necessary for a student was there sold, and articles used in the
play-grounds, as bats, balls, &c.; and, in general, a petty trade
with small profits was carried on in stationery and other matters,
--in things innocent or suitable for the young customers, and in
some things, perhaps, which were not. The Butler had a small
salary, and was allowed the service of a Freshman in the Buttery,
who was also employed to ring the college bell for prayers,
lectures, and recitations, and take some oversight of the public
rooms under the Butler's directions. The Buttery was also the
office of record of the names of undergraduates, and of the rooms
assigned to them in the college buildings; of the dates of
temporary leave of absence given to individuals, and of their
return; and of fines inflicted by the immediate government for
negligence or minor offences. The office was dropped or abolished
in the first year of the present century, I believe, long after it
ceased to be of use for most of its primary purposes. The area
before the entry doors of the Buttery had become a sort of
students' exchange for idle gossip, if nothing worse. The rooms
were now redeemed from traffic, and devoted to places of study,
and other provision was made for the records which had there been
kept. The last person who held the office of Butler was Joseph
Chickering, a graduate of 1799."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_,
1855, Vol. I. pp. 31, 32.

President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse pronounced before
the Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850, makes the
following remarks on this subject: "The original motives for
setting up a buttery in colleges seem to have been, to put the
trade in articles which appealed to the appetite into safe hands;
to ascertain how far students were expensive in their habits, and