e that age. Probably the average age
was about sixteen; the idea being that after the seven years' residence
required for the M.A. degree they would be of the proper age to present
themselves for ordination. Those under eighteen years of age might be
publicly whipped in the Hall for breaches of discipline.

Students from distant parts of England probably resided continuously in
College from the time they entered it until they took their degrees. The
statutes of King Henry VIII. contemplate a period of some relaxation at
Christmas; providing that each Fellow in turn should be "Lord" at
Christmas, and prepare dialogues and plays to be acted by members of the
College between Epiphany and Lent. The brazier in the Hall seems to have
been kept burning in the evening about Christmas time; of this practice
a curious relic survived until comparatively lately, it being the custom
to leave a few gas-jets burning in the Hall until midnight from St.
John's Day (December 27) until Twelfth Night.

There were three classes of students. The Fellow Commoners, sons of
noblemen or wealthy land-owners, who sat at the High Table, or, as it
was phrased, were in Fellows' commons. Some came in considerable state.
In 1624 the Earl of Arundel and Surrey sent his two sons, Lord
Maltravers and Mr. William Howard, to the College. The Earl's chaplain,
or secretary, in making arrangements for their coming, wrote to request
that they should have one chamber in the College, with a "pallett for
the gromes of their chamber"; the rest of "his lordships company, being
two gentlemen, a grome of his stable and a footman, may be lodged in the
towne near the College." At this period the Second Court had been built,
and the accommodation for residence thus somewhat greater than in
Elizabethan times. The Fellow Commoner wore a gown ornamented with gold
lace, and a cap with a gold tassel. The last Fellow Commoner at St.
John's to wear this dress was the present Admiral Sir Wilmot Hawksworth
Fawkes.

The next class in order of status were the Pensioners--men who paid
their expenses without assistance from the College, sons of middle-class
parents. In times of which we have any definite record this was the most
numerous class in College. Lastly, we have the sizars. A sizar was
definitely attached to a Fellow or Fellow Commoner; he was not exactly a
servant, but made himself generally useful. For example, those members
of the College who absented themselves from th