xplained
in an earlier part of the work.

~235~~

[Illustration: page 235]

But long before the first term ended,
Tom was inform'd, unless he mended,
He'd better change his college.
Which said, the _Don_ was hobbling to the shelf
Where college butler keeps his book of _Battell_;
Tom nimbly ran, erased his name himself,
To save the scandal of the students' prattle.
In Oxford, be it known, there is a place
Where all the mad wags in disgrace
Retire to improve their knowledge;
The town _raff_ call it _Botany Bay_,
Its inmates _exiles, convicts_, and they say
Saint Alban takes the student refugees:
Here Tom, to 'scape _Point Non plus_, took his seat
After a _waste of ready_--found his feet
Safe on the shores of indolence and ease;
Here, 'mid choice spirits, in the _Isle of Flip_,
Dad's will, and _sapping_, valued not young _snip_;
Scapula, Homer, Lexicon, laid by,
Join'd the peep-of-day boys in full cry.{23}
A saving sire a sad son makes
This adage suits most modern rakes,

23 It was in the actual participation of these bacchanalian
orgies, during the latter days of Dr. W----y, the former
head of the Hall, when infirmities prevented his exercising
the necessary watchful-ness over the buoyant spirits
committed to his charge, that my friend Bob Transit and
myself were initiated into the mysteries of the Albanians.
The accompanying scene, so faithfully delineated by his
humorous pencil, will be fresh in the recollection of the
_choice spirits_ who mingled in the joyous revelry. To
particularise character would be to "betray the secrets of
the prison-house," and is besides wholly unnecessary, every
figure round the board being a portrait; kindred souls,
whose merrie laughter-loving countenances and jovial
propensities, will be readily recognised by every son of
_Alma Mater_ who was at Oxford during the last days of the
_beaux esprits_ of Alban Hall. (_See Plate_.) In justice to
the learned Grecian who now presides, it should be told,
that these scenes are altogether suppressed.

~236~~

And Tom above all others.
I should have told before, he was an only child,
And therefore