GEORGE's health." And, strange enough, persisting in his refusal to ask pardon, as required, he only ultimately obtained his degree by pleading the act of grace of the said King George, enacted in favour of those who had been guilty of treason, &c. These were, it appears, both Fellows of colleges, and with several others, who were likewise put in the Black-book, were members of a society in Oxford, called

"THE CONSTITUTION CLUB,"

At a meeting of which it was that the king was toasted.

AMONGST THE CAMBRIDGE CLUBS

Was one formed, in 1757, by the Wranglers of that year, including the late Professor Waring; the celebrated reformer Dr. Jebb the munificent founder of the Cambridge Hebrew Scholarships; Mr. Tyrwhitt; and other learned men. It was called The Hyson Club, the entertainments being only tea and conversation. Paley, who joined it after he became tutor of Christ College, is thus made to speak of it by a writer in the New Monthly Magazine for 1825-We had a club at Cambridge, of political reformers; it was called the Hyson Club, as we met at tea time; and various schemes were discussed among us. Jebb's plan was, that the people should meet and declare their will; and if the House of Commons should pay due attention to the will of the people, why, well and good; if not, the people were to convey their will into effect. had no idea that we were talking treason. I was always an advocate for braibery and corrooption: they raised an outcry against me, and affected to think I was not in earnest. Why,' said I, 'who is so mad as to wish to be governed by force? or who is such a fool as to expect to be governed by virtue? There remains, then, nothing but braibery and corrooption."" No particular subjects were proposed for discussion at their meetings, but accident or the taste of individuals naturally led to topics, such as literary and scientific characters might freely discuss. At a meeting where the debate was on the justice or expediency of making some alteration in the ecclesiastical constitution

We

of the country, for the relief of tender consciences, Dr. Gordon, of Emmanuel College, late Precentor of Lincoln, vehemently opposed the arguments of Dr. Jebb, then tutor of Peter House, who supported the affirmative, by exclaiming, "You mean, Sir, to impose upon us a new church government." "You are mistaken," said Paley, who was present, "Jebb only wants to ride his own horse, not to force you to get up behind him.”

THE RETROGRADATION AMONGST MASTERS,
TUTORS, AND SCHOLARS.

Discipline, like every thing else characteristic of our elder institutions, has for some years been fast giving way in our universities. Statutes are permitted to slumber unheeded, as not fitted to the present advanced state of society; and in colleges where it would, as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, have been almost a crime to have been seen in hall or chapel without a white cravat on, scholars now strut in black ones, "unawed by imposition" or a fine. I can remember the time when this inroad upon decent appearance first begun, and when the Dean of our college put forth his strong arm, and insisted on white having the preference. Men then used to wear their black till they came to the hall or chapel door, then take them off, and walk in with none at all, and again twist them round the neck, heedless whether the tie were Brummell or not, on issuing forth from Prayers or Commons. Like the Whigs, they have by perseverance carried their point, and strut about in black, wondering what they shall next attempt.

THERE IS AN ON-DIT,

That at the time Dr. W- became Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, the tutors used to oblige (and it was a custom for) the scholars to stand, cap in hand (if any tutor entered a court where they might be passing,) till the said tutor disappeared. This was so rigorously en

forced, that the scholars complained to the new master, and he desired the tutors to relax the custom. they refused to comply with. Upon this the Doctor took This order down from a shelf a copy of the College Statutes, and coolly read to them a section, where the fellows of the same were enjoined to stand, cap in hand, till the master passed by, wherever they met him; and the Doctor, it is added, insisted upon its observance, on pain of ejection, till at length the tutors gave way.

THE WORCESTER GOBLIN.

