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Outsourcing and Offshoring
Business Services
 Leslie P. Willcocks • Mary C. Lacity • Chris Sauer
Editors

Outsourcing and
Offshoring Business
Services
Editors
Leslie P. Willcocks Mary C. Lacity
Department of Management College of Business Administration
London School of Economics University of Missouri
London, United Kingdom Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Chris Sauer
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom

ISBN 978-3-319-52650-8 ISBN 978-3-319-52651-5 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52651-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940798

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publica-
tion does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein
or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Leslie P. Willcocks, Mary C. Lacity and Chris Sauer

Part I Theoretical Perspectives

2 Theoretical Perspectives on the Outsourcing of

Information Systems 25
Myun J. Creon, Varun Grover and James T.C. Teng

3 The Information Technology Outsourcing Risk: A

Transaction Cost and Agency Theory-Based Perspective 53
Bouchaib Bahli and Suzanne Rivard

4 Moments of Governance in IS Outsourcing:

Conceptualizing Effects of Contracts on Value Capture
and Creation 79
Shaila M. Miranda and C. Bruce Kavan

v
vi Contents

Part II From IT Outsourcing to Offshoring and Business

Process Outsourcing

5 Norm Development in Outsourcing Relationships 129

Thomas Kern and Keith Blois

6 Organizational Design of IT Supplier Relationship

Management: A Multiple Case Study of Five Client
Companies 153
Jasmin Kaiser and Peter Buxmann

7 How Do IT Outsourcing Vendors Respond to Shocks

in Client Demand? A Resource Dependence Perspective 197
Fang Su, Ji-Ye Mao and Sirkka L Jarvenpaa

8 Operational Capabilities Development in Mediated

Offshore Software Services Models 239
Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa and Ji-Ye Mao

9 A Dynamic Model of Offshore Software Development 281

Jason Dedrick, Erran Carmel and Kenneth L. Kraemer

10 Anxiety and Psychological Security in Offshoring

Relationships: The Role and Development of Trust as
Emotional Commitment 321
Séamas Kelly and Camilla Noonan

11 Cross-cultural (Mis)Communication in IS Offshoring:

Understanding Through Conversation Analysis 367
David Avison and Peter Banks

12 Applying Multiple Perspectives to the BPO Decision:

A Case Study of Call Centres in Australia 413
Mark Borman
 Contents vii

13 A Historical Review of the Information Technology

and Business Process Captive Centre Sector 455
Ilan Oshri and Bob van Uhm

14 Review of the Empirical Business Services

Sourcing Literature: An Update and Future
Directions 499
Mary C. Lacity, Shaji A. Khan and Aihua Yan
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Outsourcing learning curve (Lacity and Rottman 2008) 8

Fig. 2.1 Alternative types of IS outsourcing (Adapted from Loh
and Venkatraman, 1991) 28
Fig. 2.2 Components of a theory (Adapted from Bacharach, 1989) 30
Fig. 2.3 A resource-based perspective of outsourcing 33
Fig. 2.4 A resource dependence perspective of outsourcing 36
Fig. 2.5 A transaction costs perspective of outsourcing 39
Fig. 2.6 An agency costs perspective of outsourcing 40
Fig. 2.7 A conceptual model for studying outsourcing 42
Fig. 4.1 Alternate governance patterns in IS outsourcing
relationships 82
Fig. 4.2 A moments of governance (MoG) model of IS
outsourcing 83
Fig. 4.3 Environmental conditions 112
Fig. 6.1 Conceptual framework of organizational design (adapted
from Galbraith et al. 2002) 156
Fig. 6.2 Organizational structure models of IT supplier
relationship management 163
Fig. 6.3 Core activities of IT supplier relationship management
process 166
Fig. 6.4 Characteristics of central units in hybrid supplier
relationship management models 178

ix
x List of Figures

Fig. 8.1 Business models in Chinese–Japanese software services

offshoring 245
Fig. 8.2 Learning mechanisms in the four cases 269
Fig. 8.3 The full model of capabilities development 271
Fig. 9.1 Foundational conceptual model of offshore sourcing
factors 286
Fig. 9.2 Classic 2 × 2 sourcing decision matrix with arrows
indicating the direction of the decisions of interest to this
paper. 287
Fig. 9.3 A dynamic model of offshore sourcing factors and
interactions 303
Fig. 11.1 Conversation analysis – an apparent breakdown in
processes 383
Fig. 11.2 Conversation analysis – an attempt to summarise 385
Fig. 11.3 Conversation analysis – a one-sided conversation 386
Fig. 11.4 Conversation analysis – the weekly project meeting 394
Fig. 11.5 Conversation analysis – more substantive issues 396
Fig. 11.6 Conversation analysis – a highly asymmetrical
conversation 397
Fig. 12.1 Decision-making approach for BPO 416
Fig. 13.1 Number of captive set-ups per type, 1985–1997 466
Fig. 13.2 Number of captive set-ups per function, 1985–1997 466
Fig. 13.3 Number of captive set-ups per geographic location,
1985–1997 467
Fig. 13.4 The number of captive set-ups per type, 1998–2002 471
Fig. 13.5 The number of captive set-ups per function, 1998–2002 472
Fig. 13.6 The number of captive set-ups per geographic location,
1998–2002 473
Fig. 13.7 The number of captive set-ups per type, 2003–2005 475
Fig. 13.8 The number of captive set-ups per function, 2003–2005 476
Fig. 13.9 The number of captive set-ups per geography geographic
location, 2003–2005 476
Fig. 13.10 The number of captive set-ups per type, 2006–2010 482
Fig. 13.11 The number of captive set-ups per geographic location,
2006–2010 483
Fig. 13.12 The number of captive set-ups per function, 2006–2010 483
Fig. 13.13 Number of captive set-ups per type, 1985–2010 487
Fig. 13.14 Number of captive set-ups per function, 1985–2010 488
 List of Figures xi

Fig. 13.15 Number of captive set-ups per geographic location,

1985–2010 489
Fig. 14.1 The determinants of sourcing decisions 518
Fig. 14.2 The determinants of sourcing outcomes 532
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 Chapter overviews 15

Table 3.2 The IT outsourcing risk assessment framework 57
Table 4.1 Alternative forms of the promissory contract 87
Table 4.2 Alternative forms of the psychological contract 90
Table 4.3 Alternative mobilizations of inter-organizational rents 93
Table 6.1 Selected literature of supplier base strategies (adapted
from Levina and Su 2008) 159
Table 6.2 Overview of IT SRM findings on strategy, structure and
process 172
Table 6.3 Average rating in all nine core activities of IT supplier
relationship management (scale 0 ‘not at all’ to 3 ‘very
intensive’) 183
Table A1 Framework to assess descriptive case studies (Adapted
from Dubé and Paré 2003) 189
Table 7.1 Configurations of power relation 202
Table 7.2 Profile of the five vendor–client relationships 210
Table 7.3 Profiles of interviews 212
Table 7.4 Four response strategies 222
Table 7.5 Power relations and response strategies 222
Table 8.1 Profile of the companies studied 252
Table 8.2 General background of the companies studied 253
Table 8.3 Interviewees’ job title 254
Table 8.4 Learning mechanisms of the capabilities 255

xiii
xiv List of Tables

Table 9.1 Firms interviewed for this study (data were collected
in 2007) 293
Table 9.2 Mapping the five feedback loops to case studies 304
Table 11.1 Summary of offshore engagements studied 379
Table 11.2 Summary of meetings recorded 380
Table 12.1 Capabilities required of BPO suppliers 422
Table 12.2 Supplier and client case details 425
Table 12.3 Why outsource and what activities? 427
Table 12.4 Supplier capabilities sought 430
Table 12.5 Core capabilities sought from BPO suppliers of call
centre service 440
Table 13.1 Captive centres models and their value proposition 460
Table 13.2 Divested captive centres in 2008 486
Table 14.1 Empirical research base 505
Table 14.2 Coding schema for relationships 515
Table 14.3 Comparison of findings on determinants of sourcing
decisions 525
Table 14.4 Business services studied 534
Table 14.5 Comparison of findings on determinants of sourcing
outcomes 547
Table 14.6 Assessment of progress made on previously identified
gaps in knowledge 555
Table 14.7 Contract type as determinant of outsourcing outcomes:
The current review 561
Table 14.8 Articles that identified provider location 563
Table 14.9 New studies on the relationship between contractual
and relational governance 568
Table 14.10 Client locations studied 570
 1
Introduction
Leslie P. Willcocks, Mary C. Lacity and Chris Sauer

Overview
Modern organizations and their IT functions are increasingly choosing
to rely on external service providers for IT hardware, software, telecom-
munications, cloud computing resources, and automation tools, a prac-
tice known as information technology outsourcing (ITO). Meanwhile

L.P. Willcocks (*)

Department of Management, London School of Economics, London,
United Kingdom
e-mail: [email protected]
M.C. Lacity
University of Missouri, College of Business Administration, Saint Louis,
Missouri, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Sauer
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s) 2017 1

L.P. Willcocks et al. (eds.), Outsourcing and Offshoring Business
Services, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52651-5_1
2 L.P. Willcocks et al.

