DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom ' . ) ■^ 7V I- A' GRADUS CANTABRIGIAM; OB, THE NEW UNIVERSITY GUIDE. PREFACE Hoc JUVAT ET MELLI EST — is Fl^ol'lC mid FuU all the world over, though none of the Literati, who have rendered Horace into English, ever condescended so to translate it. Frolic and Fun then, with not a small sprinkling of illuminata, compose the ingredients whereof we have dished up the Gradus ad Cantabri- GiAM ; or, New Uxiversity Guide : And what Cantab will not Cantab-it at the bare read- ing of the Title-page, and apostrophize us in the language addressed to Horace by his patron, Maecenas " Ni te visceribus meis, Horati, ** Plus jam diligo, tu tuum sodalem " Hinno me videas strigosiorem." Thus having anticipated the approbation of all the legitimate sons of our beloved Alma Mater, whether Freshman, Soph, Bachelor, or Big-Wig ; our next care is the choice of a patron, and one too of — 'glorious notoriety!' There is such a man, but he dwells not with avSpg arifioi — Ignobiks — Snobs! o f: 9 C| 7 PREFACE. — No, no, no — he is a lad of more vovg and keeps better company ; he is to be found amidst the Btoi, and his name is no Riddle to us — we, therefore, commit our book to his auspices — Diis chanis ipsis — ' Let him look to it !' We will make bold to assure him, that it will be found more perfect, and therefore we presume, more useful, than any work of the kind that has ever made its appearance in the literary horizon ; and we entreat him to recommend it to the atten- tion of all the " Gentlemen of the First Year,'' as a certain Professor designated the Freshmen, and they may become as cognoscent, in a short period, as men of a higher standing have done in years. To those who may peruse the following pages, we would add, " Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them." But as for Critics, or those who dabble in Cri- ticism, a profession which DRYDEN, in his Life of Lucian, declared ' was become mere hangmarCs work,' — to these we exclaim, in the words of Ari- stophanes, |3aXX' \q KopuKag. Tig 'ia^' 6 KO^pag ttJv ^vpav ; DEDICATION. To all to whom The Grab us may come, Greet- ing : in an especial manner, to all Freshmen of the most ancient and renowned University of Cambridge. We fain would say, Quod petis, hie est — * A work of this kind having long been, confessedly, a desideratum in English literature. Words will be found in the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam ; or, New University Guide ; which are scarcely known to the many, — this will be no matter of regret to the Freshman, as it will give him a more improved vovQ. May it please you, my young masters, to become the patrons of this Work? And in the next edition — should such an occasion offer — it shall be our business, as it will be our duty, to * We remember seeiug these words, in large gold letters, over a verj commodious booth at Pot-fair, otherwise called, Midsummer-ia\t ; and won- dered, how a cup of tea and ceffee — for nothing more was promised — conld answer to Quod petis! This, thought we, might sail the sober ' Maudlins.'j; But, on entering, we fonnd, that the words would admit of very free con- straction. The hie was behind the bar, where sat the Quod petis, who took in the news ! t Men of Magdalene College, remarkable for their wine-less lives. They drink tea to excess. This distinguished honour is now claimed by the Queens-men, with whom it is not unusual to issue an 'Al home' Tea and Ves- pers, alias bitch and hymns. 862?17 DEDICATION. render it more worthy of your, and your suc- cessors', support. Regard the present, as a well- meant endeavour. Liberius si Dixero quid, si forte jocosius : hoc mihi juris Cum venia dabis. In writing to Cambridge men, there can be no need of apology for being too much addicted to Joking. You will perceive, that we have spared no puns to gratify you. This species of wit has been, from time immemorial, in request at our most famous University. In the choice of the terms, ycleped ca7itj or colloquial — and in the definitions annexed to them, you will find, that " Some be of laughing, as ha, ha, he." Shakspeare citing Lilly. (See Much ado about Nothing.) Some of the conceits, however, it is to be feared, will be found of a contrary nature, viz. very, very lamentable. In this department, we have deside- rated, in vain, the talents of a parsing ingenious Jesuit,* who is omnipotent in punning. * See Jesuit suh voce. The wight alluded to, is the author of a Defence of the University in its proceedings against W. Frend, M. A. Fellow of Jesus ; of vrhich College, the Author likewise, is, if we may judge from his incom- parable Work, a very surprising ' Fellow.' As a specimen of his puns, take the following, which ought to have been inserted nnderthe article Kiplino- ISM. ' A Kipling need not fear, where a /Scaii^ei- might smile in triumph j for what though the eye-balls of a raving pedagogue might wildly stare at the DEDICATION. Omne tulit FUN-TOM— We have been indebted, for some very ingenious illustrations, to the Cambridge Tart, the Gentle- man's Magazine* the Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany, and the Spirit of the Public Journals, which have enriched The Gradus with some most exquisite pieces of humorous poetry. — We beg to make our bow, with a maxim from our beloved Horace, which we recommend to the especial adoption of all Young Gentlemen about to enter — in statum pupillarem : — Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum Semper urgendo ; neque, dum procellas Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo Littus iniquum. sight of Bus, poor harmless sound ! owing to the quick a.ssocialion in tlie fuming brain, 'iwixl bus and blunderbuss, or any olher instrument of castiga- tion, (!!!) yet be calm, good gentlemen, an error of the printer, you must surely own it, redeemed in the preceding page by the author himself, but be not mortified — See there it — is, and cease to vent your idle rage.' In a note, we are told, — ' The clamour against the prolegomena of Dr. Kipling, lo his fac simile of Beza, has arisen from the insertion of Pagiui-Evs, for Pagin-is, which appearing in the preceding page, represents the affair in its proper light.' * Mr. Urban must, however, excuse us, if we express our indignation at the correspondent who has put into the mouth of the Cantabrigians such lan- guage as the following. — ' Luckily I cramm'd him so well, that honest Joi.- Lux tipt me the coal.' By ' honest Jollux' is meant the Tutor ! ' I am sorry, says a correspondent, in reply, 'that a learned University is disgraced by such low, nonsensical conversation, which seems better calculated for the purlieus of Chick-lane, or Broad St. Giles's. It was, no doubt, at one of the above places, that Mr, Urban's correspondent, ' honest Jollux," derived the contents of his communication. "Post tot na.afra£ia, tuius- suia Bacc.alavi/reu6' Arttuw. GRADUS CANTABRIGIAM: THE NEW UNIVERSITY GUIDE. A.B. Arfium Bacculator, siYe Baccalaureus. Ba- chelor OF Arts. Various, and — not worth mention- ing, have been the etymologies ascribed to the term Bachelor. The true one, and the most flattering ! seems to be Bacca Laurus. Those who either are, or expect to be, honoured with the title of ^Bachelor of Arts, wiU hear with exultation, that they are then 'con- sidered as the budding flowers of the University ; as the small pillula, or bacca, of the laurel indicates the flowering of that tree, which is so generally used in the crowns of those, who have deserved well, both of the military states, and of the republic of learning.' — Car- ter's History of Cambridge, 1753. It is curious, that Laureat was anciently an aca- demical title. 'The beastly Skelton,' so called by Pope* — by the great Erasmus, in a letter to King Henry the Eighth, pronounced Britannicarum litera- rum, lumen et decus! — was laureated at both of our Universities. The following is an extract from the Cambridge Register, Anno 1504. ' Conceditur Jo- * IiDitations of Floraee. B HANNI Skeltoni, poetiB laureato, quod possit con- stare eodera gradu hie, quo stetit Oxonii, et quod possit uti habitu sibi concesso a principe.' It has not been precisely ascertained by the learned Society of Antiquaries, who have obliged the world with so many useful discoveries, in what the dress of the LAUREAT consisted beside his crown. A Bachelor of Arts must reside the greater part of twelve several terms, the first and last excepted. The following ingenious and lively paraphrase on Horace's Kvegi Monumentum, by that celebrated Cantab, Kit Smart, will shew that the title of A. B. is considered as no mean acquisition. * 'Tis done : — I tow'r to that degree, And catch such heav'nly fire. That Horace ne'er could rant like me, Nor is King's Chapel * higher. My name, in sure recording page. Shall time itself o'erpow'r ; If no rude mice, with envious rage. The but fry books devour. A title too, with added grace, My name shall now attend ; Till to the church, with silent pace, A nymph and priest ascend. Ev'n in the schools I now rejoice. Where late I look'd with fear ; Nor heed the Moderator's voice Loud thund'ring in my ear. • Rcgali situ pjramidam altius. 3 Then with iEolian flate I blow, A soft Italian lay ;* Or where Cam's scanty waters flow, Releas'd from lectures stray. Meanwhile, friend Banks,t my merits claim Their just reward from you ; For Horace bids us challenge fame When once that fame's our due. Invest me with a graduate's gown, 'Midst shouts of all beholders ; My head, with ample square cap, crown,J And deck, with hood, my shoulders.' ABSIT. Leave of absence from Hall. See Note on Commons. ABSOLUTION. It is expressly ordered by the statutes, that the Vice-Chancellor shall pronounce Absolution at the end of every term. — Obsolete! Such is the good order and regularity, may we not suppose ! that prevails in the University, that there is no occasion to enforce this, with a variety of other statutes respecting discipline? — Requiescant in pace! ACT. " To keep an Act ;" to perform an exercise in the public schools preparatory to the proceeding in degrees. The act opens with a declamation, which is no sooner ended, than the opponent brings forward Solium carmen ad Italos Dedaxisse modos. t A celebrated tailor. X mihi Delphica Laaro cinge volens — comam. ^2 his arguments, and the keeper of the act, or respondent, endeavours to take them off. ACT, for Actor, the peTfoimer of the above part — a candidate for a degree. ACT'S BREAKFAST; a treat given by the act to the opponents * preparatory to their going to logger- heads. It is pleasant to see what a good understand- ing prevails between these ivordy champions. They do but quarrel in jest, like the gentlemen of the long robe. If it be not prophaneness to paraphrase on Milton, we might say that, at the acVs breakfast. They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet. Quaff coffee and boheaf — secure of surfeit ! tEGROTAT. Permission to be absent from chapel and lecture, on account of corporeal indisposition — though, commonly, the real complaint is much more serious ; viz. indisposition of the mind! cegrotat am- nio magis quam cor pore. A READING ^GROTAT. This is an illness which entirely affects the head; and "wherein the patient must administer to himself," — to Pluck from the memory a rooted error; Raze out the written blunders of the brain — Sunt— libri, quibus hunc lenire dolorem Possis, et magnam morbi deponere partem. • This compliraent is now relumed bj each of the opponents, but consists of 'Tea and turnout.' t A learned French Physician, who wrote a L»lin Poem on Tea, "Tbea Sinensis,") says of it, = nostris gratissima Musis. Mathematical, or, as they are called, " Reading Men," (see Reading Men,) commonly sue for JEgrotats in December, it being the month anterior to that in which they take their degree, when it becomes, in the very apposite words of Juvenal, (Sat. vii. 96.) utile multis. Pallere, et Vinum. toto nescire Decembrt. There is another kind of abstinence which is pre- scribed by Horace, and which, according to Dr. Wharton, is ' of the greatest consequence, in order to preserve each faculty of the mind in due vigour.' Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam — (Anglice— to be Senior Wrangler.) Abstinuit Venere — Let him avoid Castle-End. ALE. Cambridge has been long celebrated for its Ale ; we have ourselves quaffed no small quantities of this inspiring beverage, and remember the rap- turous exclamation of a celebrated classic on re- ceiving some dozens of Audit stout: * All hail to the Ale, it sheds a halo round my head.' Among the many spirited eflFusions poured forth in its praise by freshman, Soph, Bachelor, and Bigwig, none appears more worthy of record than the follow- ing Sapphic ode, from that cradle of the Facete, St. John's College. In Cerealem Haustum ; ad Promum Johannensem. A. D. 1786. Fer mihi, Prome, oh ! cohibere tristes Quod potest curas ! — Cerealis haustus Sit mihi praesens relevare diro Pectora luctu. Hanc sitim saevam celera domare. Hoc (puella absente) leva dolens cor — Heus mihi curae, Cereale Donum, Fer medicamen ! Euge ! non audis ? sibilat fremitque* Aureum Nectar, fluviique ritu Aspice a summo ruit ore zethus Spumeus obbae ! Cernis ! ut vitro nitet invidendo Lucidus liquor ! comes it facetus Cui jocus, quo cum Venus, et Cupido Spicula tingxmt. Nunc memor charae cyathum replebo Virginis ! — (curae medicina suavis !) Hinc mihi somni — ah quoque suaviora Somnia somno ! O dapes quae laetitiamque praebes Omnibus vero veneranda Diva ! Tu mihi das, alma Ceres, amanti Dulce levamen ! Hos bibens succos generosiores Italis testis nihil invidebo, Hos bibens succos neque Gadlicanae Laudibus uvae ! * Botlled Ale w^ll up ! ! Gum Johannensi latitans suili, Grunnio, et scribo sitiente labro— Hos bibam succos, et arnica Musis Pocula ducam. ALMA MATER. TheDeity presiding over those, whose happy destiny leads them to the shades of Granta, to tread the mathematic path of Truth, 17 680c Ttjc aXrj3-£mc, or to wander in the more elegant parterres of ancient Classic Lore. HINC LUCEM ET POCULA SACRA. " She holds the candle and the sacred cup, And as one wasteth, cries, 'Drink t'other up.'" A.M. (Artium Magister.) A Master of Arts must be a B. A. of three years standing, which time is rec- koned from the second Tripos Day following his ad- mission ad Respondendum Question!. There are how- ever certain exceptions (vide Hat, fellow commoner.) The following spirited imitation of Horace, (book i. ode 23.) will shew that this degree is held in no small esteem amongst the sons of Alma Mater. Happy M. A. sublime degree ! The threat'ning dons unmoved I hear ; For what's a master's voice to me? No more the dreaded sound I fear. Unheeded now the lecturer's call. The chapel bell (once hated sound). Now *Mole, in vain, in vain, you bawl. Midst every din I sleep profound. • The late cbapel clerk and porter of Clirist College. 8 Or should the huntsman's echoing horn Incite my spirit to the chase ; The Senior's low'ring brow I scorn, And eagerly the sport embrace. For instance, — 'twas but t'other day, When, without cap or gown elate, The hated Proctor crossed my way,* Nor heeded my defenceless state. Still trembling Cantab never saw Than D — f— d a more doughty wight. Nor can our sister Oxford shew A fiercer guardian of the night. Place me midst every toil and care, A hapless under-graduate, still To fag at mathematics dire, Subservient to each fellow's will :f — Love shall attune my plaintive lyre. Thy praises, Sylvia ! still to tell ; Thy voice shall echo in my ear, — Thy smiles shall in my memory dwell. ANGELIC DOCTOR. See Dr. Kipling ! ANNIVERSARY DAYS, now called Comme- moration Days. On these Anniversaries, it was • The Proctor makes a claim of 6s. 8rf. on every aoder-graduate whom he finds (^inermem), or withoat his academicals, t Tom Warton hnmoroaslj tells us — ' These fellowships are preltj things, We live indeed like pellj kings.' The resemblance is rertninlj great as to autlioritj. i) anciently the custom to perform mass in commemo- ration of deceased benefactors ! APOLLO, (obsolete.) One whose hair is loose and flowing; Unfrizzled, unanointed, and untied ; No powder seen His Royal Highness Prince William of Gloucester was an Apollo during the whole of his residence at the University of Cambridge ! ! — The strange fluc- tuation of fashions has often afforded a theme for amusing disquisition. * I can remember,' says the pious Archbishop Tillotson, in one of his sermons, discoursing on this head, viz. of hair! 'since the wearing the hair heloiv the ears was looked upon as a sin of the first magnitude; and when ministers generally, whatever their text was, did either find, or make, occasion to reprove the great sin of long hair ; and if they saw any one in the congregation guilty in that kind, they would point him out particu- larly, and let fly at him with great zeal.' (2d Serm. on Pror. XX. 11. 