s and eightpence; for striking with a knife,
dagger, sword, axe, or other weapon of war, ten shillings; for carrying
of bows and arrows, twenty shillings; for gathering of armed men and
conspiring to hinder the execution of justice, thirty shillings; for
resisting the execution of justice, or going about by night, forty
shillings. And no Master or scholar shall take part with any other
because he is of the same country, nor against him because he is of a
different country; and if he be convicted of doing so, he shall incur an
additional penalty graduated according to his pecuniary circumstances."

That the scholars indulged freely in the pleasant custom of hunting may,
after this, be almost taken for granted. In a petition of the year 1421
complaint was made against them that they hunted with dogs and harriers
in divers warrens, coningries, parks, and forests in the counties of
Oxford, Berks, and Bucks, night and day, taking deer, hares, and
rabbits, and menacing the wardens and keepers. Sometimes they contrived
to combine their love of hunting with their love of street-fighting, as
on the memorable occasion in Queen Elizabeth's reign, when the Magdalen
men went deer-stealing in Shotover Forest, and one of them was sent to
prison by Lord Norris, the Lord Lieutenant of the county. In revenge,
the next time my Lord came to Oxford they set upon him at the Bear Inn,
and, in the skirmish, several of the scholars were hurt, and "Binks,"
his lordship's keeper, sustained a severe wound. The Vice-Chancellor,
intervening at this juncture, ordered the scholars to be confined to the
college, while Lord Norris was requested to quit the University.
Thereupon the former "went up to the top of their tower, and waiting
till he should pass by towards Ricot, sent down a shower of stones they
had picked up upon him and his retinue, wounding some and endangering
others of their lives. It is said that upon the foresight of this storm
divers had got boards, others tables on their heads to keep them from
it, and that if the Lord had not been in his coach or chariot, he would
certainly have been killed." In the sequel, the culprits were banished,
and the Lord Lieutenant placated, albeit "with much ado by the sages of
the University."

How on earth serious study could be pursued amidst these perpetual
broils, to the engendering of which so many prejudices contributed,
would be an insoluble mystery but for the probability, suggested by
experienc