especially since 1999 and several landmark human resource outsourcing

deals, business process outsourcing (BPO), has also increasingly spread across
fundamental back office functions like finance and accounting, procurement,
legal, real estate, human resources, insurance claims and general administra-
tion. By early 2014, global outsourcing contracts for ITO and BPO services
exceeded US$648 billion (ITO $344 billion; BPO $304 billion), according
to HFS Research. By the beginning of 2015 the combined total exceeded US
$700 billion (Fersht and Snowden 2014). By the end of 2016, the global
ITO and BPO services market was estimated to be US$1,007 billion (ITO
$657 billion; BPO $322 billion) (Snowden and Fersht 2016). There are
many, often wildly diverging, estimates on market growth. Much depends on
the assumptions made. However, taking a conservative route through many
estimates, we follow Snowden and Fersht (2016) in seeing the market
experiencing a 2.2% ITO and a 4.0% BPO compound annual growth
through 2016 to end of 2020, reflecting more activities being outsourced,
and new service lines and delivery locations added.
Within these overall figures sits an offshore outsourcing market in which
2013 revenues exceeded US$100 billion in revenues. Estimates based on
evidence from a variety of research analyst reports suggest this market will
grow by 8–12% per year in the 2013–2018 period (Cullen et al. 2014).
Offshore outsourcing revenues were estimated to exceed US$140 billion
by end of 2016. Interestingly, despite the steady growth of outsourcing to
become a globally recognized practice, satisfaction levels from these types
of services remain quite mixed, and have done so across the evolution of the
ITO, BPO and offshore markets (Lacity and Willcocks 2015).
Outsourcing has many definitions, but perhaps the simplest is: ‘The
handing over to a third party of the management of activities, assets and/
or people to achieve required outcomes’ (Cullen et al. 2014).
Outsourcing does not exhaust the ways of using external service suppli-
ers. An alternative is to buy in resources which we define as ‘employing
external third party-resources to work under your management and
control to achieve outcomes.’ (Cullen et al. 2014). There has also been
increasing use over the last twenty-five years of software packages, while
cloud computing has also added ‘rent’ as-a-service options to the more
traditional make-or-buy choices (see Willcocks et al. 2014.) Then, of
course, there is always the in-house sourcing option. Indeed, recent years
 1 Introduction 3

has seen a rise in captive centers – increasingly called global in house

centers (GICs) – spread across the many now viable international loca-
tions (a history of captive center evolution appears in this collection).
In this volume, we as editors draw upon compelling papers selected from
the Journal of Information Technology to address two major questions. The
first is: what theoretical perspectives can be most effectively used for the
study of sourcing practices? The second question will be especially inter-
esting to practitioners: how does an organization leverage the ever-growing
external services market to gain operational, business, and strategic advan-
tage? But before we present the rich papers that seek to address these
questions, a little history is in order. We need to frame and locate the
studies within the evolution of the external service provider market that has
grown from US$10 billion a year revenues in 1989 to what by 2016 has
become nearly a US$1 trillion a year global industry.

Origins of the Modern ITO and BPO Services

Industry
The landmark 1989 Eastman Kodak large-scale outsourcing arrangement
with suppliers is usually pinpointed as marking the beginning of modern
IT and business service outsourcing. From that date ITO accelerated. It
reached $50 billion revenues in 1994, over US$152 billion in 2000, and
over $344 billion by 2014. The early 1990s debate about the core compe-
tence of the corporation provided a context in which organizations increas-
ingly sought to outsource ‘commodity’ IT, the main objectives then being
to reduce costs, access expertise, and, if possible, catalyze performance.
The period 1989–1997 is often mistakenly characterized as a period of
large-scale, long-term, single supplier, IT outsourcing deals. While there were
several examples of these which all gained high profile, e.g., Commonwealth
Bank, General Dynamics, Xerox, and UK Inland Revenue – in fact most
deals were not like this, and few were single supplier – even at Eastman Kodak
there were in fact three suppliers. By 2000 there were just over 120 so called
IT outsourcing ‘strategic alliances,’ but the dominant practice (as it has
continued to be) was multiple supplier outsourcing that used mid-term
length (3–7 years) contracts (Lacity and Willcocks 2001). Such deals tended
4 L.P. Willcocks et al.

to focus on outsourcing stable, discrete activities that were well understood,

and for which detailed contracts could be written. While this mitigated many
of the risks that went with outsourcing, this did not mean that clients and
suppliers had yet learned how to manage outsourcing arrangements effec-
tively. Managing outsourcing remains a problem for many to this day, with
the difficulty heightened by increasingly volatile business contexts and fast
changing technologies and services.
The IT outsourcing market grew apace in the 2000s. As suppliers
matured their ability to deliver IT services, more global locations
became viable. At the same time clients built their confidence and
competence. From around 2005 a more strategic interest in multi-
sourcing also developed. Here ABN Amro set a new landmark. After
cancelling prematurely a single supplier deal with EDS, the bank’s deal
with four suppliers in 2005 was portrayed as the dominant future
pattern for strategic sourcing to follow. At the same time the period
2005–2016 saw more, smaller, shorter term contracts driving market
growth. With the economic downturn from 2008, an interest in
consolidating supplier numbers took place. As a result of this, the
management and economic advantages of ‘bundled’ outsourcing –
going with one supplier for several different IT and also business
process services – grew. Another reason for this interest lay in the
administrative and management costs of multi-sourcing models and
the pressure to develop integrated technology platforms more closely
aligned with business needs (Cullen et al. 2014).
So far we describe a largely IT outsourcing trajectory. Business process
outsourcing (BPO) and offshoring/offshore outsourcing have been late-
comers within the outsourcing phenomenon. The 1990s saw pioneering
developments in both areas. As one example, in 1991 BP Exploration,
the oil major, outsourced all European accounting operations to one
supplier, Andersen Consulting. Accounting processes were consolidated
in a single site at Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1996 BP did the same thing
with its upstream, downstream and chemical businesses in the US, then
moved to two outsourcing suppliers in 1999. The Aberdeen shared
services center was interesting in that it attracted other oil industry
clients, including Britannia Operator and Conoco. With offshoring,
the 1990s saw several American and West European firms develop
 1 Introduction 5

‘captive centers,’ while others outsourced some IT activities offshore to

India and elsewhere. Early examples included Baan and GE. Meanwhile
Indian suppliers began to develop their capabilities and markets, exam-
ples being TCS, Infosys and Wipro. But the turning point came with the
Y2K problem that materialized from 1996 onwards. To prepare for
Y2K, companies needed low cost, trained resources for its resolution
up against a ‘drop dead’ deadline. North American and European
companies increasingly and successfully used Indian suppliers and loca-
tions to handle the Y2K problem, and this really did begin to put
offshore models on the map from around 2000 (see Lacity and
Rottman 2008; Willcocks and Lacity 2006). Offshoring remains a
growing phenomenon to this day, and several chapters in this volume
focus on offshoring practices, reflecting the considerable interest in
academic research on this subject over the last 15 years.
Both BPO and offshoring opened up the global outsourcing market
in the first decade of the new century, offering new and genuine routes
to cost savings, and greater value from outsourcing. BP pioneered
human resource outsourcing in 1999 in a deal with newly founded
technology provider Exult. Its subsequent history suggests that this
BPO arrangement went through a number of difficult challenges from
which later BPO suppliers and clients learned a great deal. Another new
BPO ‘pure play’ – Xchanging – signed similar deals, though on a joint
venture basis, with The London Insurance Market and Lloyds of
London (insurance administration) and BAE Systems (previously
British Aerospace) (HR and indirect procurement) in 2001.
Meanwhile Bank of America outsourced multiple HR activities to
Accenture. From 2000 the BPO market picked up considerably. The
key BPO issue was whether clients had enough confidence to outsource,
even transform, their back offices against a background of a global
supplier market still developing its BPO capabilities. By 2010 there
had been rapid BPO expansion – the market was exceeding US$135
billion in revenues by end of that year – but there still remained massive
untapped potential growth for the BPO market (Willcocks et al. 2011).
Of all the outsourcing variants offshore outsourcing saw much the
fastest growth in the 2000–2010 period. India had a head start; it had
developed scale and a group of major suppliers, and by 2010 dominated
6 L.P. Willcocks et al.

the global offshore market. At the same time many other countries have
been actively offering services, and developing their outsourcing services
industries, often most successfully with local government backing. By
2016 one could count viable offshore locations in over 120 countries
worldwide, with India earning over 65% of the revenues, and the
Philippines having the second largest industry, with both countries
offering multiple ITO and BPO services.
One small market that began in 1997 – that of Application
Service Provision (ASP) – is also worth commenting on here. This
market grew during the e-business bubble of 1995–2001 and at one
stage had over 300 suppliers serving mainly small and medium sized
enterprises. Concerned with delivering applications, infrastructure
and services on a rental basis over the Internet, this phenomenon
was dubbed ‘netsourcing,’ (Kern et al. 2002). It grew rapidly across
the 1997–2001 period, but then fell away with the bursting of the
Internet bubble. However, it began to be resurrected from 2008,
now with the nomenclature of ‘cloud computing.’ Cloud sourcing by
2016 had become a potentially massive market for as-a-service exter-
nal service provision. Potentially cloud sourcing is also enormously
disruptive of more traditional outsourcing models that had devel-
oped over its brief 26-year history as an industry). One reason for
this is that cloud computing enables and amplifies the effects of
other emerging technologies, and in particular Blockchain, social
media, analytics, the internet of things, digital fabrication, robotics
and the automation of knowledge work. Such developments raise
fundamental questions for researchers and practitioners alike about
the future shape and trajectory of the global sourcing phenomenon,
and for client and service provider strategies.
The years 2015–2016 also saw the development of service
automation – estimated to be a small market of less than US$5
billion in revenues to service providers by the end of 2016.
However, as Willcocks and Lacity (2016) discuss, robotic process
automation and cognitive automation has the potential to be very
disruptive of the more conventional people-centric outsourcing
model that offshore outsourcing vendors and captive centers were
based on. Looking across these technological developments in cloud
 1 Introduction 7

computing and service automation, it is probable that the speed with

which they will eat into traditional ITO and BPO models and
markets has been over estimated. As Snowden and Fersht (2016)
suggest, it is likely that there will be a huge amount of legacy
enterprise ITO and BPO business in play for a decade or more,
not least to enable organizations to move increasingly in the direc-
tion of more digital operations.