6. And we can remember since the wearing the hair cropt, i. e. above the ears, was looked upon, though not as a " sin," yet, as a very vulgar and RAFFISH sort of a thing; and when the doers of newspapers exhausted all their w it in endeavour- ing to rally the new-raised corps of Crops, regard- less of the Noble Duke who headed them; and, when the rude, rank-scented rabble, if they saw any one in the streets, whether Time, or the tonsor, had thinned his flowing hair ; they would point him out particularly, and " let fly at him,'' as the Archbishop says, till not a shaft of ridicule remained ! The tax ■ j 10 upon hair-powder has now, however, produced all over the country very plentiful Crops. Among the Curiosa Cantabrigiensia, it may be recorded, that our "most RELIGIOUS and gracious King," as he was called in the liturgy, Charles the Second, who, as his worthy friend, the Earl of Rochester, remarked, never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one, — sent a letter to the University of Cambridge, forbid- ding the members to wear periwigs, smoke tobacco, and read their sermons ! ! It is needless to remark, that TOBACCO has not yet made its exit in fumo, and thsit periwigs still continue to adorn "the Heads OF Houses !" Till the present, all prevailing, all accommodating, fashion of Crops became general at the University, no young man presumed to dine in hall till he had previously received a handsome trimming from the hair-dresser. The following inimi- table imitation of " The Bard" of Gray is ascribed to the pen of the Hon. Thomas Erskine, when a student at Cambridge. Mr. E. having been disappointed of the attendance of his college barber, was compelled to forego his commons in hall ! An odd thought came into his head. In revenge, he determined to give his hair-dresser a good dressing : so sat down, and began as follows : *Ruin seize thee, scoundrel Coe, Confusion on thy frizzing wait ; Hadst thou the only comb below. Thou never more shouldst touch my pate. Club, nor queue, nor twisted tail. Nor e'en thy chatt'ring, barber, shall avail 11 To save thy horse-whipp'd back from daily fears From Cantab's curse, from Cantab's tears. Such were the sounds that o'er the powder'd pride Of CoE, the barber, scatter'd wild dismay, As down the steep of Jackson's slippery lane. He wound, with puflfy march, his toilsome, tardy way. In a room where Cambridge town Frowns o'er the kennel's stinking flood, Rob'd in a flannel pow'dring gown. With haggard eyes, poor Erskine stood ; (Long his beard and blowzy hair, Stream'd like an old wig to the troubled air ;) And, with clung guts, and face than razor thinner. Swore the loud sorrows of his dinner. " Hark! how each striking clock, and tolling bell. With awful sounds, the hour of eating tell ! O'er thee. Oh, Coe ! their dreaded notes they wave; Soon shall such sounds proclaim thy yawning grave: Vocal in vain, through all the ling'ring day. The grace already said, the plates all swept away.'" The Editors of the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, re- gret that they have not room for the insertion of the remainder of the ode. APOSTLES ; the xii last on the list of Bachelors of Arts : a degree lower than the o'l ttoWol. ' Scape goats of literature, who have, at length, scrambled through the pales, and discipline, of the Senate House, without being plucked, and miraculously ob- tained the title of A. B.'. Vide Cambridge Tart, page 284. 12 ARGUMENTS. Syllogisms, for the use of the schools. These may be bought ready made, good as new, and very reasonable ! of Maps,* in Trump- ington-Street. They are called " Strings" at Oxford. ASSES' BRIDGE. Po7is Asinorum. The 5th Prop. 1st Book of Euclid. ' The asses' bridge in Euclid is not more difficult to be got over, nor the logarithms of Napier so hard to be unravelled, as many of Hoyle's Cases and Propositions.' (Counoi- seur. No. LX.) — Note. By " an ass" is always un- derstood at Cambridge, a dull animal, who has no taste for that enlivening study the mathematics ! Hence many a man of profound classical erudition is set down an ass!! On the other hand, by the rule of As in presenti, it not uufrequently happens, as an egregious " ass" very sagaciously observes, ' that a Wrangler is not one of the two Senior Optimes victorious in a conflict, in which the arms are not furnished from the arsenals of Euclid, or Newton.' whoso couth, in other thinges, them grope. Then had they spent al their philosophic. Chaucer. Out of Euclid they are out of their element! — But levity apart. The following observation of an ano- nymous writer will be found, I am afraid, to be not more severe than just. ' The study of classical learning is entirely, or, if not altogether laid aside in most colleges,' (in Cambridge,) ' learned in so slovenly, and taught in * maps, vulgo, "John Nicholson, BoOKSELLiiii," whose iiortrail hangs ill the entrance to the public Librarjr, in the bej-daj of his protiperitj' was a cliaractcr of no small inipoilance in Cainbiidjje. • Rctiukscanl iiiuna. 13 so unscholar-like a manner, as to disgrace both tutor and pupil.* But this is not all. AVith this study, namely, that of the classics, the study of divinity, the end to which every study should be subservient, is rendered to any good purpose, at least, impracti- cable. In divinity, the present age holds no rank at all : a circumstance which we owe to the exclu- sion of classical learning in our University, which is supplanted by a study, as useless for clergymen and lawyers, as it would be useful to a carpenter, or a joiner.' — (Enormous Expence in Education at Cambridge, 1788.) — It is easy to discover this writer to have been an "ass" by his kicking! alias braying! ASSESSOR. The Assessor is an officer specially appointed by grace of the Senate, to assist the Vice- Chancellor in his court, in causis forensibus^t do- mesticis. AUDIT. A meeting of the master and fellows to examine or audit the college accounts. A feast in hall succeeds, on which special occasion, is broached that " aureum nectar" celebrated under the article Ale. (quod vide.) See also Bursar. BANDS. Linen ornaments, worn by professors and clergymen when officiating ; also by judges, bar- risters, &c. in court. They form a distinguishing mark in the costume of the Proctors of the Universi- * To our knowledge the Classical Lectureship in most of the Colleges would not be reckoned amongst the sinecures even by Joseph Hurue, Esq. M. P. : and we are proud to assert, that for profound Critical and Classical Scholars, and deep read and eminent Divines, Cambridge stands all unri- VAI,LED ! 14 ties; and the questionists, on admission to their de- grees, are by the statutes obliged to appear in them. BARNWELL AGUE. The French ***.—(Rays Collection of Proverbs.) — The " ague," so called ironically, now rages also at Castle-End. Barnwell, a small village near Cambridge, seems to have been a notorious place of amorous resort in olden time. In the second part of the comedy called, If you know not me you know Nobody, or The Troubles of Queene Elizabeth— 4X0. 16532 — Hobson, the famous carrier, who is one of the dramatis personce, says, *Bones-a-me, knave, thou't welcome. What's the newes At bawdy Barnewell, and at Sturbridge-fayre?' By a decree of Mr. Vice-Chancellor and the Heads of Colleges, An. 1675, it was ordered, that ' hereafter no scholar whatsoever (except officers of the Uni- versity performing their duty in searching houses), upon any pretence whatsoever, shall go into any house of bad report in Barnewell, on pain, for his misbehaviour and contumacy, of being expelled the University.' Obsolete. B. D. (Baccalaureus Divinitatis.) A Bachelor in Divinity must be a M. A. of seven years standing : his exercise is one act (after the 4th year), tw o opponen- cies, a clerum, and an English sermon. (See also ten year men.) BEDMAKER requires no explanation. This of- fice is not confined to sex. In justice to the ivomen, they have not only been reckoned adepts at making 16 a bed, secundum artem, as the phrase is — but, when they have had a mind to it, have shewn themselves very alert in helping to Vfi-make the bed they have made, secundum naturam ! Indeed, these their na- tural parts and endowments were at one time so notorious, or generally known, that, by a most merci- less and unmanly decree of the Senate, the whole sex was rusticated ! ' It is enacted, that no woman, of whatever age or condition, be permitted in any college to make any one's BED ; or, to go to the hall, kitchen, or buttery, to carry the provision to anyone's chamber, unless she be sent for as a nurse ; which nurse must be of mature age, good fame, and either wife or widow; but upon no account young maids be permitted to attend the students' chambers.' This statute was made in 1625. O tempora ! O MULIERES ! There is no scruple in the present Saturnian age, respecting the admission oi" young maids" into " the students' chambers." BENE DISCESSIT. This phrase is used to sig- nify that the student leaves his college to enter an- other by the express consent and approbation of the master, and fellows. ' It was formerly,' says the late Dr. Farmer, ' by no means uncommon, for a man, after the severest censures of his own college (were he not actually expelled the University) to gain ad- mission into another, from interest, or from party, or sometimes, from the little emoluments which he brought to his new society. This, at length, produced the grace of the Senate in 1732, which put an end to this infamous traffic' De migrantibus ab una collegia in aliud. 16 By that o^race, no one could be entered of another college ab alio collegia in aliud nisi prius impetratis Uteris sub chirographo magistri collegii, 5?c. testanti- bus de honestd sud, et laudabili conversatione. (See Europ. Mag. June 1794. ' On the Expulsion of John Dennis.') BIBLE CLERK, a very ancient scholarship, so called because the student who was promoted to that oflSce was enjoined to read the Bible at meal times. Mr. Masters, the learned historian of Corpus Christi College, informs us, that one Kynne, who was presi- dent of that college about the year 1379, purchased a large bible at Northampton, while the parliament was held there, which he presented to the college to be read in the hall at dinner time. But it appears to have been a considerable time after, that the office was restrained to any one person, and a salary an- nexed to it. In 1473, certain lands and tenements in Cambridge and Barton, to the yearly value of 40 shil- lings, were given to the society of C. C. C. by Richard Brocher, B. D., for the maintenance of a Bible Clerk, who was to be called his scholar. Volens unura scholarem in grammatica eruditum, qui fideliter in artibus studere debet, per magistrum et socios eligi, qui Bibliam leget coram Mro, et sociis inprandiOy aut alias, et in fine lectionis orabit in latinis verbis, primura nominando Mag. Brocher, inter alios, sic docendo — Anima Mri Brocher requiescat in pace ! BISHOP. In Cambridge, this title is not confined to the dignitaries of the church; h\xi port wine, made 17 copiously potable by being mulled and burnt, with the addenda of roasted lemons all bristling like angry hedge-hogs (studded with cloves), is dignified with the appellation of Bishop. Beneath some old oak, come and rest thee, my hearty; Our foreheads with roses, oh ! let us entwine ! And, inviting young Bacchus to be of the party. We'll drown all our troubles in oceans of wine ! And, perfumed with Macassar or Otto of Roses,* We'll pass round the BISHOP,t the spice- breathing cup. And take of that medicine such wit-breeding doses, We'll knock down the God, or he shall knock us up. We'll have none of the stuff that is sung of by AccuM, Half water, — half spirit Will Sentinel's Poems. BITCH. To Bitch— 4 Bitching Party. (De Tea narratur.) On board of ship these phrases are very common. One would not suppose that they would be current among the members of a learned * " Dum licet Assyridque nardo Potaiuus uncti?" Lord Peter says the ancients had nothing like Otto of roses, to stenchify a snouler, or neck-rag ; and, " touching" the Macassar, had that been known, Caesar had never needed a red night-cap, or a wreath of laurels, to hide his baldness! — Vide Suetonius. t Belter than Falemian or Massic, only known in perfection in cloisters and Cnmhinatian-rooms. C 18 University, except when the parties were half seas OVER. But the phrase is very common at Cambridge. A young man who performs with great dexterity the honours of the tea-table, is, if complimented at all! said to be " an excellent Bitch !" Proh pudor! BLACK BOOK, a gloomy volume, containing a register of high crimes and misdemeanors. In Mil- ler's Humours of Oxford, a Comedy, one of the cha- racters says, 'Sirrah, I'll have you put in the Black Book, rusticated, expelled. I'll have you coram nobis at Gol- gotha.' (A. 11. Sc. 1.) At the University of Gottingen the expulsion of students is recorded on a black board. BOARDS, long wooden tablets on which the names of the members of each college are inscribed according to seniority, generally hung up in the but- tery. BOGS, * that place where men of studious minds are apt to sit longer than ordinary.' (Pope's Letters.) — The house appointed for all living. The small and the great go there. omnes eodem cogimur. Omnium versatur urn a. Horace. To the same purpose Ovid, if the reader has not al- ready smelt out the allusion, which, with Sir Reve- rence be it spoken, is a pretty strong one. 19 Serius, a.ut citius, Sedem properamus ad unam ; which has been thus cleanly rendered ; O lamentable chance ! to one vile seat, Sooner or later, we must all retreat. The public bogs belonging to the several colleges in Cambridge are well worthy the inspection of the cu- rious. Persons of sense and taste will be charmed with the sweetest sonnets, and other extemporaneous effusions, which have been vented with ease — the poet sitting all the while, like an oracle on a tripod, and not able to contain himself for inspiration! BORE, probably from Bapoc onus, molestia — whence Burden. Whatever is odious and disagree- able, however lawful and right, constitutes a Bore — a great Bore — an uncommon Bore — ^a horrid Bore — an in intolerable and d lish Bore. For in- stance, chapel at six o'clock on a hard frosty morn- ing — (E lecto exsilientes, ad subitum tintinnabuli pulsum, quasi fulmine territi.) — Likewise, chapel at six o'clock in the evening, which interferes with other engagements. Quis non te potius Bacche. Hor. — Other Bores are to attend a sermon at St. Mary's on a Sunday — to keep an act — to cap di fellow — (This cede majoribus is reckoned a ** terrible Bore !") — Also, to wear bands — to dine in hall — to pay a bill — to sub- scribe the xxxix Articles, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c, &c. To Bore ; to tease incessantly — to torment — to weary or worry. Thus your ' mere mathematician,' whom Sir Thomas Overbury, in his ' Characters,' de- c 2 20 fines, "an intelligible AsseT will Bore you over a bottle with Newton's Principia. Indoctum, doctum que, fugat recitator acerbus, Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occidit que legendo. But the most jboring of all animals is what is called a Tick, one who will stick closer than a brother. Non missura cutem — hirudo. Hor. It has been proved by quotation from Shakspeare, that the word (bore), in the above sense, is not pe- culiar to the moderns. In the historical play of Henry the Eighth, the Duke of Buckingham says to Norfolk, alluding to Cardinal Wolsey, I read in his looks Matters against me, and his eye revil'd Me, as his object : at this instant He BORES me with some trick. Consult all the editions ! cum Notis variorum ! BOSKY, ' vino gravis titubare videtur.' Devotees of Bacchus, or rather of Bishop, or peradventure of audit ale. This term is generally applied to those gay sparks, who, elevated by various compotations, are ripe for a lark; and has had various conjectures relative to its derivation, some arguing that it is of Italian ancestry, quasi, bosco, fine, gay ; others as- serting it to be of Grecian origin, a /3o(tkw, pasco— to feed like an ox, viz. to make a beast of one's self. * Now when becomes home fuddled, alias Bosky. I shall not be so unmannerly as to say his Lordship 21 ever gets drunk either on his club night or from St. Stephen's/ &c. — The Sizar. BULL DOGS. Formerly applied to the students of Trinity. (Vide Clarians.) This distinguished appella- tion is now the nom de guerre of the Proctor's satellites. BURSAR. Bowser, Bouser, or Bourser, in a Col- lege; a Gal. Bourse a purse. (Minshew.) So in Thre Sermons preached at Eton College, by Roger Hutchinson, 1552, printed in 1560. B. L. * Maisters of Colleges do cal their stewardes, and Bowsers, to an accompt and audit, to know what they have received, and what they have expended.' Bursars, in short, are the (eruscatores magnce ma- tris. The sixth statute of Trinity College enjoins, that they, the Bursars, are to receive the college rents, and to put them into the treasury ; — from thence, to take out what is for the daily and necessary expense of the college, and to write down the sura, and the day of the month, with his own hand, in an accompt book to be kept for that purpose ! ' Nothing like this,' says Sergeant Miller, in his Account of the University of Cambridge, {Loud. 1717, p. 106.) ' is ever prac- tised.' He adds ; that ' another part of their duty is to take care that there be wholesome meat and drink ; which,' he says, 'is wholly neglected by them.' BUTTER "a Butter ;" a size or part of butter. (See Size.) " Send me a roll and two Butters." BUTTERY; the House of Commons; or place S3 where breads butter, cheese, ale, &c. are sold by retail. Be mine each morn, with eager appetite. And hunger undissembled, to repair To friendly Buttery ; there, on smoking crust. And foaming ale, to banquet unrestrain'd, Matinal breakfast ! (Panegyric on Ale.) When the 'punishment obscene,' as Cowper, the poet, very properly terms it, of flagellation, was enforced at our University, it appears that the Buttery was the scene of action. In the Poor Scholar, a Comedy, written by Robert Nevile, Fellow of King's College in Cambridge, London, 1662, one of the students having lost his gown, which is picked up by the president of the college, the tutor says, * If we knew the owner, we'd take him down to th' Butterie, and give him due correction.' To which the student, (aside,) ' Under correction, Sir ; if you're for the Butteries with me, I'll lie as close as Diogenes in dolio. I'll creep in at the bung-hole, before I'll mount a barrel/ &c. {A. II. Sc. 6.) — Again ; ' Had I been once i' th' Butteries, they'd have their rods about me. But let us, for joy that I'm escaped, go to the Three Tuns and drink a pint of wine, and laugh away our cares. (Sings.) We'll carouse in Bacchus' fountains ' hang your beer and muddy ale ; 'Tis only sack infuses courage when our spirits droop and fail. 