the faithful historian of Oxford, gives an account of a
quarrel between the partisans of St. Guinbald and the
residents of Oxford, in the days of Alfred, on his
refounding the university, A.D. 886. After his death the
continual inroads of the Danes kept the Oxonians in
perpetual alarm, and in the year 979 they destroyed the town
by fire, and repeated their outrage upon the new built town
in 1002. Seven years after, Swein, the Danish leader, was
repulsed by the inhabitants in a similar attempt, who took
vengeance on their im-placable enemy by a general massacre
on the feast of St. Brice. In the civil commotions under the
Saxon prince, Oxford had again its full share of the evils
of war. After the death of Harold, William the Conqueror was
bravely opposed by the citizens in his attempt to enter
Oxford, which effecting by force, he was so much exas-
perated at their attachment to Harold, that he bestowed the
government of the town on Robert de Oilgo, a Norman, with
permission to build a castle to keep his Oxford subjects in
awe. The disturbances during the reign of Stephen and his
successor were frequent, and in the reign of John, A. D.
1209, an unfortunate occurrence threatened the entire
destruction of Oxford as a seat of learning. A student,
engaged in thoughtless diversion, killed a woman, and fled
from justice. A band of citizens, with the mayor at their
head, surrounded the hall to which he belonged, and demanded
the offender; on being informed of his absence, the lawless
multitude seized three of the students, who were entirely
unconnected with the transaction, and ob-tained an order
from the weak king (whose dislike to the clergy is known),
to put the innocent persons to death--an order which was but
too promptly obeyed. The scholars, justly en-raged by this
treatment, quitted Oxford, some to Cambridge and Reading,
and others to Maidstone, in Kent. The offended students also
applied to the Pope, who laid the city under an interdict
and discharged all professors from teaching in it. This step
completely humbled the citizens, who sent a deputation of
the most respectable to wait on the Pope's legate (then at
Westminster) to acknowledge their rashness and request
mercy; the legate (Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum, ) granted
their petition only on the most humiliating terms. The mayor
and corporation were en-joined, by way of penance, to
proceed annually, on the day dedicated to St. Nicholas, to
all the parish churches bare-headed, with hempen halters
round their necks, and whips in their hands, on their bare
feet, and in their' shirts, and there pray the benefit of
absolution from the priests, repeating the penitential
psalms, and to pay a mark of silver per annum to the
students of the hall peculiarly injured; in addition to
which they were, on the recurrence of the same day, to
entertain one hundred poor scholars "_honestis
refectionibus_," the abbot of Evesham yearly paying sixteen
shillings towards the festival expense A part of this
ceremony, but without the degrading marks of it, is
continued to this day. Henry III. occasionally resided at
Oxford, and held there many parliaments and councils: in the
reign of this king the university flourished to an
unexampled degree, the number of students being estimated at
fifteen thousand. Its popularity was about this time also
greatly increased from the circumstance of not less than one
thousand students quitting the learned institutions of
Paris, and repairing to Oxford for instruction; but these
foreigners introduced so dangerous a levity of manners, that
the Pope deemed it necessary to send his legate for the
purpose of reforming " certain flagrant corruptions of the
place." The legate was at first treated with much affected
civility, but an occasion for quarrel being soon found, he
would, in all probability, have been sacrificed upon the
spot, had he not hidden himself in a belfry from the fury of
the assailants. This tumult was, by the exercise of some
strong measures, speedily appeased; but the number of
students was at this period infinitely too great to preserve
due subordination. They divided themselves into parties,
among which the north and south countrymen were the most
violent, and their quarrels harassing and perpetual.