On the Global Sourcing Learning Curve

When we review this rapid growth, we see that it has had several major
impacts. The first is that clients and suppliers have all had to run very
fast to stay up with the latest market twists, players, technologies, and
potential new sources of competition and of value. Looking over this
history, senior executives in both client companies and service providers
have been, on the whole, short on time to think through long-term
issues and requirements. The effort in getting deals done, and running
them, has focused attention primarily on operations, and the day-to-day
issues. This has left little energy and time for strategizing and innovation
even though that is precisely what sourcing strategy and innovation
require.
Secondly and relatedly, finding out what works and what does not has
been, perhaps too often, a ‘hard learning’ experience. ‘Suck-it-and-see’ is
not necessarily the optimal way to proceed, especially if committing to
large-scale, possibly 10-year contracts, and potentially transformational
activities. As a third point, much has been achieved, but the creation of a
body of knowledge about outsourcing, covering such issues as strategiz-
ing, governance, contracting, pricing, relationships, measurement, pro-
cess optimization, is still very much work in progress. As we said, this is
not helped by dynamic business contexts, rapid changes in the supply
industry and the speed with which new technologies emerge.
Fourthly, even by 2017 the outsourcing industry was still at the early
stages of professionalizing itself. Professionalization brings with it the
benefits of such things as codes of conduct, minimum standards of
competence, standardized practices, a coherent career structure and an
8 L.P. Willcocks et al.

understanding of key roles required and what it takes to fill them. While
client retained capabilities have become, generally, more mature, and
more relevant to the tasks in hand in recent years, the benefits of global
sourcing becoming a profession on both client and service provider sides
are not with us yet.
Throughout this relatively brief history there has been much
learning and evolution by clients and suppliers alike. The voyage
of discovery that client organizations have been through is captured
in a four-phase model into which one can also read developments on
the supply side. The model was devised from research by Lacity and
Rottman (2008) (Fig 1.1).
Phase 1 – An organization looking at its first-generation outsourcing
contract(s) tends to fall on one side of a hype-fear divide. Our research
shows that clients at this stage believe too much in suppliers’ marketing
promises, and the power of outsourcing, or, conversely, are very dubious
about what outsourcing can deliver. If the client proceeds to outsource,
invariably it is with insufficient managerial competence, not realizing
that outsourcing tends to require different management capabilities and
Client learning

Phase 4:
Institutionalized/
Reinvented
Phase 3: Focus on value-added
Relationships mature
May renegotiate, switch suppliers
Richer practices emerge
Focus on costs & quality

Phase 2:
Pilots, first relationships
Best and worst practices emerge
Focus primarily on costs

Phase 1:
Hype and fear
Time/Value

Fig. 1.1 Outsourcing learning curve (Lacity and Rottman 2008)

 1 Introduction 9

ethos from managing in-house resources. Neither approach adds up to a

resilient way of trying to leverage outsourcing.
Phase 2 – After some hard learning through their first-generation
outsourcing experiences, clients then tend to focus primarily on cost,
becoming skeptical about how much can be really achieved, though
often still insisting on benefits beyond cost and service improvements.
The outsourcing literature sees phrases like ‘your mess for less’ as clients
focus on the cost-service trade-off in their discussions and disputes with
their suppliers.
While this sounds a limited set of objectives, nevertheless we have found
a surprising number of outsourcing deals have been quietly successful at
this relatively low level of ambition. Their characteristics included: cost and
service objectives, retaining a lot of in-house capability; outsourcing 20–
30% of activities; and outsourcing stable, and discrete activities they
understood and could write detailed contracts for. They chose multiple
suppliers and tended to use relatively short-term contracts of between 3–5
years in length. This approach tended to work and reflected that clients
were ‘smart in their ignorance,’ that is did not try to step beyond their
capabilities, but instead evolved their knowledge incrementally through the
actual experience of outsourcing, while mitigating the risks of learning
from experience (Lacity and Willcocks 2001, 2009).
Throughout the 2000s many clients were on their second or even
third generation outsourcing deals. Often there was a transfer of learning
into the new deals, but often also clients could react adversely to poor
experiences and try to do something quite different the second or third
time, thus pushing them down the learning curve as to these new
arrangements, suppliers, and ways of operating. Our research shows
most clients staying with existing suppliers – by the mid-2000s about
65% of deals went with incumbent service providers, though on chan-
ged contracts and scope; 30% were switching suppliers, and under 10%
were bringing activities back in-house (Willcocks et al. 2011). Our
research showed that many Phase 2 clients were getting smarter on
contracts, including seeing the need to work with suppliers rather than
having ‘at-a-distance’ relationships, building up more retained capabil-
ity, and getting more realistic about what could be achieved through
using the global external services market. Interestingly, we found quite
10 L.P. Willcocks et al.

often that the earlier learning on ITO arrangements did not always pass
on into newer deals involving business process outsourcing or offshore
outsourcing, raising question marks on whether client organizations
place enough emphasis on organizational learning and its transfer
(Willcocks and Lacity 2009).
Phase 3 – We have found many clients make it through to Phase 3
usually in their third or fourth generation outsourcing deals. These
clients tend to look for value-added rather than just cost savings, and
are searching for multiple business benefits from closer relationships
with their service providers. At the same time they frequently look to
reduce the number of their suppliers, and control them more closely on
outcomes. Such clients have learned a great deal from previous out-
sourcing experiences, have built strong retained management capabil-
ities, and are able to get the balance of contract and relationship
management right. They have focused on leveraging the relationship
with their suppliers for mutual business benefit.
Phase 4 – Few organizations have reached Phase 4 of their journey. In
research into high performance in outsourcing, Lacity and Willcocks have
found some 20% of BPO arrangements putting in ‘world class’ perfor-
mance as at 2015. These achieve significant cost savings and service
improvements on an ongoing basis, achieve multiple business benefits
and innovation, and record high client satisfaction. They have inculcated
management practices distinctively different from the 25% ‘Good’ out-
sourcing arrangements, and the 40% ‘Doing OK’ ones. Meanwhile as at
this date 15% of arrangements still have to be classified as ‘Poor’ (no cost
savings; costs could even increase; poor service performance; low client
satisfaction). Briefly these management practice attributes were multiple:
they included leadership pairings across client and supplier; a primary focus
on business and strategic benefits; strong transition change management
and transformation capabilities; a partnering approach; the retained orga-
nization aligned to business goals and its supplier; issues and conflicts
resolved collaboratively with the provider; the use of technology as an
enabler, deployment of domain expertise and business analytics; and
prioritization of and incentives innovation (Lacity and Willcocks 2015).
Looking across these four phases, outsourcing performance is invari-
ably better in Phases 3 and 4. While this is down to requisite client
 1 Introduction 11

management capabilities, this also reflects maturing in service provider

learning and capabilities over the years. Nevertheless one has to ask: why
have so many organizations progressed quite slowly, often painfully, up
their learning curves? One truth is mundane, which is that key people
learn, then leave, in order to practice their learning elsewhere, at a higher
price. But we find that while service providers frequently try to institu-
tionalize their learning on managing outsourcing and on sector specific
know-how, clients all too frequently have not. Moreover, as we pointed
out above, learning on one type of outsourcing e.g., ITO, multi-supplier
sourcing is not routinely transferred and applied to another e.g., BPO
multi-supplier sourcing. Objectives change quite quickly in modern
business environments, and new contract forms, new sourcing arrange-
ments and new suppliers bring new unknowns into the picture requiring
ever new learning, as do new technology innovations like cloud comput-
ing, business analytics and service automation. Global sourcing has
become a fast-moving, dynamic high profile and impactful set of activ-
ities that remain difficult to deliver on. More reason, then, for even more
studies of the kind we find in this volume.

The Papers in This Volume

This brief review of the first twenty-six years of the modern global
sourcing industry sets the context in which the papers in this volume
have been developed. There seems to be a fundamental practical ques-
tion embedded in all these studies and that is: under what conditions can
outsourcing, or other forms of sourcing contribute to organizational
objectives? The answer will need a theoretical lens and, indeed, several
papers provide detailed examples of attempts to develop and use differ-
ent theoretical perspectives. The answer also needs to be evidence-based,
and a range of papers show that academics continue to be very good at
providing robust, rigorous, independent empirical research that is
increasingly needed in such subject areas where so much information
is being made available that does not have these qualities.
Having, as it were, ‘framed’ the volume, let us now look at the
content. The volume includes interesting and compelling articles from
12 L.P. Willcocks et al.

the Journal of Information Technology pertaining to theoretical perspec-

tives and studies of IT Outsourcing, Offshoring and BPO.

