victualing houses prepare Flesh good store for all Schollers and others that will come or send unto them,' and the Tutors allow double money for suppers on those days. At Peterhouse, after the Revolution, the custom of eating fish on Fridays remained, but it was in addition to the ordinary provision of meat. 'It was the custom for colleges, and indeed for most other people, till towards the middle of the 17th century, to dine at ten or eleven o'clock in the forenoon. "With us (says the preface to Hollingshed) the nobilitie, gentrie, and students, do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at five, or between five and six, at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelve at noone and six at night, especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high-noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or eight; but out of the terme in our universities, the scholers dine at ten." On Feb. 10, 1721-2, Hearne wrote in his diary 'Whereas the university disputations on Ash Wednesday should begin at 1 o'clock, they did not begin this year till two or after, which is owing to several colleges having altered their hours of dining from 11 to 12, occasioned from peoples lying in bed longer than they used to do.' So a year later he laments that whereas Oxford scholars were summoned to meals at 10 o'clock on Shrove Tuesday by the pancake-bell at S. Mary's, and at 4 o'clock; at Edmund hall dinner was now at 12 and supper at 6, and no fritters. 'When laudable old customs alter 'tis a sign learning dwindles.' So on Christmas Day, 1732, the University Sermon was, by order of the Vice-Chancellor, advertised not to begin till 11 o'clock, 'the reason given was sermons in coll. chapels. This reason might also have been given formerly. But the true reason is that people might lye in bed the longer. They used formerly to begin in chapels an hour sooner, and then they were ready for the university sermon. The same reason, viz., lying a-bed the longer hath made them in almost all places in the university alter the hours of prayers on other days, and the hour of dinner (which used to be 11 o'clock) in almost every place (Christ Church must be excepted) in the university where ancient discipline, and learning, and piety, strangely decay.' In 1747, Dr. Ri. Newton's rule for Hertford college (p. 70) was dinner at 1, supper at 7. He proposed to provide 1 lb. of meat per man, value not exceeding threepence (which was double the existing price). He attempted also to obviate an abuse such he had witnessed where the ten seniors would eat all, and leave the ten juniors to dine abroad in Public-Houses at four times the Expence attended with Other Inconveniences.' At Cambridge in 1755, and for many years after, every college dined at 12 o'clock, and the students after dinner flocked to the philosophical disputations which began at 2. At St. John's, in 1799, it was agreed that the hour for dinner be 2 o'clock during non-term.' In D'Ewes' time, 1620, during Sturbridge fair, they swallowed down their dinner at 9 o'clock, and having quickly ended by reason of short commons, the greater part of the undergraduates did run presently to the fair.' At Emmanuel the hour was changed from 1 to 3 about the year 1785. This arrangement tended to thin the attendance in the divinity schools when Dr. Watson was moderating. At Trinity, in 1800, it was at 2h. 15m. On Sundays it was at a quarter past 1, and the sermon at St. Mary's, which was well attended by students, was at 3 o'clock. The Vice-Chancellor's weekly dinner parties were at 1.30, and all his company accompanied him to St. Mary's. At Oxford, in 1804, 1805, those colleges which had dined at 3 advanced to 4, those which had dined at 4 to 5. In 1807, Southey's Espriella (letter xxxii.) speaks of dining with a friend in hall: instead of assembling there at the grace, we went into the kitchen, where each person ordered his own mess from what the cook provided, every thing having its specific price. The students order their messes according to seniority; but this custom was waived in our friend's favor in courtesy to us strangers.' This was at Balliol. Breakfast was a meal which saw strange revolutions: it became a more serious meal as the dinner hour waxed later. Whilst Dr. John North was at Jesus college, Cambridge, coffee was not of such common use as afterward, and the coffeehouses but young. At that time, and long after, there was but one, kept by one Kirk. The trade of news also was scarce set up; for they had only the public gazette till Kirk got a written news-letter circulated by one Muddiman. But now [cir. 1725], the case is much altered; for it is become a custom after chapel, to repair to one or other of the coffee-houses (for there are divers) where hours are spent in talking; and less profitable reading of newspapers, of which swarms are continually supplied from London. And the scholars are so greedy after news (which is none of their business), that they neglect all for it; and it is become very rare for any of them to go directly to his chambers after prayers, without doing his suit at the coffee-house; which is a vast loss of time grown out of a pure novelty, for who can apply close to a subject At the close of the last century it was usual at Cambridge to take some relaxa tion after dinner, to go to chapel at half-past five, then to retire to their rooms, shut the outer door, take tea, and read till 10 or 11 o'clock. At Trinity, there was supper in hall at a quarter before 9 o'clock, but very few partook of it. There was always supper on Sunday evening at Cambridge (often in the Combination-room) for the benefit of those clerical Fellows who had been 'taking duty' in the country. This is still kept up at King's as the Samaritan Supper. It was also called, from