'Tis drinking at the Tuns that keeps us from ascend- ing Buttery barrels, &c.' 23- BUTTERY BOOK ; a register ol names of all the Members of the College. BUZZ, This term will be best explained and il- lustrated by the subsequent relation. ' What sur- prised me most, and, I am free to confess, nettled me a little, was the following incident. A pert jack- a-napes at my elbow, who had just helped himself to half a glass of wine, briskly pushed towards me the decanter, containing a tolerable bumper, and ex- claimed " Sir, I'll buzz you : come, no heel-taps !" Not understanding the phrase, I required an expla- nation of this extraordinary conduct ; when my friend, the president, replied, that / must drink up the whole, for such was the custom.' (See An Account of a Visit to Cambridge, in the Gent.'s Mag. vol. 64.) BYE-TERM. Students who take the degree of A.B. at any other time save January, are said to — ' go out in a bye-term.' CANTAB. The much envied title of every son of Alma Mater— see Student, Undergraduate, &c. We cannot here omit the facetious Oxonian's paraphrase of the following line : CANTAB-i7 vacuus coram Latrone viator. The coinless Cantab laughs the pad to scorn. TO CAP. (i.) To touch the cap eji passant in token of dutiful submission, whether it be to the Vice-Chancellor as supreme ; or, unto Proctors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers. {2.) To pull oft' the cap, and make 24 obeisance aperto capite, in the academic phrase. (See Bore.) — Capping appears to have been carried to the highest, or rather lowest, pitch of perfec- tion, in old Catholic times. Thus in a work entitled, Sacrarum Ceremoniarum seu Rituum Ecclesiasticorum S. RoMiE ecclesifB Libri tres . . RomcB MDLX* one part treats * of the reverence which a Cardinal is en- joined to pay the Pope.' To transcribe the whole would require no small portion of that Cardinal virtue. Patience. Take, however, a part, and won- der, and smile ! Cum ante illius faciem ex opposito venit, firmans se et manibus extensis, ab anteriori parte cappam capiens, manus sic cappa involutas elevans simul jungitante pectus, et profunde caput et humeros inclinat. These would be no bad directions for throwing a somerset! — Among other matters of equal importance, the same work treats of de mode et forma claudendi et aperiendi os ! ! ! CAPUT. The Caput, or University Council, con- sists of the Vice-Chancellor, a Doctor in each of the faculties, divinity, law, and physic, and two Masters of Arts, who are the representatives of the Regent and Non-regent houses. Every grace and supplicat must pass this body before it can be proposed in the Senate. • • There are many raore editions of it. At Venice, 1506 ; at Cologne, 1572 ; and there again 1574, in 8vo. Whoever desires to be informed and convinced of the many ridinclous, as well as impious, Roman superstitions, and the prodigious Papal pride, should get that book.' — BUhop Barlotoe's Choice of Books in the study of Divinity. See also ' Emancipation,' a Poera , 1823. 25 CASTLE END; a place situated at the extre- mity of the town, of equal fame with Barnwell, of olden time. This place receives frequent visits from the Proctors. TO CAT, to vomit from drunkenness. (Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.) Vulgo, he has shot a Cat, or catted. CATHARINE PURITANS; Members of Catha- rine Hall, from Ka3"atpw. It is grievous to see how the men of one College delight in putting a-pun (upon) each other. CAUTION MONEY ; a deposit in the hands of the tutor at entrance by way of security. ' The genteel amercements of a young man of fashion in a silver tankard, or in his Caution Money, ought not, in any wise, to be considered as part of his education.' (Remarks on the enormous Expence of Education at Cambridge, 1788.) The caution of a nobleman is . . . 50/. a fellow commoner . 25?. a pensioner .... 15/. a sizar 10/. At all Colleges there are also additional fees ; those paid at Clare Hall are, for a fellow-commoner, 17*. 6d. — pensioner, ll.s. 6d. — sizar, 6s. 4d. To CHALLENGE AOriKQS aXX ouk 'OIIAITIKQS. (S. Greg. Nazianz. Orat. de Pace, p. 220. ed. Paris.) To invite to a tilt o' the wits—si 26 beating of the brains. In 1532, two " pert Oxonians," furnished with * captious art, And snip-snap short, and interruption smart. And demonstrations thin, and theses thick, And major, minor, and conclusions quick — ' Pope. took a journey to Cambridge, and, in the public schools, CHALLENGED any to dispute with them on the following questions. An jus civile sit Medicind prcBstantius ? In English, as much as to say — Which does most EXECUTION, civil law or medicine?!! — A nice point. The other question which formed the subject of serious argumentation was the following : A?i mulier cotidemnata, his ruptis laqueis, sit tertio suspendenda? This is civil law with a vengeance! Ridley, afterward bishop of that name, was one of the opponents on this interesting occasion ; who administered the flagella lingua to one of these pert pretenders to logic lore ^vith such happy dex- terity, that the other was afraid to set his wit upon him! CHANCELLOR, an honorary, rather than an efficient, office, which endures for two years, but is generally extended by suflFerance to the term of life. CHAPEL CLERK. In some Colleges it is the duty of this officer to mxirk the men as they enter 27 chapel ; in others he merely sees that the proper les- sons are read, by the students appointed by the Dean for that purpose. CHRISTIANS ; Members of Christ, i. e. of Christ College. CLARIANS ; Members of Clare Hall. So in Kit Smart's Ballad of the Pretty Bar-keeper of the Mitre, 1741, Dropt she her fan beneath her hoop. E'en stake-stuck Clarians strove to stoop. The men of Clare Hall are called, likewise, Grey- hounds. But we are equally at a loss to account for this ; as we are for Johnian Hogs* and Trinity Bull- dogs ; and wonder what pleasure men can find in making Beasts of themselves ! COLLEGE. A society of learned men (a coUigo), Colleges, Houses, and Halls, are in Cambridge syno-. nimous, though not so at Oxford. Thus Clare Hall is called, " Collegium, sive domus, sive Aula de Clare." COMBINATION ROOM; 'a parlour adjoining the hall, where the Fellows daily meet for business, or recreation.' ( Bloomefield s Collectanea Cantabri- giensia.) — This is not correctly explained. The Fel- lows do, indeed, daily meet in the Combination Room for " recreation" — (sell, to take their bottle, or two, of wine after dinner, crack nuts, and conundrums, • The curious are referred to the Cambridge Tart, for an ingeuions wggestion on the origin of Johnian Hog ! 28 &c.*) but not "daily" for " business," which is of a very seriovs nature. See Convention. COMMEMORATION DAY ; a day devoted to prayers, and good living, i. e. feasting. * Who leads a good life is sure to live well.' Old So7ig. There is always a sermon on this day. The lesson which is read in the course of the service is taken out of Ecclus. XLIV. — " Let us now praise famous men," &c. The following ' Ode on a College Feast Day,' will hardly be read with dry-lips, or mouths that do not water ! Whoever was the author of it, he certainly appears to have been a man of taste. I. * Hark ! heard ye not yon foot-steps dread. That shook the hall with thund'ring tread ? With eager haste The Fellows pass'd ;t Each, intent on direful work, [fork. High lifts his mighty blade, and points his deadly II. But hark ! the portal's sound, and pacing forth. With steps, alas, too slow. The College Gyps, of high illustrious worth. With all the dishes, inlong order, go : * ' Eveu doctors, professors, tutors, and lecturers, industriously avoid all topics of discourse connected with the species of learning and science which tliey profess, and most agreeably condescend to expatiate in the Common and Comb'mut'wn-Iioom, on dogs, horses, and all the refined amusements of Granta, and Rhedycina.' — (J)r. Knox.") t Qu. paced. — Printer's Devil. 29 In the midst a form divine. Appears the fam'd sir-loin ; And soon, with plums and glory crown'd. Almighty pudding sheds its sweets around. Heard ye the din of dinner bray ? Knife to fork, and fork to knife ; Unnumber'd heroes, in the glorious strife, Thro' fish, flesh, pies, and puddings, cut their destin'd way. III. See, beneath the mighty blade, Gor'd with many a ghastly wound. Low the fam'd sir-loin is laid. And sinks in many a gulf profound. Arise, arise, ye sons of glory. Pies and puddings stand before ye ; See the ghost of hungry bellies Points at yonder stand of jellies ; While such dainties are beside ye, Snatch the goods the gods provide ye ; Mighty rulers of this state. Snatch before it is too late ; For, swift as thought, the puddings, jellies, pies. Contract their giant bulks, and shrink to pigmy size. IV. From the table now retreating, All around the tire they meet. And, with wine, the sons of eating, Crown at length their mighty treat : Triumphant Plenty's rosy graces Sparkle in their jolly faces ; 30 And mirth and cheerfulness are seen In each countenance serene. Fill high the sparkling glass, And drink th' accustom'd toast ;* Drink deep ye mighty host. And let the bottle pass. Begin, begin the jovial strain; Fill, fill the mystic bowl. And drink, and drink, and drink again ; For drinking fires the soul. But soon, too soon, with one accord, they reel ; Each on his seat begins to nod ; All conquering Bacchus' pow'r they feel. And pour libations to the jolly god. At length wilh dinner, and with wine, oppress'd, Down in the chairs they sink, and give themselves to rest.' COMMENCEMENT. That period just previous to the close of the Easter term, at which the higher degrees of D. D., LL. D., and M. A., &c. are generally conferred, which precedes by a few days the long vacation. Now also the University prizemen recite their productions publicly in the Senate-house ; and the ancient Alumni of Granta revisit the scenes of their early labours and well-earned honours. Com- mencement Day is always the first Tuesday in July. COMMISSARY, is an officer under the Chan- cellor, who holds a court of record for all privileged persons and scholars under the degree of M. A. In * Fellows of Colleges are not so destitute o( feeimg as to forget their " Old Friend !" 31 this court all causes are tried and determined by the civil and statute law, and by the custom of the University. COMMONS, a College ordinary.— Bishop Atter- bury writes to a lady as follows : ' From Newington, Madam, I rode like a Newmar- ket racer, to pay a visit to my tutor at Oxford, who, after treating me in the most hospitable manner with a college Commons, so soon as we had dined, he readily accompanied me to Woodstock.' The following is a very surprising statement. It is an extract of a letter from Dr. (afterward Arch- bishop) Whitgift, of pious memory, to Mr. Secretary Cecil, the celebrated Lord Burleigh. 'That preferment that I have, whatsoever it is, I have it by your honour his means, and therefore I owe myself wholly unto you. But it is not so much as is reported. The Mastership o/ Pembroke Hal is but 41. the Year, and 18c?. the "Week FOR Commons. My benefice is one of the least in al the dioces. My lecture is the whole stay of my lyuing. My debts are more than I shall ever, being in the state I am, be able to discharge, and extreme necessity, not any prodigality, hath brought me into them.' (Appendix to Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift.) To be put out of Commons: ' One of the most idle and anile punishments,' — * the most futile and low conceited that Popery ever invented : a punish- ment inflicted, rather on the parent, than the young 32 man, who, being prohibited to eat in hall, is driven to purchase a dinner at a tavern, or coffee-house.' — (Enormous Expence in Education at Cambridge.)* COMMORANTES IN VILLA. Masters of Arts, or those of higher degree, who, residing within the precincts of the University, enjoy the privilege of being members of the Senate, without keeping their names on the College boards. The description of these persons is. Doctor vel magister commorans in Villa qui alit familiam ; — which gave rise to the fol- lowing jeu d'esprit : At a keenly contested election for the University, when votes were very severely scrutinized by the contending parties, a gentleman more remarkable for his parsimony than his learning tendered his vote. One of the opposite party dis- puted his qualifications, upon which the candidate, whose interest he espoused, insisted that he was Doctor commorans in villa qui alit familiam. ' That I deny (replied the other), ale it! why he does not even small beer it in his family.' COMPOUNDER. A person whos% living, or liv- ings, ecclesiastical, of what kind soever, are rated * " To be put out of Commons ;" — a man is »iot necessarily deprived of the pririlege of dining in hall, on the contrary, he may ' eat till he is red in the face ;' bat he is not allowed to have any dainties, viz. tartlets, etc. from the kitchen. 'Tis on the following account it operates as a punishment: — By the statute, a man must keep the greater part of each term, and by the regulations of his college, he must dine a certain number of days in hall, each week, ge- nerally five. No day counts daring the time he is " out of commons," nor is he marked, being considered absent ; so that, if he be out three days, he loses the iceek ; and, if he has it not to spare, his term. But the Tutor can restore him the time, by signing for him what is termed an Absit. 33 to the yearly value of 40 marks in the book of first- fruits or subsidy, and whose living temporal has been demised communibus annis at that rate or rent, or by common estimation accounted yearly worth the sum of 40 marks. COMPOUNDER GRAND. See Grand Com- pounder. CONCIO AD CLERUM. An exercise or Latin sermon, which is required of every candidate for the degree of D. D. In cases of non-performance, the sum of 10/. is forfeited to the University chest. CONGREGATION. An Assembly held in the Senate House, for the conferring degrees, and the dis- patch of University business in general. There are eleven congregations appointed to be held annually by the statutes ; one upon the last day of each term, two on the 10th of October, one on the 3d, and one on the 4th of November, two on the day after the second Tripos, and two on the 11th of June.* CONSISTORY COURT, of the Chancellor and of the Commissary. For the former the Chancellor, and in his absence the Vice-Chancellor, assisted by some of the heads of houses, and one or more doctors of the civil law, administers justice desired by any member of the University, &c. In the latter, the Commissary acts by authority given him under the • Any number of members, not less than Iwenty-five, with the proper officers or legal depaties.at all times however constitute a congregation, and may proceed to basine.ts. S 34 seal of the Chancellor, as well in the University, as at Stourbridge and Midsummer fairs, and takes cog- nizance of all offences, &c. The proceedings are the same in both courts. ( Vide Cambridge Calendar.) There is an appeal from the judgment of these courts to the delegates of the Senate. CONVENTION. A court clerical, consisting of the Master and Fellows, who sit in the Combination Room, and pass sentence on any young offender against the laws of soberness and chastity. By the civil laws of the land, drunkenness is admitted as an extenuation of any irregularity. Ebriis quandoque venia dari solet derelinquentibus , tanquam sepultis, et nescientibus. To the same effect, we are told by Calvin ; Jure nostra poena minuitur, quod in ebrio dolus abesse. But this is not University law ! a cir- cumstance which is mentioned with the sole view of i(s operating as a caution to the young student to drink no more than stands to reason — (scil.) lest Ytefall. COOL, impudent, unembarrassed. "A cool hand," in the words of Sir Thomas Overbury, * one who accounts bashfulness the wickedest thing in the world, and therefore studies impudence.' The fol- lowing ingenious imitation of the 22d Ode (1 B.) of Horace is dated Cambridge, August 1, 1750. * On the Happiness of a good Assurance.' * Whoe'er with frontless phiz is blest, Still, in a blue, or scarlet vest. 35 May saunter through the town*, Or strut, regardless of the rules, Ev'n to St. Mary's, or the Schools, In hat, or poplin gown. A dog he unconcern'd maintains. And seeks, with gun, the sportful plains^ Which ancient Cam divides ; Or to the Hills* on horseback strays, (Unask'd his tutor,) or his chaise To fam'd Newmarket guides. For in his sight whose brow severe. Each morn the coflee-houses fear. Each night the taverns dread ; To whom the tatter'd Sophs bend low^ To whom the gilded tassels bow ; And Graduates nod the head, Ev'n in the Proctor's awful sight On regent walk, at twelve at night, Unheedingly I came ; And though, with Whish's claret fir'd, I brush'd his side ; he ne'er enquir'd My College, or my name.' &;c, COPE. The Ermined robe worn by a Doctor in the Senate-House, on Congregation Days, is called Cope, COPUS Of mighty ale, a large quarte. Chaucer. " Vast toasts on the delicious lake, Like ships at sea, may swim," liaden with nutmeg * See THE HlTLS. D 2 The conjecture is, surely, ridiculous and senseless, that Copus is contracted from EPISCOFVS, a bishop 'a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar.' Dr. Johnson's Dictionary. A Copus of ale is a com- mon fine at the Student's table in Hall, for speaking Latin, or for some similar impropriety !"