Introduction to Section 1: Theoretical Perspectives

Nearly twenty-five years of research on outsourcing has been framed and

guided by many theoretical perspectives. Lacity and Willcocks (2009)
examined 20 such theories from economics, strategy, sociology, and
systems science. They showed that each theoretical tradition has explicit
and implicit assumptions about the nature of human agency. Theories
from economics, most notably Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and
Agency Theory (AT), assume that human agents make rational out-
sourcing decisions and engage in contracts to minimize total costs and to
mitigate risks, such as the risk that an agent will behave opportunistically
by hiding data, lying, or even threatening other agents. Theories from
strategy, such as the Resource-Based View (RBV), Resource
Dependency Theory (RDT), Game Theory, and Auction Theory,
assume that human agents build or acquire resources to execute strate-
gies that lead to ‘winning’. Theories from sociology, including Social
Exchange Theory (SET), Relational Exchange Theory (RET), Social
Capital Theory, Institutionalism, Power Theories, and Innovation
Diffusion focus on the relationships among human agents involved in
sourcing, including levels of trust and power and the influence of social
norms to elicit desired behaviors. Systems sciences have had as yet a
minor influence, but this tradition views organizations as organisms that
exchange resources across organizational boundaries and that learn
through feedback.
For this volume, we sought to select papers that represent the breadth
and depth of theoretical perspectives (see Table 1.1). Chapter 2,
‘Theoretical perspectives on the outsourcing of information systems,’
by Myun J. Cheon, Varun Grover, and James Teng initially appeared in
the first Journal of Information Technology special issue on IT outsour-
cing published in 1995. These authors quite early on recognized the
limitations of any one theory to make sense of the rich and nuanced
reality of outsourcing. These authors integrated four theories, namely
 1 Introduction 13

RBV, RDT, TCE, and AT into a coherent framework of outsourcing

decisions. Over twenty years later, this paper’s influence is evidenced by
over 400 citations by 2016.
Chapter 3, ‘The information technology outsourcing risk: a transac-
tion cost and agency-theory based perspective,’ by Bouchaib Bahli and
Suzanne Rivard applied two theories from economics (TCE and AT) to
deeply assess the risks associated with outsourcing and to identify risk
mitigation strategies suggested by the theories. Specifically, the authors
examined how ten risk factors lead to supplier lock-in, costly contractual
amendments, unexpected transaction costs, disputes and litigation. They
identified nine specific risk mitigation strategies, including mutual hos-
taging, dual sourcing, sequential contracting, contract flexibility, clan
mechanisms, use of external expertise, and alternative methods of dis-
pute resolution such as arbitration.
Chapter 4, ‘Moments of governance in IS outsourcing: conceptualiz-
ing effects of contracts on value capture and creation,’ by Shaila Miranda
and C Bruce Kavan used the theoretical lenses of promissory contracts,
psychological contracts, and inter-organizational rents to ascertain
appropriate governance structures for each outsourcing phase. During
the contract negotiation phase, the authors posited that promissory
contracting theory informs how structures give rise to commitment
among parties. During the contract execution phase, psychological con-
tracting theory suggests how structures build social capital to coordinate
work and to resolve conflicts. Finally, inter-organizational rents theory
suggests how the structures of intellectual and economic capital lead to
value among partners.

Introduction to Section 2: From IT Outsourcing

to Offshoring and BPO

The papers in Section 2 capture the breadth of coverage from

empirical outsourcing research spanning ITO, offshoring, and BPO.
These studies draw from and extend the theoretical perspectives
covered in the first three chapters and several chapters build bespoke
models on supplier management practices, structures, processes, and
14 L.P. Willcocks et al.

capabilities (see Table 1.1). Chapters 5 through 11 empirically exam-

ine the context of the outsourcing of information technology services,
either to domestic or offshore suppliers or both. Chapters 12, 13, and
14 extend the empirical reach from exclusive ITO to include captive
centers and BPO services.
Chapter 5, ‘Norm development in outsourcing relationships,’ by
Thomas Kern and Keith Blois, is a detailed case study of BP
Exploration’s outsourcing of IT. Using the theoretical lens of social
norms to diagnose the case, the authors asserted that BP’s initial attempt
to structure its multi-provider environment using a consortium failed
because parties could not establish behavioral norms. Consequently, BP
decided to dismantle the consortium in favor of a more traditional
command and control structure.
Chapter 6, ‘Organizational design of IT supplier relationship manage-
ment: a multiple case study of five client companies,’ by Jasmin Kaiser
and Peter Buxmann, applied a strategic framework on organizational
design to analyze the strategies, structures, and processes for managing
relationships with suppliers in client firms. The authors examined IT
outsourcing strategy in terms of degree of outsourcing and number of IT
suppliers, the latter of which ranged from one supplier to several
hundred suppliers. The authors compared the centralized, decentralized
and hybrid structures across the cases and examined the mechanisms for
involvement and collaboration.
Chapter 7, ‘How do IT outsourcing vendors respond to shocks in client
demand? A resource dependence perspective,’ by Fang Sui, Ji-Ye Mao, and
Sirrka Jarvenpaa, focused on IT outsourcing from the supplier perspective.
The authors were interesting in understanding how ITO suppliers react to
major drops in client demand, a significant issue after the global financial
crisis of 2008. Based on five supplier-client relationships between Chinese
ITO suppliers and Japanese clients, the authors found that the power of
each explained the supplier’s strategy for dealing with demand shocks.
When the client was powerful, both weak and powerful suppliers adopted
a bridging strategy to strengthen the current relationship. When the
supplier was powerful but the client was not, the supplier adopted an
‘exploitative buffering’ strategy to attract new clients in new markets.
Table 1.1 Chapter overviews

Chapter Theoretical contribution Context Empirical base Client/Provider location

1 Overview of range of theories, development ITO, n/a n/a
of practice, and learning over 26 years Offshoring
and BPO
2 Developed a conceptual model of outsour- ITO n/a n/a
cing decisions based on RBV, RDT, TCE, and
AT
3 Developed a risk mitigation framework ITO n/a n/a
based on TCE and AT
4 Developed a model of outsourcing govern- ITO n/a n/a
ance based on promissory contracts, psy-
chological contracts, and inter-
organizational rents
5 Diagnosed supplier management structures ITO One case UK
and processes using social norms study
6 Developed an outsourcing framework based ITO Five case Europe
on strategic organizational design theory studies
7 Developed four propositions that related ITO/ Five supplier- Chinese providers, Japanese
power to supplier strategies for absorbing Offshoring client clients
shocks in client demand relationships
8 Developed a process model for building ITO/ Four supplier Chinese providers, Japanese
provider capabilities. Offshoring case studies clients
1 Introduction

9 ITO/ Five client

Offshoring case studies

(continued )
15
 16

Table 1.1 (continued)

Chapter Theoretical contribution Context Empirical base Client/Provider location

Developed a dynamic model of offshoring, American clients,
drawing on modular systems theory, providers based in several
knowledge based view, and TCE countries
10 Identified two types of inter-organizational ITO/ One case Irish client, Indian supplier
trust, drawing on theories of modernity Offshoring study
L.P. Willcocks et al.

and self-identity
11 Applied conversation analysis to understand ITO/ One case Client employees in UK & US;
client and provider interactions Offshoring study Indian supplier
12 Developed 14 propositions to examine call BPO Three case Australia
center outsourcing decisions and out- studies
comes, drawing from TCE, RDT, institu-
tional theory, industry value system, and a
BPO provider capability framework
13 Examined four types of captive centers and Offshoring Primary and Global
their evolution over 25 years of IT and Secondary
BP data
services
14 Developed models of sourcing decisions and ITO, Literature Global; Clients based in
outcomes derived from empirical studies Offshoring view of 174 23 countries; providers based
and BPO empirical in 34 countries
studies
 1 Introduction 17

Chapter 8, ‘Operational capabilities development in mediated off-

shore software services model,’ by Sirkka L Jarvenpaa and Ji-Ye Mao, is
another look at Chinese ITO suppliers, but this paper questioned the
process by which ITO providers build human resource, process and
client-specific capabilities. The authors studied four small Chinese ITO
suppliers that service Japanese clients indirectly through a ‘mediated
model’ via a Japanese IT supplier. The IT personnel career development
capability was the most difficult for Chinese providers to develop, yet it
was the main determinant of the other two capabilities. Chinese suppli-
ers operated at the low end of the value-chain (coding and testing) and
therefore opportunities to build client-specific relationships were
restricted to the more senior people in Chinese firms.
Chapter 9, ‘A dynamic model of offshore software development,’ by
Jason Dedrick, Erran Carmel, and Kenneth L Kraemer is an important
theoretical and empirical contribution to the explanation of ITO deci-
sions and outcomes. The authors criticized static theories of sourcing
and instead developed a dynamic model based on their case studies. The
authors identified five feedback loops (scramble, snowball, balancing,
fundamental, and environmental) among economic factors, activity
attributes, and management practices that affected an organization’s
sourcing mix through time.
Chapter 10, ‘Anxiety and psychological security in offshoring rela-
tionships: the role and development of trust as emotional commitment,’
by Seamas Kelly and Camilla Noonan brought a completely new per-
spective to the study of offshore outsourcing relationships. The authors
applied Anthony Giddens’ work on modernity and self-identity to
examine how clients adjust to alien work arrangements like offshoring.
The authors found two different modes of client-supplier trust that were
built during the stages of courtship and cohabitation. The trust estab-
lished during the courtship phase helped the relationship survive a crisis
during the cohabitation phase.
Chapter 11, ‘Cross-cultural (mis)communication in IS offshoring:
understanding through conversation analysis,’ by David Avison and
Peter Banks, appropriated from anthropology the method of conversa-
tion analysis to study interactions between clients and offshore suppliers.
The authors found that American and British client employees
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
not lay down our arms till the hiss was given for morning school; we
were then squaring-up for the forty-ninth round. I got my head
considerably punched in the first few rounds, during which indeed it
was seldom out of Chancery, but I improved as we got on, and felt
quite sorry when we were obliged to give up; neither of us, however,
had afterwards the slightest anxiety to renew the engagement, and
we always continued the best of friends, having, from practical
experience, learnt mutual respect for each other; and whenever in
after life I have had the pleasure of meeting my old antagonist, we
have never failed in conversation to fight our battle over again.
A good deal of practice with single stick, foils, and boxing-gloves,
went on in school also; I was one day exercising the latter
instruments with Pudding, when I received a blow in the throat
which made me feel very uncomfortable, and we left off; I got worse
and worse, and finally had to apply for leave from school; I then
went down to sick house, was rather feverish that evening, and
awoke next morning with—the Measles.
On “Remedies” from eleven till twelve, and from four till five there
was an attempt at keeping order in school, under the presidence of
the unfortunate French Master, who, I fear, had rather a warm time
of it, in endeavouring, with the assistance of the Bible Clerk and
Ostiarius, to maintain anything like a proper command over us.
These hours of mitigated study were called “Books Chambers.”
 CHAPTER X.
THE JUNIOR IN MEADS.

