subs. (Winchester College).—A small fagot used for lighting coal fires in Kitchen. So called from a servant, Bill Bright, who was living in 1830.
c. 1840. MANSFIELD, School-Life at Winchester College, 89. The Kitchen is a spacious apartment with a vaulted roof, occupying the entire height of the building on the west side of the quadrangle, and at least half its length; here we might see a few Fags endeavouring to coax Jem Sims, John Coward, Bill Bright, or mother Mariner, (the cooks,) for an extra supply of mashed potatoes, till Kitchen is cleared by the exasperated Manciple, who has just detected a delinquent in the act of secreting under his gown an armful of the small faggots used for lighting the kitchen fires, (called ‘BILL BRIGHTERS,’) an opportunity for purloining which was never allowed to slip by a Junior of a properly regulated mind.
