 It is also sung at Abingdon School, Twyford School and Stamford School under similar circumstances, and was popular among 19th-century English public schoolboys.For example, it is mentioned in the early chapters of "Tom Brown's School Days".Paradoxically, although the subject of the song is the joy of breaking from the school grind and returning home for the holidays, it is often taken as symbolising the idyllic, nostalgic view of English public school life in the 19th century.