“Watching out”—Cricket Reminiscences—Lord’s Matches—Turf

—Football—Six and Six—Twenty-two and Twenty-two—SS
and Trees—Fines—Sick-House—Gooseberry Fool—“Going
Continent”—Long Meads—Enlargement of Meads.
As I said before, I must confess that as a Junior I did not on the
whole look upon a holiday as a peculiar blessing; indeed I used to
watch the applicant for a Remedy with much interest, and profound
was my secret disgust when it was granted, and ill-concealed my
satisfaction if it was refused.
My reason for this was the unlimited extent to which “Watching
out” at cricket was enforced on us. I believe that this is now altered,
the time being limited to one hour on a school-day, and two on a
holiday, which amount is healthy for the boys, and very useful,
inasmuch as it initiates them into one of the most useful branches of
a public-school education—the science of cricket. But it is quite
possible to have too much of a good thing. I have been, on a
Saint’s-day, (this, however, was an extreme case, and did not occur
often,) ordered down to watch out in Meads early in the morning
before breakfast, and not allowed to quit the ground, (except to
attend chapel,) till dark, the whole time without a hat, often in a
broiling sun; at breakfast time and one o’clock one of the Fags would
be sent up to bring down food, which we ate on the ground. In
order to effect this day’s work, we had (if we could not get leave,
and I think only three were allowed) to shirk Hills three times, for
each of which we were liable (if discovered, by names being called,
as was generally the case) to an imposition. And when the day’s
entertainment commenced by a big Præfect, about twenty-two years
old, placing a boy about ten paces behind the wickets as Longstop
to a fast bowler, pointing significantly to a spare stump stuck in the
ground close by, and remarking, with a savage scowl, “Now, you
look here, you young ⸺, you see that stump, the first ball you
miss I’ll cut you in three pieces—body, soul, and legs,” I think it will
be admitted that to that Longstop at any rate a holiday would not be
regarded as a very great privilege, especially when Nestor was not
at all the boy (man, I should rather say) not to endeavour
conscientiously to fulfil any promise of the kind above mentioned. I
again repeat, this is an extreme case; and now, even if the will were
present, the opportunity would be wanting. Happy was the boy who
succeeded in making a catch, as in that case he was excused from
watching out for the rest of the day; still more serene must have
been the existence of the mustard and pepper keeper—the
responsible duties of which office relieved the fortunate holder from
service in the field.
But what adepts we became in fielding under this rough
treatment! I would in those days stop a ball with my left hand,
which, if I now saw coming towards me, I should diligently avoid
touching at all. So “there is no cloud but has its silver lining;” and,
perhaps, if in these latter days Winchester has not held the laurels in
cricket quite so firmly as of old, it is in some respects owing to the
mitigated apprenticeship served by the boys in their Fagging days.
This, alas! is not of much consequence now, since it has been
deemed expedient by the authorities to put an end to the public-
school matches at Lord’s, which tended so much to produce a
wholesome feeling of patriotic rivalry among the boys, and were
always looked forward to by all Wykehamists as the pleasantest
rendezvous of the year, where their spirits were refreshed by talking
over past times with old friends seldom seen but at those reunions.
I have heard, from the best authority, that the principal reason for
no longer permitting the Winchester boys to contend with Harrow
and Eton in the public arena at Lord’s is, that their parents
complained that they were put to great inconvenience by having to
send up their sons to London in the middle of the holidays, that they
were put to considerable expense, and the boys exposed to many
temptations. These objections are valid ones, I admit; but, I think,
not insurmountable. As regards the expense, I am certain that a
fund could easily be raised that would cover all the travelling
expenses of the eleven for the next ten years; and as regards the
exposure of the boys to temptation, I am sure that, even if they had
no relations resident in London who could put them up, were the
want made known, hospitable doors would open in sufficient
number, not only to take in the eleven, but the whole school, if
required; and the boys’ proceedings would be as carefully looked
after as if they were at home. And I cannot doubt but that the old
school is lowered in the eyes of the public by its absence from the
annual contest at Lord’s, and that other schools will gradually usurp
the position as one of the first in England, which it has held for so
many centuries.
I must, however, in justice, add that, from the present
arrangement of having the cricket-match with Eton played on
alternate years at Eton and Winchester, the boys themselves
(excepting the eleven) certainly must derive far greater amusement
than they did heretofore from the knowledge of the fact that the
match was being played at London, where, besides the eleven, there
probably would not be half-a-dozen present. Now they get two
whole holidays; and when the match is played at Winchester, half
the Eton boys come over by railway, and are entertained in Hall, so
that the game is carried on in the presence of the two schools.
Notwithstanding this, I think that the annual contest of the principal
schools in the national game is an affair in which the interests of the
majority of Wykehamists ought to be consulted, and should take
place in the metropolis.
What a noble game cricket must be, when one loved it so much,
notwithstanding the previous training! What genuine excitement
when College and Commoners was played; what frantic shouting
when Rapid got well hold of a “Barter,” (see Glossary,) and sent the
ball from “Spanish Poplar,” right over Meads wall by “Log pond;” or
when Cocky, from the centre of “Turf,” landed one well into the
middle of Commoners! They used to hit hard in those days with a
bat, as well as with a ground ash. How blasé one gets now-a-days!
Oh for a quarter of an hour of genuine boy’s enthusiasm!
Meads is always a pleasant spot to me. I played in a match there
not long ago against the garrison; but, alas! where was the fire that
used to burn within me! I got one run the first innings, and was
bowled out first ball by a slow underhand “Lob” (tice) the second;
and when I attempted to throw up the ball, it went ten yards wide of
the wicket, my arm nearly out of its socket, and I felt the pain in it
for a week after. But I am glad I got out soon, for I strolled round
the old place, and inspected all the well remembered nooks and
corners; and the stones in the wall so carefully smoothed and neatly
carved with the names of past heroes. Happy he who, on his return
in after life, can find his unscarred; a sure sign that he had left a
respected name behind him. There was Amen Corner still
unchanged; I could even discern faint traces of
“S̄ alvĕ D̆ i|vā P̄ o|tens”
that we chalked up years ago in honour of “Young Sadnose’s”
powers of scanning. Log pond, with its Champions, still exists, but
much shorn in its dimensions, and a row of trees planted in front.
“Non Licet gate’s” hinges looked as rusty as ever, (it was supposed
only to be opened when a boy was to be expelled.) Spanish Poplar
was gone,—blown down by a gale. How well I remember, when a
small boy twelve years old, on my first appearance in Meads, seeing
“Long John” and ten other men pulling at a condemned limb which
was half sawn through, when the rope suddenly snapped, and they
all in an instant subsided on their backs in the middle of Turf; how I
rolled with delight at the scene! Since then I have often rolled with
delight, as well as from other sensations, in the old green Meads;
one had one’s trials and difficulties, yet, on the whole, I doubt if I
have ever been much happier.
About two acres in the centre of Meads was slightly raised above
the rest on a chalk foundation, and covered with turf, which was
most carefully kept, and constantly rolled, and in winter fenced all
round. This, which was called par excellence “Turf,” was kept sacred
for the use of the Præfects and the first eleven, (called Senior
Match;) except two corners, which were allotted to Middle and
Junior Match,—the former consisting of the second eleven and
Senior part, and the latter of the third eleven.
But I must now proceed to Football, a game I like (or rather, used
to like) far more than cricket. The reason is simple; I was a tolerably
good hand at the former, and rather a muff at the latter. Of all the
games of football that I have seen, I think none can compare in
interest to the Winchester “Six and Six.”[8] I hate the crowded
games of twenty or thirty a-side, where for one kick at the ball you
receive a dozen on your shins. In “Six and Six” your powers of pluck,
endurance, strength, and speed are constantly called into play; it is
not all weight and hustling, but speed and scientific kicking, that win
the day. Kicking the ball up into the air was considered very bad
play, except when the ball had been previously caught before it had
touched the ground, when it was allowed, i.e., if the kicker could get
the chance, before one of the other side was down upon him.
Our costume consisted of a jersey, flannel trousers, “Beeswaxers,”
(lace-up boots,) or “High-lows,” (low shoes,) with two or three pairs
of “Worsteders,” (thick worsted stockings,) the feet of all but one
pair being cut off.
Every day, during middle school, the two senior Præfects who
intended to play made out the “Roll” (list) of the side,—one was
headed “Ad Rubrum Murum” (which meant that that side was to kick
towards Sick-house wall,) and the other “Ad Foricam,” (vice versâ.)
But Football wasn’t all beer and skittles to the Fags. There was an
