subs. (public schools’).—1. A candle: spec. a ‘tallow’ candle. TO TOLLY UP (Harrow) = to light candles surreptitiously after the gas has been put out. Cf. BROLLY, YOLLY, etc.
2. (Stonyhurst).—The flat instrument used in caning the hand: also TAPS. Hence TOLLY-SHOP = a Præfect’s room where corporal punishment is administered; and TOLLY-TICKET = a good conduct card, given as a reward for specially good work, which, presented when punishment is ordered, secures immunity except for too grave an offence. [This system of accumulated merit, now almost obsolete, is precisely similar to one described by Mr. Kegan Paul in his Memories as existent at Eton in the forties.]
THE TOLLY (Rugby).—See quot. and sense 1.
1900. The Athenæum, 16 June, 743. 1. The chapel rather loses by its stunted head, especially as a fine tapering spire (disrespectfully known as ‘THE TOLLY’) appears at the back of the Close.
