Many of the facts in the following account of commons prior to, and immediately succeeding, the year 1800, have been furnished by Mr. Royal Morse of Cambridge.

The hall where the students took their meals was usually provided with ten tables; at each table were placed two messes, and each mess consisted of eight persons.  The tables where the Tutors and Seniors sat were raised eighteen or twenty inches, so as to overlook the rest.  It was the duty of one of the Tutors or of the Librarian to “ask a blessing and return thanks,” and in their absence, the duty devolved on “the senior graduate or undergraduate.”  The waiters were students, chosen from the different classes, and receiving for their services suitable compensation.  Each table was waited on by members of the class which occupied it, with the exception of the Tutor’s table, at which members of the Senior Class served.  Unlike the sizars and servitors at the English universities, the waiters were usually much respected, and were in many cases the best scholars in their respective classes.

The breakfast consisted of a specified quantity of coffee, a size of baker’s biscuit, which was one biscuit, and a size of butter, which was about an ounce.  If any one wished for more than was provided, he was obliged to size it, i.e. order from the kitchen or buttery, and this was charged as extra commons or sizings in the quarter-bill.

At dinner, every mess was served with eight pounds of meat, allowing a pound to each person.  On Monday and Thursday the meat was boiled; these days were on this account commonly called “boiling days.”  On the other days the meat was roasted; these were accordingly named “roasting days.”  Two potatoes were allowed to each person, which he was obliged to pare for himself.  On boiling days, pudding and cabbage were added to the bill of fare, and in their season, greens, either dandelion or the wild pea.  Of bread, a size was the usual quantity apiece, at dinner.  Cider was the common beverage, of which there was no stated allowance, but each could drink as much as he chose.  It was brought, on in pewter quart cans, two to a mess, out of which they drank, passing them from mouth to mouth like the English wassail-bowl.  The waiters replenished them as soon as they were emptied.

No regular supper was provided, but a bowl of milk, and a size of bread procured at the kitchen, supplied the place of the evening meal.

Respecting the arrangement of the students at table, before referred to, Professor Sidney Willard remarks:  “The intercourse among students at meals was not casual or promiscuous.  Generally, the students of the same class formed themselves into messes, as they were called, consisting each of eight members; and the length of one table was sufficient to seat two messes.  A mess was a voluntary association of those who liked each other’s company; and