"_In piam memoriam_" of their several founders, most of whom being
persons of _taste_, left certain annual sums wherewith to "pay the
piper." Besides _minor_ feast-days, every Society, both at Oxford and
Cambridge, hold its yearly commemoration. There is always prayers and
a sermon on this day, and the Lesson is taken from Eccl. xliv. "Let
us now praise famous men," &c. Mr. Pointer says, that at Magdalen
College, Oxford, it is "a custom on all commemoration days to have the
bells rung in a confused manner, and without any order, it being the
primitive way of ringing." The same writer states that there is