might conceivably imply that he did not live, as the custom had been for such boys, in the Abbot's own house, but lodged in the town of Winchester and perhaps attended the College as an oppidan, or townsman.
But money is all-potent, and wealthy oppidans soon found means to elbow the aristocracy in their choicest assemblies.
The beggar whom Elia encounters... is an oppidan caricature of the old man in “Witches” who was conjured up in the demonic vision, a dark, irrational double that overwhelms and destroys innocence.