Foote the comedian was, in his youthful days, a student of Worcester College, O

vost, Dr. Gower. The Doctor was a learned and amiable man, but a pedant. The latter characteristic was soon

seized upon by thord, under the care of the Pro

turn his irresist

ed a lane wers

to one of

young satirist, as a source whereon to church at this+ible passion for wit and humour. The time belonging to Worcester College, frontwas then the e cattle were turned out to graze, and (as lish villages) case in many towns, and is still in some Engropes suspended in the centre. Foote tied a wisp of hay the church porch was open, with the belltle at nithem, and this was no sooner scented by the catTug, tught, than it was seized upon as a dainty morsel. bell at g, went one and all, and "ding-dong" went the midnight, to the astonishment of the Doctor, the sexton, the whole parish, and the inmates of the College. nights, oung wag kept up the joke for several successive and reports of ghosts, goblins, and frightful visions, and exilled the imagination of old and young with alarm, many a simple man and maiden whisked past the e of midnight revel ere the moon had "filled her horns," ck with fear and trembling. The Doctor suspected

soon

and

Scen

struc

f

upr

somean trick. He, accordingly, engaged the Sexton to watch withaec him for the detection of the culprit. They had not

lain hid, under favour of a dark night, when "dingOng" went the bell again: both rushed from their hiding places, and the sexton commenced the attack by seizing

the cow's tail, exclaiming, ""Tis a gentleman commoner, -I have him by the tail of his gown!" The Doctor approached on the opposite tack, and seized a horn with both hands, crying, "No, no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, -I have caught the rascal by his blowing-horn!" and both bawled lustily for assistance, whilst the cow kicked and flung to get free; but both held fast till lights were procured, when the real offender stood revealed, and the laugh of the whole town was turned upon the Doctor and his fellow-night-errant, the Sexton.

RECORDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE TRIPOSES. The Spoon, in the words of Lord Byron's Don Juan,

The name by which we Cantabs please,

To dub the last of honours in degrees,"

πολλοί,

is the annual subject for University mirth, and if not the fountain, is certainly the very foundation of Cambridge University honours: without the spoon, not a man in the Tripos would have a leg to stand upon: in fact, it would be a top without a bottom, minus the spoon. Yet "this luckless wight," says the compiler of the Cambridge Tart, is annually a universal butt and laughing-stock of the whole Senate-House. He is the last of those men who take honours of his year, and is called a "junior optime," and notwithstanding his being superior to them all, the lowest of the On, or Gregarious Undistinguished Bachelors, think themselves entitled to shoot their pointless arrows against the "wooden spoon," and to reiterate the perennial remark, that, "wranglers" are born with golden spoons in their mouths; "senior optimes" with silver spoons; "junior optimes" with wooden spoons, And the OT with leaden spoons in their mouths. It may be here, however, observed, that it is unjust towards the undistinguished bachelors to say that he (the spoon is superior to them all." He is generally a man who read hard, id est, has done his best, whilst the undistin guished bachelors, it is well known, include many men of

as

considerable even superior talents, but having no taste for mathematics, have merely read sufficient to get a degree; consequently have not done their best. The muse has thus invoked

THE WOODEN SPOON.

When sage Mathesis calls her sons to fame,
The Senior Wrangler bears the highest name.
In academic honour richly deckt,

He challenges from all deserved respect.
But, if to visit friends he leaves his gown,
And flies in haste to cut a dash in town,
The wrangler's title, little understood,
Suggests a man in disputation good;
And those of common talents cannot raise,
Their humble thoughts a wrangler's mind to praise.
Such honours to an Englishman soon fade,
Like laurel wreaths, the victor's brows that shade.
No such misfortune has that man to fear,
Whom fate ordains the last in fame's career;
His honours fresh remain, and e'en descend
To soothe his family, or chosen friend.
And while he lives, he wields the boasted prize,
Whose value all can feel, the weak, the wise;
Displays in triumph his distinguished boon,
The solid honours of the WOODEN SPOON!

That many have borne off this prize who might have done better, is well known too. One learned Cantab in that situation felt so assured of his fate, when it might have been more honourable, had he been gifted with prudence and perseverance, that on the morning when it is customary to give out the honours, in the Senate House, in their order of merit, he provided himself with a large wooden spoon, and when there was a call from the gallery, for "the spoon" (for then the Undergraduates were allowed to express their likes and dislikes publicly, a custom now suppressed,) he turned the shafts of ridicule aside by thrusting the emblem of his honours up high over his head, -an act that gained him no slight applause. Another Cantab, of precisely the same grade as to talent, who was second in the classical tripos of his year, gave a supper on the occasion of the spoon being awarded to him, which commenced with soup, each man being furnished with a