the monastic gloom being materially increased by two narrow
loopholes, intended for windows, but scarcely yielding sufficient light
to enable the student to read his _Scapula or Lexicon_{25} with
the advantage of a meridian sun: the fire-place was immensely wide,
emblematical, no doubt, of the capacious stomachs of the good fathers
and fellows, the ancient inhabitants of this _sanctum_; but the
most singularly-striking characteristic was the modern decorations,
introduced by the present occupant.

23 A quaint cognomen applied to him from the rapidity with
which he boasted of repeating the Nicene Creed,--i.e.
offering a bet that no would give any man as far as "Pontius
Pilate," and beat him before he got to the "resurrection of
the dead."

24 Dead Men--Empty bottles.

25 Scapula, Hederic, and Lexicon, the principal
Dictionaries in use for studying Greek.

~136~~ Over the fire-place hung a caricature portrait of a well-known
Bachelor of Arts, drinking at the _Pierian spring, versus_ gulping down
the contents of a Pembroke _overman_,{26} sketched by the facetious
pencil of the humorist, Rowlandson.

[Illustration: page136]

ECCE SIGNUM.

I could not help laughing to observe on the one side of this jolly
personage a portrait of the little female Giovanni Vestris, under which
some wag had inscribed, "_A Mistress of Hearts_," and on the other
a full-length of Jackson the pugilist, with this motto--"A striking
likeness of a fancy lecturer."

26 An Herman--At Pembroke, a large silver tankard, holding
two quarts and half a pint, so called from the donor, Mr.
George Overman. The late John Hudson, the college tonsor
and _common room man_,{*} was famous for having several
times, for trifling wagers, drank a full overman of strong
beer off at a draught. A Tun, another vessel in use at
Pembroke, is a half pint silver cup. A Whistler, a silver
pint tankard also in use there, was the gift of Mr. Anthony
Whistler, a cotemporary with Shenstone.

* Common room man, a servant who is entirely employed in
attending upon the members of the common room.

Junior common room, a room in every college, except Christ
Church, set apart for the junior members to drink wine in
and read the newspapers.

N.B. There is but one common room at Christ Church; none but
masters of arts and noblemen can be members of it,--t