On the occasion of the visit of King James II to Oxford, chiefly, but
unsuccessfully, made for the purpose of overawing the fellows of
Magdalen College, who had refused to elect as president his nominee,
Anth. Farmer, he was invited by the University to partake of a breakfast
or collation in the Library. For this purpose he came hither on the
morning of Sept. 5, between nine and ten, where, at the south part of
the Selden end, a banquet was prepared which cost the University £160,
consisting of 111 dishes of meat, sweetmeats, and fruit. The King sat
here for about three quarters of an hour, and held some conversation
with Hyde about a Chinese, 'a little blinking fellow,' who had recently
visited the place, and about the religion of China; but asked no one to
join him at the table. Upon rising to depart, a scene of strange
indecorum, as it would now appear, ensued; the 'rabble' (as they are
described) of courtiers and academics rushed upon the mass of untouched
dainties, and began a disorderly scramble, in which they 'flung the wet
sweetmeats on the ladies linnen and petticoats, and stained them.' The
King watched the scramble for two or three minutes, and then departed,
commending to the Vice-Chancellor and doctors his chaplain, W. Hall, who
had preached before him the day previous, and delivering a most fatherly
homily on the sin of pride, the virtue of charity, and the duty of doing
as they would be done to. Good, gossipping, Ant. à Wood gives in his
_Autobiography_ a full account of all that passed, from which are taken
the quotations made above[145].
[145] See also Miss Seward's _Anecdotes_, Supplement, 1797, p. 72.