And they are sure to miscalculate whenever they inter-meddle with such
matters, declined entering her two sons at Cambridge in the same year,
that, as she said, "They might not stand in each other's way." _Id
est_, they were to be both _senior wranglers_. They, however, never
caught sight of the _goal_. I recollect, on one occasion, the second
son being _floored_ in his college mathematical examination. He was
said to have afterwards carried home the paper (containing twenty-two
difficult geometrical and other problems,) when one of his sisters
snatched it out of his hand, exclaiming, "Give it to me," and, without
the slightest hesitation (in good Cambridge phrase,) she "_floored_"
the whole of them, to his dismay. This lady was one of a bevy of ten
beauties whom their mamma compassionately brought to Cambridge to
_dance_ with the young _gentlemen_ of the University at her parties,
and after so officiating for some three or four years, notwithstanding
they were all _Blues_, and had corresponding names, from _Britannia_
to _Boadicea_, the Cantabs suffered them all to depart _spinsters_.
But Papas also sometimes overrate their sons' talents and virtues. A
gentleman, a few years since, on