the only dish (of mutton) which was provided, 'Neck or Nothing.' At St. John's it was known as 'the Curates' Club;' at Christ's the meeting was designated the Apostolic: there the supper was always tripe dressed in various ways.' With undergraduates, supper was the favorite meal of sociality. At 8 P.M. the 'Sizing Bell was rung to show that the 'Sizing Bill' was ready. This was a bill of fare for the evening, with the prices marked. Each guest of the 'Sizing-party' ordered, at his own expense, whatever he fancied, to be carried to the entertainer's rooms;-'a part of fowl' or duck; a roasted pigeon; 'a part of apple pie,' &c. The host supplied bread, butter, cheese, and beer, a beaker, or a large tea-pot full of punch, which was kept upon the hob. These tea-pots were of various sizes (some of them enormous), and supplied by the bedmakers, who charged according to size. Nothing could be more unexceptionable than these meetings.' Wine was not allowed. A supper at Trinity, Oxon., in 1792, is described as commencing at 9 o'clock (after tea at 6) with Boiled fowl, salt herrings, sausages, Cold beef and brawn and bread and cheese With Tankards full of Ale. There it was the custom for men, of the same college as the host, to pay for his own share of the dessert at a wine party. University and College Barbers. One custom prevailed at both Universities,-a custom which has become obsolete, that of regularly dressing for dinner. Every one arrayed himself in white waistcoat, and white stockings, and low shoes; (for boots or gaiters were not allowed to be worn at dinner time at Trinity, or at St. John's, even in the early part of the present century); and his wig-or, latterly, his own hair-was combed, curled, and powdered. The University Barber in old days was no mean practitioner. At Oxford, theirs was the only trade which might be followed by matriculated persons; and the Members of the Company of Barbers, which existed till 1859, dined once a year with the Vice-Chancellor, and supped annually with the Proctors. They had been incorporated by the Chancellor in 1348: one stipulation being that they should maintain a light before the image in our Lady's Chapel in St. Frideswyde's; another, that they should not work on Sundays, only on the market Sundays in harvest time, nor shave any, but such as were to preach or do a religious act, on the Sundays in any part of the year. It was the duty of the College Barber, who was a regular servant of the society, to attend to the tonsure of the clerks of the foundation. In post-reformational times, this functionary appeared daily before hall time to powder the Fellows' wigs. As lately as 1775, there was a barber's shop just within Trinity gate, near the Bishop's Hostel, where their wigs were dressed; whence a wag abstracted them one Saturday night and placed them upon the heads of the statues upon the roof of the library. This must have been especially mortifying to their owners, because Sunday was a great occasion for the display of capillary attraction: so much so that in 1728, the Vice-Chancellor had issued a programma 'to All and Singular Barbers,' forbidding them to ply their trade upon that day: just as His Highness the Lord Protector' had done some 85 years earlier; when by a proclamation he also forbade vainly and profanely walking' on the Sabbath. When Shenstone the poet was at Pembroke Coll., Oxon., it was with some personal inconvenience that he transgressed the reigning fashion of wigs, by wearing his own long hair in the way which was afterward practiced at Cambridge by Prince William of Glo'ster, to whom, as to others who did the same, was applied the nickname Apollo. A year before he and Johnson had lain in the 'perfect nest of singing-birds,' another eminent man at the same college [Pembroke), George Whitefield the servitor, had gone with unkempt hair from a very different motive,—because he 'thought it unbecoming a penitent to have it powdered.' So too his exemplar, John Wesley of Christ church, had saved barber's fees to give to the poor: and it is recorded that the only instance of his deferring to the advice of another was when his brother Sam persuaded him to have the ends off. Salting Freshmen. However free Cambridge may now be of foolish and even cruel buffooneries toward freshmen, there was a time at both the English Universities when all new comers were subjected to a mock ceremony of initiation called salting.* Anthony Wood describes his own initiation at Merton. He had been entered upon the books on St. Luke's day (Oct. 18): and from Allhallow e'en (Nov. 1) till Christmas there were charcoal fires in the hall a little after 5 p.m. The senior undergraduates would make the freshmen sit on a form, and one by one 'speake some pretty apothegme, or make a jest or bull, or speake some eloquent nonsense to make the company laugh.' If any were unsuccessful, some of the forward or pragmatical seniors would tuck him:' i.e., would wound his lower lip with, the nail of the thumb, by pressing the lip with the other fingers on the same. About Candlemas-day (Feb. 2, Feast of the Purification) all freshmen were instructed to prepare their speeches to be declaimed before the undergraduates and servants in hall on Shrove Tuesday. The Fellows got over their supper early and left the field clear, with an admonition 'that all things should be carried in good order.' The cook prepared the lesser brass pot full of 'cawdel' at the freshmen's expense, and each freshman in order had to 'pluck off his gowne and band, and, if possibly, to make himself look like a scoundrell.' Then a travestie of the academic exercises was performed. The victim had to stand on a form on the high-table, and to speak his speech. After which he was rewarded, according as he had acquitted himself well, indifferently, or ill, by having a draft administered to him of 'cawdel,' cawdel and salt, or salt and beer alone (whence, possibly, the expression of paying for one's salt), 'with tucks to boot.' Afterward the senior cook administered an oath over an old shoe. The only fragment of the formula remaining is Item tu jurabis, quod penniless bench non visitabis. (This was a stone seat for loungers in the market, a sort of idle corner.) The shoe being kist, the Freshman put on his gowne and band and took his place among the Seniors. At the salting at Pembroke college in August, 1620, one of the fathers [senior sophs], and two or three of the sons, did 'excellently well.' 