The phrase may be translated: Either learn or depart: there remains a third fate, to be beaten. The illustrations represent the professions to which pupils should aspire: a bishop’s mitre to signify the Church, a sword to signify a military career, and an inkwell, pen and sand shaker (for absorbing wet ink) to represent administrative professions. The instrument at the bottom is the ‘bibling rod’, which was once used to beat pupils for serious offences. These beatings took place below the Aut Disce board (WCAS, 1926, p. 125).

The board is on the west wall of the College schoolroom, built in the 1680s. Facing it is a board with the rules of the College (Ao131). Similar boards must also have been a feature of the earlier schoolroom in VIIth Chamber, since they are referred to in poem by Robert Mathew, a pupil in the 1640s. The boards have been several times repainted. For example, the Bursars’ Accounts for 1808-09 record that William Cave was paid a total of £22.1.1 ½ ‘for painting the Trusty Servant and the ‘Laws etc. in School’. The present boards date from a renovation undertaken in 1952.

Provenance: Commissioned by the College

Location: School