According to the rude temper of the age, these disputes were
not settled by argument, but by dint of blows; and the peace
of the city was in this way so often endangered, that the
king thought it expedient to add to the civil power two
aldermen and eight burgesses assistant, together with two
bailiffs. From petty and intestine broils, the students
appear to have acquired a disposition for political inter-
ference. When Prince Edward, returning from Paris, marched
with an army towards Wales, coming to Oxford he was by the
burghers refused admittance, "on occasion of the tumults now
prevailing among the barons:" he quartered his soldiers in
the adjacent villages, and "lodged himself that night in the
royal palace of Magdalen," the next morning proceeding on
his intended journey; but the scholars, who were shut in the
town, being desirous to salute a prince whom they loved so
much, first assembled round _Smith-gate_, and demanded to be
let into the fields, which being refused by one of the
bailiffs, they returned to their hostels for arms and broke
open the gate, whereupon the mayor arrested many of them,
and, on the chancellor's request, was so far from releasing
them that he ordered the citizens to bring out their banners
and display them in the midst of the street; and then
embattling them, commanded a sudden onset on the rest of the
scholars remaining in the town; and much blood-shed had been
committed had not a scholar, by the sound of the school-bell
in Saint Mary's church, given notice of the danger that
threatened the students, then at dinner. On this alarm they
straightways armed and went out, and in a tremendous
conflict subdued and put the townsmen to flight. In
consequence of this tumult, the king required the scholars
to retire from the city during the time of holding his
parliament; the chief part of the students accordingly
repaired to Northampton, where, shortly after the insurgent
barons had fortified themselves, on the king's laying siege
to the place, the scholars, offended by their late removal,
joined with the nobility, and repaired to arms under their
own standard, behaving in the fight with conspicuous
gallantry, and greatly increasing the wrath of the king;
who, however, on the place being subdued, was restrained
from pur-suing them to extremities, from prudential motives.
As the kingdom became more settled, the disturbances were
less frequent, and within the last century assumed the
character of sportive rows rather than malicious feuds. On a
recent lamentable occasion (now happily forgotten) the
political feelings of the Gown and Town in some measure
revived the spirit of the "olden time;" but since then Peace
has waved her olive-branch over the city of Oxford, and
perfect harmony, let us hope, will exist between Town and
Gown for evermore.
~266~~
The veil of night was more than half drawn, ere the youthful inmates of
the Mitre retired to rest; and many of the party were compelled to put
up with sorry accommodation, such was the influx of ~267~~gownsmen who,
shut out of lodging and college, had sought this refuge to wait the
approaching morn;--a morn big with the fate of many a scholastic
woe--of lectures and reprovals from tutors, and fines and impositions
and denunciations from principals, of proctorial reports to the
vice-chancellor, and examinations before the _big wigs_, and sentences
of expulsion 268~~and rustication: coming evils which, by anticipation,
kept many a man awake upon his pillow, spite of the perilous fatigue
which weighed so heavy upon the exhausted frame. The freshman had little
to fear: he could plead his ignorance of college rules, or escape notice
altogether, from not having yet domiciled within the walls of a college.
Although I had little to expect from the apprehension of any of these
troubles, as my person was, from my short residence, most likely unknown
to any of the authorities--yet did Morpheus refuse his soporific
balsam to the mind--I could not help thinking of my young and giddy
companions, of the kind-hearted Eglantine, immured within the walls of
a dungeon; of the noble-spirited Echo, maltreated and disfigured by the
temporary loss of an eye; of the facetious Bob Transit, so bruised and
exhausted, that a long illness might be expected; and, lastly, of our
Eton sextile, the incomparable exquisite Lionise, who, if discovered in
his dangerous frolic, would, perhaps, have to leap out of a first floor
window at the risk of his neck, sustain an action for damages, and his
expulsion from college at the same time. Little Dick Gradus, with his
usual cunning, had shirked us at the commencement of hostilities; and
the Honourable Mr. Sparkle had been carried home to his lodging, early
in the fray, more overcome by hard drinking than hard fighting, and
there safely put to bed by the indefatigable Mark Supple, to whose
friendly zeal and more effective arm we were all much indebted. In
this reflective mood, I had watched the retiring shadows of the night
gradually disperse before the gray-eyed morn, and had just caught a
glimpse of the golden streaks which illumine the face of day, when my
o'er-wearied spirit sank to rest.
[Illustration: page269]
A little before seven o'clock I was awoke by Echo, who came into my room
to borrow some clean linen, to enable him to attend chapel prayers
at Christ Church. Judge my surprise when I perceived my one-eyed
~269~~warrior completely restored to his full sight, and not the least
appearance of any participation in the affair of the previous night.