institution called “Kicking in,” which, while it lasted, was much worse
than watching out at cricket, although it had the very great merit of
not continuing so long; for even on a whole holiday we seldom had
more than two hours of it. It was managed as follows:—The ground
for the game was marked out by two rows of Juniors, who were
obliged to keep exactly in line and prevent the ball from passing
outside them, or if it did, to put it back again. Midway between each
of the two ends of the line was stationed another boy, as umpire,
(“Goal,” he was called,) who stood with his legs wide apart, and a
gown rolled up at each foot: if the ball was kicked directly over his
head, or between his legs, without his touching it, it was a “Goal,”
and scored three for the party that kicked it; if directly over one of
the gowns at his feet (a “Gowner”) which counted two; or if it
passed between either of the gowns and the last boy of the line on
that side, (a “Schitt,”) one.
We used also to play large games, occasionally with twenty-two a-
side, which I did not much admire. The biggest boy on each side
stood opposite to each other, the remainder pressing up close round,
with their heads and bodies down in a compact mass; then, just to
encourage them, the captain would drop his great fist on their
backs, with a mild injunction; and the ball being deposited in the
middle, the struggle began. This was called a “Hot,” a very
appropriate appellation. After surging tumultuously about for a time,
some boy would emerge from the mass with the ball before him,
when it would be kicked about a little, till it got out of the line, when
another “Hot” would be formed, and so on.[9] We used to have
annual matches with Commoners, six a-side, and also with twenty-
two; one of the proudest moments of my life was when I was first
unexpectedly told that I was to play in “Six and Six.”
The Juniors did not get much fun out of the regular games, as
their part consisted solely in kicking-in the ball, and receiving divers
kicks and “clows” in return for their vigilance; in the afternoons on
holidays, however, they used to get a kick at a ball on their own
account, as there was a kind of perpetual scratch game, without
chosen sides, going on; this was called “SS and Trees,” from two
trees being the goal at one end, and two iron clamps in the shape of
two SS fastened in the wall at the other.
Football at Oxford, (where Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Westminster,
Rugby, and various “T’other Schoolmen,” i.e., those who had not
been at a public school, used to play together, each with different
rules,) occasionally gave rise to some amusing incidents. On one
occasion I saw a Rugby man catch the ball, and, with a complacent
smile, was then taking a little run to give impetus to his intended
kick off, when Podder, hot from Winchester, darted out, and with one
dexterous turn of his leg, laid the Rugbean flat on the ground, and
before he could scoop the mud out of his mouth, and compose
himself to articulate ejaculation, Podder had carried the ball to the
other end of the ground. It subsequently appeared that by Rugby
rules no one was allowed to interfere in such a case, whereas at
Winchester he who had caught the ball might kick if he could, and if
any one ran at him to interfere, he might then run away.
Football, though a splendid game for boys, does not do in after
life, as it requires constant practice both in running and the art of
kicking. About three years after I left, I was passing through
Winchester, and went down to College to play football, expecting to
enjoy myself immensely, and to explain to the degenerate
youngsters how football used to be played in our time. The first fair
kick I got at the ball I missed it altogether, and nearly kicked my
own leg out of its socket; the second time, remembering my
previous failure, and determining to be more careful, I buried my
toes in the ground, just short of the ball, which never moved, while
my ancle nearly snapped across with the shock; the third time I
kicked well into the back of the tendon achillis of my other leg, and
was carried off howling. Since then I have confined myself to looking
on at football.
Fives we used to play against the back of school, which formed a
spacious “Ball Court.” The bat used is, I believe, peculiar to
Winchester; it was about two feet and a half in length, the part with
which the ball was struck expanding to about the size of a small
lady’s hand, and immediately above it the wood was planed thin,
thus forming a powerful spring. With this instrument the ball could
be driven with great force; and I have known it used for other
purposes, for which it was very effectual, though not very agreeable
to one of the parties in that game. One boy, I remember, kept a bat
which he consecrated solely to this amusement, and to the back of it
he had nailed a donkey-shoe, which gave great weight to his
arguments. The balls used were small, about the size of a large
grape-shot, and cost sixpence a piece, which made the game an
expensive one; as, if the ball passed to the right or to the left of the
school wall against which we played, it vanished altogether from our
ken,—if it went to the left it went into Long-meads or Commoners,
and if to the right into Cloisters. We could, however, generally
purchase back at half-price from Long John about one quarter of
those lost. Long John was the College mason, who was always
wandering about with a satellite looking for something to do, but
beyond occasionally scratching a brick, I scarcely ever saw him
doing anything like work. If asked what he was doing, he always
said, “Nothin’, sir;” at which occupation the satellite was a most
efficient coadjutor.
The Winchester “Bat-fives” was amusing enough when played in a
promiscuous way, but not, I think, a really good game, as it was too
difficult. I have scarcely ever seen even the best players return the
ball more than three or four times. The Fag’s share of the game was
to stand round the edge of the court and pick up the balls as they
rolled off; it was not nearly such hard work as watching-out at
cricket, or kicking-in at football, and the work being easy it did not
entail so much punishment; but it was far from pleasant, owing to
the blinding glare from the white concrete of which the floor was
made. Mr Ridding, formerly second Master, has most liberally built
some excellent racket courts, in what used to be “Long Meads,” but
is now thrown into “Meads,” to the great advantage of the boys.
A long red brick wall ran across Meads on the west side, in which
there was a door that led to “Sick-house,” situated in a field called
“Sick-house Meads.” It was presided over by a worthy old matron
named “Mother Maskell.” Her kind face is no longer there to soothe
the invalid; and I hope, for the sake of the boys, that her successor
inherits, with her other good qualities, her receipt for gooseberry
fool. How we used to scent it from afar; and the moment a fresh
brew was ready, what a rush to Sick-house! How we slid over the
gate, which formed no barrier in such a case! There were two kinds,
“Husky” and “Non-husky;” the former was decidedly the favourite,
and the consumption was really alarming. Notwithstanding this there
were few of us ill in those times, and one half of the number
“Continent” were generally “Shuffling,” and the other laid-up with
wounds received in athletic exercises. One boy, I remember, broke
his arm three times in one year; the last time, the Master under
whom he was made him write out all the lessons that he would have
had to do if he had been in school, suggesting that he had broken
his arm on purpose to escape them. Certainly being “Continent” was
an agreeable change for a Fag, as he had no lessons to do, and
escaped all fagging, except from such Præfects as happened to be
Continent also, and he also got a “Thoke” in the morning till nine
o’clock. When a boy was really ill he slept at Sick-house. I only
remember doing so on one occasion myself, and that was when I
caught the measles in the remarkable way above mentioned, (vide
p. 127.) This was a very jolly period. I had them very slightly, and
there were four of us in a room together—Rasper, Badger, Bumpus,
and myself, and I was then, for the first time, initiated in the
mysteries of the science of Whist; one of us, who was the least
unwell, used to deal and collect the cards, which we threw into the
middle of the room as we played.
As I mentioned before, when a boy felt ill, or inclined to quit
school for a period, he had to get leave Continent,[10] which was
done by sending a boy in the morning first to get leave from his
tutor, and then from the Head Master; and when he returned to his
school duties he was said to “come abroad.”
During Long half all the unoccupied rooms in Sick-house were
occupied by the senior Præfects as private studies; and each of
them chose a boy as a “Reader,” whose nominal office was to read
aloud the “English” of any Greek or Latin author his master might be
studying. This was a much coveted appointment, as the fortunate
possessor was exempt from all fagging.
There was another field between Sick-house Meads and
Commoners belonging to College, called “Long Meads,” which, to the
best of my belief, was only used to feed the Fellows’ cows. This is
now thrown into Meads; and if Sick-house Meads could also be
added, what a magnificent playground it would make!
It has been, I believe, often suggested that the boys at
Winchester were not allowed sufficient exercise in the open air. I do
not think there was any ground for this complaint as regards the
College boys at any rate, who were sent at least three times a week
to the top of Hills, besides having Meads close at hand during all
play hours. Commoners were not so well off, as they only had one
hour on school-days to breathe fresh air, in which time they had to
walk half a mile out and back to the indifferent field forming their
gymnasium; doubtless they now have access to Meads.
 CHAPTER XI.
THE JUNIOR ON HILLS.