* The following spirited effusion would induce us to suppose that Copus has been naturalized at Oxford as well as Cambridge ; but on a reperusal, we shrewdly suspect that we can recognise the vis animi et gutiuris of a congenial and bibilous Cantab, with whom we have ourselves discussed — not a few Co- puses. Invitatory. Hor. lib. 1. Od. 20. Oh, come to my chambers thou prince of all editors. Come and quaff a huge Copus of Magdalen stout; 'Twas bottled the day when the world became debitors To you for the MAGf which beats North ^ out and out. The Varsities laud you, by big wig and commoner. Your praises are echoed from Isis to Cam, Then why, clearest Pere, this humbug and gammon, for. Your gout and rheumatics we know's all a flam. • Tempora mutantur. Bj an oKl statute, the Students of Trinity College are enjoined to speak no olbcr langoage at meals than Latin, Greek, or He- brew ! ! t Brighton Magazine. t Blackwood's. 37 ^^hat tho' a la Kitchener dishes wont greet you, Still of solids and fluids stores mighty we own: ' And all hands and hearts are distracted to meet you; Then hasten to Magdalen, " 'Q. ava^ av8pwy!" COVER-A**E-GOWN, better known as Bum- curtain, one, like the toga of the Romans, without sleeves. An Undergraduate's gown at St. John's, Sidney, Benet, Emmanuel, Christ's Caius or Gon^ ville, Magdalene and Pembroke. COURTS. The squares or areas into which each College is divided. For an account of the last court. (See Bogs.) These divisions in Oxford are called quadrangles. Vulgo. Quads. TO CRAM.— C Knowledge is as food.' Milton.) — Preparatory to keeping in the schools, or standing examiuatioa for degrees, those who have the mis- fortune to have but weak and empty heads, are glad to become 'foragers on others' wisdom :* or, to borrow a phrase from Lord Bolingbroke, to get their ' magazine of memory stuffed'' by some one of their own standing, who has made better use of his time. The following passage from Shakspeare will fur* nish the most apposite illustration : You CRAM these ivords into mine ears, against The stomach of my sense. Tempest, 0ue would think that Milton alluded to a College CRAMMING, when he spoke of ' knowledge, for him 38 that will, to take and swallow down at pleasure, (glib and easy) which, proving but of bad nourish- ment in the concoction, as it was heedless in the de- vouring, puffs up, unhealthily, a certain big face oi pretended learning.' (On Divorce.) TO CULMINATE ; to mount a coach-box. The University bucks are then in the meridian of their glory. CURATORS. The persons who have the care of the botanical gardens and Fitz-William museum, are thus designated in our University. TO CUT; to look an old friend in the face, and affect not to know him ; which is the cut-direct ! To look any where but at him — which is the cut- modest, or, CUT-INDIRECT 1 To 'forget names with a good grace'* — as, instead of Tom, Dick, or Harry, to address an old friend, " Sir," or, " Mister, — What^s your name ?" This is the CUT-COURTEOUS. '*Good den Sir Richard." — God-a-mercy fellow !"^ And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter; For new made honour doth forget men's names. Shakspeare's King John^ To be intentionally engaged on the phevomena of the heavenly bodies, when an old friend passes, is the CUT-CELESTIAL. Lastly, to dart up an alley, dash across a street, • Ben Jonson, Epigramt. 39 whip into a shop, or do any thing to avoid the trouble and mortification of nodding the head to some one, whom, perhaps, you have as muck reason to dislike, as the man in the epigram — Non amo te — nee possum dicere quare — This is the CUT-CIRCUMBENDIBUS ! The art of cutting an acquaintance is of very con- siderable antiquity. In a comedy which was pub- licly acted by the students of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1606, the following dialogue occurs, which is very smart and cutting ! "The Return from Parnassus." [iS'ee Dodsley's Old Plays.] Actus 2. Scena 5. Between Academico and Amoretto. Acad. — God save you. Sir. Amor. {^Aside.] By the mass, I fear me I saw this genus et species in Cambridge, before now. Fll take no notice of him. By the faith of a gentleman, this is pretty elegy. Of what age is the day, fellow ? — Sir- rah, boy, hath the groom saddled my hunting-hobby? Can Robin Hunter tell where a hare sits ? Acad. See a poor old friend of yours of S College, in Cambridge. Amor. Good faith. Sir, you must pardon me. I have forgotten you. Acad. My name is Academico, Sir; one that made 40 an oration for you once on the Queen s day, and a show that you got some credit by. Amor. It may be so ; it may be so ; hut I have for- gotten it. Marry, yet I remember there was such a fellow that I was very beneficial unto in my time. But, however. Sir, I have the courtesy of the town for you. I am sorry you did not take me at my father's house ; but now I am in exceeding great haste ; for I have vowed the death of a hare that was found this morn- ing musing on her meaze. Acad. Sir, I am emboldened by that great acquaint- ance that heretofore I had with you, as likewise it hath pleased you heretofore — Amor. Look, Sirrah, if you see my hobby come hitherwards, as yet, &c. &c. TO CUT GATES ; to enter coUege after 10 o'clock - — the hour of shutting them — an offence which is com- pounded for by fine, which goes to the porter. — bars and bolts Grow rusty by disuse, and massy gates. Forgot their oflSce, op'ning with a touch. Cowper's Task. The following query was addressed some years ago to the University : " Whether the statute which en- joins the gates to be shut at 8 o'clock in the winter, and" at 9 in the summer, be duly observed ?" which received the following curious answer ; — " They are generally well observed ; only ! some use more be- nign INTERPRETATION, and call it 8 till 9 in the winter; and 9 till 10 in the summer! !" 41 TO CUT CHAPEL; to be absent— Another of- fence which is compounded for by fine, which goes to the Dean. St. Peter, unto whom are given The keys for letting people into heav'n. Ne'er got more ha'-jjence in his life. P. Pindar. " I could mention a gentleman, formerly Dean of one of the larger Colleges, who has amassed a consider- able sura of money by fines on young men for non- attendance on prayers."* Enormous Expense in Education at Cambridge. In old time the absentees were punished by what is called stanging — making them ride on a colt-stafF, or pole. Stang, in the Anglo-Saxon language, signifies a wooden bar. This mode of punishment is certainly ridiculous, and only fit for children. — See Men. TO BE CUT ; to be half seas over. (See Rai/s Proverbs.) — " He has cut his leg" — periphrasis. He is drunk. 'I remarked, says a visitor to Cambridge, * that they frequently used the word cut in a sense to me totally unintelligible. A man had been cut in chapel, cut at afternoon lectures, cut in his tutor's rooms, cut at a concert, cut at a ball, &c. Soon, how- ever, I was told of men, vice versd, who cut a figure, cut chapel, cut gates, cut lectures, cut hall, cut exami- nations, cut particular connexions ; nay, more, I was informed of some who cut their tutors ! I own I was shocked at the latter account, and began to imagine * The Deans are by no means eager to exact tbese fines, but punisli severely by impoiilion. 42 myself in the land of so many monsters. Judge then, how my horror increased, when I heard a lively young man assert, that, in consequence of an intimation from the tutor relative to his irregularities, his father came from the country to jobe him — ' But, faith,' added he, carelessly, * I no sooner learned he was at the Black Bull' (an inn in the town so called), ' than I deter- mined to CUT the old codger completely.' But this was not the worst. One most ferocious spirit so- lemnly declared, that he was resolved to cut every man of Magdalene College ; concluding, with an oath, that they were a parcel of rippish quizzes." Gent. May. Dec. 1794. The passive cut is not confined to the University. I meet with it in the same sense, which is sense-less, in letters of a certain illustrious personage, who has been, as is here apparent, as drunk as " a Prince." ' St. L has a head like a rock.* We did not carry ofi" less than a dozen bottles each (!!!) and he was as sober as a methodist parson. As to my part, I own to you I was d * * * * bly cut, and made a mistake which had like to have proved fatal to me. I rose early in the morning, to get back to W r in time, and turning to the wrong stair-case, tumbled over the balustrades,' &c. (Letters from Florizel to Perdita.J CYCLE UvKkog) is chiefly applied to the nomina- tion of Proctors, and refers to that system of rotation by which those offices are elected. • The irapeiietrableness of this "Saint's" head is celebrated in the Jockey Club. Dedic. p. 11. 43 DAY-LIGHT, or Sky-light, is the easy attained science of hard drinking, when the glass is not a bumper. D. D. A Doctor in Divinity must be a Bachelor in Divinity of five, or a Master of Arts of twelve years standing. The exercises are one act, two op- ponencies, a clerura, and an English sermon. When, however, a M. A. takes his Doctor's degree in any of the three faculties, he is said to graduate per saltum, though properly this phrase belongs only to the degree of D.D. DEAN — Udorum tetricus censor et asper. Mart. The principal business of a Dean is to inflict imposi- tions for irregularities, &c. Old Holingshed, in his Chronicle, describing Cambridge, speaks of ' cer- teine censors, or Deanes, appointed to looke to the behaviour, and manner of the Studentes there, whom they punish very severely, if they make any default, according to the quantitye and qualitye of their trespasses.' When flagellation was enforced at the Universities, the Deans were the Ministers of Vengeance. Antony Wood tells us, that ' Henry Stubbe, a Student of Christ Church, Oxford, after- ward a partizan of Sir H. Vane, shewing himself too forward, pragmatic, and conceited, was publicly whipp'd by the Censor in the College-hall." See PuMiSHMEMT passim. DEGRADE. De gradu cedere— to put off the evil day — to defer the examination for a year or two. 44 Some that we have known have taken this dishonovr- able method of arriving at honour ; but indeed this degrading system cannot with propriety be said to confer honour ! Dabitur licentia sumpta pudenter. DEGREES. See A. B., A. M., &c. &c. DESCEND AS. A doutful compliment paid to those unfortunate wights who are appointed to deli- ver declamations in chapel ; but who, not being blest with the eloquence of Cicero or Demosthenes, nor enjoying the retentive memory of Hortensius, by dwelling too long on a single period, are cut short in their harangue by a testy descendas. Qu. Descend- Ass ! The following philippic from the pen of the late Lord Byron, on the style of delivering declamations, in Cambridge, is well suited to our subject : Or, even perhaps, the Declamation prize. If to such glorious height he lifts his eyes. But lo ! no common orator can hope The envied silver cup within his scope ; Not that our heads much eloquence require, Th' Athenian's glowing style, or Tally's fire. A manner clear and warm, is useless, since We do not try by speaking to convince ; Be other orators of pleasing proud. We speak to please ourselves, not move the crowd: Our gravity prefers the muttering tone, A proper mixture of the squeak and groan ; 45 No borrowed grace of action must be seen, The slightest motion would displease the Dean ; Whilst every staring graduate would prate Against what he could never imitate. The man who hopes to obtain the promised cup. Must in one posture stand, and ne'er look up. Nor stop, but rattle over every word. No matter what so it canwo^ be heard ; Thus let him hurry on nor think to rest, Who speak the fastest sure to speak the best ; Who utters most within the shortest space May safely hope to win the wordy race. (Vide Camb. Tart, page 67.) TO DISH AN Argument; to confute it. 'All which arguments he took off, and completely dish'd at last.' (Gent. Mag. vol. Ixiv. p. 118.) DOMINUS. A title bestowed on Bachelors of Arts. DoMiNUS Nokes — Dominus Stiles. It has been disputed by the learned, whether from the above "Dominus" the title of " Sir," which was formerly prefixed to the names of the Clergy, does not take its origin. In the Plays of Shakspeare, we meet with the following characters of the order of Priest- hood. Sir Hugh Evans, Sir Oliver Martext, Sir Michael, Sir Christopher Rerswick ; and the Clown in the Twelfth Night personates Sir Topas the Curate. The following seems to prove incontestibly that this originated from the Dominus at the University. A parallel between Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1641. 'Both took their degrees according to their time ; and through the whole academy (University), 46 Sir Wolsey was called, the Boy Batchelor; and Sir Laud, the little* Batchelor.' DORMIAT. To take out a Dormiat. Phr. a License to sleep. The licensed person is excused from attending early prayers in the Chapel, from a plea of being really indisposed — i. e. to attend! ESQUIRE BEDELS. Gentlemen-ushers to the Vice-Chancellor, who walk before him on all public occasions, bearing each (there are three of them) a silver staflf, or mace, on his shoulders, and habited in the dress of his degree, which is usually that of A. M. One of the 'Squire Bedels, likewise, walks before the preacher at St. Mary's, and sees him safe into the pulpit! The late Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus, was an Esquire Bedel at Cambridge. EXCEEDING DAY. A dinner extraordinary; answering to the ccena adjicialis of the Romans, Fuller, the ingenious historian, under the words, Cantabrigia petit {equates, aut (Bqualia, says — ' This is either in respect of their Commons-^ all of the same mess have equal shares; or in respect of Extraordinaries, they are all taoo-uju/SoXoi — club alike. EXEAT, vulg. voc. Exit. Leave of absence for the vacation, &c. EXERCISES. The University Statutes require certain exercises, (as acts, opponencies, &c.) to be * He was short of stature, vrlien at full ag^e ; apd what nay seem strange, be was shorter wlien dead ! i 5 o OC ^ n or J J o ff; *^ q 1 xo i c^ ^^ 5 oi ol O *^ J_> c !» Z 0^ Q oc p3 47 performed for particular degrees. (See Degrees in locis.J EXHIBITION; the same with Scholarship; a salary sometimes as low as 4Z. a year, and rarely exceeding 40/, in the gift of Schools, Colleges, and City Companies. The first endowment for Exhibi- tions, the learned Baker supposes, was in 1255, when William de Kilkenny, Archdeacon of Coventry, gave 200 marks to the Priory of Barnwell, for the endowment of two Exhibitions in divinity. (Baker's M. S. Hist, of St. John's Coll. Canib.) — ' In times past,' says Latimer, in one of his sermons (An. 154S), * when any rich man died in London, they were wont to helpe the poore schollers of the Universities with Exhibition!' This word in the above sense (an income, a salary) was not confined to the University. It occurs in Shakspeare, and in Ben Jonson, without any allusion to a College life. Thus in Every Man out of his Humour, Act ii. sc. 5. ' I'll pay you again at my next Exhibition. I had but bare x pound of my father, and it would not reach to put me wholly into the fashion.' — To exhibit was used in the same sense formerly. Antony Wood, whose language, as Dr. Berkenhout observes, is antiquated (he might have added, and affected), says of Bishop Longland, * He was a special friend to the University, in main- taining its privileges, and in exhibiting to the wants of certain scholars.' EXPULSION. A penalty incurred by a too fla- grant breach of the University regulations, and the laws of decorum. This punishment, we rejoice to ^ say, to the honour of all parties, has seldom been inflicted. *T0 FAG. To learn and labour, truly, to get a living,* and do duty. (*Hoc solum in votis habens Opimum Sacerdotium.) — *It were some extenua- tion of the curse,' says Sir Thomas Brown, *if in sudore vultus tui were confinable unto corporal exer- citations, and there still remained a paradise, or un- thorny place, of knowledge.' (Vulgar Errors.) — Dee, the famous Mathematician, appears to have fagg'd as intensely as any man at Cambridge. For three years, he declares, he only slept four hours a night, and allowed two hours for refreshment. The remaining eighteen hours were spent in study. FATHER, or Praelector. One of the Fellows of a College, so called ; who, like Micio in Terence, is Pater in consiliis, and attends all the examinations for Bachelor's Degree, to see that there is fair play, and that justice is done to the men of his own Col- lege. See SUPPLICAT. FEIAjOWS~( Socii)— Peers of thp University. They eat, and drink, and sleep, What then? They eat, and drink, and sleep again. Without his joke, not one will pass My huge rotundity of What food for each sarcastic lubber. This load of adventitious blubber ; * This term has been derived by the wils of Cambridge from the cele- brated Angle, F. A. G. in the pons Asbiorum. 