Edward Craven Hawtrey

Edward Craven Hawtrey

Edward Craven Hawtrey was an English educationalist.He was born at Burnham in Norfolk, the son of the vicar of the parish. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, and in 1814 was appointed assistant master at Eton under Dr John Keate...

 and Provost Francis Hodgson

Francis Hodgson

Francis Hodgson , was a reforming Provost of Eton, educator, cleric, writer of verse, and friend of Byron....

 abolished the custom before the 1847 Montem. The reduced anticipated profit can be seen by the fact that the potential beneficiary was compensated with a payment of £200.

In 1791, Arthur Atherley

Arthur Atherley

Arthur Atherley was an English Member of Parliament, serving the Southampton constituency three times, as Whig, Liberal and Reformer....

, later Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Southampton

Southampton (UK Parliament constituency)

Southampton was a parliamentary constituency which was represented in the British House of Commons. Centred on the town of Southampton, it returned two Members of Parliament from 1295 until it was abolished for the 1950 general election....

, had his portrait painted whilst at Eton College by Sir Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence (painter)

Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...

 – this portrait now hangs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....

. The portrait show Atherley in the uniform of captain of the Ad Montem club.

In a novel interpretation of the ceremony the early 20th century neo-druidic

Neo-Druidism

Neo-Druidism or Neo-Druidry, commonly referred to as Druidism or Druidry by its adherents, is a form of modern spirituality or religion that generally promotes harmony and worship of nature, and respect for all beings, including the environment...

 writer E.O.Gordon suggested that the Montem was one of several ceremonies with pagan origins that the college founder Henry VI stipulated should be followed at Eton. Gordon cites college stautes for the celebration of May Day and the autumnal equinox and suggests that these and the Montem ceremony were instigated by Henry in order to show his links back to Celtic kings . Gordon describes the Montem mound (which he also calls Sol’s Hill) as one of several important Druidic places of assembly around London .

Description of Montem by Benjamin Disraeli from his novel Coningsby

Coningsby (novel)

Coningsby, or The New Generation, is an English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli published in 1844.-Background:The book is set against a background of the real political events of the 1830s in England that followed the enactment of the Reform Bill of 1832...

circa 1840

Five hundred of the youth of England, sparkling with health, high spirits, and fancy dresses, were now assembled in the quadrangle. They formed into rank, and headed by a band of the Guards, thrice they marched round the court. Then quitting the College, they commenced their progress 'ad Montem.' It was a brilliant spectacle to see them defiling through the playing fields, those bowery meads; the river sparkling in the sun, the castled heights of Windsor, their glorious landscape; behind them, the pinnacles of their College.

The road from Eton to Salt Hill was clogged with carriages; the broad fields as far as eye could range were covered with human beings. Amid the burst of martial music and the shouts of the multitude, the band of heroes, as if they were marching from Athens, or Thebes, or Sparta, to some heroic deed, encircled the mount; the ensign reaches its summit, and then, amid a deafening cry of 'Floreat Etona!' he unfurls, and thrice waves the consecrated standard.

Further reading

• The Eton Montem pp 74–78, The History of Slough, Maxwell Fraser, Slough Corporation, 1973