t games-Bell-ringing-Hearne and gymnasia-Horses and badger-baiting-Cock-fights and prize-fights-Paniotti's Fenci

e term is over. The others, the normal people, the devotees of bone and muscle, the "muddied oafs and flannelled fools"-(which is the only mistake Mr Kipling ever made)-are never ill, at least from climatic effects. They may strain something, or even break a few bones, but that cannot be put down to the Oxford weather. The best doctors on earth, or rather the best preventatives against illness-and there is a great difference-are the river, the football and hunting fields, and the boxing ring, and as we find these things to be true to-day so in old times, when wigs and ruffles were somewhat of a handicap to the taking of hard e

e Barges, emitting yards of muscular leg for all the world to view in amusement and admiration, the eighteenth-century wet-bobs went down to the river in square-or, as they called it, trencher-and gown. But Dame Hooper was old, unskittish, and trustworthy, and so they threw off their academical garb in her shed and arrayed themselves in the trousers, jackets, and caps which were then the thing. It might well be thought that these were a great hindrance to correct 'varsity swinging. But they did n

only learned two things at Oxford-to swim and to row. After

ment at the oar. Many of the smaller boats had only a single person in each; and in some of these he sat face forward, leaning back as in a chair, and plying with both hands a double-bladed oar in alternate

him down to the barges to-day to one of the "rag" regattas and show him scores of "venturous pe

hese boats belonged to the boat people; the crew was a mixed crew got up for the day, and the dresses worn anything but uniform. I belonged to a crew of five, who were,

the Cherwell Hotel are indeed the sole reasons why hordes of Undergraduates punt out there to lunch on Sundays, when they might just as easily, and far less expensively, take luncheon baske

andford nex

ovides acc

rch and brown

like his dau

ll bumpers, c

handmaid's

r mutual pra

delighted, b

erpaid and

or ribbon

r bonnet o

aid bill are features of our own time, and will remain, from generation to generation, as long as Oxford is a university, and there a

ridge we ho

y scud bef

here our co

locks and

pause; t

horse unto

uilt galley

en bears a

and; as fir

shared; hi

plies the

vessel fro

he main shee

e wind; of

wait the

foresail sh

round; or m

n gunwale

ht danger o

h her mates a

er I

Friar Bacon's

eople ... every kind of game or exercise from which danger, injury, or inconvenience might arise to other people, such as hunting of beasts with any sort of dogs, ferrets, nets or toils, also any use or carrying of muskets, cross-bows, or falchions; neither rope-danc

s, while Antony Wood, some years before, had joined with his mother and brothers in subscribing towards the foundation of the Merton bells and, as Wordsworth says, "though they were not satisfactory to the 'curious and critical hearer,' he plucked at them often with some of his fellow-collegians for recreation sake." Later on, however, this practice was generally voted boring and even vulg

tal, retired after a very few years in the business with large fortunes. G. V. Cox, the member of the crew in nankeen trousers, says that it was quite a usual thing "for a gentleman (the Oxford tradesman's designation of a member of the university) to ride a match against time to London and back again to Oxford (108 miles) in twelve hours or less with, of course, relays of horses at regular intervals. In one instance this was done in eight hours and forty-five minu

apartment by idle wits and buffoons nick-named Golgotha, i.e., the place of Sculls or Heads of Colleges and Halls where they meet and debate upon all extraordinary affairs which occur within the precincts of their jurisdiction," says that "this room of state or academical council chamber is adorn'd with a fine pourtrait of her late Majesty Que

s, and shot its lengthened gleams across the pastures and meads, which extend themselves in a long level to the north of the city, while the woody hills of Wytham, rising boldly from behind a flat country, threw over the whole background a broad mass of dark shadows broken only here and there by a white sail, whose almost imperceptible motion just marked the various turns and windings of the river.... A large party of very dashing men rode by, mounted on cropt ponies, and followed by no inconsider

ownsmen of Heddington at a bull-baiting, at which some scholars were beaten." Considering the tender years of most of the freshmen it is a matter for great congratulation that they made such good stands against the bullet-headed townees. They could not have done so but for the fact that boxing was much followed among 'varsity men. They were to a large extent keen patrons of the noble art of self-defence, and the chief instructors about the year 1729 were none other than the celebrated Broughton and Figg, who ran a saloon in London. The fact that this boxing ac

t moment the Vice-Chancellor, a book-ridden, pompous, crusty old curmudgeon, filled with the dignity of his office, appeared on the scene and succeeded in put

aniotti. He was "full of sentiments of honour and courage, and of most independent spirit." R. L. Edgeworth was a keen pupil of Paniotti, and it was at his school that he became friends wit

a noble family and of abilities, but of overbearing manners, was our fellow pupil under Paniotti

pupils as were present. Paniotti, though he had expectancies from the patronage of the father of his nobly-born pupil, yet without hesitation condemned his conduct. One day, in defiance of L.'s bullying pride, I proposed to fence with him, armed as he was with this unbending foil, on condition that he should not thrust at my face; but at t

e hundred, commanded by Mr Coker of Bicester, formerly Fellow of New College. Such indeed was the zeal and spirit called forth in those stirring times by the threat of invasion that even clerical members did not hesitate to join the ranks.... Some also of the most respectable of the college servants were enrolled with their masters.... The dress or uniform w

ticle appeared in The Student. It was a fantastic account of "Several Publ

ingenious gownsmen having found out several sports which conduce to the same end, such as battle-door and shuttle-cock, swinging on the rope, etc., in their apartments; or, in th

to Sandford and rowed in Dame Hooper's boat

ove only p

r exercis

an hour

space of f

Church gravel

d froze

ul gownsmen

uts on hobn

ds the co

pence fro

due for l

antly th

e, while the townee is a lout because he slides on vulgar hobnails. On several of the b

quoits will

Sandford

ine-pins; t

sail, and tug

ent as several parts of a fool for thinking rustic nine-pins "a truly acade

. The Lownger described his going after din

e House then I

st back to my c

men from Winchester and Eton, and was confined to the old Bullingdon Club, which was expensive and exclusive.

heir common friend, Mr Gale, in a tour in Scotland for two months in the summer during the long vacation. "In 1742 Tho. Townson started for a three years' tour in France, Italy, Germany, and Holland, with Dawkins, Drake, and Holdsworth. On his return from the continent," the quotation is from Christopher Wordsworth, "he resumed in College (Magdalen) the arduous and respectable employment of tuition, in which he had been engaged before he went abroad. William Wordsworth took walking tours in France 1790-91 (at a time

er I

ck H

would not have been unlike the present-day Rhodes men, whos

onkeys to avoid a conversation with the Proctors and their bulldogs. They sallied forth in trencher and gown, the insignia of their allegiance to Alma mater, and in sheer high spirits set themselves to bring about a fight with the jeering townees. Back to back they fought against all odds, recking little of bleeding noses and broken pates. If they drank too freely and encouraged the toasts, the blame was not entirely theirs. They did but follow the fashion of the times. Their password was thoroughness. Whatever they did