4y Nor less conspicuous, let me tell ye, Will be my far projecting belly ; Which, thanks to good sirloin and port. Looks like the bastion of a fort. The Grumbler. These fellowships are pretty things ; We live, indeed, like petty kings. T. WartonH He trudged along, not knowing what he sought, And whistled as he went for want of thought. Cymon and IpJiigenia. In Miller's Comedy called 'The Humours of Oxford,' a party of jolly " Fellows" are introduced, singing as follows : • What class of life, though ne'er so great. With a good fat Fdlowship can compare? We still dream on at our own rate, Without perplexing care ; Whilst those, of business when oppress'd, Lie down with thoughts that break their rest. And then, then, then, Rise to toil, and slave again. An easier round of life we keep ; We eat, we drink, we smoke, we sleep, And then, then, then. Rise and do the same again.' ** We smoker — This is contrary to statute. (Vide Decret. Prcefect. Acad. Cant. 1607.) Nevertheless, at Emmanuel College, the late Dr. Farmer, among others, distinguished himself for his taste for to- bacco ! 50 FELLOW COMMONERS. Students (a non studendo!) who are, in appearance, the most shin- ing men in the University— their gowns are richly trimmed with gold, or silver, lace— their caps are covered with velvet, the tassels to which are of gold, or silver.* These gentlemen enjoy the privilege of cracking their bottle, and ihaix joke, if they have one, in the public parlour, or Combination Room, where they are literally "Hail, fellow, well met." It were almost endless to enumerate the privileges which these gentlemen enjoy by virtue of hereditary talents, instilled into their breeches' pockets. Those privileges, however, have raised the envy of their inferiors in point of fortune, who, in describing them, seem to have racked their invention to find terms sufficiently indignant, e.q. Fellow Commoners have been nick-named " Empty Bottles !" They have been called, likewise, " Useless Members!" ''The licensed Sons of Igno- rance !" ' The order of Fellow Commoner,' says one writer, *has, by immemorial usage, a kind of pre- scriptive right to idleness ; and fashion has inspired it with an habitual contempt of discipline !' It is even recorded as the saying of Dr. Watson, the present Bishop of Llandaff, that ' a Fellow- Com- moner is of no use, but to the Bed-maker, Tutor, and Shoe-black ! ! ! !'t * ' These gold threads Lave almost as much influence in the University as a red or blae ribband at conrl.' (See the Connoisseur, No. 97.^ t Be it kaown to our readers that this stigma, is no longer, if it ever was, applicable to this class of gentlemen ; many of whom have obtained a dislin- glli^shed place in the Tripos : and it is by no means unasaal to find their names amongst iMcdalists and Prizemen. 61 O, mighty Jove, what have I liv'd to see ! Bed-makers and shoe-blacks class'd with me ! ' That Dr. Watson was Tutor of a College is known of a surety. Who can doubt, then, but that his Lordship spoke from experience?' It is, likewise, well known, that, in the year 1786, a gentleman, who had been a pupil of his Lordship, Mr. Luther, of Essex, left him by will the useful sum of 20,000/.!!! FRESH ; newly come. So Shakspeare ; methinks I see Leontes op'ning his free arms, and weeping His welcomes forth : asks thee the son forgiveness. As 'twere i' th' father's person ; kisses the hands Of your FRESH princess. Winters Tale, A. IV. Sc. 9. Likewise, awkward, quizzical; like a Freshman. Thus in the Archaeologise Atticae, Edit. Oxon. 1675. ' For their behaviour at table, spitting and coughing, and speaking loud, was counted uncivil in any but a gentleman ; as we say in the University, that no- thing is FRESH in a Senior,* and to him it was a glory.' B. VI. FRESHMAN. While Sophs and Freshmen trembled at his nod. Byron. Nunc adbibe puro Pectore verba, puer ; nunc te melioribus oflfer. * A Soph. E 2 52 (Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorera Testa diu.) Horace. One who has not been a twelvemonth in the lap of his Alma Mater. " 1 am but a FRESH-water soldier under the banners of Phoebus." We fresh- water academicians." (See Ant. Wood's Speech be- fore his Fellow Students on his Entrance at Oxford, in his " Life." FRESHMAN'S LANDMARK; King's College Chapel. This stupendous edifice may be seen for several miles on the London road ; and indeed from most parts of the adjacent country. GAUDIES. — (a gaudeo.) Certain elegant 'set-outs,' when men in their own rooms enjoy the ' otium cum dignitate,' ' like hearty good fellows,' there being on such occasions, no lack of solids, or Hock, Claret, and Champaigne, to elevate congenials. " A soothing balmy blessing, Sole dispeller of our pain. Gloomy souls from care releasing. He who drinks not — lives in vain." GOLGOTHA; the place of Sculls, where the Heads of Houses sit at St. Mary's in awful array. GRACE. Any proposition presented to the con- sideration of the Senate ; but, previously to its being voted by the two Houses, it must be read and approved by the Council or Caput, each member of which has a negative voice 53 GRADUATE ; one who has taken his degree in any of the learned profession. Oh, fortunate nimium. See A. B. GRAND COMPOUNDER'S; Gentlemen who being blessed with a tolerable competency, enjoy the enviable privileges of paying double fees on their admission ad respondendum questioni. GRANTA. Thus was our famous University called originally. Quid quod Granta novem dicata Musis, Tersis praenitet erudita linguis. (Leland vid. Cygnea Cantio, 1545. J ' Granta (says the same great antiquary) Britan-nicc Cair-grant, Saxonice Grante-cestre, and vocabulo re- centiori Grantehrycge, &c.' Lambard contends, that ' Cambridge Town and University is not the same that Beda' (meaning the venerable Bede) ' calleth Grantacestre ; for that,' says he, 'is yet known by the name of the Grancyter, and is a small village thereby ; but Cambridge is the same that Mariau, and others, call Granthridge, and we corruptly, Cam- bridge.' (This 'village' is now called Grantchesfer.^ According to another great antiquary, it was originally called Caer-gurgant, — (from King Gurguntius, th« supposed founder;) " in tyme, by contraction of tht word, it grew to be cauled Caer-granf, which the Saxons cauled Grant-breig, which, in tyme, grew^ to Cambridge." (Lewis's Ancient History of Great Britain." The following Account of the several Colleges iu 54 Cambridge, and the Sciences which were anciently taught in them, is taken from the fourth volume of Leiand's Itinerary, by Hearne. (Appendix.) CANTABRIGI^. Regale Collegium, - Leg. & caet. Art. Regia Aula, - - - Leg. & Art. Michael Howse, - - Theol. & Art. Gunwel Hawie, - - Theol. & Art. Clare Hawle, - - - Tlieol. & Art. Trinite Hawle, - - Leg. Benet College, - - Theol. & Art. Peter Howse, - - - Theol. & Art. Collegium Reginae, - Theol. & Art. Bokingham College,- Monac ;hi. Quartuor ordines fratrura. Collegium Jesu, Fishwick Hostel, - - Art. Honyngis Yn, - - - Leg. Garret Hostel, Gregory Hostel, - - Art. S. Magaret's Hostel, S. Augustine's Hostel, Art. S. Thomas Hostel, - Art. S. Barnard's Hostel,- Art. S. Clement's Hostel.- Leg. Burdon Hostel, - - - Leg. S. Maris Hostel, Trinite Hostel, - - Leg. Harliston Place, - - Art. S. John's Hostel, - - Leg. S. John's Religiosi, S. Paul's Yn, - - - Leg. Canonici albi. 55 The University at present consists of the following Colleges : — A. D. St. Peter's College, founded - - 1257 Clare Hall --.---- 1326 Pembroke 1343 Gonville or Caius ----- 1348 Trinity Hall 1350 Corpus Christi or Benet - - - 1351 King's --------- 1441 Queen's 1446-65 Catherine Hall 1475 Jesus 1496 Christ's 1505 St. John's 1511 Magdalen 1519 Trinity --------- 1546 Emmanuel -------- 1584 Sidney Sussex - - ----- 1598 Downing 1800 GROATS. To save his groats ; to come oflF handsomely. " At the Universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer by every person standing for a degree, which, if the depositor obtains with honour, are returned to him." (Grose's Diet, of the Vulgar Tongue.) GYPS.— (Called Scouts at Oxford.)— Mercuries for expedition and roguery. These gentlemen are destined to do as many odd jobs as Scrub, in the Stratagem. Their knowledge oi conveyancing, which is very extensive, is seen in trifling article of waiting at table. They have a great many perquisites. It is 56 doubted whether Jack Ketch gets more suits of clothes, by virtue of his office! They obtained the appellation from their rapacious habits, they not being over scrupulous in breaking the 8th commandment. The word Gyp very properly characterizes them, it being derived from the Greek word FY^ a Vulture. {See Cambridge Tarty 277 J HABIT. College Habit.— College dress ; called of old. Livery : the dress of the Master, Fellows, and Scholars, according to their respective degrees. Notwithstanding the punishment denounced against any Student who shall be seen without his gown and cap, and even band, yet our University bucks, who dislike of all things to be accounted creatures of habit, are repeatedly seen strutting about the town, in forbidden boots, with hat, and stick, and eke a dog ! A modern reformer proposes, that for the first offence (appearing without the college habit) the delinquent shall be rusticated six months ; for the second, one year ; for the third, that it may be capital, and the delinquent expelled the University.* HACKS. Hack Preachers; * the common Ex- hibitioners at St. Mary's, employed in the service of defaulters, and absentees. A piteous, unedifying tribe. (Gilh. Wakefield. See Memoirs of his Life, 1792.) On Sunday, arrogant and proud. He purrs like any Tom Puss, And reads the word of God so loud. He must be Theo-pompiis. Camh. Tart, p. 112. It must be confessed, however, that these Hacks * The offender is now dished by an Arguuientum ad Crunienani, and fined 6s, 8d. 57 are good fast trotters — as they commonly go over the course in twenty minutes, and sometimes less. The following memorial may serve to shew, how much the patience of an auditory has declined from what it was in former times. J. Alcock, divina gratia, Episcopus Elliensis, prima die dominica mcccclxxxiii, bonum et blandum ser- monem prasdicavit, in ecclesia B. Mariae, Canta- brig. qui incepit in hora prima post meridiem, et duravit in horam tertiam et ultra. Dr. Barrow was the last of the family of the Spintexts. HALL. (See College.) Also the House of Commons, or place where men of every rank and degree discuss the good things af the world. " How jocund are their looks when dinner calls, " How smoke the cutlets on their crowded plate." Oh let not temperance, too disdainful, hear How long their feasts, how long their dinners last ! Nor let the fair, with a contemptuous sneer, On these unmarried men reflections cast. See Cambridge Tart, JJ2. HARRY SOPHS ; or, Henry Sophisters; in reality Harisophs, a corruption of Erisophs (lgiao<^oq, valde eruditus), students who have kept all the terms required for a law act, and hence are ranked as Bachelors of Law by courtesy. They wear a plain, black, full sleeved gown. Many conjectures have been offered respecting the origin of this term, but none which are satisfactory. First, That King Henry 58 the Eighth, on visiting Cambridge, staid all the Sophisters a year, who expected a year of grace should have been given them. Secondly, Henry the Eighth being commonly conceived of great strength and stature, these Sophistce Henriciani were elder, and bigger than others. Thirdly, In his reign, learning was at a loss, and the University stood at a gaze what would become of her. Hereupon many Stu- dents staid themselves two, three, some four years, as who would see how their degrees before they took them would be rewarded and maintained. (See Fuller's Worthies, and Ray's Proverbs.) — A writer in the Gent. Mag. thinks * Harry quasi Apa utique nempe — a Soph INDEED !' He had better have said an arrant Soph. HAT FELLOW COMMONER ; the son of a Nobleman, a Baronet, or eldest son of a Baronet, who wears the gown of a Fellow Commoner with a hat, and is admitted to the degree of A. M. after two years residence. HEADS OF HOUSES ; the masters of the dif- ferent colleges are so called. In fair round belly with good capon lined. With eyes severe, and Head of formal cut. As you like it. I have fed purely upon ale, I have ate ale, drunk ale, and I always sleep upon ale. — Beaux Stratagem. As what a Dutchman plumps into the lakes. One circle first and then a second makes ; What dulness dropt among her sons impress'd. Like motion from one circle to the rest, So from the midmost the mutation spreads Round and more round o'er all the sea of Heads. Pope's Dunciad. 59 Vain as their houses, heavy as their ale. Sad as their wit, and tedious as their tale. Byron. HEELTAPS.— The custom of the University is " to fill what you please, but drink what you fill." Any left in the glass is called heeltaps, which is a violation of the rules of good living. (See Buzz.) HIGH STEAYARD, The, has a special power to take the trial of scholars impeached of felony within the limits of the University, and to hold and keep a leet according to the established charter and custom. He is allowed a deputy. This office is now merely honorary. HILLS.- Gogmagog Hills, near Cambridge; a common morning's ride. ' Where have you been sporting your hit-o' -blood?' ' Just to the Hills and back.' These Hills are of not less notoriety at Cambridge, 'mid the sons of Granta, than the celebrated statues of Gog and Magog in Guildhall. They raise their lofty heads about four miles east of Cambridge, and are the highest eminences in the county. How they obtained their fanciful appellation is uncertain. It has been conjectured that some of the students, in olden time, cut the figure of a giant on the turf, and named it Gogmagog. On the top of these Hills is a triple entrenchment with two ditches, rudely circular. Some have sup- posed this a British, others a Roman camp. Proba- bly it was occupied by both parties. Within the en- trenchment, which encloses about 13^ acres, are the house and grounds of Lord Francis Osborne, son of the late Duke of Leeds. HONORS. — Certain distinctions conferred on Gentlemen eminent for their Classical and Mathema- tical acquirements. (See Tripos, Wrangler, i)C.) HUDDILNG. . . Asinus mens habet aures, Et tu habes aures. Ergo : Tu es asinus meus. This, which Sir Thomas More mentions, was * the forme of argving vsed by yonge children in grammer schooles,' in his time, would be thought very good HUDDLING for old boys at the University. ' When the Students,' says Sergeant Miller, ' come to take the degree of B. A. among other things they swear, that they have learned rhetoric in the first year of their coming to the University; in the second and third, logic ; and in the fourth year, philosophy ; and that they have performed several other exercises, which, through the multitude of scholars, and the want of time appointed for them, if they are per- formed at all, they are, the greatest part of them, in the manner which they call huddling — which is in a slighter manner than the usual mootings are in the inns of court.' It would seem, from the following from Dr. Knox, that huddling was known at Oxford. ' Droll ques- tions,' says he, ' are put on any subject ; and the puzzled candidate furnishes diversion by his awkward embarrassment. I have known, he adds, the question on this occasion to consist of an enquiry into the pedigree of a race-horse.' — At Cambridge, the diver- sion of huddling seldom terminates without some barbarous and wretched punning. JESUIT; a Member of Jesus College. 61 IMPOSITION ; * an addition of exercise given for a punishment. To impose that punishment — Multam imponere. Imposer cette peine.' — (LoveU's Universe in Epitome, 1679.) — ' Every pecuniary mulct whatever on young men in statu pupillari, should be abolished. The proper punishment is employing their minds in some useful imposition.' — (Enormous Expense in Education at Cambridge.) — * Literary tasks, or fre- quent compulsive attendances on tedious and unira_ proving exercises in a College Hall.' (T. Warton. See Milton s Minor Poems by T. TV. p. 432. J INCEPTORS ; Gentlemen, v^ho have proceeded to the degree of M. A. immediately after the second Tripos-Day; but who not enjoying all the priviliges of M. A. till the commencement, are termed Inceptors. TO JOBE, to reprove, to reprimand. — See Ray's Proverbs. " As poor as Job." ' In the University of Cambridge, the young scholars are wont to call chid- ing, JOBING.' " Methinks it could not do any great hurt to the Universities, if the old Fellows were to be JOBED for their irregularities, at least once in four or five years, as the young ones are every day, if they offend." (Terrce Filius, No. I.) JOBATION; a .sharp reprimand from the Dean for gOme such offence as not wearing a band (obsolete) ; I have known that, after a, jobation for this great of- fence! the delinquent has been punished with an im- position ! the not capping a superior, though ?c fellow! — the wearing a green coat — or a red waistcoat — the cutting hall, chapel, or gates — c^/^^m^r lecture, &c. &c. 62 " She tells Dr. Johnson, that when once he turns the page, she is sure of a disquisition, or an observa- tion, or " a little scold." But when do we see any scold, little or great, throughout the two volumes ? No such thing is to be found in them. And why? Because she has carefully suppressed every Joba- tion, as they say at Cambridge.'' (Barrettis Stric- tures on Seigniora Piozzi Europ. Mag. Vol. XIII. p. 293.; JOHNIAN HOGS ; an appellation bestowed on the Members of St. John's College. — Whence it arose has not been rightly, or with any degree of probability, ascertained. A variety of conjectures are offered in the Gent. Mag. for 1795, with the following jeu d' esprit. A genius espying a Coffee-house waiter carrying a mess to Johuian in another box, asked, if it was a dish of grains. The Johnian instantly wrote on the window, — Says the Johns eat grains ; suppose it true. They pay for what they eat; does he so too? Another wTiter, whom I should suspect to be May- sterre Ireland, the pseudo-Shakspeare, has, or pre- tends to have, discovered the following, in a very scarce little book of Epigrams, wTitten by one Master James Johnson, Clerk, printed in 1G13. To the SchoUers ofSainct John his College. Ye Johnishe men, that have no other care. Save onelie for such foode as ye prepare, 63 To gorge youre foule polluted trunkes withall ; Meere Swine ye bee, and such youre actyons all; Like themme ye runne, such be youre leaden pace, Nor soule, nor reasonne shynethe in your face. Edmond Malone, Esq. of ^laclt ^tttev sagacify, would discover, vnth. half an eye, that the above was not the orthography of 1613. Sainct — themme — rea- sonne — shynethe, &c. For a farther account. (See Cambridge Tart, p. 279.) TO KEEP;— to live. "Where do you keep?" Where are your rooms ? — " In the way to my friend's, having quite forgotten the direction to his Chambers in his College, I asked a Bed-maker, who was peram- bulating one of the courts, where Mr. — ■ — 's Cham- bers were, as I understood he lived in that court. The fellow stared me in the face, with an insipid vacant look, gradually improving into a grin. I re- peated my demand in a more impatient tone of voice, and added, ' I came to dine with Mr. .' The man scientifically shrugged up his shoulders, and walked away, protesting, he could not tell. I luckily espied my friend at the other end of the quadrangle,* and went to him. Upon my mentioning the recent embarrassing circumstance, he said, with a smile, ' I ought to have asked for his rooms, or enquired where he KEPT.' The word in this sense is often used by old writers." — (Gent. Mag.) — Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, cites a very apposite passage from Shakspeare : — " Knock at the study were they say he * " Cowrf' at Cambridge, answers to " Quadrangle" at Oxford. 