"What? you can't comprehend how I managed my black optic? hey, old
fellow," said Echo; "you shall hear: knocked up Transit, and made him
send for his colours, and paint it over--looks quite natural, don't
it?--defy the big wigs to find it out--and if I can but make all right
by a sop to the old Cerberus at the gate, and _queer_ the _prick bills_
at chapel prayers, I hope to escape the _quick-sands of rustication_,
and pass safely through the _creek of proctorial jeopardy_. If you're
fond of fun, old fellow, jump up and view the Christ Church men
proceeding to _black matins_ this morning. After the Roysten hunt
yesterday--the dinner at the Black Bear at Woodstock--and the _Town and
Gown row_ of last night, there will be a motley procession this morning,
I'll bet a hundred." The opportunity was a rare one to view the
effect of late drinking upon early risers (see Plate); slipping on
my academicals, therefore, I accompanied my friend Tom to morning
prayers,--a circumstance, as I have since been informed, which would
have involved me in very serious disgrace, had the appearance of an _ex
college_ man at vespers attracted the notice of any of the big wigs.
Fortunately, however, I escaped the prying eyes of authority, which,
on these occasions, are sometimes as much under the dominion of
Morpheus--and literally walk in their sleep from custom--as the young
and inexperienced betray the influence of some more seductive charm. The
very bell that called the drowsy student from his bed seemed to rise
and fall in accordant sympathy with the lethargic humour that prevailed,
tolling in slow and half-sounding notes scarcely audible beyond the
college gates. The broken light, that shed its misty hue through
the monastic aisle of painted windows and clustered columns, gave an
increased appearance of drowsiness to the scene; while the chilling air
of the ~270~~morning nipped the young and dissolute, as it fell in hazy
dews upon the bare-headed sons of _alma mater_, within many of whose
bosoms the fires of the previous night's debauch were but scarce
extinguished. Then came the lazy unwashed _scout_, crawling along the
quadrangle, rubbing his heavy eyes, and cursing his hard fate to be thus
compelled to give early notice to some slumbering student of the hour of
seven, waking him from dreams of bliss, by thundering at his _oak_ the
summons to _black matins_. Now crept the youthful band along the
avenue, and one by one the drowsy congregation stole through the Gothic
ante-chamber that leads to Christ Church chapel, like unwilling victims
to some pious sacrifice. Here a lengthened yawn proclaimed the want of
rest, and near a tremulous step and heavy half-closed eye was observed,
pacing across the marble floor, with hand pressed to his _os frontis_,
as if a thousand odd and sickly fantasies inhabited that chamber of the
muses. Now two friends might be seen, supporting a third, whose ghastly
aspect bespoke him fresh in the sacred mysteries of college parties and
of Bacchus; but who had, nevertheless, undergone a tolerable seasoning
on the previous night. There a jolly Nimrod, who had just cleared the
college walls, and reached his rooms time enough to cover his hunting
frock and boots with his academicals, was seen racing along, to 'scape
the _prick bill's_ report, with his round hunting cap in his hand, in
lieu of the square tufted trencher of the schools. Night-caps thrown off
in the entry--shoes and stockings tied in the aisle--a red slipper and
the black jockey boot decorating one pair of legs was no uncommon sight;
while on every side rushed forward the anxious group with gowns on one
arm, or trailing after them, or loosely thrown around the shoulders to
escape tribulation, with here and there a sentimental-looking personage
of portly habit and solemn gait moving slowly on, filled up the motley
picture. The prayers were, indeed, brief, and ~271~~hurried through with
a rapidity that, I dare say, is never complained of by the _togati_;
but is certainly little calculated to impress the youthful mind with any
serious respect for these relics of monkish custom, which, after all,
must be considered more in the light of a punishment for those who are
compelled to attend than any necessary or instructive service connected
with the true interests of orthodoxy. In a quarter of an hour the whole
group had dispersed to their respective rooms, and within the five
minutes next ensuing, I should suppose, the greater part were again