On—Mizmaze—The Badger—Swimming Lessons—Practical

Jokes—Trial for Assault—Town and Gown Row.
Soon after morning chapel on a Holiday or Remedy all the boys
assembled at “Gates”—i.e., in seventh chamber passage—each boy
choosing a “Socius,” or companion, as in marching “on to Hills” we
always walked two and two, College first, and Commoners after. At
the word “On” from the Præfect of Hall we started off at a quick
pace, the Præfects walking on the road, the rest on the footpath.
The former had the privilege of calling “off” an Inferior to walk with
them, as they were allowed to range the country; whereas the
others were confined to the top of St Catherine’s Hill. On we went,
the small College boys at a sharp trot to keep up with the long steps
of the bigger ones in front, and urged on by the Commoners behind,
round the corner of Warden’s garden, where some boy would duck
under the rails, and dart off to Bungy’s for strawberries and cream,
or sausages, according to the season, taking his chance of another
and very different kind of refreshment if caught in the fact; then
over Blackbridge, past “Commoner’s field” and “Domum tree,” over
the three stepping-stiles (to be able to jump which, both going and
returning, was a great object of ambition to an enterprising Junior)
to Tunbridge, where (if names were not to be called at the top of
Hills) the Præfects and their “Teejays” went off on their own devices,
and the rest up the steep ascent of St Catherine’s Hill. Here the
latter amused themselves by playing cricket, rounders, or football,
according to the time of the year or state of the weather, plying the
“Mousedigger” (a kind of diminutive pickaxe) in search of mice, or
threading the intricacies of “Mizmaze,” a labyrinth supposed to have
been cut in the turf by the author of “Domum” during the holidays,
when he was forced to remain in Winchester instead of going home.
The legend further declares that he cut the verses of Domum on the
bark of the tree which still bears the name, and then committed
suicide. By and by the voices of the three Juniors calling Domum,
(two of whom had to make the circuit of “Trench,” and the other
cross the summit of Hills,) warned them that it was time to go “on,”
when, at a signal from the Præfect of Hall below, we rushed down to
Tunbridge, and were marshalled on our way home. If violent rain
came on, these proceedings were dispensed with, and we were
allowed to find our way home as fast as we could; this was called
“Skirmishing on.”
Such was the usual routine of the Inferiors on hills; but the
Præfects and their Teejays had a more lively time of it. For them
there were ducks and green peas at Twyford, bathing in “Pot,” (if
summer time,) a foray on the young rooks, chariot races, and, last
and greatest, the chase of the immortal badger. If one can’t follow a
fox on horseback, one may do worse than follow a badger on foot—
that is, if one’s lungs and legs are in as good condition as ours used
to be in those days. At some appointed meet, “Turner,” the badger
provider, clad in a rusty velveteen shooting jacket, with a cur or two
at his heels, and the noble animal in a sack, used to meet us. On the
mouth of the sack being opened, away went badger at a steady
enduring pace across the downs. He did not run extremely fast, but
then he could go for ever. His strong point was going up a steep hill,
when he could beat the fastest runner; going down hill he was not
so brilliant. We generally gave him one hundred yards start before
we followed, Turner bringing up the rear with the dogs in couples.
Sometimes, instead of crossing the downs, he would make for the
water meadows, and then the runs were more exciting as he took to
the water like an otter; and as with the old and new barge river and
mill streams, there were several pieces of water of some breadth
and depth to pass, our swimming as well as running powers were
called into play. When we had had enough, the dogs were let loose
and the badger stopped. Turner’s excitement at this moment lest his
badger or dogs should receive any injuries was intense, and indeed
with some reason, as a badger and dog, locked in an embrace,
require great persuasion to make them forego their hold. He used to
throw himself on the combatants, and eagerly exhort some of those
up to “lay hould of his tail,” while he himself would chew away at
that of the badger or of any dog that would not quit his gripe. The
badger being extricated from the dogs, or the dogs from the badger,
as the case might be, he was returned to the quiet of his sack again
till the next morning Hills.
These morning exercises produced considerable appetite. Before
starting for Hills we used generally to indulge in a pint of coffee and
two pennyworth of biscuits from Lacroix’s; then we not unfrequently
ran to Twyford as hard as we could put legs to the ground to regale
on ducks and green peas; which finished, we would just have
sufficient leisure to run back to College in time for the regulation
breakfast, eked out with fried potatoes, kidneys, sausages, &c. &c.
The time most looked forward to by the Juniors was “Long
Meads”—i.e., that time in summer when Toy-time was dispensed
with—and we went every evening (and on holidays in the afternoon
also) on to Hills, or rather to “Underhills,” as we did not go up St
Catherine’s Hill, but ranged the meadows below. On such evenings
the Fag who was unable to swim would have his education
completed in that respect. The method of instruction was well
calculated for the end in view, but not, strictly speaking, agreeable
to the pupil. The course was much in this way:—Four boys would
take the tyro, one by each arm and leg, and, with “once, twice,
thrice, and away,” send him flying into the middle of “Pot”—i.e., a
lock full of water. On emerging half choked, he would be supported
for an instant by one or two other boys already in the water, and
then, by an energetic pressure on the shoulders with their hands,
followed up by a kick when he had descended to their feet, he would
be sent to investigate the pebbles at the bottom. A few evenings of
this generally gave the victim a notion of how to support himself in
the water. An Inferior was not allowed to bathe in Pot till he could
prove his swimming powers by swimming from Tunbridge to Pot, a
distance of about a quarter of a mile. The other favourite bathing
places were “Milk Hole,” immediately below Pot; and Tunbridge—i.e.,
that part of the river near the bridge of that name. In the latter
place I remember seeing some practical jokes played that were
nearly proving serious. In one case, a new boy, somewhat taller and
bigger than the average, and a good swimmer, when going to bathe
in Tunbridge for the first time, asked if it was deep enough for a
header. On being told that it was, he took a run and jumped in, and
(the water being low at the time, and even when full not more than
four feet and a half deep) cut himself severely about the face and
chest. On another occasion, one boy pushed another into the river,
clothes and all, close to the open hatch, through which the water
was rushing furiously; he was carried through a ten-foot brick
tunnel, and rolled out on the stones below; providentially he was not
much hurt. Another practical joke, of which Tunbridge was the
theatre, was a more meritorious proceeding than those previously
described. There was a ruffian who was always lurking about trying
to sell spirits to the small boys. He had often been threatened with
condign punishment if caught. At last he was taken in the fact, and
summarily punished, by being thrown into Tunbridge. He was a tall
man, and the water, when he recovered his legs, did not come
higher than his waist; but that by no means prevented his swearing
at the trial that subsequently took place at Quarter Sessions, that it
was out of his depth, and he was nearly drowned. On his cross
examination, when asked how he got out, he admitted that he
walked out. This trial created a great excitement, not only in College,
but in the town, and the court was besieged by an excited mob, who
were frantic at the treatment that their brother had received from
the bloated little aristocrats. I am sorry to say that they triumphed,
as the magistrates fined the boys who were summoned £10 a head,
which was immediately paid by the College authorities; and it was
rather a general opinion at the time, that if the mob about the court
doors had not been so clamorous, the fine would have been
somewhat less,—even if the summons had not been dismissed
altogether.
 I forget whether it was specially the result of this little incident, or
whether it was the casual development of a chronic irritation
between the boys and the “Snobs,” that produced a somewhat
serious town and gown row during my residence at Winchester.[11]
There had been mutterings of a coming storm for some time typified
by occasional sets-to between some individual boys and snobs, and
forays by the latter on the clothes or towels of solitary small bathers.
The town party chose their time for a demonstration with peculiar
prudence. They waited till Commoners had gone, which they did on
the Saturday before Election week. On the Monday following, the
boys (now reduced in number to seventy, of whom at least twenty
remained in College preparing for the coming examination) went on
to Hills. They had not been there long before it became known that
there was a gathering of the enemy at Twyford; and expresses being
sent back to College that “Snobs were on,” and for the reserve to
come up, we took the initiative, and went to Twyford to anticipate
the attack. We hadn’t long to wait, and there was some very pretty
fighting both in the way of general skirmishes and individual mills.
We got the best of it; and some of the bigger boys, elated with
success, determined to push up to the stronghold of the enemy in
the town. I was much too small for this part of the campaign, and,
with the other little boys, retired behind the breastworks of College,
where, by the by, we arrived very considerably later than the
regulation hour. I have heard heart-stirring accounts of the heroic
deeds of the heavy brigade, but not having been present I cannot
particularly describe them. I believe that they carried on the attack
bravely in the town for some time till overcome by numbers. The
boys retreated to a path which leads out of High Street down by the
river side to College, at the head of which (where there were two
posts to prevent carts passing) they took their stand, and for a
considerable time held their own gallantly. But at last they were
obliged to break and fly, making good their retreat into College,
however, without anything like serious damage. On numbering their
forces, one boy was found missing, and grave apprehension was
entertained for his safety, which, however, was soon dissipated by
his unexpected appearance from the Warden’s house. In the flight
he had tripped and fallen into Bungy’s ditch, where he wisely lay
quiet till the throng of pursuers had rushed past, when he gently
strolled towards College, and opportunely meeting with a well-
known barrister who was taking his evening’s walk, he got him to
give him a lift over the wall of Warden’s garden, and was safe.
 CHAPTER XII.
THE JUNIOR ON LEAVE OUT.