64 keeps'' Sir Thomas More, in a letter to Dean Colet, " says, ' Yff the discommodities of the cittie doe, as they may very well, displease you, yet may the coun- trie about your parish of Stepney afforde you the like delights which that afTordes you wherein now you KEEPE." (Move's Life and Death of Sir Thomas More.) To Keep in the Schools; to perform an act or op- ponency. (To borrow the words of Sir Richard Steele, in the Dedication of one of his Treatises to the Pope ;) ' a game at learned racket. The question is the ball of contention, and he wins, who shews him- self able to keep up the ball the longest. A syllo- gism strikes it to the respondent, and a negation, or a lucky distinction, returns it back to the opponent; and so it flies over the heads of those who have time lo sit under it, till the judge of the game strikes it down with authority into rest and silence.' KING'S MEN. Members of the King's College. Ev'n gloomiest Kings-men, pleas'd awhile. Grin horribly a ghastly smile. C Smart. A KIPLINGISM; a blunder-BUS levelled at poor Priscian's head by the learned Dr. Kipling. The opposition wits at Cambridge have composed an epigram oi Kiplingisms. — (Kiplingius loquiatur.) Paginibus nostris dicitis mihi menda quod in sunt. At non in recto vos puto ego esse viri. 65 Nam primiim jurat (ca^tera ut testimonia omitto) Milnerus,* quod sum doctus ego et sapiens. Classicus baud es, aiunt. Quod si non sum? insacro sancta Non ullo tergum verto theologia. We should be doing injustice to the defunct, were we not to take cognizance of a modern Kiplingism, vel potius 3Ionkism, namely, a lapsus of a late Greek Professor, whom we beg leave to inform that, despite his anxiety and care to have the 'damning proofs' destroyed, we have now in our possession a copy of the first edition of the Alcestis et SERViBiMUs.f TO KNOW; a word which is very liable to mis- construction. " Do you know such a one ?" i e. Are you upon terms of great intimacy? — and, Do you wish to acknowledge him as your friend? Though a buck and a quiz, or raff, were to dine together at the same table every day — to meet together, continually, at wine parties — nay, keep together in the same stair- case; yet, if the former were asked, — Whether he knew either of the latter? he would answer, with all imaginable coolness and composure, in the negative!/ " There is such a man, but I don't know him." KNOWING men, or knowing hands, (vide Non- reading Men and cool hands.) LARK. A spree, a row, any thing out-and-out, whether it consists in upsetting a Snob, or topping a five barr'd gate, boning a knocker, or demolishing a • The late Master of Queen's College, t For an explanation of these litere tenebros(E, we beg leave to refer our readers to the inservibunt of the aforesaid edition. F 6G lamp. The ancient and inveterate antipathy which exists between Gown and Town, has been the proli- fic source of many a lark ; as the following imita- tion of Horace evidences : " 'Bout the wars of the Cantabs* and Snobs' rival glory; Cease, Peregrine South, to bewilder thy brain; For their freaks, ' sine limine shine will in story. Though Camusf divide, they will at it again !" — ^We cannot better conclude this article than by citing the following animated description, from the pen of a celebrated Jesuit, of THE BATTLE OF PEAS HILL. ' Musa, mihi caasas ineniora, qao nuinine lacso Quidve doleus Regina FiVff. JEn. \. 7. ' qnaeqae ipse miserrima vidi Et qaorum pars magna fui Mil. ii. 5. Fortanam Snobili Cant — abo et nobile belluni. Hor. Ars Poet. 137. The following effusion was penned the day after the memorable 13th of November, 1820, which must be a day of pleasant recollection to all Cantabs, as long as there shall be a Snob or Radical amongst them, or 9. fist to bate them with. This is the only Matricula- lation-day which is registered in letters of blood in the * 'Quid bellicosns Cantab — er et Scythes,' — The '' pole-handers" of the Cam (the " Cam pest res Scythes") are quite as barbarous and as savage as ever the aucient Polanders used to be, and may appropriately be called, the modern Scythes. ^ t ' Adria, divisus objeclo.'— Talk of the Cam to a Jobnian, and lie always thinks of a drxi altie on the WaterSlaircase. ¥ 67 archives of the Vice-chancellor; and we are sure there never was, nor ever will be, such an occasion for calling Freshmen from the science of mechanics to the application of its theory in the science of war. On Granta, when the sun was low. No symptoms lower'd of fearless row, But all was silent as the flow Of Camus rolling tardily. But Granta saw another sight. When radicals presumed at night. With Carter's* mutton-wicks to light Their Caroline's base treachery. Round Hobson's conduit quick array'd. Each Gownsman rush'd the cause to aid. And fast about him each one laid. With blows that told most terribly. Then rushing forth the Snobs among. Fierce from the ranks the Johnian sprung. And loud and clear the market rung, With shouts of dreadless liberty. But redder yet shall be each cheek. And louder yet each tongue shall speak. And fiercer yet each soon shall wreak His vengeance most undauntedly. 'Tis rushlight all — but what can shew The Gownsman from the Gownsman's foe, As shouting in thick files they go To battle all so merrily ? * A noted vender of v/ax, moulds, short sixes, fiirtbing rushlights, and all other ivick — ed v.ares. f2 «R No banners there were waving high, To cheer the brave to victory. No pennon floating to the sky. With rare device wrought curiously. No plumes of crested pride were seen. But tassels black of silken sheen. With gold and silver mix'd between. Emblems of unanimity! No sound was heard of martial drum. No bugle blast, but one wild hum Floated o'er all: "the Snobs! they come. On ! On ! and meet them cheerily," And then was shout, and noise, and din. As rallying forwards poured in Hundreds and hundreds, to begin The work of fame so gloriously. Then rush'd undaunted, to the fight. The tall — the low — the strong — the light ; And, Oh! it was a glorious sight. That strife of Town and Gown to see. As fist to fist, rais'd high in air, And face to face opposed were, As shone the conflict in the glare Of lights that told of Bergami. Then rushed to fight the hardy Soph, Regardless of the townsmen's scoff". As one by one they sallied forth To war in ambush warily. ()i) Then rush'd the Freshman to essay His maiden valour in the fray. And who that valour shall gainsay. And wrong not such effrontery ? Then, with one cry so loud and shrill. It echoed to the Castle Hill, They charg'd the Snobs against their will. And shouted clear and lustily. Then all distinctions were forgot^ Then, silk and velvet had one lot With tatter'd stuffs, upon that spot Which sacred was to bravery. No signs of fear, no signs of dread. Of bloody nose or broken head. Of wretch by Proctors homeward led. For " acting contumaciously." No thoughts were there, but such as grace The memory of that crowded place. The memory of that gallant race Who took and gave so heartily. — The combat deepens ; on, ye brave. Who rush to conquest, or to save ! Wave all your stuffs and poplins wave ! And charge with all your chivalry ! Few, few, shall part where many meet. Dull soon shall be each crowded street. Responsive, now, to thousand feet Pursuing on to Victory. ro LICET MIGRARI. A permission to leave one's college. This differs from the Bene Discessit, for although you may leave with consent, it by no means follows in this case that you have the approbation of the master and fellows so to do. LIONS ; Strangers, or visitors, at the University. LITTLE GO. A previous examination in Classics and Divinity, held in the Senate-house, instituted by a Grace of the Senate in 1822, which all Undergra- duates are obliged to attend in the Lent Term of their second year. The following query on the Oxford Small Go, lately appeared in Jackson's Journal. Exercise for the Little Go Men. No Cat has two Tails, A Cat has one tail more than No Cat, Ergo. A Cat has three tails. LL. B. A Bachelor of Laws must be of six years standing complete, and must keep the greater part of nine several terms. The exercise is one act. LL. D. A Doctor of Laws must be of five years standing from the degree of LL. B.; or a M. A. of seven years standing. The exercises are two acts and one opponency. L. M. A Licentiate in Medicine is required to be M. A. or M. B. of two years standing. No exercise, but examination by the Professor and another Doctor in the faculty. 71 TO LOUNGE— (Occupatus nihil agendo) to ' waste away. In gentle inactivity, the day.' The life of a Lounger is inimitably drawn by Martial in one line. See * The Oxford Sausage.' Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, * caeno, quiesco. TO TAKE A LOUNGE; to saunter about the town in listless indolence. Quacunque libido est Incedo solus : percontor quanti olus, ac far : Fallacem Circum, vesper tinum que pererro Saepe forum, &c. Perditur haec inter — lux. Horace. LOUNGERS (in the phrase of Dr. Johnson), ' am= bulatory students.' Quis, - - - - ut forte legentem, Aut tacitum impellat, quovis sermone moUstus. Horace. Loungers are not only idle themselves, but the cause of idleness in others. They are, literally, followers of that advice of the son of Sirach ; (See Ecclus. vi. 36.) * If thou seest a man of understanding, get thee betimes to him, and wear the steps of his door ' — For a further account of them, see ' The Connoisseur,' * I take up a loanghig book. 72 No. 82. Letter to a young Gent, going to the Uni- versity. ' The Guardian,' No. 124. Letter from Leo the Second, dated at his Den at Cambridge ; and the ' Spectator,' No. 54. Account of a New Sect of Philosophers which has arose in that famous Resi- dence of Learning, the University of Cambridge. LOUNGING BOOK ; a novel, or any book but a mathematical one. The late Mr. Maps, of Trump- ington-street, possessed the most choice collection of Lounging Books that the genius of Indolence could desire. The writer of these pages recollects seeing Rabelais in English; several copies of the Reverend Mr. Sterne's Tristram Shandy ; Wycherly and Congreve's Plays ; Joe Miller's Jests ; Mrs. Behn's Novel's ; and Lord Rochester's Poems, which are very moving ! And to these we beg to add — The Cambridge Tart, and Facetia Cantabrigienses. MALTING. Quaffing * Audit' and other Ales, to speak a la Cantab, is termed dialling. MANCIPLE. This office is obsolete. One who should take in hand to be tutor to the appetite. Horace insists that gentlemen who undertake this important office should be men of taste. Nee sibi caenarum quivis temere arroget artem, Non prius exacta tenui ratione saporum. iSat. IV. Lib. IL 35. MANDAMUS. A Special Mandate under the great seal, which enables a candidate to proceed to his degree before the regular period. 73 MAPPESIAN LIBRARY ; founded by the late Mr. John Nicholson, alias Maps,^ of Trumpington- street. Mr. Maps, if Fame lie not, was originally, by profession, a staymaker, which, strange to relate, had not attractions sufficient to bind him to it long. He afterwards took to crying and hawking of maps about the several Colleges in the University, whence he acquired all his claim to eccentricity ! ! MARSHAL. An officer who is generally engaged about the person of the Vice chancellor, but on con- gregation days he attends in the lower house. MASTER ; the Head of a College ; also Master of Arts. Ingenium, sibi quod vacuas desumsit Athenas Et studiis annos septem dedit — Horace, Epist. III. L. II. We are told by T. Warton, in his History of Eng- lish Poetry, that in the Gesta Romanorum, which was printed about the year 1479 (a copy of the se- cond edition was in the possession of the late learned and ingenious Master of Emmanuel, Dr. Farmer), one of the magicians in it is styled ' MAGISTER peri- tus/ and sometimes MAGiSTER,f and that from the use of this word in the middle ages, the title MA- *Mr. Maps' portrait, which now adorns the stair-case of the Public Library, was presented by the Undergraduates. t If I mistake not, the same occurs in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, — quasi Master of the black art. The following in Shakspeare Las much puzzled the commentators : which, I do not doubt, has the same allusion. "Weak wusttrs though ye be.'' — (Tempest, Act 3.) — 'It is not easy,' says the author of the Revisal, ' to apprehend in what sense these aerial beings are culled wasters' — and proposes muuiters. 74 GISTER in our Universities has its origin. Wliat- ever tiiey might have been formerly, blasters of Arts, in the present day, neither are, nor pretend to be, Conjurors ! MASTER OF ARTS' COFFEE-HOUSE. It is sufficient to announce, that there is such a place, where M. A.'s meet together to take their coflfee, like other men! — read the papers, and relate anecdotes of " the men of owr College." TO MATRICULATE. To enter the Student's name in the University Register. The following is from an occasional address spoken on Mr. Holman's first appearance at Covent Garden Theatre, Oct. 25th, 1784 : If you vouchsafe but to matriculate. And in the drama be his kind directors. No pupil e'er will more attend your lectures. Mr. H. rose to very high honours in the school of Garrick. MATRICULATION. The becoming an actual son of Alma Mater, by taking the oaths required by the University statutes, having previously Subscribed your name in the Book of the Registracy. M. B. A Bachelor of Physic must keep the greater part of nine several terms, and may be admitted any time in his sixth year. The exercises are one act and one opponency. M, D. A Doctor of Physic is bound to the same regulations as L. L. D, MUS. B. A Bachelor of Music must enter his name at some College, and compose and perform a 75 solemn piece of Music as an exercise before the University. MUS. D. A Doctor of Music is generally a Mus. B. and his exercise is the same. MEDAL. Several gold Medals are annually given in the University of Cambridge to Students, whose classical and poetical compositions are deemed wor- thy of this distinction. These gentlemen are called Medallists. There are also other Medals left by private bene- factors to individual Colleges. MEN.— Vix sunt HOMINES hoc nomine digni. Ovid, de Trist. At Cambridge, and eke at Oxford, every stripling is accounted a Man from the moment of his putting on the gown and cap. Consequently there are many MEN in our two Universities whose chins are out of all dread of a lathering ! TO MODERATE ;— to perform the office of Mo- derator in the schools. So Archbishop Usher, in a letter to Dr. Ward. * They would needs impose upon me the moderating of the divinity act.' Again, in some encomiastic verses on Thomas Ran- dolph, an ingenious poet : When he in Cambridge schools did moderate. Truth never found a subtler advocate. MODERATOR; the President in the Schools. ' The hero, or principal character, of the drama, not much unlike the goddess Victoria^ as described by the poets, hovering between two armies in an en- 70 gagement, and with an arbitrary nod deciding the fate of the field. The moderator struts between two wordy champions during the time of action, to see that they do not wander from the question in debate ; and, when he perceives them deviating from it, to cut them short, and put them into the right road again.' (Dr. Knox.) See keep. The mode- rators ' cover their head, 'And, indede, they have nede, to kepe in theyr wyt.' Hawkins's Old Plays. NESCIO. " To sport a Nescio ;"— to shake the head, a signal that there is nothing in it. Strange and paradoxical as it may seem — to sport a Nescio is very common with those who would, nevertheless, be thought very knowing. NOBLEMEN.