lly equipped as
above. Many of these stories or "Common-Roomers" as they were called,
still lived in the Common Rooms in my time, when the Fellows of each
College assembled regularly after dinner, to take wine and dessert,
and to talk on anything but what was called _Shop_, i. e. Greek and
Latin. No one inquired about the truth of these stories, as long as
they were well told. In a place like Oxford there exists a regular
descent, by inheritance, of good stories. I remember stories told of
Dr. Jenkins, as Master of Balliol, and afterwards transferred to his
successor, Mr. Jowett. Bodleian stories descended in like manner from
Dr. Bandinell to Mr. Coxe, and will probably be told of successive
librarians till they become quite incongruous. I am old enough to have
watched the descent of stories at Oxford, just as one recognizes the
same furniture in college rooms occupied by successive generations of
undergraduates. To me they sometimes seem threadbare like the old
Turkish carpets in the college rooms, but I never spoil them by
betraying their age, and, if well told, I can enjoy them as much as if
I had never heard them before.

Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, was quite a representative of Old
Oxford, and a well-known character in the University. I had been
introduced to him by Baron Bunsen, and he showed me much hospitality.
I was warned that I should find him very stiff and forbidding. His own
Fellows called him the East-wind. But though he certainly was
condescending, he treated me with great urbanity. He had a very
peculiar habit; when he had to shake hands with people whom he
considered his inferiors, he stretched out two fingers, and if some of
them who knew this peculiarity of his, tendered him two fingers in
return, the shaking of hands became rather awkward. One of the Fellows
of his college told me that, as long as he was only a Fellow, he never
received more than two fingers; when, however, he became Head Master
of a school, he was rewarded with three fingers, or even with the
whole hand, but, as soon as he gave up this place, and returned to
live in college, he was at once reduced to the statutable two fingers.
I don't recollect exactly how many fingers I was treated to, and I may
have shaken them with my whole hand. Anyhow, I am quite conscious now
of how many times I must have offended against academic etiquette.
How, for instance, is a man to know that people who live at Oxford
during term-time never shake h