Books and Beer on Credit

But the end of my first year [at Oxford] saw me heavily in debt: so many barrels of beer, so many books, shelf upon shelf of them, which had nothing to do with work. At Blackwell’s bookshop credit seemed to a newcomer endless (though they liked a little bit sometimes on account), but drinks were ordered through the college buttery and appeared on battels, as college bills were called (there was no credit given there) [...]

Graham Greene, A Sort of Life (London: Slightly Foxed, 2010; 1971), p. 128.