— By an interpretation of a statute made Jan. 31, 1577, the question, "how far the ap- pellation of a Nobleman is to be extended?" it was decreed, that ' all are to be accounted for noble ; not only those who are barons, or superior to barons, in dignity; but also those wlio have any consanguinity, or affinity, to the royal Majesty. So as the title of the same dignity appertains to them which, as in our mother tongue we call, honourable personages, whe- ther men, women, or 3Iaids of honour!! For in such men and their sons, who shall seem to be next heirs to their parents, and otherwise shall be thought fit to adorn scholastical degrees, we think, that, not neces- sarily, nor strictly, the number of terms, nor the usual 77 solemnity of ceremonies, or commencements, ought to be observed' (! ! !) This statute is strictly observed. Lord Clarendon thought it ' an unhappy privilege which Noblemen have, to choose whether they would be obliged to the public scholastic exercises — a dishonorable prerogative to be more ignorant than meaner men.' (Dialogue concerning Education.) — A Nobleman at the University might be described in the following lines of Horace. Imberbus juvenis, tandem custode* remoto : Gaadet equis, canihns que, et aprici gramine campi ;t Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper,% Utilium tardus ^xov'isov , prodigus cBi'is, Sublimis, cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix. NON ENS; a Freshman in Embryo! one who has not been matriculated, though he has resided some time at the University, consequently is not considered as having any being ! NON PLACET. The term in which a negative vote is given in the Senate House. NON READING MEN may be divided into several classes; there are loungers, dandies, bucks, bloods, Johns, Nimrods, and many others : quos nunc praescribere longum est. He was perfum'd like a milliner, And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet box, which ever and anon * Tutor. t Newmarket. % Master and Fellows. 78 He gave his nose, and still he smil'd and talk'd. First Part Henry IV. Fill high the sparkling bowl. The rich repast prepare. Gray's Bard. Harry. Why, you're a high fellow Charles. Goldfinch. To be sure ! know the odds ! hold four- in-hand — turn a comer in style — reins in form — elbows square, wrists pliant, hayait ! drive the stage twice a week, pay for an inside place, mount the box, tip the coachee a crown, beat the mail, come in full speed, rattle down the gateway, take care of your head, never killed but one woman and a child in all my life — will you cut a card? — hide in the hat? — chuck in the glass ? — draw cuts ? — heads or tails ? — gallop the maggot ? — swim the hedge-hog ? — any thing ? — Road to Ruin. NON TERM. When any Member of the Senate dies within the University during Term, on applica- tion to the Vice-chancellor, the University bell rings an hour ; from which period Non Term, as to public lectures and disputations, commences for three days. OPPONENT— (First, second, and third,) in keep- ing in the schools, those who begin the attack — Make true or false, unjust or just, Of no use but to be discuss'd : Dispute and set a paradox Like a strait boot upon the stocks. Hud. Ne Hercules contra duos, says the proverb. It often 79 happens, however, that the Act, or Respondent, is an hyper-Hercules, and more than a match for the three. — The skill of the Opponents consists in making ' the worse appear The better reason — to perplex, and dash — (qu. Dish? See ''dish.") Maturest counsels.' Milton, P. L. OPTIME SENIOR. The title of those who ob- tain the second rank in the Mathematical Tripos. Quibus sua reservatur senioritas in comitiis priori- bus, who formerly ranked with Wranglers. OPTIME JUNIOR. The last honours of the Tripos list. Those quibus sua reservatur senioritas in comitiis posterioribiis. ORATOR. Public, is the voice of the Senate on all public occasions ; writes, reads, and records the letters to and from the body of the Senate, and pre- sents to all honorary degrees with an appropriate speech. This is esteemed one of the most honour- able offices in the gift of the University. PENSIONERS ; the same with Commoners at Oxford ; a rank of Students between Fellow Com- moners and above Sizers. *A Pensioner is generally a person of genteel fortune, and good expectancy, who wishes to pass through the usual routine of collegiate exercises without any pecuniary emolument, without enviable distinctions, or singular obsequiousness.' Gent. Mag. Vol LXV. p. 20. If by "pecuniary emolument" is meant exhibitions from the College, or 80 from other corporate bodies, this statement is not correct. The number oi Pensioners is very consider- able, who would be obliged to change their gown for a Sizer's, were it not for the pecuniary assistance they receive from city exhibitions, &c. which are seldom obtained without " singular obsequiousness," and the most mortifying servility. PIECE; a plat of ground adjoining the College; as, Pembroke Piece, &.c. Also a Piece ; one who is well acquainted with Propria qu^ Maribus. "Plu- tarch reckons up the names of some elegant Pieces, Leontia, Boedina, Hedicia, Nicedia, that were fre- quently seen in Epicurus' garden." (Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy , Edit. 1682. /oZ. P. ii. §. 2. p. 280. J PIT; the place of St. Mary's reserved for the ac- commodation of Masters of Arts, and Fellow Com- moners. The latter are " In Pit superlatively fine." Imit. of Horace. The Noblemen sit in Golgotha. The Bachelors of Arts mix promiscuously with the Undergraduates, in the gallery. The Proctors sit in the Pit, and make a very awful appearance. PLACET. The term in which an affirmative vote is given in the Senate House. TO BE PLUCK'D ; to be, in the fashionable cant phrase — done up — dish'd to all intents and purposes 81 — to be refused a degree or orders for the church, through insufficiency. Epigram on a Can fab who was pluck' d for orders. Ned cut off his queue, and was powder'd with care. Yet sadly mistaken was Ned, For tho' he had taken such pains with his hair. The Bishop found fault with his head. " Mr. Scurlock, A. B. Fellow of Jesus College (Ox- ford), was pluck'd, (i. e. disgraced, and forbade to proceed in performing his exercise,) for mentioning the word King in his declamation." (TerrcB Filius, No. 50.) Tempora mutantur. God bless his present Majesty George IV. chorus of Cantabs. ' Amen' PONS ASINORUM (vide Asses' Bridge.) POLLOI, 01 TToXXoi, " the many." Those who take their degree without any honour. " Oi rroXXoL," says Dr. Bentley, " is a known ex- pression in profane authors, opposed sometimes roig (To^otCj to the wise, and ever denotes the most, and generally the meanest, of mankind." (Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, Nov. 5, 1715.) The following ' Ode to the unambitious and undis- tinguished Bachelors/ is not, like the subject of it, destitute of merit. Post tot naulragia tutus. G 82 "Thrice happy ye, through toil and dangers past. Who rest upon that peaceful shore, Where all your fagging is no more. And gain the long-expected port at last. Yours are the sweet, the ravishing delights. To doze and snore upon your noon-tide beds : No chapel-bell your peaceful sleep aflfrights, No problems trouble now your empty heads : Yet, if the heav'nly Muse is not mistaken. And poets say the Muse can rightly guess ; I fear, full many of you must confess. That ye have barely savd your bacon. Amidst the problematic war. Where dire equations frown in dread array; Ye never strove to find the arduous way. To where proud Granta's honours shine afar. Within that dreadful mansion have ye stood, Where Moderators glare with looks uncivil. How often have ye d — d their souls, their blood. And wish'd all mathematics at the d 1 ! But ah ! what terrors, on that fatal day. Your souls appall'd, when, to your stupid gaze, Appear'd the bi-quadratic's darken'd maze. And problems rang'd in horrible array ! Hard was the task, I ween, the labour great, To the wish'd port to find your uncouth way — How did ye toil, and fag, and fume, and fret. And what the bashful Muse would blush to say. 83 But now your painful tremors all are o'er — Cloth'd in the glories of a full sleev'd gown. Ye strut majestically up and down. And now ye fag, and now ye fear no more." PRiELECTOR, or Father of the College (quod vide). PRESIDENT. The Master of Queen's College— In St. John's, Caius, Pembroke, Magdalen, and Ca- therine Colleges, the next in rank to the Master is so called, which answers to the Vice-master in Trinity, &c. &c. PRIZEMEN. ^Palmam qui meruit ferat.' There are various prizes given to Members of the Univer- sity, who have distinguished themselves, which in some instances consist of ponderous folios. Dr. John- son would not have felt the full force of such an over- whelming compliment, as the worthy Lexicographer considered a great book a great evil, 'neya (5i(5\ov fieya KUKov.' Such also was the opinion of the late Duke of Cumberland, who, when Gibbon triumphantly pre- sented the last volume of his Roman Empire to his Royal Highness, exclaimed, to the no small mortifi- cation of the historian, " What another d — d big book Mr. Gibbon ? hey !" See Davis's Bibliographical Olio. *PROCTOR, an academical officer, whose business * The Proctors are also required to be present at all congregations of the Senate, to take the suffrages of the house, to read the Graces in the regent house, to take secretly the assent or dissent, and openly pronounce the same. They mast be M. A.'s of at least two years' standing; but of whatever stand- ing, are Regents by virtae of their office. (Ed.) G 2 84 it is, * TTfpnroXeia^ai, to walk the round, and sec that there is no chambering and wantonness, no rioting and drunkenness. Proctors had need be Masters of Arts, for they are exposed to many scrapes. PROCTOR'S MEN (alias Bull dogs, quod vide). Not Gog nor Magog are more fierce in their exterior. They accompany the Proctor on all public occasions, carrying the University statutes, and in all his dan- gerous enterprises, enforcing his orders with an irre- sistible dexterity. — Deprendi miserum est. Horace. PROFESSOR. There are five Regius Professor ships, and many others founded by various benefac- tors. The possessors of which give lectures on the various branches of divinity, science, &c. during term. PROPROCTORS. These officers were appointed in consequence of the increasing magnitude of the University, to assist the Proctors in that part of their duty which relates to the discipline and behaviour of those who are in statu pupillari, and the preservation of public morals. TO PROSE; to tire with prolixity. '' Of the three opponents, he mentioned one who, in his opinion, PROSED very much in explaining the arguments." (Gent. Mag.) — Also, to Prose, to 'sit with a sad, leaden, downward cast.' (See Milton's II Penseroso ; or, Poem in Praise of Prosing ;) to be wholly absorbed in thought. Mathematical men have been addicted to Prosing from the time of Archimedes, who, as is well known, caught his death by a fit of it. — (See Plu- * Qa. WEjiTraTEis-Sai, Frviter$ Devil. 85 tarch.)— It is related, likewise, by Stobaeus, that the servants of this wonderful man were accustomed, at bathing times, to take him by force from the table, where he drew mathematical figures with such a fixed attention, that he continued to draw them en his anointed body ; not knowing where he was, while his servants were pouring ointments upon him, and pre- paring him for the bath. PROSER. ' One who, while you fancy he is ad- miring a beautiful woman, it is an even wager that he is solving a proposition in Euclid.' (Sped. No. 77.) — Chaucer's clerk in astronomy was an arrant, or errant Proser. He walked into the feldes for to pry Upon the sterre, to wete what should befall ; Til he was in a marl-pit yfall — He saw not that. Miller's Tale.— Edit, by Speght, 1598. PROVOST. The title appropriated, solely, to the President of King's College. ''On the choice of a Provost,' says the author of a History of the Univer- sity of Cambridge, 1753, ' the Fellows are all shut into the anti-chapel, and out of which they are not per- mitted to stir on any account, nor none permitted to enter, (ill they have all agreed on their man ; which agreement sometimes takes up several days ; and, if I remember right, they were three days and nights confined in choosing the present Provost, and had their beds, CLOSE-STOOLS, &c. with them, and their com- mons, &c. given them in at the windows.' — One does «6 hot see what occasion they could have for Closl- »TooLS, being so hard bou nd ! PUNISHMENT. We now use this to signify no- thing more than an imposition (see Imposition); and, the being enjoined to get the first book of the Iliad by heart, would be thought a severe " punish- ment." It may be worth while, however, to see, in what sense the word was used in the more barbarous ages, as they are very properly called. From the following verses of Milton — Nee duri libet usque rninas perferre magistri, Cceteraque ingenio, non subeunda, meo — It has been taken for granted, that he suflFered flagel- lation at Cambridge. The late Reverend and learned Thomas Warton, adopting 'apt alliteration's artful aid,' affirms, that * in those days of simplicity and sub- ordination, of roughness and rigour, this sort of pu- nishment was much more common, and consequently, by no means so disgraceful for a young man at the University as it would be thought at present.' After Warton, the testimony of Samuel Johnson is deserv- ing attention. The Doctor, who has lash'd Milton most unmercifully with his pen (see his Life), yet tenderly and delicately says, alluding to the poste- riori evidence, ' I am ashamed to relate, what I fear is true, that Milton was the last student in either Uni- versity that sufl'ered the public indignity of corporal punishment.' The officer who bore the fasces, and performed this fundamental part of discipline, was Dr. Thomas Bainbrigge, Master of Christ's College. The same punishment was introduced in domestic 87 education. ' Fathers and mothers,' says Aubrey, ' used to lash their daughters when they were perfect women.' Proh pudor! — A school-master, who undertook to translate Horace, rendered the following ; sublimi flagello Tange Chloen semel arrogantem. On scornful Chloe lift thy wand. And SCOURGE her with unpitying hand. (! ! !) In Sir John Fenn's Collection of Letters, written during the reign of Henry VI., &c. we find one of the GENTLE SEX prescribing for her son, who was at Cambridge, as follows : — "prey (i. e. entreat) Grenefield to send me faith- fully worde by wrytyn, who (how) Clemit Fasten hathe do his dever i' lernyng (done his endeavour in learning), and if he hathe nought do (done) well, nor wyll nought amend, prey hym that he wyll trewly BELASCH hym* tyl he wyll amend, and so ded (did) the last maystr, and y^ best, eu' (ever) he had att Caumbrege." The GENTLE-woman concludes with a promise to give Master Grenefield " X m'rs" i.e. ten marks, for his pains ! We do not learn how many marks young Master Clement received ; who, certainly, tooJc more pains, though of another nature — patiendo non fa~ ciendo — f er en d o non feriendo. An old poet, Thomas Tusser, author of Five Hun- * Trewly belasch him— In plain English — give him a good, heartt rLOGGIKG. 88 dred points of good Husbandry, thus piteously com- plains of the treatment he met with in his " boyish days :" From Paul's I went, to Eton sent. To learn straight-ways the Latin phrase, Where fifty-three stripes giv'n to me, At once I had : For fault but small, or none at all. It came to pass thus beat I was, See, Udall,* see, the mercy of thee, To me poor lad ! We are happy to state, as an instance of superior refinement and civilization in the present age, that this mode of correction, which is very cutting to a man of the least sense or feeling, is almost obsolete in our public schools. Of its specific virtue, however, no doubt was entertained by our forefathers ; and the name of Busby will be long remembered, for his vi- gorous and determined perseverance in going to the very bottom in discipline. Other men have arisen to fame by the happy strokes of their pen ; he, by the less happy, but more lively, more feeling, more home strokes of his rod ! No man ever afforded a more striking illustration of that old saying, Ars patet omnibus, than he did ; and with equal truth it might be said, that no master ever gave his scholars more reason to remember him. * It is said, that this Udall was the first man that King Jaraes the First inquired for when he came to England ; and, hearing of his decease, ex^ claimed, ' By ray sal, then, the greatest scholar in Europe's dead !' 89 In the statutes of Trinity College, An. 1556, the scholars of the foundation are ordered to be whipp'd even to the twentieth year. ' Dr. Potter/ says Aubrey, * while a Tutor of Trinity College (Oxford), whipt his pupi^l with his sword by his side when he came to take his leave of him to go to the inns of court.' This was done to make him a smart fellow ! QUESTIONIST. One who has been * long tow'rds mathematics. Optics, philosophy, and statics.' Hud. Sophs of the highest order ; also men who have pass- ed their examinations, and are admitted ad respon- dendum quEestioni. QUIZ. — This word is used in a variety of senses. (1.) In a good sense. One who will not be shamed out of his virtue, nor laughed out of his innocency. Hence the punning quotation — ViR bonus est Quiz. There were Quizzes of this description in the primitive ages. See Wisdom of Solomon, II. 15, &c. Such kind of quizzicalness cannot be better recommended than in the words of a writer who has been too much neg- lected — honest old Jeremy Collier. (See his ingenious Essays.) — " Arm yourself with recollection, and be always on your guard : make a strong resolution in your defence; that goes a great way in most cases. Have a care of a weak complaisance, and of being preposterously good matured, as they call it — you'll pardon the expression. Be not overborne by im- portunity: — never surrender to a jest, nor make the 90 company master of your conscience. Venture to be so morose (i. e. quizzical) as to maintain the reason of a man, and the innocence of a Christian. 