the bailiffs of the town, so that these
last, for fear of death, dare not do their duty and collect the
fee-farm, &c. Pray therefore that all Irish be turned out of the realm
between Christmas and Candlemas next, except graduates in the schools,
beneficed clergy in England, those who have English father or mother, or
English husband or wife, and many other exceptions, persons of good
repute. And that graduates and beneficed men find surety for their good
behaviour."

The Scots were cordially hated. Tryvytlam's poem "De Laude Oxoniae" has
the following stanzas, which, in the opinion of some, may be still
apposite to the circumstances of University and national life:

Iam loco tercio procedit acrius
Armata bestia duobus cornibus.
Hanc Owtrede reputo, qui totis viribus
Verbis et opere insultat fratribus.
Hic Scottus genere perturbat Anglicos,
Auferre nititur viros intraneos.
Sic, sic, Oxonia, sic contra filios
Armas et promoves hostes et exteros.

By "Owtrede" is intended Uthred de Bolton, a celebrated English
Benedictine, whose cognomen was probably derived from the manor of
Bolton in Northumberland. It was a risky thing to hail from the border,
as another instance is recorded in which a North-countryman found it
necessary to purge himself of the imputation of being a Scot--one of the
King's enemies.

The amazing part of the matter is that national distinctions and
prejudices did not, as far as the British Isles were concerned, end
here. In point of fact, when the word "nations" occurs in this
connexion, the allusion is generally not so much to genuine differences
of descent, government, customs, and language, as to an artificial
separation of the inhabitants of England into North and South
countrymen. The authorities deplored this division into Boreals and
Australs--"diverse nations, which, in truth, be not diverse"--but they
could not ignore it, and thus it became the established rule that of the
two proctors--officials supremely responsible for the peace--one should
be of the North and the other of the South. As we have seen, a similar
practice obtained with regard to the University chests. Just as, at the
present time, Welshmen and Scotsmen gravitate towards particular
colleges, so in the early days "nations" seem to have favoured certain
halls, and as few of the latter were provided with chapels, they appear
also to have fixed upon certain churches for the purpose of devotion of
partisan