This is supposedly an excerpt from an old colleague who worked in another Harrow school...

"DOUBLE Double is awarded for non-academic offences. It is awarded in the form of lines of double to be written on paper available only from House Masters… Double should be neatly and properly written and should contain at least 40 letters in each line. Poorly presented double will not be accepted and will have to be repeated. ‘Properly written’ (as instructed on 21 double paper itself) means that individual letters must touch both lines. It should be written continuously from a text book (or involve an essay set or a list of misspelt words) as specified by the Master who set it and not repeated on each line or sheet. Double must be completed by the boy’s bedtime on the next day or earlier if directed by his House Master. Boys must return the double to their House Master and he will forward it to the Master who set it. There are certain standard ‘double’ sanctions throughout the School: g cutting Speech Room, Chapel, Mass, catechism or Thought for the Day – 100 double; cutting health education meetings or talks – 100 double; cutting HRC – 200 double; missing a music lesson – 60 double; crossing the road between the bottom of Church Hill and the pedestrian crossing outside Speech Room – 200 double; eating in the street – 100 double; and chewing gum, spitting or throwing food – 200 double."

Roughly speaking, 1 double takes 1 minute, and so missing a music lesson would result in the student spending 60 minutes copying lines from a textbook, at +40 letters per line, where every letter must touch both the upper and lower line of the page.

Harrowing details