'Tis no disgrace to be healthy in a common infection. Sin- gulanty in Virtue, and Discretion, is a commen- dation, I take it."— (Essay on Drunkenness * ) By a Quiz is commonly understood, in the words of Ben Jonson, ' one who affects the violence of Singularity in all he does.' (Here a little well-tem- pered ridicule may be of service — ) In defining a Quiz, adde Vultum, habitumque hominis, as Horace says. And first, for his physiognomy. ' It is impossible to account for the persecution of these beings (Quizzes), unless we suppose, that non- resistance only sharpens that rage, which Ugliness originally provoked.' (The Microcosm.)— Adde ha- hitum. In the second place, a man sometimes obtains the odious appellation of a Quiz merely from his stile of dressing; which is, ex pede, different from orthodox, or established fashion. Rideri possit, eo quod Rusticius tonso toga defluit, et male laxus In pede caleeus haeret. - - _ . - at est bonus, ut melior vir N on alius quisquam; at tibi amicus: At Inge- nium ingens Incidto latet hoc sub corpore. Horace. Still, for all that, he is a Quiz ! * The being enjoioed to turn a page, or two, of this Essaj iuto Latin, woald bu a much more useful imposition on account of any irregularity, than the being appointed lo get by heart " two or three hundred rumblers out of Homer, iu cotDmendation of Achilles' toes, or the Grecians boots." (Archdeacon Echurd's Contempt of the Ctergij.) 91 The most l)orish of all quizzes is, however, the Laudator temporis acti, Se puero. *' Oh the days when I was young." RAFF (probably contracted from Rag-a-muf- fin); a dirty, low, vulgar fellow ; one whose vices are not the vices of a gentleman. TO READ (a very emphatical word) ; the same with Fag. — " To read for an honour." (Phrase.) A READING-MAN ; one whose mind is devoted to nothing else but the study of the Mathematics : one who, though naturally, perhaps, of a peaceable, quiet temper, and disposition, so congenial to study, yet whose highest ambition is to be accounted the greatest wrangler in the University ! " Hence, loathed Mathematics! Of lecturer and blackest tutor born, In lecture-room forlorn, 'Mongst horrid quizzes, bloods, and bucks unholy ; Find out some uncouth cell. Where pallid Study spreads his midnight wings. And dismal ditties sings ; There, midst unhallow'd souls, with sapless brain, Compose thy sober train. And in the mind of reading Quizzes dwell." The following quotations admirably de£ne the character of this class of men : These self-devoted from the prime of youth. To life sequester'd, and ascetic truth. — Harte. 9S In garrets dark he smokes and puns, A prey to discipline and duns, And now intent on new designs, Sighs for a fellowship and fines. Progress of Discontent. REDEAT. It is the custom in some Colleges, on coming into residence, to wait on the Dean, and sign your name in a book, kept for that purpose, which is called signing your Redeat. REGENTS; Masters of Arts under five years standing in the University; who are appointed, by Statute, Regere in Artibus, i. e. to preside in the School of Arts during that time. — Egregii viri, vindi- cate protestatem vestram ; memineritis vos non frustra Magistrorum et Regentium nomine insigniri. Dean Bathurst. — (Orat. habit in dom. convoc. Oxon.) NON REGENTS; those whose Regency has ceased by being above five years standing. A Non Regent's hood is entirely of black silk. — The terms Regent and Non Regent are as old as the reign of Edward the Sixth. REGISTRARY. This officer is obliged, either by himself or deputy properly authorized, to attend all Congregations, to give directions, if it be required, for the due form of such graces as are to.be pro- pounded, to receive them when passed in both Houses, and to register them in the University re- cords. To register also the Seniority of such as proceed yearly in any of the arts and faculties, ac- 93 cording to the schedules delivered unto him by the Proctors. RESPONDENT; the same with Act. RETRO : a behindhand accompt. A cook's bill of extraordinariesnot settled by the Tutor. A ROW; a riot— To row a room ; to break the furniture. This is not uncommon after a wine par- ty, when Bacchus, the Apollo Virorum, (Canta- hrig.) has taken possession of the head quarters, and Reason is obliged to surrender. RUSTICATION. " It seems plain from his own verses to Diodati, that Milton had incurred Rusti- cation — a temporary dismission info the country, with, perhaps, the loss of a term." — (Dr. Johnson.) It is, sometimes, with the loss of a year: i. e. three terms. The next sentence to Rustication, is Ex- pulsion, when the unhappy Student may exclaim. Farewell, for ever, to all my former greatness/ This (latter) one would, in common candour, suppose had never been enforced, but upon some great and crying occasion. Yet Sergeant Miller, in his Ac- count of the University of Cambridge, relates, that " Dr. Bentley, without any summons, proof, or ceremony, or even the consent of the senior Fellows, expelled one Hanson, a poor subsizer, for what in general terms he calls, a foul and scandalous of- fence : though at Ely House he endeavoured to prove it was for going to a Presbytei ian Meeting."! ! Ex- cessive sanctity is an offence wlu'ch is never corn- 94 plained of, in the present day, either at Cambridge, or Oxford. The following Verses, entitled, "The Rusticated Cantab," appeared in the Morning Herald : Dread worthies, I bow at your shrine, And, kneeling submissive, petition You'll pardon this false step of mine. And pity my dismal condition. When ye met altogether of late. In the room which we term Combination, To fix your petitioner's fate, Alas ! why do you chuse rustication t That my conduct was wrong I must own. And your justice am forc'd to acknowledge; But can I in no wise atone For my fault, without leaving the College ? Consider how strange 'twill appear. In the mind of each fine jolly Fellow, That a Cantab was banish'd a year, Just for roving a little when mellow. You have precedents, no one denies. To prove it but just that I went hence ; But surely no harm could arise, If you were to relax in your sentence. No, trust me, much good should proceed From granting this very great favour ; For, impress'd with a sense of the deed, I'd carefully mend my behaviour. 95 You will then have on me a strong hold, For Gratitude's stronger than any tie : Then pray do not think me too bold, In thus begging hard for some lenity ! But why should I humbly implore. Since to you all my sorrow's a farce ? I'll supplicate Fellows no more ; So, ye reverend Dons, caret pars. SAINTS. " A set of men who have great preten- sions to particular sanctity of manners, and zeal for ^orthodoxy." (See proceedings against W. Frend, M. A. published by himself. J SATIS; the lowest honour in the Schools. Satis disputasti; which is as much as to say, in the col- loquial stile, " Bad enough." — Satis et bene dispu- tasti. Pretty fair — Tolerable. — Satis, et optime dis- putasti. Go thy ways, thou flower and quintessence o/" Wranglers ! Such are the compliments to be expected from the Moderator, after the act is kept. SCARLET DAYS. Certain Festivals in the Church of England, upon which the Doctors in the three learned professions appear in their Scarlet Robes. Noblemen also residing in the Universities wear their full dresses on these occasions. SCHOLARS. Those Students who have obtained by their erudition, certain emoluments, arising from benefactions left for the purpose of founding Scholar- * The modern Saints are much more inclined to heterodoxy ; and indeed appear to wish to undermine the foundations of the Protestant Established Church. — " Scatter our Enemies." — National Song. 96 ships. The majority oi which are confined to parti- cular Colleges ; but the most honourable are open to competion of the whole University. TO SCONCE ; to impose a fine. (Academical Phrase.) Grose's Diet. This word is, I believe, wholly confined to Oxford, " A young Fellow of Baliol College, having, upon some discontent, cut his throat very dangerously, the Master of the College sent his servitor to the buttery-book to sconce (i.e. fine) him 55. ; and, says the Doctor, Tell him the next time he cuts his throat, I'll sconce him ten." (TerrcB Filius, No. 39. J SCRAPING ; shuffling of the feet.— This is prac- tised at St. Mary's, and is no tacit mark of disap- probation of the preacher, or of his doctrine, or of the length of his discourse. The late Gilbert Wake- field scruples not to confess, in his ' Memoirs,' that he was too prone to mischiefs of this nature, p. 3. Scraping seems to have been of great antiquity. In one of Hugh Latimer's sermons, preached before King Edward the Sixth, is. the following passage : " Et loquentem eum audierunt in silentio, et seriem lectionis non interrumpentes." 'They heard him/ saith he (Chrysostom), ' in silence ; not interrupting the order of his preaching.' ''He meanes, they heard him quietly, without any shoveling feete." (Fruitful Sermons, 4to. 1635. B. L.) SCRIBBLING PAPER; an inferior sort used by the mathematicians, and in the lecture room. The 97 ancient mathematicians used to draw their figures on the sa.nd—exarantur illcB figures, aclinece inpulvere— by which means they avoided the inconveniency of blotting— J7^ si quid rectum non sit, facile corrigatur. SCRUTATORS ; these officers are Non Regents, whose duty it is to attend all congregations, to read the graces in the lower house, to gather all votes secretly, or take them openly in scrutiny, and pub- licly to pronounce the assent or dissent of that house. SENATE HOUSE. Within the sacred walls of this edifice, the sons of Grant a generally undergo their final examination, previously to their being admitted to the degree of A. B. Here also are conferred all other degrees; and Congregations are held to transact and regulate the special affairs of the University. Here education, power divine. Her favourite temple long has plann'd. And calls around her sacred shrine To guard her laws a chosen band. Conducts each dubious step by reason's plan. Nor tamely yields the sacred rights of man. Roscoe. Go soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere. To the first good, first perfect, and first fair. Pope. How charming is divine Philosophy, Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. But musical, as is Apollo's lyre. And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets. Where no crude surfeit reigns. Milton. H 98 SIMEONITES ;— (A correspondent to the Gent Mag:- asks, and has not been answered, ' Why the inhabitants of ^Magdalene College continue to be styled SiMEONiTES?' disciples and followers of the reverend and inous Charles Simeon, M. A. Fellow of King's College — inventor of) " Skeletons of Ser- mon's!!" &C. &C.&C, SIZE — in academiis, from Assise — Fr. Asseoir, to set down, sc. sumptus qui in tahulas referuntur. Ray derives it from scindo. Minshew has inserted the word in his Guide into Tongues, second Ed. 1G26, and with it, the following. " A size is a portion of bread and drinke; it is n fai'thing, which schollers in Cambridge have at the buttery ; it is noted with the letter S. as in Oxford with the letter Q. for lialfe a farthing ; and whereas they say in Oxford, to battle in the Buttery-booke, i. e. to set downe ow their names what they take in bread, drinke, butter, cheese, &c. ; so in Cambridge, they say, to size, i. e. to set downe their quantum, i. e. how much they take on their name in the Buttery-booke." This word, as was observed of Exhibition, was not confined to the University. King Lear, in Shakspear's inimitable Tragedy, is made to address one of his daughters ; 'Tis not in thee To grudge my pleasure, to cut off ray train, To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes. — TO SIZE, " at dinner, is to order yourself any little luxury that may chance to tempt you, in ad- * Together with the rage for tea, and other hariuiess potations. The Queen's men have imbibed the doctrines of the apostolic Simeon. In their Vocabulary— Bene Potus is no longer a four bottle Man, but one who has discussed his seventh cup of Souchong. 99 dition to your general fare ; for which you are expected to pay the cook at the end of the term." This is often done when the commons are scanty or indifferent. As a College term, it is of very considerable antiquity. In the Comedy called ' The Return from Parnassus, 1606/ one of the characters says, ' You that are one of the Devil's Fellow Com- MONEns; one that sizeth the Devil's butteries; one that are so dear to Lucifer, that he never puts you out of Commons for non-payment/ &c. Again in the same ; ' Fidlers, I use to size my music, or go on the score for it.' * SIZAR, or SIZER; 'equivalent to Servitor at Oxford, and is commonly a young man of mean and poor extraction, and one who comes to College to mend his circumstances, and to gain a comfortable livelihood by means of his literary acquirements.' (Gent. Mag.)— Not one word of this is true! Yet, in all the Dictionaries, Johnson's not excepted, SiZER is said to be the fiame with " equivalent," or answering to. Servitor. Whoever has resided any little time at Cambridge, must know, that, in point of rank, the distinction between Pensioners and Sizers is by no means considerable. Between Commoners and Servitors there is a great gulf fixed. Nothing is more common, than to see Pensioners and Sizers taking sweet counsel together, and walking arm in arm, to St. Mary's, as friends. f Formerly, indeed, the Sizers were required to wait at table; but this painful and disgraceful injunction is abolished; in * Subsizer was also formerly used, but we believe is now exploded. (Vide Miller's University of Cambridge.) t The Sizers occupy llie same seats as the Pensioners. [} 2 100 consequence of which, many very respectable, though not opulent, families are not ashamed to enter their sons of this rank of Students. The Sizeis are allow- ed their Commons in Hall ; Eustatius remarks, it w as accounted a great favour in the Eraperour's granting any learned man — ev Moutrfta aun](nv, i. e. his College Sizings. — With respect to their going to the Univer- sity to mend their circumstances, I only answer, ii;omM it were so! In addition to City Exhibitions, and College allowances, no small income is required to maintain even a Sizer, in these times, with decency. — (See Enormous Expense in Education at the Uni- versity of Cambridge, 8to. 1788. J In respect to their academical habit: At Trinity and St. John's Colleges, the Sizers wear precisely the same dress with the Pen- sioners. At other Colleges, the only difference is, that their gowns are not bordered with velvet.* At Peter- House, the Pensioner's gown is the same as is worn by the Bachelors of Arts; and the Sizers' is the same as is worn by the Pensioners of St. John's, Emmanuel, &c. In every College, the Sizers invite, and are invited by, the Pensioners to wine parties ; and some of them (the former) endeavour to vie with the latter in fashion- able frivolity. Alluding to the ancient custom of compelling them to wait at the Fellows' table. Kit Smart, a son of genius, thus humorously alludes in his Tripos on Yawning. Haud aliter Socium esuriens Sizator edacem Dum videt, appositusque cibus frustratur hiantem, Dentibus infundens, nequicquam brachia tendit, Sedulus officiosa dapes removere paratus. — • The Sizers now, on becoming Scliolars, at most of tlie Colleges ' sport velvet.' I 101 SIZING^. Little delicacies which men have the privilege of ordering — and paying for. To be put out of Sizings, i. e. to be refused this privilege, is there- fore no uncommon punishment. SIZING BELL; a bell which is rung every even- ing, at eight o'clock, to signify that the Sizing Bill is ready, (obsolete.) SIZING PARTY differs from a supper in this; viz. at a Sizing Party every one of the guests contri- butes his pai't ; i. e. orders what he pleases, at his own expense, to his friend's rooms. '' A part of fowl," or duck; a roasted pigeon; "apart of apple pye." These Sizing Parties remind us of Homer's daiTa eiarjv, as explained by Madam Dacier. A sober beaker of brandy, or rum, or hoUands and water, concludes the entertainment. In our days, a bowl of Bishop, or milk punch, with a chaunt, generally winds up the carousal. SNOBS. A term applied indiscriminately to all who have not the honour of being Members of the University ; but in a more particular manner to the ' profanum Vulgus,' the Tag-rag, and Bobtail, who vegetate on the sedgy banks of Camus ; and who appear to have a natural antipathy to the ' Gens Togata.' SOPHS. Senior Sophs, or Sophisters; Students in their last year. SOPHISH GOWN ; one that bears the marks of having seen a great deal of service ; — *' a thing of 102 shreds and patches." So in the old Comedy of The Poor Scholar, — speaking of certain Sophs of this description ; Their old rags are badges of honour : A coat of arms, the older 'tis and plainer, 'Tis the more honourable : their habit does Declare unto the world, that they have been In hot and furious skirmishes, they are so Slasht and cut. SOPH-MO R ; ' the next distinctive appellation to Freshman.' A writer in the Gent. Mag. thinks Mor *an abbreviation of the Greek Mopm, introduced at a time when the Encomium Mori^:. • ■:)■ Ji^,r .■ N -r '\ v -v '':::,;: •:;::.. jif V ' ~i', I r- !■> v'^'i'' -.'y. 1,1.1-: ti' --;"■»;" -al