Laudator Temporis Acti

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), Scoop, Book II, Chapter 1:

Mr. Pappenhacker of the Twopence was playing with a toy train — a relic of College at Winchester, with which he invariably travelled. In his youth he had delighted to address it in Latin Alcaics and to derive Greek names for each part of the mechanism. Now it acted as a sedative to his restless mind.

John Simpson, We Chose to Speak of War and Strife: The World of the Foreign Correspondent (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016), page number unknown:

There was no doubt which newspaper Waugh meant: only The Times cost twopence, and the name Waugh gave its correspondent in his version of Abyssinia was dipped in poison too. 'Mr Pappenhacker' was based on George Lowther Steer, an English-speaking South African who had indeed been educated at Winchester and had gone on to Christ Church, Oxford. Both the school and the college were regarded at the time as being greatly superior to Waugh's school, Lancing, and his Oxford college, Hertford. These were things Waugh was inclined to take to heart.