BARRING-OUT. n. Tradition where schoolboys staged sit-ins to extend Autumn break. In 1595 the principal of the Royal High School Edinburgh, Hercules Rollock let boys go too far and had to get in the police. A battering ram was used and a student shot a baillie through the forehead.
And we can all agree that Hercules Rollock is an excellent name.
Walter Scott was apparently an expert on this page of the school’s history.