comfortably deposited beneath their bedclothes, snoozing away the time
till ten or twelve, to make up for these inroads on the slumbers of the
previous night. A few hours spent in my friend's rooms, lolling on the
sofa, while the scout prepared breakfast, and Tom decorated his person,
brought the awful hour of the morning, when all who had taken any very
conspicuous share in the events of the previous night were likely to
hear of their misdoings, and receive a summons to appear before the
vice-chancellor in the Divinity school, better known by the name
of _Golgotha_, or the place of skulls, (see Plate); where, on this
occasion, he was expected to meet the big wigs, to confer on some
important measures necessary for the future peace and welfare of the
university. The usual time had elapsed for these unpleasant visitations,
and Echo was chuckling finely at his dexterity in evading the eye of
authority, nor was I a little pleased to have escaped myself, when
a single rap at the oak, not unlike the hard determined thump of an
inflexible dun, in one moment revived all our worst apprehensions, and,
unfortunately, with too much reason for the alarm. The proctors had
marked poor Tom, and traced him out, and this visit was from one of
their bull-dogs, bringing a summons for Echo to attend before the
vice-chancellor and dignitaries. "What's to be done, old fellow?" said
Echo; "I shall be ~272~~expelled to a certainty--and, if I don't strike
my own name off the books at the buttery hatch, shall be prevented
making a retreat to Cam roads.--You're out of the scrape, that's clear,
and that affords me some hope; for as you are fresh, your word will pass
for something in extenuation, or arrest of judgment." After some little
time spent in anticipating the charges likely to be brought against him,
and arranging the best mode of defence, it was agreed that Echo should
proceed forthwith to _Golgotha_, and there, with undaunted front, meet
his accusers; while I was to proceed to Transit and Lionise, and having
instructed them in the story we had planned, meet him at the _place of
skulls_, fully prepared to establish, by the most incontrovertible
and consistent evidence, that we were not the aggressors in the row. A
little persuasion was necessary to convince both our friends that their
presence would be essential to Echo's acquittal; they had too many just
qualms, and fears, and prejudices of this inquisitorial court not to
dread perhaps detection, and a severe reprimand themselves: having,
however, succeeded in this point, we all three compared notes, and
proceeded to where the vice-chancellor and certain heads of houses sat
in solemn judgment on the trembling _togati_. Echo was already under
examination; one of the _bull-dogs_ had sworn particularly to Tom's
being a most active leader in the fray of the previous night; and
having, in the contest, suffered a complete disorganization of his lower
jaw, with the total loss of sundry of his _front rails_, he took this
opportunity of affixing the honour of the deed to my unlucky friend,
expecting, no doubt, a very handsome recompense would be awarded him by
the court. Expostulation was in vain: Transit, Lionise, and myself were
successively called in and examined very minutely, and although we all
agreed to a letter in our story, and made a very clever ~273~~defence of
the culprit, we yet had the mortification to hear from little Dodd,
who kept the door, and who is always best pleased when he can convey
unpleasant tidings to the Gown, that Echo had received sentence of
rustication for the remainder of the term; and that Eglantine, in
consideration of the imprisonment he had already undergone, and some
favourable circumstances in his case, was let off with a fine and
imposition.
[Illustration: page273]
Thus ended the row of the _Town and Gown_, as far as our party was
personally concerned; but many of the members of the different colleges
were equally unfortunate in meeting the heavy censures and judgments of
authority. I have just taken possession of my _hospitium_, and set down
with a determination _to fagg_; do, therefore, keep your promise, and
enliven the dull routine of college studies with some account of the
world at Brighton.
Bernard Blackmantle.
On what dread perils doth the youth adventure,
Who dares within the Fellows' Bog to enter.
[Illustration: page273b]
[Illustration: page274]
THE STAGE COACH,
OR THE TRIP TO BRIGHTON.