Saints’ Days—Early Leave Out—Poaching—Rowing—A Dinner

—Sunday Leave Out.
Thoroughly to realise the merits of the holy men of old, one should
have been at a public school; nobody ever welcomed the recurrence
of their anniversaries with more sincere joy than a Junior at
Winchester, always supposing that he had friends in the town or
neighbourhood who would invite him to visit them on such
occasions, otherwise the advantages, as hinted at above, were more
than doubtful. If invited by friends in the neighbourhood, we were
allowed “Early leave out,” i.e., from immediately after morning
chapel; or if by friends in the town, from one o’clock; in both cases
we had to be back for evening chapel, at a quarter before nine. I
was fortunate enough to have hospitable friends, and a Saint’s-day
seldom failed to be a day of rejoicing to me.
If we had early leave out we used generally to hire a “four-
wheeler” from Watt’s of the Blue Boar, and gallop out to our
destination, arriving probably before the family were up; and the
breakfasts we used to devour on these occasions must have caused
our kind entertainers to rejoice that Saints’ days did not occur every
day of the week.
We frequently spent our days in fishing or shooting, according to
the season of the year, varied with skating, boating, rifle practice in
a chalk pit, &c., &c. Our shooting expeditions were generally
undertaken without leave from any proprietor, but I have not much
on my conscience as regards the amount of our depredations. The
best bag that we ever made was, to the best of my recollection, one
hare, two rats, a swallow, and fifteen larks. On that memorable day
we quietly walked into a preserve four abreast, and blazed away,
without doing the least harm, (except to one most unfortunate hare,
that would sit still,) until a keeper appeared. I immediately bolted,
shouting to my companions to separate and do the same; instead of
doing so, however, they followed me in Indian file, and we were
ultimately run to ground in a chalk pit. Our pursuer had no roof to
his mouth; and between that, recent beer, rage, and exhaustion
from the pace he had come, his speech was perhaps slightly
incoherent. I offered him a cigar, but he was not amenable to
reason, and we ultimately left him in the chalk pit gnashing his
teeth.
This was not our last interview with this gentleman, but on the
second occasion our intentions were innocent; we were walking
through this same plantation, without guns, or any notion of game,
when we espied a hare lying dead under a tree; on closer inspection
it proved to be caught in a wire; we held an inquest on the body,
and the unanimous opinion being that a post-mortem examination
was necessary, and that that would more conveniently be entered
upon at home, it was forthwith tucked up in one of our gowns; but,
lo! scarcely had this been accomplished when, in the tree
immediately above that under which the corpse had been lying, we
heard a cracking of twigs, and before we could fully realise the state
of things, our friend without a palate lay on his back in the midst of
us. As he had heard all the particulars of the inquest, he must have
known that we were not the murderers, but on our representing this
to him, he very sagely remarked, that he had been up in the tree for
six hours, and that he was quite contented with having secured us,
and had not the slightest intention of mounting guard again for the
chance of discovering the real offenders. We had a long argument
with him, but he failed to see the thing in the proper light, and we
with some difficulty succeeded in compromising the affair for a half-
sovereign.
Popjoy was not contented with a little poaching in the shooting
line, but used also occasionally to indulge his fishing propensities
without going through the preliminary form of requesting leave. He
one day had recourse to a stratagem to indulge in his favourite
pursuit that for brazen impudence beats anything of the kind I ever
heard of. He drove over to Avington, and commenced fishing in the
Duke of Buckingham’s best water. Of course he hadn’t been there
half an hour before the keeper appeared, saying—
“You mustn’t fish here, sir.”
Popjoy. “I have the Duke’s leave; please stand back, you disturb
the fish.”
K. “What’s your name.”
P. “Popjoy.”
K. “Don’t know that name, and you must be off.”
“Wont you believe the Duke’s own handwriting,” rejoined the
undaunted Popjoy, handing him a letter received that morning from
his affectionate mamma.
The keeper twisted the mysterious document about in his hands
for a little, and returned it to the owner with a grunt. Popjoy then
proceeded to extract from him all possible information about flies,
the haunts of the fish, &c., &c., and had a particularly good day’s
sport.
Another great resource on Leave-out days was a row on the river
in one of Etheridge’s boats,—they were rather sorry tubs, but we
managed to extract amusement out of them; if, in this particular
line, “militavi non sine gloriâ,” I can’t say that my Winchester
education had much to do with it. However, the most consummate
master of the art of rowing that ever adorned Oxford always
preferred to take raw hands and teach them to pull, to Eton or
Westminster men, who came up to Oxford fancying themselves
perfect already; and I am proud to say that among the immortal
Seven of Henley there were two Wykehamists.
I am indebted to the liberal hospitality of an esteemed relative for
many very pleasant days, and especially for one, which was perhaps
the jolliest I spent during the whole time I was at Winchester I
received a letter from him one morning, informing me that on a
given day he would pass through Winchester, and requesting me to
furnish him with a list of boys to ask to dinner; accordingly I selected
half a dozen, and we got leave out for the afternoon. He only
stopped to change horses, (it was in the posting days,) and on his
departure he told the landlord of the George to provide us with the
best dinner he could, gave me a five-pound note, and a “tip” for all
my friends. That was a specimen of the tip royal; how fervently we
blessed him, and what a jolly dinner we had!
Every alternate Sunday also we were allowed to spend the
afternoon with friends in the town, if invited, but we had to be back
for five o’clock chapel. Happy were those boys who were so
fortunate as I was in being acquainted with Mr Sissmore, the
patriarch of the College fellows, whose hospitable board was always
surrounded on these days by a circle of boys, whom he used to
amuse with stories of the pranks of their ancestors, as he
remembered many of their grandfathers when little boys at school.
 CHAPTER XIII.
THE JUNIOR IN STANDING-UP WEEK.

Standing-up—Commoners—Pealing.
The last two weeks of the Long-half, which ended about the middle
of July, were called respectively “Standing-up” and “Election-week.”
The former was rather a time of trial for the Juniors, the latter for
the Præfects and Senior part.
Standing-up is an institution peculiar to Winchester, I believe.
During the whole of the proceeding year all the boys below Senior
part were expected to learn a number of lines by heart; there was a
minimum limit assigned to each part, but any boy was allowed to
take up as many as he chose,—more than ten thousand have been
said by one boy. We were allowed to take up Greek prose, one line
of which counted for five of Virgil, and one of Latin prose or Greek
verse for two; Horace’s Odes, three for two. These lines had to be
said in eight lessons; and the marks given had a very decided effect
on the relative position of the boys, as it very often happened that
the boy who at the beginning of the week was well ahead of the
others in his part, when Standing-up was over found himself
nowhere, and vice versâ. Every boy had to provide himself with a
“Standing-up paper,” which was divided by lines into eight partitions,
in each of which he wrote out a description of one lesson, and as
each was said to the Master, he signed his name at the bottom, with
a particular mark to define the style of the performance, both as
regards the construing and repetition. These marks were as follows:
—For supreme excellence, “Quam optimè;” for great merit,
“Optimè;” for a tolerably good performance, “Benè;” for an
indifferent one, “Mediocriter;” for failure, “Malè.” A certain number
was added to each boy’s account in the Classicus paper for each
lesson, calculated according to the number of lines and the marks
obtained; but a “Malè” precluded him from having any score for that
lesson. There were no other lessons during this week, and it was a
time of great excitement.
I remember one boy having an inflammation of the eyes just
before Standing-up week; to his great disgust it was getting rapidly
well, and knowing that if it was allowed to continue improving he
would be called on to say his eight lessons, of which he knew but
little, he held his eyes to a key-hole, through which there was a
strong draught, and then administered a pinch of snuff to them. The
plan succeeded; he certainly had no Standing-up to read over, or
anything else for a long time; and if he ever recovered his sight it
was more than his friends expected, or he perhaps deserved.
When I was at Winchester there were twin brothers who were so
exactly alike that if they themselves knew which was which it was
more than any one else did. On one occasion they turned this
likeness to account in a very ingenious manner. They were both in
the same Part, and both took up [in one lesson at any rate] the
same Standing-up. One of them, who knew his tolerably well, went
to the Master and got through successfully; on going out he met his
brother, who was just going to say his, in great trepidation, as he
was not prepared; however, a bright idea struck the more fortunate
brother, he changed his neck-cloth, tousled his hair, put a bit of
sticking-plaster on his nose, went back, and said his lesson a second
time, on his brother’s account, with great éclat.
When Standing-up was over the Commoners went home, as their
Præfects and Senior-part had nothing to do with the examination in
Election week, which was solely for competition for scholarships at
New College, which were not then open to them. This leads me to
mention some peculiar solemnities which took place in Commoners
towards the end of the half. About six weeks before that happy
period, for three consecutive Fridays, a victim was chosen who had
made himself unpopular in the school, and immediately after
breakfast he had to mount on the Toys (which were in the dining-
hall) and quietly submit to be pelted with Pontos, (balls made of hot
bread,) the ceremony being commenced and ended with chaunting a
“Peal,” which was, on the first Friday, “Locks and Keys;” on the
second, “Boots and Leathers;” and on the third, “Gomer Hats.” The
senior Præfects appointed the sacrifice the first day, the junior the
second, and the Coursekeeper the third.
Immediately after dinner on the last three Sundays, Commoners
exercised their lungs with the following peals: On the first “Party
Rolls,” after which the senior Præfect made out a list of the routes to
be taken by the different boys; on the second, “Money and Direction
Rolls,” when each boy had to write on a piece of paper his
governor’s address, and the amount of journey-money he required;
and on the last “Packing up.”
 CHAPTER XIV.
THE JUNIOR IN ELECTION WEEK.

“Ad Portas”—“Electors”—“Candlesticks”—“Founders”—
Examinations—“Superannuates”—Medal Speaking—
Election Dinners—Effects of Eating Ice when Hot—
Resignation—“Domum”—“Ball”—“Jam
Lucis”—“Batlings”—Last Breakfast.
The last week of the Long half, or “Election week,” was indeed a
“Jubilee” for the Fags, inasmuch as there were no lessons whatever,
and the Præfects were either undergoing their examination or
preparing for it, and consequently too busy to play cricket to any
great extent.
On Tuesday, the Warden of New College and the other electors
were received at Middle Gate by the boys, headed by the Præfect of
Hall, who addressed them with a Latin oration (“Ad Portas.”) The
Electors were the Warden and two fellows of New College, (called
“Posers,”) with the Warden, Sub-warden, and Head Master of
Winchester. Each of these had in turn the privilege of nominating a
boy for admission into Winchester till all vacancies were filled, of
which there were generally about twelve, but always many more
“Candidates,” (or “Candlesticks,” as they were often called.) Two
fortunate individuals were selected by vote from among such of the
candidates as could prove their descent from the Founder, and were
placed at the head of the list, and got the first two vacancies. They
were called Founders, and had several privileges, the principal of
which was, that two of them were always brought up to the head of
the roll at every election for the first two vacancies at New College;
they were also not obliged to leave (“to be superannuated”) at the
age of eighteen, as all the others were. I have known several cases
of Founders remaining till they were past twenty, and one in
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