Eton Montem 'Floreat Etona!' he unfurls, and thrice waves the consecrated standard." Eton Montem Eton Montem (or "ad Montem" – literally "to the Mountain") was a custom observed by Eton College from at least 1561 until it was finally suppressed in 1847, at the Montem Mound (or Salt Hill) in Chalvey, Slough, Buckinghamshire (later Berkshire). The mound is situated some 2 miles from the college near the London to Bath coach road, now the A4. Montem is first reported in William Malim's "consuetudinarium" (book of customs) of 1561, when it seems to have been an initiation ceremony for new boys, who were
Eton Montem In 1791, Arthur Atherley, later Member of Parliament for Southampton, had his portrait painted whilst at Eton College by Sir Thomas Lawrence – this portrait now hangs in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The portrait show Atherley in the uniform of captain of the Ad Montem club. In a novel interpretation of the ceremony the early 20th century neo-druidic writer E.O.Gordon suggested that the Montem was one of several ceremonies with pagan origins that the college founder Henry VI stipulated should be followed at Eton. Gordon cites college statutes for the celebration of May Day and the autumnal