_Improvements in Travelling--Contrast of ancient and modern
Conveyances and Coachmen--Project for a new Land Steam
Carriage--The Inn-yard at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross--
Mistakes of Pas-sengers--Variety of Characters--Advantages
of the Box-seat--Obstructions on the Road--A Pull-up at the
Elephant and Castle--Move on to Kensington Common--Hew
Churches--Civic Villas at Brixton--Modern Taste in
Architecture described-Arrival at Croydon; why not now the
King's Road?--The Joliffe Hounds--A Hunting Leader--
Anecdotes of the Horse, by Coachee--The new Tunnel at
Reigate--The Baron's Chamber--The Golden Ball--the Silver
Ball--and the Golden Calf--Entrance into Brighton._
~275~~ That every age is an improved edition of the former I am not
(recollecting the splendid relics of antiquity) prepared to admit;
but that the present is particularly distinguished for discoveries
in science, and vast improvements in mechanical arts, every accurate
observer must allow: the _prodigious_ inventions of late years
cannot fail in due time of producing that perfectibility, the great
consummation denominated the Millennium. Of all other improvements,
perhaps the most conspicuous are in the powers of motion as connected
with the mode and means of travelling. With what astonishment, were it
possible to reanimate the clay-cold relics, would our ancestors survey
the accelerated perfection to which coaching is brought in the
present day! The journey from London to Brighton, for instance, was,
half-a-century since, completed at great risk in twenty-four hours, over
a rough road that threatened destruction at every turn; and required the
most laborious exertion to reach the summit of precipices that are now,
like a ruined spendthrift, cut through and through: the declivities
too have disappeared, and from its level face, the whole country would
appear to have undergone another revolutionary change, even to the
horses, harness, and the driver of the vehicle. In such a country as
this, where a disposition to activity and a rambling propensity to seek
their fortunes forms one of the most distinguishing characteristics, it
was to be expected that travelling would be brought to great perfection;
but the most sanguine in this particular could never have anticipated
the rapidity with which we are now whirled from one end of the kingdom
to the other; fifty-two miles in five hours and a quarter, five changes
of horses, and the same coachman to whisk you back again to supper over
the same ground, and within the limits of the same day. No _ruts
or quarterings_ now--all level as a bowling-green--half-bred blood
cattle--bright brass harness--_minute and a half time_ to change--and a
well-bred gentlemanly fellow for a coachman, who amuses you ~276~~with a
volume of anecdotes, if you are fortunate enough to secure the box-seat,
or touches his hat with the _congee_ of a courtier, as he pockets your
tributary shilling at parting. No necessity either for settling your
worldly affairs, or taking an affectionate farewell of a long string of
relations before starting; travelling being now brought to a security
unparalleled, and letters patent having passed the great seal of England
to ensure, by means of _safety coaches_, the lives of her rambling
subjects. There requires but one other invention to render the whole
perfect, and that, if we may believe the newspapers, is very near
completion--a coach to go without horses: to this I beg leave to
propose, the steam apparatus might be made applicable to all the
purposes of a portable kitchen. The coachman, instead of being a good
judge of horse-flesh, to be selected from a first rate London tavern for
his proficiency in cooking, a known prime hand at decomposing a turtle;
instead of a book of roads, in the inside pocket should be placed a copy
of Mrs. Glasse on Cookery, or Dr. Kitchener on Culinaries; where the
fore-boot now is might be constructed a glazed larder, filled with all
the good things in season: then too the accommodation to invalids, the
back seat of the coach, might be made applicable to all the purposes of
a shampooing or vapour bath--no occasion for Molineux or his black rival
Mahomed; book your patients inside back seat in London, wrap them up
in blankets, and give directions to the cook to keep up a good steam
thermometer during the journey, 120 deg., and you may deliver them safe
at Brighton, properly hashed and reduced for any further medical
experiments. (See Engraving, p. 274.) The accommodation to fat citizens,
and western _gourmands_, would be excellent, the very height of luxury
and refinement--inhaling the salubrious breeze one moment, and gurgling
down the glutinous calipash the next; no ~277~~exactions of impudent
waiters, or imposing landlords, or complaints of dying from hunger, or
choking from the want of time to masticate; but every wish gratified and
every sense employed. Then how jovial and pleasant it would appear
to see perched up in front a John Bull-looking fellow in a snow-white
jacket, with a night-cap and apron of the same, a carving-knife in a
case by his side, and a poker in his hand to stir up the steam-furnace,
or singe a highwayman's wig, should any one attack the coach; this
indeed would be an improvement worthy of the age, and call forth
the warmest and most grateful tributes of applause from all ranks in
society. For myself, I have always endeavoured to read "men more
than books," and have ever found an endless diversity of character,
a never-failing source of study and amusement in a trip to a
watering-place: perched on the top in summer, or pinched inside in
winter of a stage-coach, here, at leisure and unknown, I can watch
the varied groups of all nations as they roam about for profit or for
pleasure, and note their varieties as they pass away like the retiring
landscape, never perhaps to meet the eye again.
The excursion to Brighton was no sooner finally arranged, than declining
the proffered seat in D'Almaine's travelling carriage, I packed up my
portmanteau, and gave directions to my servant to book me outside at the
Golden Cross, by the seven o'clock morning coach, for Brighton; taking
care to secure the box-seat, by the payment of an extra shilling to the
porter.