'A great deal of beer, as at all such meetings, was drunk.' There is an old Statute prohibiting the caeremonia saliendi recentes scholasticos, At St. John's they had exceedings in hall on the occasion, and there was a charge for salting in the tutor's bill, 38. 4d. When the Earl of Essex was at Trinity college, Cambridge, he was charged, in 1577, 'at the saltinge accordinge to the custome, vijs. Something of the kind seems to have lingered as the Fresh Treat, for which freshmen paid Fresh Fees at St. John's, Oxon., in 1714. Martyn, in his Life of the First Lord Shaftesbury, records that when the senior undergraduates of Exeter College, Oxford, undertook to subject him to the indignity of having his chin scraped by a Senior with the nail of the thumb, left long for this purpose, and then to drink a beer-glass of water and salt, he organized resistance among his fellow freshmen, which resulted in a general row in the College-hall, that could only be quelled by the master, Dr. Prideaux, and led to the abolition of the custom. • This ceremony of initiation seems to belong to all institutions which have a succession of new classes; and it degenerates invariably from buffoonery to cruelty, until its excesses are repressed by higher authority, or the spirit of general courtesy pervades the institution. An account of the brutal customs of deposition and of pennalism in the old German Universities may be found in Barnard's American Journal of Education. Vol. VI., 52. * Scoundrell here means tramp, or blackguard. Property and Income in 1873. In January, 1872, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the Property and Income of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and of the Colleges and Halls therein, with the prospects of increase and decrease, and to report the losses to which such property and income are applied.' The Commission consisted of the Duke of Cleveland, Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish, Baron Clinton, Hon. John William Strutt, William Henry Bateson, Bartholmew Price, and Kirkman Daniel Hodgsen. A Report, including a letter of Mr. Gladstone to the Chancellors of the two Universities, the Preliminary Letters addressed by the Chairman of the Commission, the Forms of Return respecting all external and internal sources of income and the expenditures, and the answers of the Heads of Colleges, was submitted to the Queen, and presented by her command to Parliament in July, 1874. The information is full and satisfactory in all respects, except the extent and value of the site, buildings, and equipment used by the corporate authorities of the each University and College for the purposes of residence and instruction. I. PROPERTY. 1. The whole landed estates belonging to the two Universities on the 1st of January, 1872, comprised 319,718 acres, distributed through the whole of England and Wales. Of these lands 7,683 acres belonged to the University of Oxford; 2. The Universities and Colleges hold tithe rent charges to the following amount: 3. The amount of stocks and shares is not given, but the annual income therefrom is given for The total income of the Universities and Colleges in the year 1871, was £754,405. Of this sum, £665,601 was for corporate use (A), and £88,803 subject to conditions of trust (B), distributed as follows: - External Income. The revenues arise from two different sources: The external income of Oxford was from The internal income of the University arises wholly from taxation. At Oxford every member of the University pays £1 annually to the University Chest, payable in four equal quarterly payments. Those who have been admitted to the degree of M. A. can compound their dues by a single payment. The whole sum received in 1871 was £14,900. There are fees for matriculation, at all examinations and on graduation, which amounted in 1871 to £18,066. The internal income of the Colleges and Halls arises from rents of (rooms, or chambers occupied; from fees on entrance and graduation; from dues paid by all members, whether resident or non-resident; from profits of buttery and kitchen; and from casual payments. The total received by each college from each item is not given, except from tuition paid by 1,500 undergraduates, which for Oxford was £30,761, which is applied to the payment of the College tutors and lecturers; and from Cambridge (13 out of the 17 colleges) was £26,413. III. EXPENDITURES. 1. The whole amount expended by the University of Oxford was £27,552, and of Trust Funds, £15,883. For University Officers, Vice-Chancellor, Proctor.... £3,350 4,648 6,694 2,397 3,615 2,837 1,916 "Scientific Institutions. 2. The largest items of College expenditures are as follows: 1. For Heads of Colleges, besides Rent of Houses, &c.: 19 Colleges in Oxford... £30,543 20,415-50,958 £101,171 102,976-204,147 2. For Fellows, besides room and other allowances: 3. The sum paid to Scholars and Exhibitions out of the corporate in come of the colleges was for Oxford..... Cambridge £26,225 24,308-50,534 4. The sum charged from the management of estates in the colleges of Oxford Cambridge £8,801 6,906-15,707 |